“On March 11 at 2:46pm JST a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred near the northeastern coast of Japan, creating extremely destructive tsunami waves which hit Japan just minutes after the earthquake…” Google Crisis Response
I cast a chart, using Astro.com, for the exact time of the earthquake in Sendai, the largest city in the area, a city that was about to be destroyed by this quake. (See: Chart, below!)
In Astrology, URANUS, is a planet linked to sudden and unexpected events, just as it is a planet of surprising and unusual human traits in a natal chart. URANUS is, like MARS, linked to accidents, especially when both are in a ‘hard’ aspect at birth. URANUS was in 29.57 degrees of Pisces on the day of the quake. The Uranian energy was just finishing up in Pisces, a water sign, and about to enter Aries, a fire sign. I’ve read that any planet in the last degree of a sign can be explosive, as it administers a kind of “kick” on its way out. But the cusp itself is a weird place for a planet to be, as the energy of one sign culminates, and the energy of a new sign is just arriving. These energies are always at opposite extremes, such as the above-mentioned move from WATER to FIRE and all which that implies.
MERCURY, whom the ancients knew as the “Messenger God”, had just gone over over URANUS two days earlier, and it also entered Aries. Mercury in Aries represents new information, new activities. It is neutral, neither good nor bad, but depends on planets around it. It gives energy to those planets. Right now it is closest to URANUS, the planet of sudden action, sudden surprises, and explosions. ARIES is a Sign ruled by MARS, the planet (or God) of dynamic action, anger, aggression and war, so news of some kind of excitement was sure to follow this conjunction.
URANUS in PISCES was a 7-year phenomenon, since Uranus takes 84 years to go around all 12 signs of the Zodiac and return again to 0 degrees Aries. During the 7 years Uranus was in Pisces, the massive Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which washed away 250,000 lives, took place. So, that’s two massive tsunamis, and smaller ones in the South Pacific which were not so well-reported, that took place during the time the planet of EXPLOSIVE ENERGY was in the WATER sign, Pisces. This doesn’t ALWAYS happen when Uranus is in Pisces; only when other planets corroborate these energies as destructive. As of the moment Uranus moved into ARIES, it set-off the start of a Uranus-Pluto SQUARE, a “hard” aspect (as in difficult!) which will take years to complete. But it may take years and years to clean-up the mess at the Japanese nuclear reactors that are in a meltdown phase as I write this on Thursday morning.
Uranus and Neptune have been flirting with each other for the past couple of years; and Uranus briefly entered Aries that year; the two ICE GIANTS spent most of 2010 within two degrees of each other, and three TSUNAMIS occurred that year, as reported by the ITIC: http://ioc3.unesco.org/itic/categories.php?category_no=444.
As for the massive 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the final minutes of the final degree of Pisces seem very significant, as just a day or two later, Uranus entered ARIES, and there it will stay, despite some retrogrades that never take it back into Pisces, for the next 7 years. Uranus in Aries is all about fire, and fire could include nuclear radiation or explosions. That certainly seems possible right now, as, despite down-playing the situation by the utility company, it seems they have not been very truthful with the public or even the government, and worse trouble can be expected because of their ill-conceived cover-up.
At the moment of the earthquake, MARS, SUN, LILITH, URANUS and MERCURY were all in the local (Sendai) Eighth House, the House of Death, Sex, Regeneration and Transformation. The younger generation pushes the older generation out of the way, and things just cannot transform unless that which has outlived its years is whisked aside. When a child is born with this much planetary energy in the eighth house, there are worries for that child’s health and safety. The eighth house is linked with PLUTO, the ruler of Scorpio, which is linked to PLUTO-NIUM, and the whole field of NUCLEAR ENERGY. Pluto was discovered in 1930, and within a few years, scientists were attempting to build the first atomic bomb. The destructive energies of Pluto also coincided with, first the Great Depression, and then the build-up to World War II, specifically, the rise of the National Socialist Party (NAZI’S), in Germany, culminating in a war in which the first atomic weapons would be used to knock Japan out of the war. The four planets + an asteroid in the Eighth House during just this hour of the day are certainly significant, as much loss of life and severe destruction occurred in ansd around this specific geographical area, at this “8th House” time of day, with implications for areas nearby, and across wide oceans, thanks to the awful power of the tsunami.
NEPTUNE, anciently regarded to be the Ruler of the Sea, was in 29.11 Aquarius during the earthquake, another planet in 29 degrees! For years, there has been a strange situation going on of NEPTUNE, the Ruler of the Sea being in URANUS’ home sign of AQUARIUS, and URANUS, the Ruler of Aquarius, being in PISCES, the home sign of NEPTUNE. Both planets were in the last, (29th degree) of these awkward signs. When planets in each others signs they are said to be in MUTUAL RECEPTION, they are ‘transferring light’ (and influence) to and from each other. But– guess what? — Astrologers have labeled both Uranus AND Neptune as “malefics”, and therefore mutual reception of THEIR light is nothing to be very happy about. Remember, the 29th Degree is an unbalanced degree. It is no longer a safe degree for a planet to be in, the energy is just about to change into, often, the polar opposite of what it HAD been. It is what might be called — a “tipping” point! And the future of nuclear power plants and the world’s reliance on nuclear energy is at a “tipping point” — right now!
As I write this, early on Thursday morning, URANUS is in 0.17 Aries, and NEPTUNE is in 29.24 Aquarius. The pattern these two ice giants had maintained for the past 7 years is breaking-up. Soon, by April 5th, Neptune will be back in its home sign of PISCES, which ought to reduce the symbolic planetary ‘stress load’. A planet in the Sign of its Rulership is definitely stronger and more able to perform in a more positive way than when it is in a sign that is not so good for its potent energies. Neptune spends 13 years in a sign, as part of its 164.79 year cycle, so it has been in a sign quite alien to itself, Aquarius, ever since just before the Y2K and dot.com ‘bust’, and of course, the 9-11 attacks. The affinity of Neptune in this sign with tsunamis has been duly noted.
Let us not forget the horrendous death and destruction in Haiti little more than a year ago, either! Uranus and Neptune were just one degree from being exactly 30 degrees apart in each other’s signs, and Saturn was a degree from squaring Pluto — another sign of disaster!
Some authors, such as Raymond J. Sette in his “Uranus in Pisces : The Dawn of a New Age? in Astrology Weekly, (a strange title, since Uranus has now entered Aries), feel we are truly on the brink of “The Age of Aquarius”, and that the Mutual Reception between Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius is a good thing; http://www.astrologyweekly.com/astrology-articles/uranus-in-pisces.php but the events of the past decade seem to have postponed this wonderful millennium for awhile and his joyful hearkening of a New Age seems off by about a third to me… more than that, judging by recent events! ——-Ed
Here is the chart I alluded to, above.
Sorry, I can’t “size” it quite right! You will need a microscope to see it. Write me and I’ll send you a better copy — ed@edaugusts.com
Astro.com is great if you want a chart! It’s my software that’s problematic.
Thanks to Astro.com
