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Pluto, Death and Hope, Roy Gillett

Excerpt from Astrology Quarterly Summer 2001 Vol 71 No 3

At the time of writing at the beginning of the third week of March, death dominates the news. The foot and mouth disease crisis has reached over 300 reported cases. In Portugal seventy people died when a bridge collapsed. Yet another US school pupil has been on a shooting spree and numerous copycat attempts have followed. The explosion outside the BBC is leading to fear of a renewal of an Irish terrorist bombing campaign.

The chart for the Selby train crash on 28th February 2001 is dominated by the astrology of the current wave of macabre news. As we do not have an exact minute for the crash, I have not used the precise grid reference of the location. Rather the chart is drawn for Selby itself and 6am. Any further fine tuning could be self-cancelling. Even allowing for this, there are many near-exact trigger factors that teach a lot about the astrology of accidents. The reveal the kind of event and why it happened when and where it did.

Selby Crash 28th February 2001 6am GMT 53N48 1W04

For the chart as drawn, the sequence of astro events and the mundane events they represent, were as follows:

1) Approximately eight minutes before 6am Mars was on the MC (Mars was applying to conjunct Pluto on 18th March)

An Inter-City express was travelling at 125 mph and being approached on an adjacent line by a fully loaded coal lorry travelling in the opposite direction at 75 mhp Was this train travelling early as a result of the need to carry coal to burn the bodies of slaughtered animals?

2) At very much the same time the Ascendant was squaring the Moon (The Moon was about four hours short of an exact square to Neptune) The Ascendant conjoined Neptune approximately a minute before 6am.

Shortly before both trains reached their crossing point at the scene of the accident, for a reason that is not certain at the time of writing, a four wheel vehicle towing a trailer left the road, descended down an embankment, to rest on the railway line. The result was one of the highest speed impacts in railway history. Ten people were killed and many others injured.

3) Over the coming half hour the MC applied to conjunct Pluto and the Ascendant applied to conjunct Mercury, which was in a wide square aspect to Saturn in the third house.

Over the coming half hour, people rushed to the accident to save injured people, amidst mass destruction. News of the terrifying event spread throughout the World.

The movement of the angles across the planets happens every day. The Moon squares Neptune every month. Mercury squares Saturn at least twice a year. Mars conjuncts Pluto every two years. But how often and in how many places do the angles trigger off all these astro events and their effects within minutes of each other? In addition, how often does all this happen when Jupiter rules the sign of Mars, Pluto and the Sun, and is in detriment in Gemini?

Death will dominate increasingly through March, because Mars is applying to conjunct Pluto in Sagittarius. It will not end there, because Mars will slow to retrograde on 11th May, then return to go direct on 19th July within minutes of arc of the position the conjunction occurred. It does not leave Sagittarius until 8th September. Mars may be carefree and full of power in this sign but the position leads to impulsive actions - act now, think later. Hence this position can be most dangerously reckless and accident-prone.

That Mars is applying to conjunct Pluto in Sagittarius, itself opposed by Jupiter in Gemini at the end of May, explains why it has been so easy to contemplate the mass slaughter of animals. Especially so, because Jupiter is in fall in Gemini, and the Sun (in Pisces, also ruled by Jupiter) squared Pluto on 4th March. Although Saturn is past its square to Uranus, Mercury is building towards doing so early April - lessons about order and control are being learned the hard way!

Those of you who attended my talk at the Astrological Lodge of London on 14th February may remember how we were trying to work out the mundane meaning of the constant appearance of planets in mid Taurus in charts connected with the then expected General Election Date of 3rd May 2001.

Tony Blair's natal Sun is 15° Taurus. Both signs ruled by Venus are intercepted in his chart, but progressed Venus is at 16°' Taurus this year. His progressed Moon is opposite( at 13° of Scorpio in early May). William Hague's progressed Sun is at 14°' and his progressed Mercury at 18°' of Taurus. His progressed Moon will be around 13°' Capricorn on 3rd May. The Labour Party's progressed Mars is at 17°' Taurus. The Conservative Party has natal Pluto at 15°' and progressed Venus at 16° of Taurus. To cap it all, on 3rd May the Sun is at 13° of Taurus. On 22nd February the announcement of the Foot and Mouth outbreak explained this Taurean dominance.

On 3rd May, transiting Pluto retrogrades back within one minute of arc of the opposing the Labour Party's natal Pluto, whilst transiting Jupiter is building up to an exact conjunction. With its natal Nodal axis in 16° 'Gemini, progressed Sun in 17° and MC in 14°' of that sign, to go to the polls that day will indeed an ambiguous time of testing for Labour. If they fail to calculate the public mood, the result could surprise even the keenest Conservative supporters. In the present climate of worsening Sagittarian/Gemini uncertainty, William Hague's progressed Moon in Capricorn applying to trine his progressed Sun and Mercury needs to be watched. With the Jupiter / Pluto opposition across his natal MC/IC axis, he might yet capture the mood of a desperate public. This election will see a struggle par excellence. Whoever wins will inherit major increasing problems. Let us hope a person and party with vision and determination emerges to take us through the even less pleasant 'Saturn opposed Pluto times' that will be with us through to May 2002. With Saturn replacing Jupiter, expect to reap the consequences of foolhardiness.

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