This evening finally got the time of the Costa Concordia accident close to the Island of Giglio off the west coast of Italy. To all reports, the cruise liner struck an undersea rock on Friday evening at approximately 21.30hrs. The question everyone is asking is what the hell was a huge liner like that doing being in so close to the island of Giglio? Did the captain on such a modern ship (constructed in 2005) really lose his way? The answer possibly was given on UK Sky News this evening reporting that the new captain went close to the island because a friend lived there. To all reports, this practice of sailing close to Giglio seemed to be a tradition on this particular ship as an old officer who worked on Concordia used to live there too, and so the ship would go close to the island’s coastline and sound it’s horn as a gesture. Does this show up on the astro chart? Amazingly there is a hint that it does.
Here we have the accident horoscope chart. We have the Sun trine to a Moon/Mars conjunction so an element of danger or risk to people (Mars conjunct Moon) and with the Sun squared to Saturn there was the potential for fear, and for lessons to be learned from that time. Saturn squares are never easy and present us problems and difficulties which we have to deal with. This Saturn is very influential on this chart as it also affects a wedge formation with Jupiter opposing Saturn, the wedge being created by an almost exact Neptune/Venus conjunction as the point.
Now Neptune & Venus in conjunction is a very idealistic combination, very kind but a little wayward; almost as if you are floating on a cloud. I bet everyone on board was having a wonderful time, completely unaware of what was about to happen. Both these planets were still just in Aquarius, which is a very humanitarian sign and in the 6th house at the time. Venus in the 6th in Aquarius likes to show an independent kindly gesture when you care about somebody & Neptune in Aquarius in the 6th doesn’t like routine, it likes to do it’s own thing. Now this combination was sextile to Jupiter, which immediately signals a likelihood that one is going to get a little over confident and take a risk or too. Of course, Neptune and Jupiter also represents long distance travel (Jupiter) by sea (Neptune). I suspect, although it is yet to be proven, that the captain of the Costa Concordia got a little complacent and paid a heavy penalty for it.
Now normally, let’s say 99 times out of 100 you would get away with this sort of thing, especially if the practice of going off course was something that had been done before. The only problem was, this time around, danger was lurking at this particular time in the way of Uranus square Pluto.
At the time the ship hit the rock, causing a huge gash in the side of the ship’s hull, the ascendant on that point on earth had ticked around to approximately 15 degrees Virgo. At that point, a very focused pointer was created, rather like a Yod, but in my eyes even stronger, with quindeciles from the Ascendant to both Uranus and Neptune/Venus. The ascendant was also at that point conjunct to the Moon Mars conjunction. Look at the signs ruled by these two planets. Cancer (Moon) is on the cusp of the 11th house of friends, Aries (Mars) is on the cusp of the 8th house of death. Was the captain was potentially putting people in danger (Mars/8th) because a tradition and a friendship (11th).
Yods or pointers like the one above are turning points, often significant moments in time. This particular Uranus as part of the Yod was particularly dangerous as it was widely square to Pluto. Uranus creates shock, accidents, things you do not expect. Connected to Pluto, we have the potential for something hidden, something destructive, something below the waterline in a nautical sense to cause death and destruction. Not only was Uranus on this occasion connected to this particular point in time with the quindecile to the Ascendant and the square to Pluto, but also it was at the midpoint of the Neptune/Venus sextile to Jupiter, as well as inconjunct to Saturn which is always a very tricky aspect with the potential for upset and unfortunate happenings. Whenever you get Uranus being affected by several tension aspects as well as being at the center of attention as it was here on this chart, then it has the potential to severely destructive.
Over the next 3 years, because of the square between Pluto and Uranus, we will have the possibility for maybe more of these type of incidents than you would normally expect. I think especially accidents underground, maybe earthquakes and volcanoes exploding, anything nuclear based or accidents of this type where something hidden or unknown suddenly causes a major disaster.
