One of the largest hurricanes ever to hit the US Northeast entered the record books on October 29 as Sandy slammed into the Jersey coast near Atlantic City at 8 PM local time. Packing powerful winds in excess of 80 mph, the category 1 hurricane cost at least 50 lives, with upwards of $40 billion in damages expected, and more than 8 million Americans without power in 13 states from North Carolina to Maine. With the breadth of its windfield extending almost a thousand miles, this aptly dubbed “Frankenstorm’s” landfall coincided almost exactly with the Full Moon high tide, providing storm surges of 13-18 feet which devastated the Jersey coastline and flooded lower Manhattan, previously evacuated of its 300,000 residents.
Asteroid Sandra (#1760, for “Sandy”) appears at 18 Sagittarius, conjunct destructive Mars at 16 Sagittarius while opposed inflationary, over-kill Jupiter at 15 Gemini and havoc-wreaking TNO Chaos at 16 Gemini.
Sandra/Mars were closely conjunct the 15 Sagittarius Descendant at landfall, with Sandra also exactly conjoined a Black Hole, indicating a massive shift in the status quo, and the substitution of an alternate reality for one of a surreal nature, like stepping into a parallel universe. Black Holes also evoke huge expenditures and require vast amounts of resources, energy, time and focus; many of the power outages are expected to continue for days to a week or more.
Sandy’s Atlantic City landfall is reflected in asteroid Atlantis’ appearance at 2 Pisces, conjunct Neptune, god of the sea, at 0 Pisces and Chiron, the wound-maker, at 5 Pisces. Atlantis also reflects the devastating flooding which accompanied this storm’s passage.
Completing the asteroid picture of this natural disaster are several storm-and-wind-related celestials.
- TNO Typhon, named for a mythic Greek sea monster and the derivation of our word “typhoon”, appears at 9 Libra, transforming the potentially destructive Uranus/Pluto square into a T-Square, with Uranus at 5 Aries and Pluto at 7 Capricorn.
- Asteroid Storm (#12182) at 5 Scorpio is exactly on a Quasar, a deep space anomaly which evokes pervasive manifestation and high visibility, like setting a beacon on a hilltop
- A Quasar also affects Typhon, in opposition from 10 Aries.
- Asteroid Storm further appears in conjunction with the Sun (the day’s focus) at 6 Scorpio and Saturn, representing limitation and loss, at 2 Scorpio, and is also opposed the Moon (the populace and water generally) at 8 Taurus.
- From there the Moon exactly conjoins a Maser, a stellar remnant which violently spews jets of matter, and astrologically represents uncontrolled energy, volatility and extreme destructive capacity.
Asteroid Aeolia (#396), named for the island residence of Aeolus, Greek god of winds, falls at 17 Gemini, opposed Sandra/Mars and in conjunction with Jupiter/Chaos, all these on the 15 Gemini Ascendant, thus granted the added potency of angular placement. And asteroid Zephyr (#12923), named for the west wind, falls at 14 Libra, sandwiched between a Black Hole at 13 Libra and a Quasar at 15 Libra, in trine to Jupiter/Chaos/Aeolia/Ascendant.
New York City bore the brunt of much of the destruction in heavily populated regions, with peak wind gusts of more than 90 mph and storm surges approaching 13 feet. Asteroid Manhattan (#12464) falls at 22 Capricorn, exactly conjoined one Black Hole and exactly squared another at 22 Libra. Completely darkened below 38th Street by a massive explosion in a flooded Battery Park power substation when the sea wall was breached, almost three quarters of a million New Yorkers are without electricity, perhaps for 3 days or more. All PATH commuter transit trains to northern New Jersey are out of operation for 7-10 days, and Wall street closed for two consecutive days due to the adverse weather conditions, a circumstance which has not been seen since 1888. A huge fire broke out in a flooded section of Queens, destroying more than 50 homes and calling more than 200 firemen into service to control the blaze. Asteroid Fireman (#4231) appears at 20 Sagittarius, conjunct Sandra, with asteroid Queen’s (#5457) at 11 Pisces, squared Mars/Sandra and trine the Sun/Storm conjunction.
It will be days before the full extent of the destruction is realized and the costs calculated, and months, if not years, before repairs are completed and conditions return to normal, making Sandy one of the most devastating storms to batter the Northeast region in US history.
Alex Miller is a professional writer and astrologer, whose website AlexAsteroidAstrology.com offers a trove of info on the role of asteroids in personal and mundane astrology. He is the author of The Black Hole Book (available on Amazon.com) and The Urban Wicca, former editor of “The Galactic Calendar,” and past president of The Philadelphia Astrological Society. His pioneering work with Black Holes in astrological interpretation began in 1991, when his progressed Sun unwittingly fell into one. Alex’s books and writings are available on his website. Alex can also be reached for comment or services at .
Thank you for this. I had tried looking at a few asteroids, and found Sandra and Storm. Additionally, I was looking for some indication of beaches and found Shorland (#16599) at 29:29 Virgo conjunct Venus in Libra, sextile Mercury and quincunx Neptune. There’s such an odd feeling when I choose an asteroid and find that it fits in perfectly on a chart, as though it couldn’t be that easy, or that I’ve imagined it in some way! I’ve also been looking into the asteroids that you wrote about in connection with death, since a family member is going into hospice, and am also finding tremendous correlations. Thanks again, Cindy.