March and April saw several bizarre news stories, and some which, unfortunately, have become all too commonplace. From the mysterious disappearance of a 777 jet liner, to a reprise of an army base shooting, to a school rampage with knives as the weapon of choice, spring 2014 has been a celestial powerhouse of events tied to the ongoing Uranus/Pluto square as it hits its stride.
At 12:41 AM local time on March 8, Malaysia Airlines flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur airport, bound for Beijing, China, with 239 passengers and crew aboard. It never arrived, and as of this writing (mid-April) no verifiable evidence of its whereabouts has surfaced.
At some point after the co-pilot’s final words to the control tower, “All right, good night”, about a half hour into the flight, the plane’s transponder was turned off and the flight veered wildly off course, doubling back over the Malay peninsula. Subsequent radar analysis of the flight recorder pings emitted suggests an hours-long journey into the southern Indian Ocean, where the sea bottom is among the deepest and most inaccessible on the planet.
Weeks of speculation and investigation followed, with almost daily satellite photos of debris providing no connection to the flight, although in early April, at the extreme edge of the signal life in the infamous “black boxes”, some sources seemed to have detected faint pings which might relay the plane’s location. But with ocean depths of nearly three miles, a 22,000-square-mile potential debris field and a month’s worth of violent wave and current activity to scatter or destroy evidence, the searchers are really no closer to their goal.
With no indication of hijacking or terrorist activity, and no group claiming responsibility, suspicion quickly settled upon the pilot, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, with “pilot suicide” a possible cause. But exhaustive background checks on both men, as well as the other passengers, crew and ground crews, revealed no ties to radical philosophies or organizations, and no intimations of pending suicide.
A chart cast for the departure time is intriguing, and could point to the co-pilot as the perpetrator. A T-Square of Neptune, exactly on the 5 Pisces IC, squared the Moon exactly on the 7 Gemini Descendant and opposed asteroid Atropos (named for the mythic Greek Fate who severs the thread of life at death) at 3 Virgo on the 5 Virgo MC, pretty much tells the tale: lives lost (Atropos) in a mysterious disappearance (both Neptune) at sea (traditionally ruled by the Moon and latterly by Neptune), given the angular force and momentum provided by three of four points on the vertical and horizontal axes. This is what an astro-reporter might call “the lede”—the backbone of the story.
But the details are even more impressive, provided largely by PNAs (Personal-Named Asteroids) and other “minor” bodies of the solar system. First, asteroid China (#1125), the destination country, conjoins the Moon/Descendant combination from 5 Gemini, offering evidence of the flight’s intent. The Uranus/Pluto tie-in comes from asteroid Peking (#2045, the former, Westernized version of Beijing, the destination city) at 7 Libra opposing Uranus (ruling planes) at 11 Aries, more broadly squaring Pluto at 13 Capricorn, then coming into conjunction with asteroid Rip (#7711, which functions reliably as a death indicator in the form of the acronym “RIP”, “Rest in Peace”, a common tombstone inscription) at 5 Capricorn.
Unfortunately only the middle names of both pilot and co-pilot have asteroid referents, Ahmed (#16113) for Zaharie Ahmad Shah; and Abdulla (#22638), for Farig Abdul Hamid. More loosely connected to the square, now becoming a Grand Cross, is asteroid Abdulla, which at 2 Cancer is conjoined asteroid Lachesis at 2 Cancer (named for the mythic Greek Fate who determines the span of life) and, perhaps more significantly, exactly conjunct asteroid Loke, named for the Norse Trickster god Loki, mischievous and malign. Could Hamid be the malicious (Loke) agent of death (Lachesis) responsible for the mysterious disappearance, conveying the plane and his victims to the least likely spot for recovery, thus establishing an unsolvable riddle? These points are drawn more firmly into the configuration by their conjunction with Jupiter at 10 Cancer, conferring publicity and fame.
The Sun also plays a part. If Loki is the Norse Trickster, then Hermes is his Greek equivalent, and the Sun for the flight’s departure at 17 Pisces is closely conjoined by asteroid Hermes at 16 Pisces, as well as by asteroid Ahmed (for the pilot) at 22 Pisces and asteroid Icarus at 25 Pisces. Something about the prominence of Trickster god energies suggests there is something unfathomable (no pun intended) and opaque about this event.
Icarus, as well, is particularly apt, named for the boy who flew too close to the sun on his wax wings, and plummeted to disaster in the sea. One proffered explanation for the apparent lack of resistance from passengers and crew is that the flight flew too high and suffered a catastrophic decompression which rendered everyone unconscious, and though that would explain the duration of the flight, perhaps up to eight hours before fuel ran out, it does not explain the change in course.
The pilot’s birthdate has been given as 31 July 1961, and if accurate, that yields a conjunction of Icarus and Osiris at 12 and 14 Cancer, within parameters of activation by the transit Uranus/Pluto square, and potentially descriptive of a death (Osiris, named for the ancient Egyptian god of the dead) via a plunge into the ocean (Icarus). That date also gives a conjunction of asteroid Ahmed and Uranus at 28 and 24 Leo, which may explain the pilot’s interest in flight (Uranus-ruled), as well as a pairing of TNO Ixion (named for the first murderer in Greek myth) with asteroid Abdulla at 24 and 26 Libra, perhaps identifying the co-pilot as the pilot’s killer.
These points had just been activated by transit Mars’ retrograde station a week earlier, still conjunct at 27 Libra when the flight departed. Additionally, the transit solar stellium is squared a transit conjunction of TNO Ixion and centaur Pholus at 22 and 24 Sagittarius—Ixion relates to homicide, as we have seen, and Pholus is active in the charts of mass deaths, by whatever cause. The solar stellium also trines transit Saturn, ancient ruler of death, at 23 Scorpio.
Given the practical realities of the situation and the astrological prominence of Neptune and the Trickster deities, it seems more than likely that we will never know the truth of what happened on flight 370.
Shortly after midnight on March 13, a drunk driver who was attempting to elude police plowed into a crowd of people attending the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, killing four and wounding more than 20 others. Eyewitnesses said Rashad Owens, 21, appeared to accelerate as he approached the crowd, and intentionally hit them. Dead at the scene were Jamie West, 27, a local resident struck while riding a moped with her husband, and Steven Craenmehr, 35, a Dutch tourist. Deandre Tatum, 18, and Sandy Le, 26, died later of their injuries. Owens has been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault.
The incident occurred at approximately 12:35 AM CDT, and shows Atropos at 1 Virgo once again on the 4 Virgo MC, as at the Malaysian jet’s disappearance, with asteroid Requiem at 26 Taurus, named for the funeral mass for the dead, prominent on the 27 Taurus Descendant. Asteroid West (#2022, for victim Jamie West) at 15 Libra is the only PNA tapped directly into the Uranus/Pluto square, whose deadly tendencies were heightened with Pluto at 13 Capricorn augmented by asteroid Rip at 6 Capricorn, and Uranus at 11 Aries conjunct asteroid Dionysos (representing intoxication) at 18 Aries (Neptune at 5 Pisces, which traditionally rules intoxicants, is also prominent, conjunct the 4 Pisces IC for the incident).
Asteroid Owens (#15608, for driver Rashad Owens) at 23 Libra conjoins Mars (violence) at 26 Libra, and sets off a variety of aspects, including an exact semisextile to Saturn at 23 Scorpio (the police, and ancient lord of death), square to asteroid Tatum (#3748, for victim Deandra Tatum) at 25 Capricorn, trine to asteroid Stevens (#38540, for victim Stephen Craenmehr) at 18 Aquarius and Mercury (cars) at 25 Aquarius, inconjunct the Sun at 22 Pisces and asteroid Sandra (#1760, for victim Sandy Le) at 25 Pisces, opposing asteroid Osiris (Egyptian god of the dead) at 21 Aries, inconjunct Requiem at 26 Taurus and exactly sextile asteroid Texas (#35352, the state in which the tragedy occurred) at 23 Leo.
In a horrific moment of déjà vu, April 2 witnessed another mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, the nation’s largest military base, devastated by a similar incident less than five years ago. 34-year-old Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, undergoing treatment for sleep disorders, depression and possible PTSD, went on a shooting rampage after being denied leave. Lopez began his spree at an administrative building, then drove slowly to the motor pool building where he was assigned, shooting randomly at soldiers en route. Lopez killed three and wounded 16 before turning the gun on himself.
Among the dead were Sgt. Timothy Owens, Sgt. Daniel Ferguson, and Sgt. Carlos Lazaney-Rodriguez. As with the SxSW driving incident, asteroid Owens (#15608, for victim Timothy Owens) is prominent, moreso now as it retrogrades back to 19 Libra and more firmly in the grip of the Uranus/Pluto square, and still conjunct Mars (the military, violence) at 21 Libra. Occurring at approximately 4 PM CDT, asteroid Atropos is once again angular, this time at 28 Leo on the 24 Leo Ascendant; Saturn, ancient lord of Death, is also angular, at 22 Scorpio on the 20 Scorpio IC. Also on the Ascendant is asteroid Carla (#1470, for victim Carlos Lazaney-Rodriquez) at 25 Leo (also conjunct Atropos) and asteroid Texas, the state involved, at 20 Leo.
Asteroid Lopez (#4657) at 8 Leo squares asteroid Ferguson (#1745, for victim Daniel Ferguson) at 14 Taurus, while trine asteroid Daniel (#2589, also for Ferguson) at 5 Aries, itself broadly conjunct Uranus and the Sun at 12 and 13 Aries. Lopez is also represented by asteroids Ivanova (#4365) and Ivanovsky (#18814), both for Ivan, his first name. Ivanova at 28 Virgo is exactly semisextile Atropos and exactly trine asteroid Rodriguez (#13760, also for victim Carlos Lazaney-Rodriguez), linking the shooter and another of his victims directly. Asteroid Ivanovsky at 4 Taurus is part of a bundle of minor bodies, including Osiris at 0 Taurus, Phaeton at 2 Taurus, and Tantalus at 4 Taurus, exactly with Ivanovsky. Phaeton represents a spectacular explosion, an out-of-control self-destruction, and Tantalus is named for a mythic figure noted for the commission of heinous acts of murder. Tantalus, in addition to its exact conjunction with Ivanvosky, is especially powerful, coming to its retrograde station just two days later.
By now we’ve become accustomed to mass school shootings, but a mass school stabbing? Now that’s man bites dog! On April 9th, 16-year-old Alex Hribal ran amok at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, near Pittsburgh, PA, wielding two 10” knives as students prepared for class. Hribal injured 22, four critically, before being taken down by fellow student Ian Griffiths and assistant principal Sam King.
A chart cast for the first 911 calls at 7:13 AM EDT shows asteroid Franklina (#982, for Franklin High School) at 18 Capricorn angular on the 14 Capricorn MC, conjunct Pluto, modern ruler of death and terrorist acts, at 13 Capricorn. Opposing these on the IC are Jupiter, ruling academic settings, at 12 Cancer and asteroid Child, representing Hribal’s youth (though he will be tried as an adult), exact on the 14 Cancer IC. Forming a T-Square with this is asteroid Samuele (#11622, for assistant principal Sam King) at 15 Aries, travelling in conjunction with Uranus (shocking, unorthodox events) and the Sun at 12 and 19 Aries. Mars, ruling knives and violence, at 18 Libra transforms this into a Grand Cross.
Osiris, Tantalus and Phaeton are still together in early Taurus, joined now by asteroid Alex (#3367, for Alex Hribal) at 8 Taurus, instigating a second violent, uncontrolled attack within a week, committed by a perpetrator with an asteroid referent conjunct a stationary Tantalus and companions. Asteroid Hrabal (#4112, for Hribal) appears at 11 Pisces, conjunct Neptune (victims, insane acts) at 6 Pisces and asteroid Icarus (rash, reckless actions heedless of the consequences) at 16 Pisces. A cluster of asteroids Griffis (#16253, for student Ian Griffiths), King (#2305, for the assistant principal Sam King) and Murray (#941, for the town of Murrysville) at 1, 5 and 10 Gemini respectively brings together the locale of the incident with the two persons instrumental in stopping the violence; significantly, these are squared asteroid Hrabal, representing the perpetrator.
As above, so below; and so it goes…
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 .
Some astrologers have suggested the touted Grand Cross resulted in a bunch of smaller (comparatively) incidents such as these as opposed to a big global crisis. Perhaps you’d agree and this is such a detailed analysis that it makes a good case. But Mars has yet to go direct from a long retrograde in Libra that could still set off that dissolving square with a biggie sometime in May 2014. Thanks for sizing up these incidents with the asteroids in clear focus.