INSTALMENT 17
AVOIDANCE OF AIR CRASHES
and the
Local Horizon Chart
(This is an edited and supplemented reprint of my article of June 1997 in Astrologers’ Forum)
Long-time readers of Astrologers’ Forum will remember my plea years ago to have airplane travel astrologically monitored in order to avert the disasters that happen so frequently. I wanted to see all take-off times of aircraft approved by competent astrologers who could veto set times if the planetary indications were adverse. Though this proposal of mine was regarded with scepticism as being unworkable, I am convinced it is entirely feasible, given the speed and versatility of modern computers.
This was again brought to mind when I received recently precise details of the 1972 crash of
the Jumbo Jet, Eastern Airlines, L-1011 Tristar, Aircraft Number 310, on Flight 401 out of Kennedy Airport, New York. Of 176 passengers and crew, 99 died when the plane crashed in the Everglades, Miami, Florida. 60 of the 77 survivors were seriously injured and 4 died in hospital.
This was the first crash of a jumbo jet. My concern at the moment is the Figure for the Departure from New York City as an indicator of the fate of the aircraft and those on board.
It is not difficult to see from this Chart that disaster is looming. The precise departure time has 6º7' Virgo rising, which is almost exactly square Neptune (orb 3' of arc!) in the House of Terminations. Further, the malefic Mars on the Terminations Cusp rules the House of Death. Mars and Neptune are in parallel as they share the same degree and minute of declination (19º47' South). The famous astrologer Alan Leo declared “The Zodiacal Parallel is of more importance than any other Aspect. The effect is similar to a close conjunction but even more powerful." This observation was echoed by Simmonite, another famous astrologer of earlier times.
There are still more adverse portents: Venus, also in the Terminal 4th is weighed down by the opposition of Saturn, high in the heavens above it, where its malefic effect is accentuated. Jupiter, Co-Ruler of the Endings House, occupies the same degree as the Moon’s Nodes. This is a well-known indication of fatality in Horary Charts. Pluto (The Destroyer) is square to the Sun.
Here’s something else of dramatic import: The aircraft crashed into the marshes of the Everglades, Miami, Florida, at precisely 11:42 pm, 2 hours 22 minutes after take-off. If we re-set the Departure Chart for this time (see Figure below) one highly significant feature is immediately obvious: Pluto, The Destroyer, harbinger of death, is exactly conjunct the Ascendant!
It is no less than amazing how the celestial phenomena correlate with terrestrial happenings. It would be an invidious procedure for an astrologer to work out beforehand the exact time of the plane’s crash and the death of the people on board, but this amazing correlation shows it would certainly be possible. The technique could be useful in other applications—for instance, to assist the police in judging the time when specific events occurred following a robbery, a kidnapping, a hi-jacking, a taking of hostages, etc, or in the medical field, crises following the “decumbiture” of a sick person or the progress of recovery after a surgical operation.
When planets that are Significators in relation to the particular happening come to the Ascendant, they must be marking a critical juncture in the course of the events. This could be used in various ways. For instance, in the recent long-term holding of hostages in the Japanese Embassy in Peru, the rescue assault could be made when Jupiter or Venus was on or aspecting the Ascendant (or perhaps better, the Midheaven). As it happened, the rescue was indeed accomplished with a minimum loss of life apart from the unfortunate revolutionaries inside.
Astrologers should bend their efforts to making our art of practical value in this way. Retrospective analysis has its uses as a learning procedure but to realize the full potential of Astrology we must bring it to bear on the future, or outcome, of the critical situations that are forever arising in our society. Over the years I have advocated this in previous Issues of Astrologers’ Forum (with regrettably little response so far).
But we have not yet finished with Flight 401. If, instead of doing the normal Zodiacal horoscope, we range the planets around the Horizon as in a Local Horizon Chart, the result is no less dramatic and dire. It is a pity that these Charts do require a computer program, unless one is something of a mathematical whiz and is prepared to do the tedious calculations required. The Horizon Chart appears below.
The Local Horizon Chart is now another feature of Solar Fire Deluxe and the following explanation is supplied: The local horizon coordinate of each point is expressed as a longitude. Due East corresponds to 0 Aries and due North corresponds to 0 Capricorn. This produces a chart which corresponds to planetary compass directions for the chart’s location, and is similar to the Local Horizon Chart generated by Solar Maps [also in the Program.]
Newcomers to this field of Astrology should note that the Zodiacal Signs ranged around the Figure have no significance except to facilitate the calculation of Aspects. Horizon Charts always have Aries 0º on the 1st Cusp, and the other Cusps follow at 30º intervals. The Houses have significance, just as in a normal Zodiacal Chart.
If anything, this Local Horizon Chart bespeaks tragedy more eloquently than the standard Zodiacal Chart. The Moon is “besieged” by the two malefics, Uranus and Pluto (sudden disaster), and the trio are all square to the malefic Saturn, the Moon’s square having an orb less than 1°, Venus completes a T-Square, so “Lady Luck” was denied any saving part. The Radical Ascendant (12Li15) is the Zodiacal analogue of 6Vi07) is square Neptune (again exact to within a few minutes). The only other malefic, Mars, squares Jupiter.
Thus all the malefic bodies are involved.
Blind Freddie could see that this was no time to launch an omnibus into the air, especially not one carrying 176 people. Choosing the correct starting time is just as important for individuals as for aircraft—more of this in the next Instalment.
It may be argued that many aircraft are taking off from the same airport at approximately the same time, yet not all suffer destruction or accident that may appear in the Departure Chart. This is true. To distinguish those in real danger it is necessary to obtain details of the first flight of the aircraft concerned. This is equivalent to the natal chart of an individual. Other astrological tools, such as Cyclic Charts, Age Harmonics, Progressed and Directed Aspects will show whether or not the particular craft is in a dangerous period, just as it does for individuals.
This “birth data” for large commercial aircraft at least should be a mandatory requirement and would be an indispensable tool for monitoring the safety or otherwise of any particular flight.
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