Comments on 2001

Some of you asked for more text… thank you for your patience. Find them today from the new page Articles. Time has come to comment the forecasts made in the previous newsletter (n°02, January 2001).

The problem this year was linked to the ambivalent Sagittarius-Gemini oppositions involving OOB Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. If you are interested to understand better what follows, you may read first about the Gemini-Sagittarius opposition in Forecasting with cycles, written also today on the matter.

To analyse a bit further : the Mars-Saturn opposition only occurred once early February 2001. However, the Mars-Jupiter opposition comes 3 times in 2001: 19th February direct, 12th June retrograde and 3rd October direct again. The 1st one was bad enough to comment it on last's newsletter because the 23rd February New Moon was squaring it. When Mars and Jupiter are in tension, over-optimistic excess of enthusiasm or aggressive behaviours can react against social harmony, by lacking social ethic, and leading to NEGLIGENCE, causing what I called "mess".

The forecast was : "The 23rd February New Moon squaring Gemini Jupiter and Sagittarius Mars (also in contra-parallel) tells us to watch for the mess negligence can cause." What happened was the start of Foot and Mouth epidemic, caused by the negligence of the modern farming methods (too much transport of animals during their growth), then the government was accused of negligence in the way it handled the crisis. The consequences off all this mess are the disastrous death of millions of animals, their disposal in dodgy burial sites, the rural communities affected and mainly the biggest damage is the one affecting tourist industry. All that because of the negligence of a few.

Also in the same period, on February 28, the driver of a Land Rover and it's trailer lost the highway track to end on the Selby railway track (North Yorkshire), causing a freight train to derail and then crash on a passenger train coming from the other direction. 13 death. As the accident occurred at 6h20 in the morning, I assume he was negligent by driving too tired to keep awake. ***

"The mid-March conjunction between the Moon, Mars and Pluto can increase terrorist actions…" Indeed, on March 16th, some Tchechens hijacked a Russian plane, causing 3 death.

The "ambivalence" was then beginning to show it's face from the 2nd half of May because, if the opposition between Mercury and Mars transited fast, the planets stayed for 2 weeks in contra-parallel and Out of Bounds ! To this aspect was added the first occultations to Saturn and Jupiter (May 23rd).

In June, significant aspects like the 6th June Full Moon involved Mars with the 3rd Jupiter-Pluto opposition, while parallels occurred between Jupiter, the Sun and Mercury. All this was very strong near the 21st Sun eclipse, that followed the second series of occultations of Saturn and Jupiter. It was a time for disturbance and confusion for many. Here we had may storms with lightening, quite typical of the Mars-Jupiter kind of anger. The opposition in question was squaring my natal Jupiter. Funny enough, I'd been negligent since the 12 years I own a computer to never have bothered to protect against lightening (with an anti-surge plug). I got caught on June 20th with the crash of my hard disk (recovered later) and of the monitor !

So the way I experienced the standstill promised by the Sun eclipse on Solstice day was very intense. Being deprived of the computer for a whole week, I had time to think, and sort all my papers and do all these things that I never got round to do. I also took the opportunity to buy a much better monitor and an anti-surge plug !

"Then Sag-Gemini ambivalence continues later in the year with the cold and frustrating Saturn-Pluto opposition, forcing us to face our limits…". This opposition got triggered by the 2nd September Full Moon and the 10th/12th September occultations. Read : The strength of Jupiter and Saturn occultation for more insight on the September 11th tragedy.

© Astrid Fallon. Sheffield, 3rd october 2001.

*** It was confirmed on 28 Nov. 2001 by trial in court, that the driver Gary Hall had fallen asleep at the wheel. He had started his journey at 4:40AM after having been for 5 hours on the phone to a women he had met on Internet.

10 October 2001 - Newsletter 03 continued

The purpose of my publications is to help follow motions of planetary transits. The books and calendars were created for the sake of improving our astrology practice. Not for forecasting a war I don't agree with. In consequence, I won't make forecasts on that matter. I may comment events after they happen, but only to help understand the global situation, and for the sake of making sense of astrology, by correlating the above solar system with it's manifestation on Earth below.

To conclude on the effects of the 3rd Mars-Jupiter opposition (3 Oct. 2001), this time in Capricorn-Cancer, human negligence was again responsible for dramatic accidents (read above). The transiting Sun squaring the opposition is the trigger that actualizes the aspect. First, Ukraine's missiles exercises hit a passenger plane by mistake on the Black Sea (morning of October 4th); then in Milan (Italy, morning of the 8th), a Swedish plane crashed when taking off on another plane, hidden in mist and not detected. The ground radars were simply switched off for maintenance ! In both instances, over optimistic (Jupiter) actions (Mars) turn into disaster.

This 3rd opposition, squared by transiting 14° Libra Sun, also saw the military action undertaken against Talibans in Afghanistan. Capricorn Mars shows strategy in action (ruled by Saturn). Mars reacts to Cancer Jupiter willing to protect people's social rights and freedoms. But, on October 7th, we also had Saturn's new occultation by the Moon, actualizing again its opposition to Pluto. Saturn and the Moon were just rising in Afghan skies when the 1st mission started (17h27 GMT, October 7th). This was followed by the rise of Jupiter, just before the center of the occultation of Saturn by the Moon (18h48 GMT, distance apart in declination : 0°31').

I had to put forward an article on the strength of these occultations (particularly as they belong to a series) because I really believe they are to be looked at in our practice. Secondly, because I understand they are well hidden ! It's only thanks to the nature of my work that I noticed the phenomena. I read no other forecasts including the presence of occultation for 2001, nor did I find any mention about them in 130 pages printed from a serious astrology website, sharing the views of many astrology professional on 11 September's attack.

If you can't wait to acquire your copy of Raphael's Astronomical Ephemeris, you can still check them with chart calculation. When you wonder if a conjunction of the Moon to another planet is an occultation, just draw the chart of the conjunction in question, and then check the orb in declination between the Moon and the planet. When inferior to 1 degree, consider it as occultation (some will argue 1/2 degree). This calculation will tell you how tight a conjunction is, and therefore how much it must be considered in interpretation.

To summerize the phenomena, we see Saturn occultations operating on particular degrees : on 23 May 2001 @ 4°04' Gemini ; 19 June @ 7°36' ; 17 July @ 10°48' ; 14 August @ 13°18' ; 10 September @ 14°44' ; 7 October @ 14°52' ; 3 November @ 13°43' ; 1 December @ 11°41' ; 28 December 2001 @ 9°34' ; 24 January 2002 @ 8°14' ; 21 February @ 8°12' ; 20 March @ 9°31' ; 16 April @ 11°57' and 14 May 2002 @ 15°07' Gemini. Jupiter is also being occulted, first in Gemini, then in Cancer. The degrees involved are those to watch in transit interpretation. In the same way we analyze eclipse charts, we can view occultation charts or any other tight conjunction chart, as in the booklet called Carto Graphic Phenomena 2002…

© Astrid Fallon. Sheffield, 10 October 2001.