By Bernadette Brady
January 2005

For this first issue I planned to simply look at the month ahead and consider the visibility of Mercury. However, given the great disaster of the Asian tsunami and the non-astrological horoscopic events of that particular day (a Mars square Uranus fits in but is not the herald of such a disaster), it may be more insightful to return to our roots and look at the sky for that period.

Here is the sky for the time of just before sunrise on that day, and for that place. The Egyptians and the Greeks believed that the stars and planets that rose before the Sun mixed their energies, myths and portents with the Sun and in so doing, gained a voice through the power of the Sun. The Egyptians thought that these stars and planets rode in the fiery boat of Ra. The Greeks saw these as “spear bearers” and Ptolemy called them the doryphory. Here on the morning of the 26th December, 2004 for the latitude of 3N19 there was a most interesting sky.

The bright full moon had just set and the dark predawn revealed an eastern sky full of a  dazzling but ominous string of stars and planets.

Mars was bright and red (magnitude 1.58) sitting directly in the forehead of the Scorpion. Close to the horizon sat Ishtar (Venus) as the gleaming morning star rising with red star Antares, the heart of the Scorpion and watcher of the west. Mercury was also visible; and the Sun for that latitude was even now standing still (rising at the same place on the horizon, as far south as it can). We have no text book to turn to in order to understand this symbolism but if I was a visual astrologer and this pattern rose with the great scorpion, I do not think that I would be expecting a easy time.

Another Quake

In checking my data file I found that there was a tsunami on 23rd December, 1964 that killed 1,800 people in Sri Lanka.  Here is the sky for that morning – the familiar pattern of a bright Venus rising with the scorpion at the solstice with Mercury by her side. The same imagery. The same symbolism.

For this first issue I planned to simply look at the month ahead and consider the visibility of Mercury. However, given the great disaster of the Asian tsunami and the non-astrological horoscopic events of that particular day (a Mars square Uranus fits in but is not the herald of such a disaster), it may be more insightful to return to our roots and look at the sky for that period.

Now this pattern itself does not foretell an earthquake and could probably happen often with no earthquake occurring. However, there is more…

We can look at the stars that made or are making parans (rising, setting, culminating or on the nadir as the planet rise and set, culminate or are on the nadir)  to the planets. 

* Saturn with Pollux
* Facies becomes the Heliacal
     rising star

These interpretations come from the mundane work I have done working with fixed stars.

There were two large markers for this 2004 solstice tsunami:

1. The first was that on the 26th December, for this latitude, Saturn began to be in paran with Pollux, one of the stars of Gemini and not an easy star.

Starlight gives this simple mundane meaning to such a combination:

Saturn – The Law and Civic Order
Setting when Pollux is Setting orb 00 mins 29 secs –
People’s lives altered by a disaster, or the actions of an aggressive group

Saturn stays in paran – first setting with Pollux and later rising with Pollux – until the 17th January, 2005. So from the 26th Dec, 2004 to the 17th Jan, 2005 this is the major combination for this part of the world. Note: This is not for the whole world, just for this latitude of 3 degrees to 6 degrees north. I am not projecting stars onto the ecliptic and allocating them a degree. What I am doing it “looking” at the sky and “looking” to see what stars are rising, setting, culminating or on the nadir for that location when Saturn is also rising, setting, culminating or on the nadir .So these combinations are unique for this latitude.

2. The second major marker is that while Saturn has been forming this dance with Pollux, Facies became the Heliacal rising star (rising with the Sun and considered to rule that whole period of time, until Rukbat, the steady stance of Sagittarius takes over this rulership on the 11th January, 2005. Facies is a star I have always found associated with earthquakes.

Here is the printout from Starlight for this period of time, for this latitude, for the ruling stars of this period:

Heliacal Rising Star
Facies – 
Rising 00 mins 38 secs before Sunrise
The shadow of war, the darkness of cruelty or aggression

Heliacal Setting Star
El Nath – 
Setting 69 mins 09 secs before Sunrise
The advent of a new weapon, either intellectually or physically

And the stars in paran with the Sun:  

Culminating when Ankaa is Rising orb 00 mins 01 secs –
To rebuild, to rise from the ashes

Rising when Facies is Rising orb 00 mins 38 secs –
The piercing stare of an aggressor or a critic

Rising when Sirius is Setting orb 01 mins 48 secs –
The potential for great and immortal events to unfold


The 1964 tsunami 

Saturn is not always the harbinger of an earthquake but what this example of simply looking at the sky shows us is that for this part of the world, if Venus is bright (and she is very bright on this day) and she is in amongst of the stars of the Scorpion and Mercury is with her, then we should look for earthquake stars. For 1964 such stars are also present:

Saturn culminating when Antares is Setting orb 00 mins 55 secs –
The world is black or white, patriotism abounds, people scattered

Mercury with El Nath (the same star involved with the Sun for the current tsunami) One who speaks out, abrasive language or speeches

The chart for the 1964 quake is much stronger with a Mars-Uranus-Pluto combination which any astrologer would use to describe the deaths which occurred in 1964. The horoscope for 2004 is much quieter. However, the stars and sky are much stronger. I, for one, will keep looking at the sky.