Granville train disaster (Australia: 1977)

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I decided to start having a look at some disaster charts and the first one I looked at just happened to have an Aquarius Ascendant. It also had Uranus close to the Mars ruled Mc. Saturn was retrograde in the 6th house. This was Australia's worst transit accident that occured in 1977. It was a rail accident that caused the death of 83 people and injured over 200. Anyone who is my age or older (I was 16 at the time) has very vivid memories of this accident. This accident happened two hours into a two and a half hour journey. Pluto was on the Mc at the beginning of the journey.

If anyone is interested, the details are as follows:

Granville train disaster
18th January, 1977
8:03am AEDT -11hrs
Sydney
Australia

I think the chart for the commencement of the journey is quite interesting too. Still a Saturn ruled Ascendant (Capricorn). Saturn in the 8th house, three planets in the 12th. Eighth house ruled by Leo, which is right on the Ascendant. As I said, Pluto on Mc.

Commencement chart
6:09am AEDT
Mount Victoria
33S35 150E15

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I remember watching a reconstructed drama about this, and I travelled that line a few years ago ? it was still very much a vivid event for people in that area. If I remember correctly, wasn?t it something to do with a bridge collapsing, or am I thinking of something else? Thanks for posting the info. I?d like to look at both charts with a bit more thought after tomorrow.
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Last edited by Deb on Sat Nov 22, 2003 3:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Sue, I haven?t looked at the crash chart in detail yet, but I?ve made a few comments on the commencement chart and I?d be interested to see what you or anyone else has to add.

The Sun, ruler of the 8th, is on the ascendant whilst Saturn, ruler of the asc, is on the 8th house cusp. That seems to suggest that the commencement of the journey had the seeds of death written into it. It would have taken a pretty astute astrologer to have noted that in advance though.

The potential for such a violent and brutal event lies in Mars (exalted and under suns beams) and the way it was gathering aspectual contact from all the outers and Saturn. It is close on the square of retrograde Pluto, a combination which Ebertin relates to ruthlessness, brutality, great force, and people being disabled or having to suffer violent assaults and injuries (COSI, p.152). At its most positive expression, Mars-sq-Pluto is related to great power and people working obsessively without a break at all. I imagine that fits the scene for the emergency operation that followed.

Pluto is very manifest on the midheaven and is powerful because it has stationed, having just turned retrograde the day before. The Moon and Mars apply by square on one side, bringing the potential for a powerful accident or clash of great force. Retrograde Saturn is applying closely to sextile Pluto from the other. Saturn rules the ascendant and seems to be descriptive of the ?vessel being travelled in? because the link you listed described the railway as in a run down condition, suffering frequent complains relating to poor timekeeping and a filthy, run down service. The stellium of planets in Capricorn and the Sun in Capricorn on the ascendant (in mutual reception with Saturn on the 8th) reiterates this theme of potential damage from things old, worn, past their ?sell-by date?. Saturn is applying to the inconjunct of Mars offering a warning ?if you don?t replace this, there will be trouble?. But Pluto collects their influence and deepens the force and compulsion, bringing it to a head by its culminating angularity.

Mars is also on the sextile of Uranus. Ebertin relates this to ?a struggle for survival?, ?an accident, injury, operation?, ?strains and stresses?. For psychological correspondence he suggests ?Obstinacy, brutal frankness, self-will and wilfulness, intolerance, haste and premature action, the liability or proneness to injuries or accidents?. (p.148) From what I recall, issues of speed contributed to the accident, and there was a pig-headed political attitude towards forcing this train to hit its timetable regardless of other factors. I?m trying to remember the TV program I watched and what I was told when I visited the area ? I believe the issue was that the voters of the area held a lot of power at a politically sensitive time, so the government couldn?t afford to risk losing their support by allowing the train to run late. Therefore the operators were under a great deal of political pressure to ignore warnings that would otherwise have called them to slow the speed of the train.

It may be worth noting that Neptune is on the midpoint of the Mars-Uranus contact, so problems from hasty actions are compounded by a lack of clarity, confusion, or self-delusion ? the belief that ?everything will be OK? overriding signals that it won?t.

So with this backdrop of affliction to Mars, we might expect that ?calamity was in the air? for mundane matters where clear indications of safety being compromised were being ignored, where speed and hasty action was being applied, and where damage from old, worn out equipment posed a risk. Mercury?s approach to Mars moves the focus closer towards that particular event. Mercury signifies railways and commuter travel. It doesn?t actually perfect its conjunction with Mars until both have moved into Aquarius because, although the chart doesn?t show it, Mercury is in the final stages of retrogradation, turning direct, so again drawing attention and capable of expressing a heightened influence by its stationery movement. But Mercury is already close enough to Mars to feel its presence and be damaged by it. The Moon draws in and makes it an issue of particular relevance for that day.

Those are the factors that I see quite clearly. But there are other factors I don?t understand so well:

What is the role that Venus plays in this chart?
For a matter that concerns a train journey we?d normally consider 3rd house significations. Why is Venus on the 3rd house cusp? It rules the Midheaven and the 5th house and there?s another link to the 5th house because Jupiter, ruler of the 3rd, sits closely on the cusp of the 5th.
Venus is separating from the sextile of Mars and inconjunct of Pluto. The Moon is applying to the sextile of Venus whilst Venus herself applies to the square of Neptune and sextile of Jupiter. This is a powerful, and one might have thought, dreamy but benefic Venus. It is in its exaltation and disposes of Jupiter.

Venus sextile Jupiter brings a lot of attention but I don?t really get the influence of Venus (or Jupiter) in this chart. I?m either missing something or I?m questioning whether this 3rd house link is relevant at all. Neither Venus or Jupiter are angular or above the earth so would their influence be expected to manifest in a mundane event were it not for trying to force a focus on the 3rd house. I?m wondering whether the natural signification of Mercury over railways and communication issues is simply much more potent and relevant to this particular event.

Lately I?ve been trying to study such charts free of any particular prejudice of approach. A few times I have found the chart to be most descriptive when I don?t force certain house rulerships. Is it enough to say that Venus brings damage to 3rd house issues because it rules the MC and disposes Pluto on the MC; and does Jupiter, ruler of the 3rd, really tie in to what?s happening?

I?ll post some comments on the crash chart later but I would like to get some other views on this.

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I would imagine that it is all relevant in some way. It's just a matter of working out how it fits. I like what Dennis Elwell said in 'When Charts Expand Horizons' on this website. He said "When human questioning is met with a cosmic answer, it may not be recoginsed as remotely relevant." The answer might not be clear but it's got to be there somewhere.
Given that this is the commencement chart rather than the crash chart it would be describing events leading up to the crash rather than the crash itself. There were a few things that struck me immediately with this chart, most of which you have mentioned Deb. One was the ruler of the 8th on the ascendant and the ruler of the ascendant on the 8th. I saw that and realised that the trip was fated in the eyes of the cosmos from the time it left the station. This is why I like to look at commencement charts. Even two hours prior to an accident that happened suddenly, the defining factors were in place. Another thing that struck me was Pluto so prominent on the Mc being disposited by Venus, which was in the 3rd house of rail journeys. I didn't pick up the stationed bit. I often see the power of a recently stationed planet quoted in horaries and event charts but I always forget to look. I don't think I will forget in future.
When I saw this chart I was reminded of the way the television adaptation of this event did so well in portraying a cross between it being a normal day but with an underlying build up of tension. It's easy enough to see this in the chart now that we know what happened but would we have come to similar conclusions with the same chart pre-accident. It's clearly a difficult chart but could we have been sure about how it would have manifested?
I would be interested to see some charts of people who were unfortunately killed in this accident. I wonder how it all ties in with their charts. I met a woman whose father was killed in the accident. He had spent most of the time she was growing up as an alcoholic who abused his wife and children. About a year or so before the accident he suddenly stopped drinking and found a form of 'spirituality' becoming a very different person who spent a lot of time trying to make up for his past mistakes. She said she finally found her father and had a relationship with him only to lose him again so quickly. She was a teenager when the accident happened.
I was confused by how Venus would fit into this chart too and I still am. What I thought though, is if the 10th house and its significator represent 'the leading officers of the ship' (or did I just make this one up?) then this must represent the person in charge of the train, the driver. He is also signified by the Sun, which is on the ascendant and ruling the 8th house, so is very much tied into what happened. But Venus is in a close applying square to Neptune. This suggests to me some unreal expectations on his part. It has already been established that the normal journey was very tight and there was little room for error. A slight delay could mean the train being late by half an hour. At one stage of the journey there was a signal check, causing the train to be delayed by three minutes. I expect that the driver decided he could make this up somehow. This train already had a speed limit for bends that was 10 kilometres per hour (six miles) higher than any other bend anywhere. Neptune is in a Mars ruled house being disposited by Jupiter, the ruler of the 3rd house. These unreal expectations, which were Jupiter ruled (both Venus and Neptune) could have dire consequences for the journey. I haven't looked properly at the crash chart yet but I did note that the 3rd house of that chart had Mars as its ruler. The consequences of the unreal expectations actually manifested. So the ruler of the 3rd house went from a benefic planet (Jupiter) known for its excesses (speed perhaps) to a malefic (Mars), which manifested those dire consequences. Jupiter (excesses) is in a separating square to Saturn, ruler of the ascendant, suggesting that restrictions (Saturn) should have been put in place some time ago.
I missed the Venus sextile Jupiter aspect. One would think that this suggests good things but it could also perhaps suggest complacency or a 'she'll be right, mate' attitude as we would say in Australia. It certainly isn't the first time, nor will it be the last, that the safety of the public has been sacrificed for political expediency with the hope that the end justifies the means.
I haven't used Arabic Parts much so don't really know a lot about them but I noticed that the Part of fatality is conjunct Saturn and the Part of catastrophe is conjunct Uranus.

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Hmm, very interesting.
All of this is helpful and illuminating to me. I mentioned recently that I?ve been trying to make a point of looking more closely at these kinds of charts because I think they are the best form of study for recognising the effects (and meanings) of the planets in action. They are more limited than birth charts and independent of an astrologer?s viewpoint or influence upon timing. It?s been bothering me that I mainly see the chart very clearly but some factors remain obscure. Your insight is invaluable.
I would imagine that it is all relevant in some way. It's just a matter of working out how it fits. I like what Dennis Elwell said in 'When Charts Expand Horizons' on this website. He said "When human questioning is met with a cosmic answer, it may not be recoginsed as remotely relevant." The answer might not be clear but it's got to be there somewhere.
Actually I do believe that quite strongly. Last week I was struck by the conviction that nothing ever goes unexpressed. So recently, for example, we?ve had that powerful Mars-Jupiter opposition, some charts pick it out and highlight its influence, but even in those that don?t, it?s still operating in the background, it can never be ignored as a relevant factor. (This may seem pretty obvious to some people, but possibly because I mainly do horary and tend to place a focus upon relevant significators I?ve adopted the habit of only noticing what I need to and what seems immediately relevant to the chart. So this is a good exercise for me.)

I?ll take a look at the crash chart tonight and see what that adds.

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I was confused by how Venus would fit into this chart too and I still am. What I thought though, is if the 10th house and its significator represent 'the leading officers of the ship' (or did I just make this one up?) then this must represent the person in charge of the train, the driver. He is also signified by the Sun, which is on the ascendant and ruling the 8th house, so is very much tied into what happened.
I?ve been considering what you said about Venus and it?s triggered a thought which is related to something I considered last night after I made my post.

The 10th house signifies the ?leading officers?, person in charge or, if you like, ?the employers? of the service. Traditionally, the Sun is also taken as a natural significator for captains because of their primary importance. But I think the Sun on the ascendant here is more descriptive of the train itself. The opening comment in that link you gave, where it begins its description of the accident is ?The morning commuter train from the Blue Mountains into Sydney was an important train? (emboldened on their page). There was certainly special and singular significance given to it, so although old and run down, it had assumed a regal political status. Capricorn on the ascendant, and Saturn ruling the ascendant appropriately describe its dated and shabby condition. But Saturn in Leo, and the Sun on the ascendant demonstrate its importance ? the way that it was acting as a focus of attention and being given special privileges. Lilly suggests we look to the 8th and the ruler of the 8th for the cause of death. From what I understand, the ?official? verdict for the cause of the accident was primarily due to poor standards of track maintenance, compounded by the speed the train was travelling as it slowed into a left turn. The saturnine elements describe the poor maintenance, but the Sun as ruler of the 8th impacts upon the speed. It was because this train was so important that it was allowed to travel 10 km per hour above the speed limit applied to any other train, even though it wasn't equipped with any special technology to qualify that leniency.

This struck me as rather ironic last night, and possibly worth reflecting upon in terms of whether this was just an ?unlucky? accident involving the very train the government were most keen to ensure ran reliably and consistently, or whether there were cosmic factors pulling the event towards this particular train that would not have applied to any other.

The railway was state run, therefore operated by the government. Pluto on the MC, on the tight inconjunct of exalted Venus, MC ruler, makes sense here in describing the political connection. But the signification of Venus needs a bit more consideration. Like you say, it may not be something we would immediately see. I couldn?t understand Venus on the 3rd house cusp because planets have to act within their own characters and the essential nature of Venus is to be a giver, not a taker, not a confrontational trouble maker. What you said about Venus squaring Neptune and applying by sextile to Jupiter giving complacency and that 'she'll be right, mate' attitude makes perfect sense and prompted me to think a bit more about how Venus fits into this.

This whole issue about the service needing to be expedient, slick and reliable was able to put pressure on the government because the commuters that travelled on the service held the key marginal seats by which they could be toppled. Those voters had enough political clout to force it as an issue and make sure they got direct attention to their concerns. The government responded to the pressure of those commuters/voters, not by investing in the track ? they obviously couldn?t afford to do that and run the risk of disrupting the service at a time when this was such a heightened and major political issue. Instead they gave a special dispensation to allow this train to travel faster around the curves than any other train was allowed.

Venus, ruler of the MC, sitting on the 3rd house cusp stands as a perfect significator for those responsible ?giving away? to appease. It?s most recent contact was the sextile to Mars, its little ?contribution? to the accident. It?s on the square of Neptune, like you say ? complacency. The cosmic irony may be that Venus, being the giver here, is probably entirely responsible. Had the government been less concerned about acceding and appeasing, and more rigid in holding to its responsibilities by evaluating safety and investing in maintenance, (thinking of the long term consequences rather than the short term benefits) it is almost certain that the train would have been travelling at a slower, safer speed, whereby it may never have derailed at all.

I?m a bit limited as to what I can find out about the government at the time. Do you know if there was an upcoming election, and if so, when it was? This seems to be implied by the way the reports labour upon the political significance of the train but there are no details about that, or what happened to the government following this accident. One of the reasons I ask is that I still can?t understand the location of Jupiter, ruler of the 3rd so a general significator for local transport issues, upon the 5th house cusp. One possibility that crossed my mind is that if this whole accident hinged upon, responded to and impacted upon wider social and political issues, Jupiter?s location on the 5th might be descriptive in signalling that transport issues brought the end of the government (8th from 10th). It?s not a very strong suggestion but possibly worth exploring.

Do you have any thoughts about why Jupiter rules the 3rd and stands on the 5th house cusp?

I guess you can tell, I still haven?t gotten around to that collision chart yet.

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This political part isn't making a lot of sense. There was a state election held on 14th May, 1976 when Neville Wran became Premier. He was from the Australian Labor Party. I think, but I'm not sure, that the Labor Party was already in power before this election. I can't remember how long he was Premier but it was years, at least 10 I would say. He was very popular. After the accident they poured a lot of money into the railways. I'm not sure the accident affected their political standing to any great extent. The Labor Party is firmly entrenched in power.

BTW, the time of the accident chart is slightly wrong. It should be 8:12am not 8:02am. This is my fault, sorry. I didn't notice. It doesn't make a lot of difference.
The cosmic irony may be that Venus, being the giver here, is probably entirely responsible.
This is a good lesson to not take everything at face value and to look at each chart for what it is, not for what we expect it to be. It's those harmless ones you've got to watch.

I'll get back to you on the rest of your post when I have had a think about it.

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Wherever I said government I meant in the NSW area, since I'm assuming this was a local, not a national issue. The railway was state-run, so I'm thinking of who ran the state.

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I?ve been trawling through some NSW railway archives on the web. I don?t think there can be any doubt there was a political angle on the causes of the accident, that much seems pretty clear and well accounted for. But how much of a subsequent political effect it had is hard to tell.

This is a quote from some archived discussion at
http://www.railpage.org.au/ausrail/98mar/msg00399.html
2. Unfortunately, politics does go hand-in-hand with the history of
the Granville accident. Public transport had been a hot issue in the May 1976 NSW state election. This was only about six months after the dramatic sacking of the Federal Labor government under Whitlam by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr. It is significant here because of the statements and leanings of the media, and in particular, the newspapers. The Sydney morning Herald utterly condemned the Whitlam government, and I remember one of its editorials at the time of the state election. It remarked something along the lines that the election of Wran would see New South Wales slide back into socialism, from which the nation had reacted against recently. Its conservative leanings were plain. The leader of the Liberal/Country party coalition was Sir Eric Willis, both before the elction as Premier, and after, as leader of the opposition. If public transport was an election issue, whose side was on the backfoot??

But now turn to the events of the 18th Jan, 1977 and Sir Eric is interviewed and remarks something of the order "Mr Wran has a lot of explaining to do, for in the first six months of his Government,..." and went on to compare the number of deaths in railway accidents under Wran and under the previous government (his and his predecessors).
To be honest I don?t understand the full meaning of what is being discussed, but I?ve come across several sources that have stressed that this accident had contributory factors rooted in politics and a need to appease those voters. Also, the Governor-General and head of state Sir John Kerr who was responsible for the 'dramatic sackings' prior to the accident, dramatically resigned himself a few months after it (in some disgrace according to the report at http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/ ... 92182.html although this doesn't mention Granville).
I have no idea whether this was related in any way. The politics are beyond me.

Another quote:
http://www.railpage.org.au/ausrail/98mar/msg00446.html
The fact is, the track at Granville was not capable of taking that train at that speed. If the staff had been properly trained and supervised, there would have been a severe speed restriction on it. Now the speed restriction could have been laid squarely on "underfunding", but in my view, the accident cannot! Of course, my view is based on more modern thinking than existed at the time, and modern ideas have the advantage of hindsight where Granville is concerned.
We have just had this argument out afresh in New Zealand over the Cave Creek disaster (not a railway event, though), and I have say with disgust that the politicians got their ideas wrong in that one also.
Granville was a system failure, involving middle and senior management, probably right up to top management levels.
Throughout the archives there was strong sentiment to the fact that the driver and engine staff were blameless ? they were following their directives as instructed. The feeling is that they suffered terribly and ought to have been better protected. They continued to receive backlash by bomb threats and such like after the accident.

Jupiter on the 5th ? arrgh what is it telling us ??? Must be important, it?s hitting the IC in the crash chart. In that it?s ruling the second house with Venus on the cusp ? is it all about money do you think?

I?ve corrected the crash chart ? do you have a source for the time?

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Deb wrote:Wherever I said government I meant in the NSW area, since I'm assuming this was a local, not a national issue. The railway was state-run, so I'm thinking of who ran the state.
Yes, the info I gave was for the State government that runs the railway. This is what is confusing since they just had an election and would be in power for at least another couple of years. It may have been tied up in broken promises. It was a very big election issue and I believe they promised things during the election that there were still no signs of more than six months later. I wonder if there are signs of broken promises (the public being misled) in the chart.

With this Jupiter/5th house situation, I was thinking that maybe the only way to understand it will be to understand Jupiter's role in the accident chart, i.e. 4th house. It may become clearer by looking retrospectively. I keep coming back to the idea that the 5th house involves risk-taking on some level since it is the house of speculation and gambling. With Jupiter there, the risks taken were prone to be excessive. I think it was Charles Carter who said that those who have ruined themselves through recklessness will show their influence in the 5th house. The government took a gamble on 3rd house issues (ruled by Jupiter) and it didn't pay off. At the time of the accident, Jupiter was ruling the 2nd house and conjunct the 4th house cusp. The 4th house was ruled by Venus, which was on the 2nd house cusp. Venus and Jupiter obviously tie in closely but at first glance this seems incongruous since Venus and Jupiter are benefics that don't easily fit into a tragedy of this magnitude.

The source for the crash chart is Solar Fire ver5.

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I keep coming back to the idea that the 5th house involves risk-taking on some level since it is the house of speculation and gambling. With Jupiter there, the risks taken were prone to be excessive. I think it was Charles Carter who said that those who have ruined themselves through recklessness will show their influence in the 5th house.
I go along with that. The sextile between the benefics and the square between Venus and Neptune add the element of overblown confidence and a lack of willingness to look critically and err on the side of caution. There is also a tight grand trine between Saturn, Neptune and the South Node suggesting a hazy, blurred vision towards the responsibilities of reality contributing to an unfortunate event. Saturn is within 1 degree of the fixed star Dubhe ? Ebertin says that star is ?credited with the destructiveness of Mars, working itself out particularly in mundane maps, in a nasty way if conjunct Saturn. Conjunct Hitler's Saturn?. So Saturn seems particularly afflicted whilst standing on the sextile of Pluto.

What is interesting in these charts is the way that the planets in the upper hemisphere express themselves very obviously and directly, whilst Venus and Jupiter, in the lower hemisphere need a little more investigation in terms of how they relate to root causes. Both suggest leniency (particularly Jupiter on the IC of the collision chart). The contributory factors are hard to pin down but appear to be based in a long history of negligence and risk taking. The factors were in place for a long time before hand ? old, fragile carriages, worn tracks, high speed ? this was an accident waiting to happen, it only needed the appropriate spark of misfortune to create the disaster. The leniency element appears afterwards too, no one was singled out for blame. Poor track maintenance was acknowledged, but ?no heads rolled? so to speak.

In the commencement chart the 3rd house is not the train itself, but reflects upon transport issues generally. It is quite illuminating if you turn the chart to consider how the commencement of the event was going to impact upon public transport issues.
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Venus on the cusp of the 3rd rules its own 8th cusp. As I said earlier, I think Venus being too quick to appease is relevant in the fact that on-time running became more important than safe operating. Moon/Mercury/Mars in the 10th brings everything to public notice and Jupiter on the 3rd fills the media. The Sun is on the 11th cusp. In mundane astrology the 11th house is generally taken as the hopes and confidence of the nation but as Watters notes; "when afflicted, it indicates the people are disillusioned" (JOE, p.67). Since the Sun holds rulership of the 6th house and is strongly connected to Saturn on the 6th house cusp, whilst Saturn rules the 11th, public confidence is destroyed through the spotlight cast on injury and helpless victims.

The chart becomes very powerful when seen through the perspective of public transport issues. There had been a strong political focus upon these issues connected to the railways before the crash but mainly based upon complaints, dissatisfaction and a need to deflect criticism. Everyone was aware of the problem but it wasn?t being properly addressed. The accident revealed the full extent of the problem with Neville Wran admitting after Granville that the NSW railways were a "ramshackle railway system".

The derailment of the train caused the death of 8 people in the front carriage. The carnage could have ended there were it not for the fact that the train collided with the support of a bridge, causing the bridge to fall on the train with devastating results. The graphic details are easy to relate to a reflection of the clash between society?s drive to keep moving forward at uninhibited speed without due consideration for the support holding the system in place. Sooner or later that attitude ends up in a god-almighty crash.
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In the collision chart Mars has taken rulership of the 3rd house and it is interesting to note Uranus?s presence at the top of the chart, being brought to significance by the square of the Moon. Lilly tells us that affliction to the upper angles causes damage from above and Uranus is the weak link that will easily separate under pressure. So if any kind of fracture exists in the principles demonstrated in the chart, an angular Uranus or one receiving the Moon?s influence, will indicate a point where malefic energies emerge or manifest very obviously. This draws parallels to the recent Queen Mary II chart which had Uranus rising on the ascendant. The ascendant is given to places where things commence whilst the descendant suggest where they end - in that chart Uranus revealed the catastrophe of a bridge collapsing as the unfortunate victims entered the ship. So Uranus, often described as the ?cause? of sudden accidents, is often more descriptive of where the damage suddenly and shockingly reveals itself ? the hidden crack that splits the whole structure apart. Uranus is within 1 degree of Acrux, the main star of the constellation Crux, both star and constellation literally meaning ?cross?, and symbolically linked to ?the need to make the correct decisions about which road to take in life?. Nowadays the constellation is called the ?Southern Cross? because it has a very deep southern declination. The same longitude holds the fixed star Alphecca which marks the knot in the ribbon in the constellation Corona Borealis. The knot in the ribbon, the cross in the journey ? both resonate powerfully to the location of the accident at the union of the bridge and the track.


Venus and Jupiter become significant again in the collision chart by dominating the 4th house, the deeper roots and causes. The 4th house is ruled by Venus on the 2nd house cusp. Venus is applying to the sextile of Jupiter and conjunct the fixed star Achernar which has a Jupiter influence. It is in mutual reception with Jupiter on the 4th house cusp, so there?s a very strong connection between these two planets. Ebertin relates the negative effects of their combination to laziness, negligence, self-conceit and wastefulness (COSI p. 128). Too much optimism that it?s OK to keep trusting to luck as you suggested? The significators of the accident fall in the 11th house of confidence, which is ruled by Jupiter, so that seems to point again to a misplaced belief that luck would hold, overshadowing doubts and concerns. But Mars afflicts them both and Venus is translating between Mars and Jupiter. A consequence of the accident is that a lot of funds was poured into updating the railway system and maintaining the track.

If the upper angle relates to what lies above, the lower angle relates to that which lies beneath ? the track itself. Venus is applying closely to Neptune and there was an attempt to cover up some failures by the track maintenance group although ultimately those failings were not held as directly relevant. Venus in Pisces, square Neptune and applying to Jupiter - all of which symbolise moist conditions suggesting slipperiness, a lack of friction or resistance to keep the train in its track. Jupiter, although its position doesn?t seem afflicted is also stationary (I missed this before) ? it had been retrograde since the previous September and turned direct the day before. So that?s three of the planets changing direction and in a stationary condition when this accident occurred.

Do you know why the drama was called the Day of the Roses ? that really seems to bring out the relevance of Venus in Pisces sextile Mars and then Jupiter on the 4th house cusp.