The Astrology of Super Storm Sandy

Because I know that many people interested in the astrology of the recent Super Storm are not professional astrologers or students of astrology, I'll try to keep this analysis as concise and simple as possible. There are a few things that show up in the chart of the Super Storm, both in terms of the mundane astrology of the moment Sandy made land fall, and in terms of the Atlantic City chart in particular. Nightlight recently hosted an Astrology "Storm Panel" with Electric Jesus author Jonathan Talat Phillips, astrologer Rebecca Gordon, and Planet Waves astro journalist Eric Francis, and I'm including some observations made there in this article.  Let's take a look at several key placements.

The Full Moon

As Eric Francis said during our Storm Panel this past week, "We've probably never heard the mainstream media talk about the the moon as much as they did during the storm coverage. Perhaps in all recorded media history combined. This was the most we've ever heard the media blasting out the phrase ‘the full moon.’”

The first thing to recognize, beyond the significance of the signs involved, is that a massive amount of people's psyches were exposed to an undeniably causal reality surrounding a full moon. The tides were truly helping to influence this event. It may seem like a simple fact, but it was anything but simple. This moon was also a Scorpio/Taurus full moon. The moon was in the sign of Taurus, the sign of the earth, and it was opposing Saturn and the Sun in Scorpio, the sign of the deep waters. This augurs a time of deep and powerful challenges being made to the structures of civilization (Saturn) through the oppositional tension between water (change, life, gestation, emotion) and earth (structure, order, habit, materialism). 

Scorpio is the kind of sign that causes people to think and feel deeply and instinctually about what is happening and "why" it's happening. We not only had a full moon that our mainstream media repeatedly recognized, but it also happened to land in the sign axis that teaches us to go below materialism into deeper realms of causality and force and power to examine what's really happening. In short, the psychic atmosphere was a super storm as much as the actual storm was, just by way of the full moon and Saturn's presence together at once.

The Jupiter/Mars Opposition

The second major thing to consider astrologically is the placement of Mars and Jupiter in nearly exact (180 degree) opposition to each other from eastern horizon to western horizon over Atlantic City and New York City at the time Sandy made landfall. This position refers to open conflicts between people or groups of people. The same planetary opposition was present on the 9/11 attacks of 2001.

As Eric Francis pointed out during our Storm Panel, and as many other astrologers (and even folks who aren't into astrology) are sensing, the chart of the storm surge suggested that one of the prominent features of the super storm, symbolically, was not about natural disaster but rather about an ideological conflict between different people or different battling groups of people. How does a major natural disaster carry the energy of an ideological conflict? One answer lies in the realm of conspiracy theory. It is possible, of course, that covert weather warfare was part of this "super storm." On the other hand we could easily read the Mars/Jupiter opposition as the mounting political tensions facing the east Coast capital region or the collective psyche of the American people in general.

It's trite to say that such psychic tensions "caused" a super storm. Astrology's highest purpose is generally not to suggest causations or predict the future, but rather to show people what psychic symbols are most prominently associated with phenomenal events as they are occurring. Astrology is a tool for learning and reflecting more so than predicting and proving. And just like the weather men, we astrologers have the tough job of being wrong more times than we are right when trying to predict the future in concrete terms. What we're predicting, after all, is the way in which moving symbols in the collective will likely manifest in terms of events. Herein lies a second point surrounding the full moon and the weather forecasters talking about it constantly in the media. As someone said during our Storm Panel, "Can you imagine if we gave more time for these weather men to teach us each night about what types of human activities create climate changes and super storms like Sandy?" 

Which made me wonder, "What would it be like if weather men were also astrologers and each night we could learn about and ponder the planetary movements alongside of nature's movements?"

Regardless, this storm in large part wore the costume of "ideological conflict," and that's something we all need to think about. Whether it's covert weather warfare, political tensions rising, or the deep conflict between spirit and nature on the one hand and materialism and civilized separatism on the other, this event churned up these ideologically opposed waters. If more events like this come along in the next month, the dialog and debate will likely not be civil or patient with Mars and Jupiter standing off.

Hurricanes and Earthquakes:

This one is brief but feels poignant to me. The earth quake I experienced in Costa Rica this past September happened to feature an opposition between the moon and Mars at nearly the same degrees of Taurus and Scorpio. Not knowing where the planets were, I told my partner moments afterward that I felt certain it was the moon in Taurus opposing Mars in Scorpio. The feeling I got during the earthquake and afterward was that there was a deep power awakening below the Earth: Scorpio. I had the distinct sense that the exact feeling I had would be something that many more people might experience this 2012 season. It was haunting to realize on the day of the hurricane that the sun and moon were occupying nearly the same degrees of Taurus and Scorpio.

Saturn's recent ingress into the sign of Scorpio will give us 2.5 years of Scorpio themed adventures and several more full moons in the same signs. The nodal axis will also be serving up eclipses in Scorpio/Taurus for the next year. It's safe to say that the Earth plane and the forces that shape and change the Earth plane will be on full display for us for the next few years. Let's hope we start quickly learning the distinctions between natural power and man-made power grids and power hierarchies. Change is coming!

Mercury Retrograde and Election Day:

Much more could be written, and hopefully will be, about the astrology of the storm. Perhaps the last strong piece of astrology worth mentioning is the upcoming Election Day Mercury retrograde. The astrology world is buzzing on this topic right now because this has never happened on an Election Day before. The last time  Mercury was in a retrograde phase "during" an election day (not turning retrograde on the exact day) was the 2000 Florida ballot scandal. None of this augurs anything promising for our upcoming election, especially considering the fact that Mitt Romney is already being implicated in voting machine scandals in Ohio. But perhaps there is a silver lining.

One thing to remember about Mercury is that Mercury is a trickster. For as bleak as things may look on Election Day or in the days surrounding, Mercury retrogrades rarely turn out the way one might predict. This is why we astrologers often tell people not to make big decisions or sign contracts under Mercury's retrogrades. Trying to pull a trick or trying to steal something (an election?!) during a Mercury retrograde could turn out terribly for the Republican party this time around, especially considering it was under a Mercury retrograde that the last Republican ballot scandal happened. 

If we have faith and hope, or we believe in any kind of cosmic justice, we might imagine the irony of the Republicans trying it again, but this time being met with fierce public and political opposition. We might imagine Mercury retrograde exposing the truth this time around, and by doing so the Republican party could suffer a political image crisis for many more years to come. While most of us would love for there to be no scandal whatsoever, in the long run, a Republican scandal exposed could be more promising for the future of American politics than no scandal at all. Such is the trickery of Mercury (even though, to be clear, I'm just hypothesizing here!).

On the other hand, Mercury retrograde could very well expose duplicity on the part of both parties, leaving Americans hungry for something other than the traditional tyranny of the two party system. With Mercury one can never be sure!

Storm Panel MP3 & Humane Society Rescue Fundraiser:

If you would like to listen to the full panel talk from earlier this week, including thoughts on the astrology of the storm from Electric Jesus author Jonathan Talat Phillips, astrologer Rebecca Gordon, and Planet Waves astro journalist Eric Francis, the Nightlight Astrology School is selling the audio MP3 for $5 donations. All proceeds go to the Humane Society for Post Hurricane Animal Rescue efforts! Please click the "donate" tab at: www.nightlightastrology.com 
You will receive the mp3 via email after we receive your donation!