A collision between a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship carrying toxic chemicals and a US oil tanker carrying jet fuel for the US military in the North Sea off the coast of northern England could “devastate” wildlife. Leaking oil and fuel from the ships could endanger species including threatened seabird colonies, grey seals, harbour porpoises, fish, and minke whales. The area houses significant colonies of wintering waders and migrating birds. It is not yet clear how the collision occurred.
What is significant on the UK chart is the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the UK 8th house Mars in Taurus, within 10 minutes (one sixth) of a degree exact. The 8th house can cover financial/economic events but is also in action when it comes to major disasters, man-made and otherwise.
The ramifications of the 8th house Mars were most obvious during tr Pluto in Scorpio in opposition to the UK Mars in late 1987 and 1988. In the run up through 1987 there are several disasters the sinking of the ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise, the Hungerford massacre, the “Great Storm”, the Remembrance Day bombing and on the exact aspect the King’s Cross fire, as well as the Wall Street Crash and Black Monday on the London stock exchange and a bombing in Enniskillen.
In 1988 there was the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed in Lockerbie with 270 dead.
Solar Arc Uranus conjunct Mars will have a marginally different effect but will still be explosive. Looking back the last time the Solar Arc Uranus was in hard aspect to the UK Mars in 1931 there was a run on the pound leading to a political and economic crisis, part of the European banking crisis of 1931; with the pound sterling comes off the gold standard. The Dogger Bank earthquake was the strongest earthquake recorded in the UK with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale. There were various mining underground explosions accidents with loss of life. A British airship R101 crashes in France en route to India on its maiden overseas voyage, killing 48 of the 54 on board.
In addition at the moment the UK chart there are other indicators of a time-at-the-crossroads with tr Uranus opposition the Solar Arc North Node finishing this week – and the Solar Arc North Node square the 11th house Saturn which rules future hopes and parliament. The UK’s North Node in Aries in the 7th house of relationships hints at an inherent disinclination to cooperate with an equal and opposing need to learn to live in partnership with others. So alliances and enmities will be in the forefront.
The Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the UK South Node in 18 months may suggest force of circumstances leads to a degree of backsliding into what feels familiar rather than what is constructive.
Last and probably least the Progressed Moon will conjunct the UK Uranus in April/May this year for an emotional jolt.
Despite the glooms and dooms the UK is dragging itself out of what has been a high stress phase recently of forced and jangled changes since 2021 with tr Uranus moving in hard aspect to the Fixed Grand Cross on the UK chart – which now comes to an end this week. The Progressed Moon moves out of the 12th house of endings in six months. Plus the unsettled tr Uranus through the economic 8th since 2020 will ease up as Uranus moves into the UK 9th from 2026 onwards. And tr Pluto through the UK 4th since the 2009 crash will be gradually easing towards the latter stages of this decade for an image-rebuild after 2029.
Getting there slowly.
Thanks Marjorie. Anyone who lived in Britain in the 1980s will remember the litany of damage wasters well.
The U.K. 1801 Solar Arc Mars tracked through Scorpio from 1971 to 2001 which covered most of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It was opposing the natal Mars at 11 Taurus at the time of the Brighton Hotel bombing. This opposition was still in effect on 11 May 1985 when the Bradford City football fire occurred killing 56 Spectators
One area of future concern for the U.K. is the Pluto at 8 Aquarius square Saturn at 8 Taurus in June 2028 which will activate the 1801 Mars and falls exactly on the 1066 Mars at 8 Aquarius. There will be a semi sextile between the 1801 Mars and the Uranus/Mars/Mercury conjunction at 8 Gemini on that date. That conjunction will be falling exactly on the US natal Uranus at 8 Gemini.
The Solar Arc Pluto on the south node aspect is interesting as the U.K. is a country that is almost bowed down to the ground by the burden of historical baggage it has to carry either by choice or as has become common more recently because others want to impose it on the country. I think this transit will mark the point when it is force simply to give in, let go and move on.
Apologies it “damage waters” should read “damaging disasters”
Thanks Hugh. Interesting thought about Pluto South Node and unloading historical baggage. I am constantly surprised by the vitriol that the UK triggers in Iran, Russia and elsewhere – the Great Satan, evil and all the Empire nonsense. All of that collapsed in a heap after World War 11 and the colonies were given their independence – and that was 65 to 85 years ago.
The Uk is not quite on a par with Portugal but certainly is way down the pecking order.
Marjorie. I think the British governing class are in part responsible for this situation as they clearly find it impossible themselves to accept their own decline in significance. France is another country in this situation.
The obvious solution is for European powers to pool their resources to give themselves more influence but there is a countervailing issue that many smaller European countries like being insignificant and don’t want to engage in global issues if it costs them materially, Ireland being a classic example. This is why an institution such as the EU structured to cope with a mass of competing national interests often seems paralysed by any international crisis.
With regard to the Solar Arc Pluto crossing the South Node it seems that that the last time Pluto by transit crossed that point was in 1977-78 when it hit that degree 3 times due to a retrograde cycle. This was the time the wheels fell off the post war industrial trial settlement in Britain leading to the Winter of Discontent, the fall of the Callaghan government and the rise of Margaret Thatcher.
Would there be astrological indications of sabotage?
Previous information about the Solong was that the ship’s captain was detained for a manslaughter due to one person perishing in the incident. There are Bluesky accounts tracking navigation I’ve been following due to sea cable incidents in the Baltic area, and people on those sites, while not initially saying the incident was intentional state that the ship seemed to have been autopiloted. Now, the BBC breaking news alert indicated that the captain is a Russian national.
I have been following the Russian Shadow Fleet and marine traffic actions quite a bit, and this doesn’t sit right with me. While there seems to be no indication on Solong being a shadow fleet ship as such, Russian seem to use other means as well in their operations. For instance, the first suspect cable breakage in Baltic in November was caused by a Chinese vessel with no apparent connection to Russia. We also have major concerns here for an intentional or “incidental” spill or collision, just like the on in the UK. I put “incidental” in quotation marks, because many ships are intentionally in poor shape and poorly manned.
The crash chart itself has Pluto in the 9th (= international) opposition an intense Moon with an explosive Uranus in the hidden 12th. Relocating the chart to Moscow puts a hostile Pluto in the relationship 7th and Saturn Sun in Pisces on the Midheaven – so possible.
Thank you Solaia, intentional action was my first thought too. An eye witness on the tanker saw no one actually on the bridge at the time of the collision. Having been on the bridge of a modern ship, I was amazed by the array of devices now used to ensure safety at sea, from showing computer images of the exact placement of other ships, to automatic alarms if the vessel was too close to other obstacles. Also what is known as ‘dead mans handle’ a device which had to be touched and moved every 12 minutes otherwise a general alert would sound. With Sun and Saturn conjunct in Pisces also Moons Node still in conjunction with Neptune in Pisces we may never be able to prove what may turn out to be a disaster for marine wildlife, from which certain species may never recover, just as the nesting season has begun.
9th …. Religion
22 degrees usually shows up in major disaster charts. Here we have Uranus at 22Gemini.
Uranus won’t reach 22 Gemini until August 2030.
Ok according to The Evening Standard, the owner of the Solong has said that they weren’t transporting sodium cyanide, but they did have on board 4 containers that had previously held sodium cyanide. I understand that those containers are being monitored.
So from what I can see the problem is the aviation fuel which is the major worry, from the US tanker.which if I remember correctly is 22,000 tonnes.
I was wrong the tanker was carrying 220,000 tonnes of aviation fuel which is pouring into the North Sea.
Thanks, Marjorie. It is good that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have just seen on the news that evidently the Solong wasn’t carrying sodium cyanide. So that is a relief.
Although the other new sources seem slow on announcing that there was no sodium cyanide on board. So best to wait and see.