Forty-nine people have been killed and at least 20 wounded in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the deadliest such atrocity in the nation’s history. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the incident, which was live-streamed on facebook by one of the gunmen, as a terrorist attack. A man in his late twenties, apparently far right and anti-immigrant, has been charged with murder.
The shootings started around 1.45pm which, if accurate, puts a brutal Mars in Taurus trine Saturn Pluto in Capricorn, in the hidden 12th and 8th house, sextiling onto Sun and Neptune in Pisces. Mars which is always unyielding and possessive in Taurus is exactly square the Neptune/Pluto midpoint which has a tinge of megalomania or madness about it. Uranus just into Taurus is on the focal point of a disruptive T Square to Pluto opposition the Cancer Node.
Tr Saturn is exactly square the New Zealand Moon now for a depressed mood and that repeats on and off till late year. And throughout this year there are a series of difficult Neptune conjunctions to several Mars and the Sun/Saturn midpoint, bringing a sense of panic and confusion. Tr Pluto is about to move into the NZ domestic 4th house from this April suggesting a long period of internal unrest ahead.
The central configuration of the New Zealand chart of Sun Mars square Pluto Uranus is under severe pressure for several years – tr Uranus has been in jolting hard aspects in late Aries, continuing on into Taurus; followed by downbeat tr Saturn for two or three years ahead; and then tr Pluto grinding its way across conjunct the NZ Sun in 2021/22, onto a frustrating, trapped and can-be-ruthless conjunction to Mars in 2022/23 and on through the 2020s pulling at the NZ Pluto, Uranus and finally Saturn. So it’ll be a rocky and difficult decade which will transform the country out of all recognition and is likely to bring out the hidden aggressive streak in New Zealand’s temperament.
The principal shooter, Brenton Tarrant was apparently born 24 May 1990 in Grafton, Australia which makes him a Sun Gemini with either a New Moon or Moon in late Taurus. He has an active Jupiter which opposes a can-be-fanatical Uranus Neptune and trines Pluto, so not short of confidence or a tendency for risk-taking. He has a North Node in Aquarius which often leans towards a cause and that squares his Mercury in Taurus. His Saturn in Capricorn is in an emotionally cold square to Venus in Aries and a tough-minded sextile to Mars in Pisces. His Saturn is conjunct the New Zealand 1853 Sun Mars in Capricorn which makes sense of why he chose it as a target.
At the moment his Solar Arc Mars is conjunct his Venus stoking up his excitement; with tr Saturn Pluto zig zagging across his brutal Mars/Pluto midpoint this year, though not exactly.
The triple conjunction in Capricorn has produced a fair number of terrorists in recent times on all sides of the fence.