The Oil Slick

Strangely we don't seem to have had a thread on the Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico. As a major event (if not a good one), Astrology should be able to give us some insight into what has happened and hopefully why it happened.

The event took place on the Deepwater Horizon platform on 20th April 2010. The timing is variously given between 9:45 pm and 10:00 pm with a time of 9:53 to 9:56 as the time of the explosion (rather than the first venting of oil)

The platform was obviously offshore but a hunt for it's geographical co-ordinates at the time produced some evidence from Geohack
http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geoh...365997_E_region:US-LA_type:event_scale:700000

I have seen one or two Astrological websites that look at the event such as:

http://funkastrology.co.uk/bp-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill/
http://blog.beliefnet.com/astrologicalmusings/2010/04/the-astrology-of-the-horizon-o.html (skip the advert)
http://www.neptunecafe.com/spill.html#top

All these appear to focus on the conjunction of the dwarf planets, Ceres and Pluto. Ceres is said to 'rule' the environment and Pluto 'mines oil and of course, nasty events.

It got me thinking of how, if at all the Traditional Approach might cope with the even - using the timing of 9:53 and the Geohack location.

A moment's reflection said that we might be better to widen it out to encompass all approaches, rather than just my own wish to see if the traditional approach worked.

I've attached two charts. The first is the 'traditional' chart - that is it only uses the seven classical planets. The second is the same chart but with the addition of the outers, relevant dwarves, and a few other things that may or may not be needed. I've also changed the House system to Placidus, as very few modern Astrologers use Regiomontanus.

I'll post my first thoughts on the traditional chart in the next post.

Interpretation using traditional methods

The traditional approach only uses the seven classical planets, so I need to be able to duplicate the Ceres/Pluto symbolism (and possibly better it) if the traditional approach is to yield useful insights.

On first sight that may be a big problem The chart is mainly trines and sextiles with only one square and The Moon in Cancer, Venus in Taurus and Jupiter in Pisces are in their domiciles - it doesn't seem an obvious 'disaster' chart.

The Ascendant ruler is Jupiter - symbolising the explosion, well Jupiter is a planet of expansion, even for moderns and Jupiter is situated in Pisces, the significator of the 'deep ocean', so at least we have a start.

Jupiter is also in and rules the fourth House. Now the fourth rules land and buildings (which is it's connection to the physical home) but it also rules what is under the land. That includes buried treasure (which oil might be seen as) and also mines and minerals. Deb Houlding also links it directly to oil. So we have Jupiter sitting in and ruling the House of oil, sitting in the deep sea - Now that does seem to fit the event.

That doesn't give an explanation of an explosion because Jupiter is only trined by the Moon and sextiled by Venus, both in dignity so it doesn't seem to show disaster.

However the traditional approach also looks at house rulerships and the role of planets through those rulerships. The Moon rules the eighth, the House of death and is placed in the eighth. In traditional Astrology ANY planet can be a malefic, it's placement and condition decide. The Moon is the most dignified planet in the chart - it is in Hayz - a nocturnal planet in a nocturnal sign in a nocturnal chart, it has rulership by sign, by triplicity and by Face - Death is strong in this chart. If we look at the movement of the Moon, we see it has recently conjoined the South Node also in the eighth - the South Node is malefic and we could see that malevolence being added to the Moon's role as Lord 8. The trine aspect to Jupiter actually shows that what will happen will happen quickly and given the involvement of Lord 8 it will not be good. A rapid build up of pressure leading to an explosion and death, is a reasonable interpretation of this aspect. That this aspect is separating shows that the event has already been triggered when the chart was cast - about 90 minutes to 2 hours before.

The Moon's next aspect is to Venus by sextile. Venus is Lord 6. This is an unfortunate association anyway but the sixth rules small animals - so death may be coming to small animals as a result of the explosion - sea birds and fish are perhaps obvious examples. In mundane Astrology the sixth signifies threats to public health. Venus is in a separating sextile to Jupiter, again the separation may indicate that key stages in the event had already been set in train. It's the case that several issues were raised about wellhead safety in the previous month. So we might conclude that those issues were not without foundation.

The Part of Fortune lies conjunct the MC, and the ruler of both is Mercury on the cusp of the sixth. Although it has dignity by Terms, Mercury is retrograde and in the sixth, under the beams and heading towards combustion. The tenth House ruler usually indicates career or status but here we're talking about an object - an oil platform. We could see it as how well it performs it's function (which might be stretching things) we might see it in more mundane terms - authority and control. This is usually seen as 'king and ministers' but we might also see it as authority and control exercised by the relevant 'King' - BP If so, the position and condition of Mercury says that at best control has been adequate but has now moved to a parlous situation, which threatens its wellbeing (Part of Fortune) and functioning (MC). Mercury receives the only square of the chart - from Mars the planet of accidents and violence. Mars is also the ruler of the twelfth, another accidental malefic, as well as having a natural tendency to the malefic. The twelfth represents matters that are hidden, restrained, secret, incapable of action or of being fully understood. BP did not understand or act on the warnings. The twelfth is also the House of sadness and self undoing - BP have undone themselves through this accident.

The tenth House is also afflicted by Saturn (simply by being there) Saturn is peregrine and retrograde - it's condition exaggerates it's natural tendency to being malefic. Saturn is going to further debilitate the authority and control exercised over the Deepwater Horizon platform. Incidentally Saturn is also the natural ruler of rock (being a hard structure) and 'Petroleum' is derived from the Latin 'petra' meaing rock and 'oleum' meaning oil. Oil is also called black gold and black is the colour of Saturn. So we have a further involvement of oil in the event, if only of relatively minor importance.

I've not made any reference to BP's own chart or any chart related to the commissioning of Deepwater Horizon. So there is much more that could be derived from an Astrological approach.

Oh, that's fascinating, Minderwiz.

When I saw the square between Mercury in the 6th and Mars in the 9th, I speculated that the explosion (Mars) was immediately triggered by a failure in communication (Mercury retrograde, under the beams) between employees (6th house) on the platform and a distant authority/expert (also Mars in the 9th? and reinforced by the weak Mercury being Lord of the 10th).

The ruler of the 9th, where Mars is situated, is the Sun - which in this chart is peregrine in the 5th house - possibly someone with responsibility is out and about having fun instead of keeping an eye on the platform.

That Mercury also makes me think that either the science was poor or it was ignored.

Comments on July 15th oil leak stoppage

One can treat the natal chart (explosion of the Deep Water Horizon Oil Rig) as a Solar Return chart, and then progress the angles as I do in my MC-Solar Cycle methodology. Doing so, the chart angles for July 15th have moved to"
** MC 1 Capr.
** Asc 1 Aries.

The chart is very interesting due to the planet positions:
** t/Pluto @ 3 Capr., conj. the MC, with event Pluto/Ceres at 4 and 5 Capr.
** the daily chart Ascendant bracketed by t/Uranus at 0 Aries, Jupiter a 3 Aries.
** event/Saturn and t/Saturn at 29 Virgo, close to the Desc. angle.

One doesn't have to have much understanding of astrology to combine Pluto, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, MC and Asc. angles to see that this is a momentous day. A transformation of the public's image of the event. A happy surprise being experienced by many. Restrictions and closure being accomplished by others.

So, what might we look forward to?
** On/near July 23, MC will progress to N.Node position. Some form of an alliance or joint program may be announced.
** On/near July 29, MC will progress so that the IC hits event Moon. Public opinion might shift in some way based on unfolding events or announcements.
** On/near Aug. 8th some truth or information concerning the well explosion will come to light as the Asc. progressed to the event Sun.

We should keep an eye on these date which I have eye-balled from the July 15th chart (no calculations, just estimates). Dave

Sophie,

Mars is more cutting, severing or stabbing than explosive - but it might also indicate either a breakdown (or cutting) of communications or even more literally a cut or fracture that imperiled the abiity of the well to perform its function. That need not show up immediately but might have set in train a process which led to or contributed to the explosion. As Lord 12, that might also have been a hidden or 'secret' event (and Mars is also in Scorpio which is it's night rulership wherein it acts in a more indrect manner).

That might well support Dave's view that some information may become public knowledge at a later date.

I agree with Dave that the period he outlines may well be quite significant - I've got dates from around 20th July to 19th August. The 11 days from 20th July to 31 July being the core period and possibly providing not very good news (The profected Sun first squares Mars and then reaches the 6th House cusp and at the same time as the latter the profected Moon squares the radical Sun). Again, like Dave's, these dates are better treated as 'near' as we have to allow for some error in the timing of the original event.

I also did a chart for the well capping carried out last Thursday and I've attached it. I've not done any real analysis but one interesting feature is that it has a Scorpio Ascendant and the Ascendant ruler is tightly besieged (contained) by Saturn and the Moon in the eleventh, the House of the King's servants. (The sixth is the house of my servants, or the servants of the subject of the chart). If we take BP as the 'King' or the authority over the well, this seems a reasonable symbolism of the oil spill being contained.

The issue is of course, will the containment hold?

Edited to add missing chart

Alliance, as predictied

It has been announced that several of the major oil drilling companies have formed an alliance to develop equipment, procedures and resources for dealing with deep-water oil drilling problems. Collectively, they are funding this with one billion dollars to start.

When we started this thread, I made the following observation based on a visual inspection of the charts (without doing the specific calculations):
** On/near July 23, MC will progress to N.Node position. Some form of an alliance or joint program may be announced.

It will be interesting to see how this whole situation develops. Dave

Minderwiz said:

I agree with Dave that the period he outlines may well be quite significant - I've got dates from around 20th July to 19th August. The 11 days from 20th July to 31 July being the core period and possibly providing not very good news (The profected Sun first squares Mars and then reaches the 6th House cusp and at the same time as the latter the profected Moon squares the radical Sun). Again, like Dave's, these dates are better treated as 'near' as we have to allow for some error in the timing of the original event.

Click to expand...

Looks like we were both right : 19th July News:

Fears about the new cap are raised after engineers detect seepage and a possible methane gas leak on the seabed. Admiral Thad Allen, who is in charge of the US government's response, has written to BP demanding answers to "undetermined anomalies at the wellhead". BP has yet to respond.

Shares in BP fall more than 5% on the news.

I did pose the question about the cap holding. The containing planets in the web capping chart were Saturn (rock) and the Moon (Water) and that threatens a seepage. As Dave says we need to watch developments

There is now a storm warning in the Gulf and it may well be that the ships supporting the drilling of relief wells and final sealing of the original may have to be withdrawn, leading to a delay of up to two weeks.

There's a 50% chance that the storm will reach the well area within the next 48 hours (24th-25th July) again highlighting the timings that Dave and I suggested and stressing the importance of the 7-14 days or so afterwards.

Another feature of the original chart that we didn't go into but Dave (in a post in another thread) and Sue Ward made me realise I should have mentioned was the forming Jupiter/Saturn Opposition that has dominated the period of the leak but more importantly reflects an important stage of both the current 20 year cycle and also the more important series of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions in Earth signs which started in 1802 (from memory). These greater cycles by element last 200 years before giving way to the next element (not always neatly). The Earth cycle stresses materialism, finacial affairs, and nicely symbolises the economic cycle of boom (Jupiter) and bust (Saturn). The dependence of our economies on the use of fossil fuels is a feature of this greater cycle (starting with the use of coal to generate steam power, and later electricity and leading on to petroleum based products).

Relating to 'hidden events that will come to light' - we are not yet on Dave's date of the 8th August, but the investigating government panel heard this recently:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/us/24hearings.html?_r=1&th&emc=th


"At hearings this week here, crew members have described repeated failures in the weeks before the disaster, including power losses, computer crashes and leaking emergency equipment.

The rig’s history of mechanical errors was documented in a confidential audit conducted by BP seven months before the explosion and reviewed by The New York Times. According to the September 2009 document, four BP officials discovered that Transocean, the rig’s owner, had left 390 repairs undone, including many that were “high priority,” and would require a total of more than 3,500 hours of labor. It is unclear how many of the problems remained by the day of the catastrophe.

The 60-page audit found that previously reported errors had been ignored by Transocean. “Consequently, a number of the recommendations that Transocean had indicated as closed out had either deteriorated again or not been suitably addressed in the first place,” investigators wrote."


Transocean is once again emerging as a major cause of the disaster, through its neglect. In the next week or two we'll find out just how much.

The period from 20 July to 31 July was identified as a key period, using profections based on the 'explosion' chart.

This period began with the profected Moon, still in the ninth House moving into the Leo, the sign of the Sun on 20th - shifting focus to the ownership and management and their attempts to remedy the situation. It came the day after news emerged that the capping may well not be 100% successful.

The next profection is the profected Sun squaring Mars. which occurs today the 25th July. That is an apt symbolism for the King falling on his sword - and Tony Hayward has announced his resignation from BP.

The final profections both occur on the 31st July, when the profected Sun reaches the sixth House cusp and the profected Moon squares the radical Sun. Both of these profections. Again these will not be associated with postive events,

Watch out for BPs half yearly results out next Tuesday (27th) and any restructuring that is announced.