Welcome to the COSMIC UPDATE

My COSMIC UPDATES are a way of looking at items and people in the news from an astrological perspective. And while I try to make the text as understandable as possible I realize that some of the astrological jargon baffles the general reader. 

COSMIC UPDATE:21st January  2002

Included in this week’s Cosmic Update:- 

Choosing a newsworthy event for Cosmic Update was not hard this week – there was plenty going on. However, finding a chart to go with an event was extremely difficult. Even the eruption of the volcano in the Congo proved a time-consuming task, since none of the major news networks provided a time of the event. Eventually I tracked down a website devoted to volcanoes, which gave me not just one time but two!

First some facts.

On the morning of 17th January a major eruption began at Mount Nyiragongo, one of Africa’s most notable volcanoes. The eruption caused lava to flow into nearby Goma killing forty-five people and decimating the town. According to news reports Goma looked as though it had been hit by a giant bulldozer – the lava having destroyed everything in its path and setting off explosions at power plants and fuel stores.

What almost certainly triggered this eruption was an earthquake, measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale, which took place in the vicinity of the volcano on 4th January, some two weeks earlier.

The last major eruption of Nyiragongo occurred on 10th January 1977.

 

Democratic Republic of Congo - Mount Nyiragongo Eruption
Mount Nyiragongo: Eruption
17th January 2002, 04:45hrs Goma, Congo
(Click For Enlarged View)    

Of the two times given for the start of the eruption, as far as the astrology is concerned the 4.45 am time looks to be the most likely.

Here, Capricorn rises, making Saturn the ruler, which is quincunx the Ascendant, opposing Pluto and sextiling Jupiter. And Jupiter is precisely conjunct the Descendant. The quincunx  and the opposition are both angles of tension and Jupiter is, of course, renowned for its ability to inflate.

What I also want to draw your attention to here is the degree of the Ascendant/Descendant axis – 8 degrees 49 of Capricorn/Cancer – and Jupiter at 8 degrees 33 of Cancer.

On 30th December a lunar eclipse at 8 degrees 48 Cancer, occurred precisely along this axis.

Eclipses are great triggers of events and this eruption is no exception. What is also not out of the realms of significance is the position of Mars, which at 29 degrees of Pisces is mere minutes away from the previous total eclipse at 0 degrees Cancer in June of 2001.

Also notable is the moon at 6 degrees of Pisces. On January 10, 1977 – the previous major eruption – Venus was at this exact same degree. Also, on 6th November 1976, some two months prior to the eruption a lunar eclipse took place at 14 degrees Taurus. On 10th January, 1977 Saturn was precisely square this degree at 14 degrees of Leo, while Pluto quincunxed it at 14 degrees of Libra.

Now, it would be marvellous if we could do this kind of planetary number-crunching before an event and therefore warn the inhabitants of Goma of the impending disaster but unless the study of Mount Nyiragongo was top of your astrological watch list it would be quite beyond the scope of an astrologer to predict this eruption.  Also it must be remembered that the Ascendant-Descendant axis hits that eclipse degree (8 degrees of Cancer/Capricorn) twice a day. Nonetheless the chart of the event is interesting to say the least and worthy of inclusion in your astrological data bank.

Recommended Reading:

Click To Order

The Astrologer's Handbook
Frances Sakoian, Louis S. Acker
Planets in Transit
Robert Hand 
The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus
Erika Cheetham

Copyright © 2002 Penny Thornton

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