Astrology and synchronicity go hand in hand.

And so it was, as I drove to London and back yesterday – a distance of some 222 miles and seven hours in travel time – and listened more than once to BBC 4’s account of speeches at the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the statement issued by the International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding Myanmar and its breach of the genocide convention (enacted after the Holocaust) I could not help but note the synchronicity of these two events.

The first thing that struck me was that both events, which involved genocide and human rights, occurred with the Sun in Aquarius – the sign of humanitarianism. The next was the actual date itself: could the 23rd January be significant.

The liberation of Auschwitz actually took place on the 27th January, 1945, which scotched the idea of any connection with the date itself and the degree of the Sun, but when I set up the charts for both events, there were clear resonances.

As the service of remembrance was taking place in Jerusalem, the Moon in Capricorn passed over Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn, simultaneously transiting the South node, Mars and Mercury and opposing the Moon at the time of the liberation of Auschwitz. As on the 27th January, 1945, Venus was in compassionate Pisces – a sign which resonates with the theme of sacrifice and suffering. These same positions became the signature on the momentous ruling of the ICJ instructing the government of Aung San Suu Kyi – once a heroic fighter for human rights for which she won the Nobel Peace prize – to respect the requirements of the 1948 genocide convention.

The degree of the Sun in Aquarius may not have been the same for these two events separated by seventy-five years, but the degree of the zodiac for each of them held great meaning.

Since medieval times, the 360 degrees of the zodiac and their meaning has absorbed astrologers, and many have offered up interpretations of each degree, most notably Charubel. Then in 1953, revered astrologer Marc Edmund Jones published his seminal book The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, based on his work, thirty years earlier, with the images of the zodiac degrees generated by clairvoyant-medium, Elsie Wheeler. The way these images were gleaned is the stuff of a small book, but suffice to say they have stood the test of time, and astrologers the world over have gleaned inspiration from them.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

The image of 7 degrees of Aquarius (the degree of the Sun at the liberation of Auschwitz): Out of the cosmic egg, life is born fresh and virginal. The interpretation: Self-expression beyond all expectation.

The image of 2 degrees of Aquarius (the degree of the Sun at the ruling by the ICJ): Unexpected thunderstorm brings relief to parched fields.

The interpretation: Liberation from adverse conditions through violent spectacular developments…

In many ways the past week was all about liberation in one form of another. The Sussexes were liberated from the Royal Family and began their new life in Canada, and the publication of Il Nous Reste les Mots (We still have words) celebrated a different kind of liberation – the liberation that forgiveness breeds. Written by two fathers who each lost a child in the Bataclan attack in Paris three years ago – one the father of a terrorist and the other a victim – found healing and release in talking to each other and ultimately co-writing a book about their shared experience.

“Terrorism is all about trying to shut people up. We must keep talking.” Georges Salines, the father of Lola, gunned down in the Bataclan, Paris on November 13th 2015.

And we must keep remembering.