On 28 Sep 18 at 6:02 PM local time, a shallow Mag. 7.5 earthquake hit the Minahasa region of the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, causing a tsunami that to date has taken the lives of 384 people. The great majority of the casualties were in the city of Palu, which is on the coast near the epicenter of the quake. Palu has a population of over 300,000 people and is a popular tourist destination. It lies at the end of a narrow bay, which intensified the effect of the tsunami. Residents reported waves as high as three meters (9 ft), confirmed by video evidence. The chart is below. See the bigger chart to follow details:
The planets pertaining to water and to the underworld were quite prominent at the event. Neptune squares the horizon, with Orcus, one of the underworld planets and similar in action to Pluto, opposite near the MC and sitting at the midpoint of the Neptune/Meridian axis. The midpoints tell the story of the tragedy, as can be seen by Pluto sitting at the midpoint of several very indicative midpoints (see below the chart wheel), especially the Mars/Saturn MP (the ‘death axis’), marking the high number of deaths and depth of the tragedy. This is reinforced by the Ascendant, Mars, Saturn and Pluto all being parallel at 22°S. Pluto is also square the Vertex axis. In addition we find Mars conjunct the south node, opposite Varuna (god of the waters), the latter conjunct the north node, showing the shared destiny (nodal axis) of the people gathered in the area, and with the sudden nature of the event shown by Uranus at the bending of the nodal axis. The Neptune placement in the 4th house shows the devastation of infrastructure by water. There were many seaside homes that were swept away in the tsunami, and power stations were knocked out.
Finally on the astrology, following on this thumbnail sketch, there were several eclipses that were activated at the time of the tragedy, most notably a solar activation of the 27 Sep 16 total lunar eclipse, which had its Sun/culmination line near Borneo, among other factors, most notably the Jupiter culmination line. Other eclipses activated were the Mars activation of the recent 28 Jul 18 total lunar eclipse, a solar activation of the 23 Mar 16 lunar eclipse, Orcus sitting on the 1 Sep 16 solar eclipse (although probably a minor emphasis) and Uranus approaching its final activation of the 23 Oct 14 eclipse, which will finish off that one. For a last word, and of particular interest, there was a swarm of earthquakes yesterday, planet-wide. This one was the major event, a sort of release, and it was fortunate that it was shallow. A deep one would have been far more tragic, even though this was bad enough. Our hearts are with the friends and families of those who lost their lives.
