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Event Charts
Interpreting event charts falls under the auspices of “mundane” astrology, the study of circum-stances in the world. The root of the word “mundane” is similar to “mondo” (remember all the “mondo” movies in the ‘60s?) from Latin mundus for world. The mondo movies were about the world of this or the world of that. In addition to event charts, mundane astrology includes birth charts of nations, businesses and organizations; charts of world leaders; ingress charts for seasons or planets entering a sign; lunation charts; Astro*Carto*Graphy charts; and undoubtedly more techniques. The world is implied as being at the center of a chart; in mundane charts, the world is on center stage, or at least a part of the world.
Many times when I hear the news, I want to run right to my computer to run a chart, and it frustrates me if exact times for things are not reported. It’s fascinating to watch the planets at work day by day, in so facets of life. Differing headlines on the same day may not seem related to the untrained eye, but the astrologer can spot a connection. For a hypothetical example, say there is an announcement of a new medicine for headaches, a story about a soldier drowning, and an editorial about reckless drunk driving. What’s going on here? A Mars-Neptune hard aspect.
The language of astrology translates to a mundane situation, it seems to me, more neatly and cleanly than it does to human character analysis or forecasting. Life is not a client to dialogue with the astrologer. Since one is not looking at another human being, there is less likelihood to project qualities or situations onto the chart and thus there can be a more objective approach.
Getting the time right for an event chart is just as important as with a birth chart, and sometimes it’s trickier. An example of this is the crash of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane. It took days before an estimate could be made of just when the crash occurred. Some events don’t really have a time they started. At what moment does a storm begin? With a hurricane, there could be various times of “landfall” at various places, and in the case of a tornado, there could be times and places where it touches down, with these charts showing clues as to the types of damage done in those places.
The “rules” for mundane astrology are essentially the same as the “rules” for horary astrology as far as what houses, planets and signs rule what. You can even think in terms of the 4th House and its cusp as “the end of the matter” with an event chart as you would with a horary chart. If you wish to pursue event chart interpretation or mundane astrology in depth, you may want to get a book like The Rulership Book by Rex E. Bills or J. Lee Lehman’s The Book of Rulerships, Keywords from Classical Astrology, which are like Astrology-English dictionaries.
Some primary principles employed in interpreting event charts - indeed, all mundane charts - are:
Sometimes one event will be related to a subsequent event, in which case you want to look for factors from the first chart and how they are affected by positions in the second chart, even if it is only minutes later. Consider TWA Flight 800. The take-off chart shows an opposition in angular houses between Mercury (8th ruler) and Uranus (co-ruler of the 1st House, with Aquarius intercepted there). At the time of the explosion, the angles were closing in on this opposition, and the Ascendant had changed signs to Aquarius, breaking that interception and making Uranus the chart ruler. (Mercury still ruled the 8th.) “Surprising news” is one interpretation of Mercury-Uranus. It can also mean quirky thinking, as in, it was kind of dumb to take off with a nearly empty fuel tank in the center of the plane after sitting for a long time on a hot runway. Was there a cover-up of a missile? Neptune (deception) was rising at the take-off, and in its home (12th) house at the explosion, still conjunct the Ascendant, in both charts quincunx to Mars (missiles). At the time of the explosion, the Midheaven was quincunx Mars and sextile Neptune, forming a Finger of God. Also, a sesquiquadrate between the Moon and Saturn at take-off by the time of the explosion, turned into a “Fickle Finger of Fate” (my terms for a triangle comprised of square with both points sesquiquadrate a third point) because the Midheaven had moved through the appropriate degree to square the Moon and sesquiquadrate Saturn. And the Vertex at the explosion formed a triangle with Saturn and Neptune, which were already quintile, by moving into a position biquintile to each of them, possibly meaning that the government (Saturn) was involved in a cover-up. So at the explosion three quick-moving angles nearly simultaneously were forming patterns, each with a pair of planets that was already in an aspect (the Midheaven formed 2 patterns!). That’s what makes things happen. An interesting side bar, Pluto, ruling death and explosions, was at 0° of Sagittarius, the sign ruling air travel, and we’ve had many major crashes since Pluto entered Sagittarius.
It’s often instructive to examine the Astro*Carto*Graphy chart of a lunar phase close in time to the event. Usually you will find one of the key components of the event chart is prominent in the A*C*G chart. An instance comes to mind of the showdown in the Falkland Islands. Who would have guessed there would be news of world import there, then? Unless you checked the A*C*G chart for the prior eclipse, I think it was, when a major planet line went right through the islands. (I remember this from an A*C*G lecture, but I don’t have the details handy.)
Another example is the Pluto IC line through Florida at the New Moon preceding the 2000 Presidential election, and boy, isn’t that where the proverbial “you know what” hit the fan? Power and shared values are issues as a result, and the whole ugly mess meant there would have to be changes in voting procedures in the future. These are all Pluto circumstances. And how about the “butterfly” ballot? A butterfly is another Pluto image. Then there was a Band-Aid on W’s cheek one Saturday during the recount process. CNN, I believe, said it was due to a bat bite, which he picked at. (They quickly dropped that fact from their reporting, though.) A bat in the Medicine Cards is a symbol for death and rebirth – Pluto again. And with Jupiter opposite Pluto, there were extremes of contrasts and partisanship. Lawyers, litigation and lawsuits – all ruled by Jupiter. Interestingly, USA progressed Saturn was Retrograde (the rules are changing) for the first time in a national election, and it was at 3° Scorpio 24’, less than one degree from the pre-election New Moon at 4° 12’.
A pretty clear-cut example is shown with the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion in 1986, the one where Christa MacAuliffe, the teacher, died. At the launch (which was only moments before the explosion, so the charts are virtually the same), Pluto was on the Descendant at 7° Scorpio (the degree of Christa’s South Node), squaring Mercury, the Sun and Venus in the 10th and forming a T-square with the Node axis along the horizon – see the angularity. (There were some other interesting transits to her chart: the launch IC was at Christa’s Venus (her chart ruler); Uranus at 20° Sagittarius in the event chart 8th House was conjunct to her Jupiter at her 8th House cusp; and the Moon at 11° Virgo was conjunct her Sun.) Saturn sat at the cusp of the event chart 8th House, not a particularly good omen for the beginning of a journey.
We find Uranus in the 8th House in another explosion chart for a 1984 planned nuclear test in Nevada. Uranus was conjunct the South Node and the testers had a great surprise when there was a cave-in at the site 3-1/4 hours later killing several workers. It’s no coincidence (in my opinion) that this occurred since at the time of the test, the houses lined up so that the 6th and 8th cusps formed a Finger of God with the Nodal Axis down the middle and Uranus at the sensitive point. By the time of the explosion, the Uranus-South Node conjunction was in the 6th House. The Moon at the explosion was forming an opposition to Mercury, which by then was the chart ruler (Gemini was rising).
Now for a non-famous example, namely when I signed up my domain name. I guess I was trying to catch some good energy from Jupiter at the Midheaven when I logged on to the registration site, but it was in a T-square with a Moon-Neptune opposition lying along the Nodal axis not far from the horizon, and a 10th House Saturn exactly square the Ascendant and Descendant. I don’t think I calculated the chart for this. This warns you against only checking for one factor. Duh! I took a long time to read the agreement, then got a message that while I was in the process of registering, the name was taken! Mars closely aspected that Moon-Neptune opposition. I ranted and raved and had a full hissy fit; my perfect domain name, stolen out from under me. (Mind you, this was after I deliberated endlessly about it and procrastinated registering it, so maybe there was some Saturn guilt working here with the Mars frustration and anger.) I didn’t check my email for a couple days, then I discovered I had successfully registered the name after all. Love that Neptune.
Let’s take a look at some mundane associations for signs, and by inference, their ruling planets. The house and angle meanings are essentially the same as used in a personal horoscope, so I won’t outline them here.
What’s important to keep in mind when approaching event charts is to keep your analysis simple, stick to basics. In a personality reading, you might care about wide aspects for nuances of behavior and attitudes, but with an event chart, look for the broad strokes and don’t get lost in the little details. The symbols are generally abundantly clear. Event charts really show astrology coming to life.
© 2006 Janet Booth, AstrologyBooth.com Home | Information Booth | Study Booth | Sales Booth | Janet Booth | Return to Top©2001-2011 Janet Booth for JanetsPlan-Its.com and AstrologyBooth.com |