Alex's Asteroid Astrology

I chose to profile this story, tragic as it is, because it makes an excellent example of how this process unfolds, both celestially and in my own psyche.  As a former resident of Philadelphia, and still within that media market, I regularly watch the morning news on 6 ABC, predominantly for weather forecasts.  When I heard about a housefire near my old stomping grounds on January 5^th which took 12 lives, 8 of them children, I got that familiar tingle at the nape of the neck that tells me to investigate, astrologically.

But I was busy, with deadlines looming and much on my mind, so I ignored it.  Four days later, an apartment building fire in the Bronx killed 17, with 9 child fatalities.  I dropped what I was working on, and dived in.

In situations like this, clearly cosmically related but separated by days, I first take a look at the general influences prevailing, and especially for stations.  Stations are degrees at which bodies appear to come to a halt and change direction (they do nothing of the kind, of course, in reality; it’s a trick of perception from our earthbound perspective).  They permeate the celestial atmosphere with their energies, still points upon which the rest of the cosmos continues to revolve.  So my first question always is:  what’s been happening?  What’s “stuck” up there and trying to get our attention? 

I quickly found three asteroids at station that applied to the situation, during a two-week period focused on the end of December and the beginning of January.  It’s a sign of my nearly two decades’ experience of this material that I didn’t fall off my chair when I saw both Child and Flammeus immobile in the heavens at that time.  Child is self-explanatory in context, and turned direct at 7 Taurus on December 27^th, in the company of asteroid Osiris (named for the ancient Egyptian god of the dead) and Uranus (ruling accidents).  Child was still at its station degree when the first fire occurred, in Philadelphia.

Just two days before that incident, Flammeus had turned direct at 12 Taurus, also conjunct Uranus and Child.  Flammeus is closest to “flames”, and has been active in previous stories of fire, such as the one which consumed part of Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.  Flammeus with Child also suggests the fire’s origin, started by children playing with a lighter near a Christmas tree. 

The third point at station was asteroid Anubis, named for the Egyptian deity ruling funerary rites, lending a gloss of death-related energies to the timeframe.  Anubis won’t turn retrograde at 20 Virgo until January 12^th, but was at its station degree throughout, in trine to Flammeus and sesquiquadrate Child.

So there we have three dominant elements in the sky, and in the stories unfolding:  fires via Flammeus; children via Child; and death via Anubis.  The next step is to integrate these energies with what else is going on.

Here’s where a bit of experience comes in handy.  With 22,000 named minor bodies at this point, it’s a seemingly insurmountable task to identify pertinent players.  But over time, one becomes familiar with likely actors, depending on the situation.  The fatal nature of these incidents meant death indicators had to be included in the mix. 

Working alphabetically, I found asteroid Atropos, named for the Greek Fate who severs the thread of life at death, at 9 Scorpio, opposing Child and Flammeus.  Not surprisingly, asteroid House was there, too, at 7 Scorpio.  Together, they form a formidable illustration of fatalities at home; opposed Flammeus, they virtually spell out “house fire.”  Add Child, and we identify the majority of the victims.

Next was asteroid Lachesis, named for Atropos’ sister, the Fate who determines the span of life and gives Atropos the go-ahead when the time is right.  At 3 Capricorn, Lachesis is trine Child and Flammeus.  We’ve already seen that Osiris is conjoined Child, so moving on to asteroid Requiem, named for the funeral mass for the dead, we find it at 9 Virgo, fresh from its own retrograde station on New Year’s Day.  This is also trine Child and Flammeus, as well as Lachesis, creating a Grand Trine; in fact, a Kite, when the opposition to Atropos/House is included.

This is starting to get spooky, right?  That makes five of six asteroid death indicators directly bound up with Child and Flammeus, for a period which saw two deadly fires with a high body count of children.

What about the sixth, asteroid Rip, which functions as a death indicator in the form of the acronym “RIP” (“Rest In Peace”), a common tombstone inscription?  That’s at 24 Gemini, semisquare Child.  Which leaves just planetary energies relating to death to be accounted for (as opposed to our so-called “minor bodies”).  Saturn, ancient lord of death, appears at 12 Aquarius, squared Child/Flammeus.  Pluto, modern lord of death, at 26 Capricorn, was just out of orb of square.  I guess there has to be one odd man out.

What we’ve talked about so far are slower-moving points, in relatively stable configuration with each other, for days or weeks at a time.  What about a trigger, something faster-moving, which might also describe the circumstances?

How about the Sun?  This brings focus to what it touches, for good or ill.  Between January 5 and 9, the Sun from 15 to 19 Capricorn was moving into a square with asteroid Fireman, at 20 and 21 Libra, and moving past its trines to Child and Flammeus.  In a nod to the Christmas tree origins of the first fire, the Sun is also conjunct asteroid Noel, at 17 Capricorn for that tragedy.  (Doubling down, the universe also provides asteroid Yule, conjoined Damocles, the doom hanging unseen overhead, at 22 and 25 Aquarius.)

How about Mercury, planetary ruler of children?  That moved from 4 to 8 Aquarius during the period in question, coming to conjoin Saturn and squared Child/Flammeus, exactly squared Child for the Bronx fire.

There’s one more point I look to when fire is in the headline:  asteroid Burney (for obvious reasons).  This falls at 1 Leo, tightly squared Osiris and Child, establishing the means of death and the preponderance of the victims.  And it’s also opposed Pluto – there’s that “death by fire” connection to the last planetary mortality indicator!  Knew it had to be somewhere.

At that point, it just becomes a matter of setting it all down in the record, translating raw data into sentences and paragraphs, performing my primary function of “astro-stenographer.”  I don’t write the celestial script – I just take dictation from the shorthand.

And that’s how it works.

One final note:  the Sun/Fireman square is still perfecting, and the other points remain in orb; let’s hope there isn’t more of the same in store…