LA Yoga. Special Section. Did We Know?

:: March/April 2005 Volume 4/Number 2

SPECIAL SECTION:
Did We Know? The Astrology of the Tsunami

By Betheyla

As astrologers we are trained to look for the waves of change. We interpret the movements of planets and stars, great symbols of an unfolding karma that can be known completely only at the level of the human heart. Truly, an event the magnitude of the recent 9.0 mega-thrust earthquake and resulting tsunami of December 2004 is reflective of a collective karma that daunts the mind of the average individual and stretches the mind of even the most karmically-attuned astrologer.

By way of actual forewarnings of the disaster, I am personally aware of three. On January 2, 2005, it was reported through the AFP in Phmon Penh that an astrologer had warned the Queen Mother Monineath, wife of Cambodia’s former king Sihanouk several weeks preceding that a tsunami would occur and advised the royal family to perform ceremonies in various temples around Cambodia to spare the country of destruction. The royal family did just that.

Two other forewarnings of an impending world catastrophe in 2005 came in mid 2004 from world spiritual leaders, Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Since the new year is said to begin with the solstice (which occurred on December 26, 2004), the tsunami is probably the disaster foretold, and the disaster is considered a "fixed" karma.

Astrologically—on the surface, the chart of the megathrust earthquake looks similar to other earthquake charts: Jupiter and Mars are prominent (along with Uranus). There are extremely tight and tense relationships between the planets, including Mars in the same fateful degree as the nodes of the Moon. All signs of a big earthquake are there including the proximity in time to the full moon as it hovered (local time and space) near the horizons. Several other unusual contributing factors existed as well, all of which however are not really enough to explain the event.

Another event, however, had the power to create the megathrust. Searching deeper into the chart, there is one very outstanding and unusual indicator, that being the prominence of the fixed star Antares. Antares represents Kali—the divine mother in her wrathful form who purifies to make way for evolution. Antares at the time of the tsunami was in close alignment to a "planetary war" taking place between Venus and Mercury.

In this war, by classical standards, Mercury won, which gave all the power of Venus over to Mercury. Mercury, a highly mutable planet, takes on the nature of whatever is around it. Closest to it was Antares, the giant red star that is said to be the rival of Mars, the fiery warrior planet. Antares was able to focus its energies to the Earth not only with its own power but with the combined power of both Mercury and Venus as well.

Antares is one of the oldest of stars in our galaxy and is very close in proximity to us. It holds memories of times that are only hinted at in the oldest written history of our races, pre-delugian times when "Pangea" (as the scientists call it) existed as a single continent in the part of the earth now the Indian Ocean. Not coincidentally, the rift that shifted on December 26 was created at the time of that great separating of the continents. The karma that cleared through the tsunami has existed since that time. Scientists themselves said that the shift in the plates resulted from forces that have been building for several hundreds of thousands of years.

It is my interpretation that the ancient karma that has been stirred and reflected through this event is connected to primordial feelings of terror and rage that we still hold from our initial emergence as individual beings at the beginning of creation. Until we clear and cleanse these deep-seated primordial emotions of fear and terror we will continue to view each other as potential enemies and continue to war and defend ourselves as if we are threatened by the very fact of our separation. I believe that the tsunami was an initial trigger in the deep stirring of these primordial emotions that must clear in order for us to continue to survive as a species on the planet earth.