I couldn’t really write about March without stopping to consider the rather bizarre, tragic and gripping episode of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 370 that went missing in the early hours of 8 March 2014. In this day and age of modern communications and surveillance equipment, including spy satellites, CCTV, mobile phones, radio contact, radar and so forth, many found it hard to believe that an airplane could just vanish from the skies without trace with 239 passengers on board.
Having said that, I have been quite reluctant to pass any astrological judgment on the situation, not only because it is very complicated and ongoing, but also because of the emotional toll that all this must be taking on the surviving relatives of those who were on board. To them I send my sincerest sympathies and well-wishes. I hope they get some concrete answers soon.
From a more technical point of view, one of the problems with making any judgements about this particular incident, is that the only definite time and location information we have is that of the flight’s take-off from Kuala Lumpur airport, together with a few estimated co-ordinates for the time of last contact with air traffic control at around 01:30 am local time, shortly after the plane’s communications and tracking systems appear to have been either switched off or went on the blink. We do not know exactly when the decision was taken to change the plane’s course or the precise direction in which it then headed or ended up – all we have are ‘best guesses’ based on satellite data pings and radar logs, along with hypothetical scenarios based on the flight paths of other aircraft.
However, one branch of astrology, horary, does offer some methods for trying to find lost items (and people) based on certain directional symbolism that has become associated with the angles or chart quadrants. I therefore decided to put this method to the test to see whether it could shed any light on where, more or less, the aircraft may have ended up and what events might have led to its interrupted journey and change of direction.
The main chart I looked at is, of course, that of its take-off. The details for this are: 00:41 local time, 8 March, Kuala Lumpur Airport.
See a horary version of the chart here: Horary MH 370
Using a technique for ships setting sail, we should interpret the AS as the aircraft and the ruler of that angle, signifier of crew and passengers. Calculating a chart for take-off, we get a map with Sagittarius rising. Seeing as MH 370 was an international flight, and Sagittarius is a sign associated with long journeys and exploration, this seems fitting. The ruler of Sagittarius is Jupiter, so this becomes the symbol of the aeroplane in the chart.
Jupiter is located in the water sign of Cancer. Although this is generally considered to be a highly dignified position, Jupiter is located in the 8th house, which in ancient times, was the sector that ruled death. So not a great omen, despite Jupiter being exalted in nurturing and family-oriented Cancer. Jupiter had also only recently stationed after a retrograde spell, so may not have reached normal speed at this point, thus minimising its usually benefic influence. It could, therefore, indicate unfounded optimism (of surviving family members) in the face of what might otherwise be considered challenging circumstances.
Jupiter’s position (by house) in the west-south-west segment of the chart is interesting because the charted course for the plane was set to fly north-eastwards, towards Beijing, China, not south-west. In horary astrology, North East would usually tally with a planet located in the 3rd house, if we are calculating direction by house. This is because the Ascendant has always been associated with the east and the time of sunrise in traditional astrology. In fact, the whole concept of the AS or ‘rising sign’ in natal astrology is centred on the notion of the constellation that is rising (sometimes with the Sun, depending on the time of day) on the local eastern horizon at the moment of an individual’s birth.
By sign, though, things are a little different: Cancer is a sign associated with the North (possibly because of its traditional association with the IC), which fits quite well with the intended direction of the plane, symbolised by Jupiter in Cancer.
Still, why is Jupiter, the chart ruler, in the NNW sector of the chart? (by sign) We know now, thanks to Malaysian and Thai military radar, which unwittingly tracked the plane over the ocean until around 02:40am, that shortly after its last communication with air traffic control at 1:20am, the plane banked west. Then, according to Thai military radar logs, the plane turned north over the Andaman sea…Local villagers in northern Malaysia were also reported to have seen lights in the sky, and an aircraft flying very low over the jungle in the early hours of Saturday morning, whilst crew on a Greek vessel in the Malacca Straits spotted debris in the sea. Later, an oil slick on the water’s surface was picked up in satellite imagery, all of which fits with the position of Jupiter and early theories that the plane had crashed into the sea somewhere off the coast of northern Malaysia.
Although this theory was later discounted, because no jet fuel was found on the ocean surface near to the oil slick, and because of the satellite pings, which suggested that the aircraft flew on for several hours after this time, this particular chart does place the aircraft in a WNW position, which can’t entirely be explained at this point, certainly not until the aircraft is found.
Leaving this for a minute, let’s look at the aspects of Jupiter to see if we can ascertain what may have happened to the plane.
The plane’s transponder and ACARS system, which enables the on-board computers to communicate with ground control computers, then appears to have been switched off or malfunctioned shortly after the pilot’s last radio transmission at just after 01:30am. This all fits with Jupiter’s most recent separating aspect, a square to Uranus, the planet that rules unexpected events, sudden accidents and sometimes electrical/technical malfunctions. So, could mechanical failure have been responsible for the plane’s disappearance?
Uranus was just separating from a very difficult cardinal T-square with Pluto and Jupiter, so it is entirely possible that this extremely malefic combination meant that a deadly technical malfunction went undetected by aircraft maintenance crew in Malaysia, but lead to serious electrical failures during the flight, possibly even an explosion of some kind, given that Uranus is in Aries, which is a fire sign.
Uranus is also associated with abrupt severing or cutting off, which is what seems to have happened with the communications systems. Some experts believe that the aircraft communications and tracking systems may have been deliberately switched off after the pilot’s final transmission to KL Air Traffic Control before entering Vietnamese airspace. As co-ruler of the 3rd house cusp with Saturn, the house of communications, this does seem to fit with what happened – all communications went quiet after this.
In this map, Pluto, planet of death and disappearances, rules the 12th house, also considered malefic and associated with death, confinement and secret enemies, whilst Jupiter co-rules the 4th house cusp or IC, another angle associated with the end of the matter, which was sometimes interpreted as the end of life, or falling into the grave. Not a great combination of auguries then…
The Moon, ruler of the 8th house, is opposite the AS, which again suggests that the aircraft may have come to a watery (Cancer) demise somewhere in the ocean – something that appears to be backed by Neptune on the IC. More on this later when we look at applying aspects to Jupiter etc.
So what other information can we get about what might have happened? Here it is worth looking at other implicated planets and aspects.
Yet, an Inmarsat satellite orbiting above the Indian Ocean picked up an automatic ‘ping’ or handshake between the aircraft and a ground station just after 08:11am, suggesting that the plane may have flown on for another 7-8 hours after it was last tracked.
This new and rather startling information, disclosed nearly seven days after the plane’s disappearance, suggested that flight MH 370 flew on in the direction of one of two flight corridors: one, stretching north between Thailand and Kazakhstan; and the other, south between Indonesia and the southern Indian Ocean.
So, does the astrology have anything to say about this, then?
Well, if we look at the condition and aspects of the ruler of the MC (which would represent the captain or head pilot), we have Mercury in Aquarius in the 3rd house of communications and transport; we get the clear signature of a pilot who is technically competent and intellectually well-positioned to handle crises with coolness and poise. So why didn’t he radio for help?
Mercury’s last aspect seems to be a square to Saturn, co-ruler of the 3rd house and therefore of communications. Saturn is in the malefic 12th house in Scorpio, suggesting some sort of limitation or block that may have prevented the captain from being able to radio for help.
Could this have been an explosion or mechanical failure leading to a fire (Uranus in Aries) that led to cabin decompression, which in turn, rendered the passengers and crew unconscious, and thereby unable to radio for help?
Perhaps something could also have happened to make it impossible for the pilot/crew to communicate with ground control, such as loss of consciousness?
If CNN reports are to be believed, the plane experienced a dramatic drop in altitude, traced by Malaysian military radar, from 35,000 ft. to12, 000 ft., by the plane as it banked west and flew over northern Malaysia. According to experts, this is usually the standard emergency measure if there is a sudden loss of cabin pressure. So, is this why the plane turned around and flew over northern Malaysia? Was the pilot trying to find somewhere to make an emergency landing? Can any further clues be gleaned from this chart?
By nature, the Moon moves very swiftly through the zodiac and so, on its own, is associated with change and flux. This also makes it key in horary astrology prediction, because it makes the most aspects with other planets and so, very often, can bring about perfection by connecting the planetary symbols for Querent and Quesited.
The Moon, ruler of the 8th house is located in the 6th house, very close to a conjunction with the Descendant or 7th house cusp. Placed in Gemini, a sign associated with communication, transport and travel, and close to the 7th house cusp, it could well represent the agency or catalyst that led to the plane’s disappearance. Routine maintenance that didn’t pick up a fault because of the constant turn-around of planes? Lack of communication about a particular technical problem amongst ground staff?
Now, what is quite interesting is that, in addition to the Moon’s rulership of the sign and house in which Jupiter (plane) was located, these two planets are further connected by similar but opposite aspect patterns: Jupiter is separating from a square to Uranus, while the Moon is separating from a square to Neptune and applying to Uranus by sextile.
The Moon’s last separating aspect can offer further information about what led to the plane’s disappearance. In this case, it is a square to Neptune. Neptune rules large bodies of water, mist and liquid form of fuel such as gas, oil etc. Does this hint at some kind of moisture build-up (condensation) or gas leak (Moon-Neptune) that may have led to an electrical fire or explosion (Moon-Uranus)?
Turning to fixed stars for any further details, we learn that Neptune is conjunct Deneb Adige, described as ‘a brilliant white star in the tail of the Swan’ or the constellation of Cygnus – what an incredibly visual description! It very much evokes the image of an aeroplane with a fire in its tail end. So, was the fire/explosion/electrical fault (Uranus) due to some kind of fuel or gas stored at the rear of the plane (Neptune)? Quite possibly.
If this is what happened, then the explosion would have led to cabin decompression, oxygen loss and ultimately a loss of consciousness by crew and passengers. If the plane was on automatic pilot, it may just have flown on in a straight line until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea, as indicated by Neptune conjunct the IC (IC = the end of the matter) in this chart suggests. Interestingly, both Jupiter and Neptune, as co-rulers of the sign of Pisces, jointly rule the IC, which has Pisces on its cusp. So symbolically, the end of the matter for Jupiter (plane) appears to be a watery grave (Neptune conjunct IC, Pisces on 4th cusp).
Given that Jupiter is moving from a square to Uranus (explosion or fire on board/sudden mechanical failure) towards an opposition with Pluto (death, disaster), ruler of the 12th house (associated with death, misfortune, murder/suicide) I would not expect anyone to have survived this particular event. There is a certain finality about circumstances when Pluto is involved that is hard to ignore, however difficult this may be to accept for those relatives left in limbo, wondering what happened to their family members.
Of course many of them will be left wondering what happened to the plane after it turned around and dropped in altitude. No one is sure exactly what took place next because the communications system and transponder seem to have gone dead or been switched off (Mercury-Saturn square). So, the plane ‘disappeared’ from most aviation tracking systems. Given that Pluto is the ruler of the 12th house cusp where Saturn is located, and that Pluto is the planet associated with invisibility, this fits very well with the astrology.
According to the CNN report, which quotes an avian expert’s interpretation of the existing data, including the drop in altitude shown by military radar, the corridor into which the plane turned when it banked west was quite a busy place for airline traffic, so flying at low altitude would have helped it avoid a crash in mid-air with another oncoming plane. Paraphrasing an official who could not be named because he was not officially sanctioned to speak to the media by Malaysian authorities, “…the area the plane flew in after the turn is a heavily trafficked air corridor and that flying at 12,000 feet would have kept the jet well out of the way of that traffic.”
But where did the plane go after that?
Traditionally, if one is looking for something lost in horary, one would look at the signs and positions of the major significators for directional information, while proximity and contacts between significators may give some idea of whether the item will ever be located or not.
We have already looked at Jupiter’s house and sign position and established that these only indicate the original flight path of the plane – north towards Beijing, which is unhelpful. So what if we look at the position of Jupiter’s applying aspect?
Well, Pluto is in the 2nd house, which traditionally is associated with the direction East – North – East, which doesn’t seem very likely, based on the models run by Inmarsat. However, if we consider the sign of Pluto – which is in Capricorn, this is traditionally associated with the South because of its connection to the Midheaven and the direction where planets culminate over the course of a year, and where the Sun reaches its highest position at noon during its daily cycle, if viewed from the northern hemisphere.
Distance can be calculated by totting up the number of degrees separating both aspecting planets, in this case 177.25 degrees. For planets in cardinal signs, each degree would then equal 2 miles, according to Derek Appleby. This gives us a total of approximately 354.5 miles in a southerly direction.
Of course, astrology is not an exact science and can only really give an approximation of where to look. It may also be worth drawing up a chart for the moments when search crews first picked up possible signals from the black box recorder to see whether any further clues can be gleaned.
For now, though, it seems certain from the Jupiter-Pluto opposition, which only perfected recently as part of the April Cardinal Grand Cross event that is currently wreaking havoc across the globe, that no one escaped alive from MH 370 and that its final destination was a watery grave somewhere in the Ocean, either to the north west of Malaysia or several hundred miles out to sea in the southern Indian Ocean.
Astro-Insights Blog 
[…] Strangely, the chart bears more than a few similarities to that of the horary chart that I drew up for MH370, which you can see in my blog for March 2014. […]
[…] Strangely, the chart bears more than a few similarities to that of the horary chart that I drew up for MH370, which you can see in my blog for March 2014. […]