by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA
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Starting last fall, my news sources were abuzz with the imminent demise of the Chinese space station Tiangong-1. Its orbit had decayed to the point where it was due to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in a fiery blaze of glory. The bad part was that no one knew where or when. The huge station, its orbit and re-entry were not under the control of the Chinese space agency and had not been under their control for some time. Essentially it was a rogue space station and it was going to land somewhere on Earth in its fiery demise… soon! I did my due diligence as an Astrologer and found the launch information and read up on the history and projections to date.
There was a timed launch of 9:16:03 PM (8E) on September 29, 2011, from Jiuquan (Suzhou), China. In 2017, the station celebrated its sixth anniversary, so I set that progression as well. And… because it was November 22,2017 when I was playing with this information, I set the diurnal for that date. The progressions would have barely moved with the exception of two degrees on the anniversary Moon. With all the hullabaloo, I didn’t see much of anything showing in November other than the diurnal descendant was closely conjunct Pluto and some pending aspects. One aspect does not make a massive crash and I did not see immediate support for one, so I put the whole matter on my astrological back burner.
Fast-forward to early March, 2018, and the news cycle again lit up with warnings… now it was truly imminent. The experts had no clue of where or when, but definitely soon. Again, I pulled out my notes, set more diurnals, and found a strong indication for March 17th. So I speculated that could be the anticipated re-entry. I wrote Kris at AFA on March 9th to tell her my speculation. I was wrong… it did not come down on that date. Darn! Back to the drawing boards! Something happened and the Chinese space station was strongly affected. What could that have been?
It turned out there were geo-magnetic storms on the Sun around March 13-14th blasting towards Earth. With the 93-million-mile distance, we can see such storms in about eight minutes, but it takes physical time for such effects to travel from the Sun to the Earth. When they arrived, the storms disturbed the orbit of the Chinese space station between the 16th and the 19th and did change its trajectory for re-entry. The 17th had been my best guess, so it was time to wait and watch for actual re-entry. That occurred on April 1st at 2:16 PM (10W) northwest of Tahiti Island, French Polynesia, in open water; no damage was reported. That harmless splashdown in my book is called “dodging a bullet”! So what do the charts look like?
History The successful launch shows a Grand Fixed Cross with midheaven 3 Aquarius 14 opposed Mars 6 Leo 20, both squared Moon 5 Scorpio 46 and Jupiter 8 Taurus 53R. The Ascendant was 24 Taurus 25 conjunct Caput Algol (“losing one’s head”, which for the space station became loss of computers and telecommunication systems that occurred after its intended work was accomplished). The Ascendant was square Neptune at 28 Aquarius 35R, and eventually a veil dropped over the communication and shrouded the balance of the station’s life.
There was also a T-square in effect, The Sun/Mercury conjunction 6 Libra 03-37 opposed Uranus (expect the unexpected) at 2 Aries 26R (midheaven ruler), all square Pluto 4 Capricorn 56 in the eighth house of destiny. You would expect dynamic activities for a fiery and explosive launch into the cosmos. The launch and mission were successful, but glitches were afoot and the return muddled.
The progressions for the anniversary were relatively benign but the fourth house cusp was creeping up on the slower moving progressed Mars within the year, with Mars now separating from its square to Jupiter. Aside from that potential aspect, the progression seemed quiet.
I should mention I use diurnals for day-to-day activities as they are easy to cast and read. Simply take the birth data and change only the date to be examined and aspect diurnal to natal. Diurnals provide a personal and reliable midheaven and ascendant as well. Usually the diurnal angles are active.
Speculation My November 22nd research gave a diurnal with Pluto 17 Capricorn 35 tightly conjunct the descendant 17:43 with the Moon applying about 3 degrees away, widely squaring the diurnal Mars 19 Lib 25 opposition diurnal Uranus 25 Ari 15R, indicating a cardinal (crisis) T-square in the future (applying but not exact). I prefer tighter aspects.
The diurnal ascendant/descendant axis 17:43 Cancer/Capricorn was square natal Venus/Saturn conjunction 17 Libra 57 to 18:27 with Venus as the launch chart ruler. Diurnal Mars was conjunct the launch Venus/Saturn and square the diurnal Moon/Pluto/descendant. But this was a separating aspect (information about the past), not applying (information about the future). It just did not play out in that November moment of time.
The March 17th diurnal had Pluto at 20 Capricorn 58 directly conjunct the I.C. within one minute. Saturn 8 Capricorn 21 was triggering the natal cardinal T-square between Sun/Mercury/Uranus and Pluto. Diurnal Pluto had been triggering the natal Venus/Saturn conjunction, which I saw as the process of the decay of the orbit in general. Pluto is relentless, Saturn rules duration and time (and the launch mission), Venus rules the launch chart itself. Additionally, diurnal Pluto was in applying square to the diurnal ascendant/descendant. The chart was alive with activations. I read that combination as a bingo!
Resonance The natal 5-planet 30˚cluster (powerful): Sun/Mer/Ven/Sat Moon holds similar numbers for two March 17th diurnal 30˚ clusters: Nep/Sun/Moo/Ven/Mer OR Sun/Moon/Ven/Mer/Ura – both are operational. In my experience, resonance can occur wherever there is similarity in aspects. For example, any transiting Saturn/Uranus conjunction cycle will “resonate” in a person’s natal chart who has an earlier Saturn/Uranus conjunction; degrees or signs don’t have to match. This is much like a room full of untouched tuning forks that will resonate if their specific vibration is struck. Strike a “C” and all the “C”s in the room will resonate and activate without being touched! Aspects can do the same.
As we know, the station did not arrive back on Earth on March 17th. It did receive an electro-magnetic jolt from the cosmos about that time. One that changed its trajectory: bump.@SSC_NL pic.twitter.com/MdZgP1rX1R — Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek), March 20, 2018.
Actuality Re-entry occurred 2:16 PM (10W), April 1, 2018, northwest of Tahiti Island, French Polynesia, in open water, no debris damage reported. That gives me two charts to look at, the event itself and the diurnal for the launch chart. Most of the placements will be the same because the charts are describing one event from two perspectives. The midheaven, ascendant and Moon are subject to each perspective. The other planet positions will remain reasonably close. With the angles changed, the layout of the bodies within the houses are completely changed, and I am running out of column room. You can explore that concept.
The re-entry event chart has 17 Taurus 19 on the midheaven and 6 Leo 18 rising. That’s an interesting rising number. The launch Mars is 6 Leo 20 (2 minutes) near the natal fourth house cusp setting off the natal Fixed Grand Cross. And it just so happens the re-entry diurnal midheaven is 5 Leo 05. Three separately cast charts and they say this stuff doesn’t work!
The event/diurnal Mars/Saturn conjunction set off the natal Cardinal T-square. Remember re-entry is a process. The station circles the globe in a gradually decreasing orbit until it encounters Earth’s atmosphere, continuing the death spiral (orbit) as it catches fire from friction or explodes and those fiery pieces follow the orbit path until they burn up or reach the surface. It is a process, not an instant event. It takes a few moments on any clock for this process to occur. The diurnal Moon was 24 Libra 38, opposing diurnal Uranus 27 Aries 31. The event Moon was 00 Scorpio 43 having just opposed Uranus and moving to the opposition of Venus 2 Taurus 14. The key aspect to me was the involvement with natal Mars and its part in the Fixed Grand Cross, with transiting Mars conjunct Saturn triggering the natal Cardinal T-square.
Just because I can… look back at the September progressed chart with the advancing fourth house cusp conjoining Mars “within a year.” Actual event time was six months. I love Astrology!
Published in AFA Today’s Astrologer Apr 2018 vol 80 #4, republished with slight editing.
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