by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
With all the headlines about air tragedies, especially involving the use of military force against non-combatant passenger planes with astounding loss of life, my brain wanted to research each one, but that is just not possible. I recently read an article in AFA’s Today’s Astrologer Bulletin Vol. 45-10, October 1983 by Barbara May relative to Korean Flight #007 that was shot down by a Russian fighter jet in 1983. The well-written article about that specific tragedy captured my attention. Knowing that more information has been released in the intervening period I dove right in and found amazing connections between the events and charts. I got myself really confused about locations from one end of the world to the other, across the International Date Line, multiple time zones, UCT times, and legal records. I was rescued by my very smart daughter, Lyndy, who helped me pick my way through the confusion. This research produced five charts that tie together to tell the story in an amazing way. This was not just an event, this was a process.
Let us begin by understanding that the flight itself was a regularly scheduled occurrence at that time of day. As a matter of fact, there was a companion flight that took off a short time later for the same destination, traveled the scheduled route, and it arrived quietly and safely. The flight from JFK Airport in New York to Anchorage, Alaska was stage one. Stage two went from Anchorage to Seoul, Korea. Because of the political machinations at that time, spies, espionage, etc. were expected at every moment by all sides. This became the story of a plane that deviated from its intended flight path with tragic consequences. It was a cascade of errors similar to the Chernobyl incident. At any moment, better decisions and communication could have created a happier ending.
Korean Air flight 007 was scheduled to leave August 30, 1983 at 11:50 PM EDT from JFK. For whatever reason, it departed 35 minutes later on August 31st at 12:25 AM EDT. It flew the first leg to Anchorage and departed from there at 4:00 AM AHDT on its way to Korea. Within a few minutes of take off, a small deviation occurred in its flight trajectory that over the vast distance and extended time of the flight escalated into a very large and deadly deviation. Instead of flying in open waters and jurisdictions, the plane flew not only into Russian airspace but also over Russian physical territory not once but twice. In reading the official transcripts, I was amazed that the pilots or the air traffic controllers did not get this irregular trajectory corrected. What was then available technology did have legitimate problems, but the period of time involved makes you wonder why that technology and those people under-performed.
Traveling west to east, the flight crossed the international dateline and August 31st gave way to September 1st automatically. Part of my confusion was that the international dateline is not a straight 180˚ longitude line as are all the other north/south lines on our globe. Instead, it zig-zags at both its southern and northern extremes, jutting far to its east in the northern Russian territories. Each chart must reflect accurate time zones. When I looked at the takeoff charts and the shoot-down chart I could easily see that there was a missing element to the charting. Something had happened between the multiple beginnings and single ending that made the tragedy inevitable. I suspected that the “something” was the violation of Soviet airspace, which would have occurred hours earlier than the actual crash into the ocean. Here is what I found.
The scheduled midheaven was 20 Aqu 04 and rising was 14 Gem 42. The Moon was 3 Gem 19 solidly in the 12th house of self-undoing, opposed Jupiter 2 Sag 40 and Uranus 5 Sag 12 all T-square Sun 7 Vir 11 in the 4th. No planet was near the angles, but retrograde Venus was in the 4th, which I would see as a somewhat protective element. The takeoff ran late, and that became the path not traveled.
The actual takeoff midheaven is 29 Aqu 08, void of course for the next four minutes of clock time. The ascendant 23 Gem 32 had just passed (conjunct) over the destiny-oriented north node 21 Gem 47R and was applying to the opposition of Neptune 26 Sag 29R right on the descendant in the 7th. Neptune was angular and the aspect was applying. Venus was no longer in the 4th as possible protector. The angle was moving away and so was retrograde Venus, both separating (the past). The Moon still opposed Jupiter/Uranus, and all square the Sun, was applying and active. The Sun had moved closer to the 4th cusp angle, still in the 4th so definitely the T-square was angular. Now it gets interesting.
The takeoff for the second leg of the flight occurred at 4:00 AM as mentioned. The midheaven was 26 Aries 08 and the ascendant 20 Leo 22. Remember the scheduled takeoff midheaven of 20 Aquarius 04? The Anchorage ascendant was opposed that point. Remember the Anchorage chart is both the scheduled and the actual and therefore it belongs with both the scheduled and the actual JFK takeoff charts. More later. Right now, we will stay with the Anchorage takeoff. Quite a bit of time has passed from the JFK takeoff. From EDT to AHDT is a massive zone shift, to say nothing of the actual time passed on the clock. The Anchorage chart has Pluto at 27 Lib 32 in the 4th conjunct the angle at 26 Lib 08, tight and applying (the future). Another malefic (Pluto) is directly on an angle of the takeoff and it has company, an out of sign conjunction to Saturn 00 Sco 35. This conjunction did not help.
The mutable T-square with Moon/Jupiter/Uranus/Sun is still in play, but the whole of that T-square is now separating. What is the Moon doing from this chart? At 8 Gemini 24 it is widely applying to the conjunction of the scheduled JFK takeoff chart and eventually the N Node (destiny) of all the charts. Venus is angular in the first, but wide from the angle and retrograde, not offering much protection. The Jupiter/Uranus conjunction has moved into the 4th but is part of the T-square, definitely not protective.
According to the records, at 4:51 AM on September 1, 1983 at the 13E time standard, Korean Air 007 violated Russian airspace for the first time, continuing on flying across the physical Kamchatka Peninsula, then back into Soviet airspace a second time before entering international waters. As close as I can tell from the reading material, Soviet satellite communication had been damaged by a bad storm. It is uncertain if the Russians were completely aware of the incursion. My chart implies they were aware, and they were NOT happy. To me this is the pivotal chart in the cascade of errors that became a shoot-down of the passenger plane a few hours later. Why? More malefics on the angles, a very telling chart.
The midheaven 18 Ari 04 does not tell us much until you look at its ruler Mars 11 Leo 32 directly conjunct the ascendant 12 Leo 26. This will tie directly to the shoot-down midheaven in just a moment. The Pluto/Saturn out of sign conjunction is in the 4th about 8 degrees from the angle and applying. The Sun ruler is still involved in the mutable T-square, but all points are separating, the die has already been cast. The T-square which had moved into the 4th house for the Alaska take off has moved back into the 5th house because of the very odd jog of the international dateline at the high northern latitudes of Russia. Venus is no longer anywhere near the ascendant, it is now on the 2nd house cusp, again due to that odd jog in the international dateline. Mars on the ascendant, ruling the midheaven controls this chart.
The shooting is where so much of the confusion came. There are more than enough detailed records and they do not really match up that well. Does that surprise you? The charts tell the story better than the record because the charts do not have the human element of fudging the truth! According to the records and the pilot, the shooting occurred at 18:26:46 near Moneron Island, Russia. After the initial flyover of the Russian peninsula, the plane went into international air space. Unfortunately, it then flew back into Russian airspace, over another Russian landmass of islands and back out into open water. As I said, the Russians were well aware this time and were not happy.
Apparently, there was a missile test going on at the time, so spy plane thinking was paramount. Several Russian military leaders concurred that the plane must be shot down over international waters. From the evidence conversations, they did not care if it were a passenger plane. Three fighter jets tracked the plane. They were not sure if the passenger plane were even aware of their presence despite firing tracer bullets as a warning. The Russian pilot who took out the unarmed passenger plane maneuvered himself under the plane, aimed two rockets up and slightly ahead of it, armed them and shot them off two seconds apart. The passenger plane flew directly into hell that day. A direct hit would not have been necessary and apparently did not occur.
There are several more minutes of plane maneuvering and even a cockpit voice recording before the plane went down. The wreckage was later identified at 46 N 15, 141 E 14. As close as Lyndy and I could tell, the shooting and the wreckage locations are located about a quarter degree separate by longitude and latitude. The ascendant of the shoot down was 21 Leo 07 tightly opposed the scheduled takeoff from JFK midheaven and conjunct the takeoff from Alaska ascendant. The midheaven was 10 Taurus 00 square Mars and the ascendant of the air space violation chart. These five charts tie together as a process, a potential plus two actual takeoffs, a pivotal violation, and the take down. We are still questioning the conclusions and so the process itself continues.
In the general discussion between my daughter and I, we noted the political environment at the moment, and the paranoia about spying and espionage, real or imagined. We wondered about the potential of a Korean plane deliberately flying over the area of a Soviet missile launch. How much did the Russian leaders know? Cover-ups, misinformation and outright lies have been admitted. But… we do not know if all that stops with one group or is a way of life in such political circles. Speculation leads us on a merry chase!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007 contains official records.
Published in AFA Today’s Astrologer Aug 2014 vol76#9, republished with slight editing.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.