NYC Subway’s 108th Anniversary
by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
On October 27, 2012, the New York City subway system celebrated its 108th anniversary. On that date in 1904, the underground subway opened with New York City’s Mayor George McClellan personally driving the first subway train underground at 2:35 PM and a legend was born. There had been earlier construction and progress on the underground and the elevated train railway, which were later phased out. For a few years the several systems worked jointly, plus there had been preliminary and temporary attempts to start the subway system. Efforts and experiments were begun as early as 1869, just after our Civil War, during the reconstruction phase and during what is called the industrial revolution. These earlier versions will not be included in this article. Do some research – the internet library makes it so easy.
While the anniversary should have been celebratory, it was tinged by a churning Atlantic hurricane approaching the USA’s northeast coast. This was to be made worse by the approach of a massive cold front from the west, a Nor’easter. Destiny was being delivered to New York City and its subway system. Two days after the anniversary, the two storms collided and combined into the mega storm hurricane / Nor’easter dubbed by the media as “Frankenstorm” that will go down in history as Hurricane Sandy. On October 29, 2012, the unthinkable and the unimaginable hit and demolished much of the coastal areas of New York, New Jersey, and the USA Eastern Seaboard. There was so much devastation, you did not know where to begin, where to look, where to feel the anguish. This event occurred on a Full Moon with high tides, and the brackish waters from the New York City seaport area (Atlantic Ocean plus Hudson River) poured into the underground subway system completely flooding it, effectively closing a major traffic artery for the city that never sleeps.
To give credit where credit is due, New York’s Governor Mario Cuomo and New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg went directly to the MTA to get the water out of the subway as quickly as possible, to de-flood, re-establish and reopen the system… and they did just that. This is an applause moment. Scant days after the hurricane, the first section of the subway re-opened and step-by-step the system has blossomed back into activity. It did take years to re-establish the totality of the system. See websites listed at the end of this chapter for news reports and photos. Salt and brackish water intrusion into this system with its underground
electrical and electronic systems was massive, widespread and it will take much time to learn about and to repair the saltwater contamination alone. This moment of devastation became a new event for the subway system that will impact its future and that should become a future astrological research project.
Astrologically, the birth of the subway was October 27, 1904, 2:35 PM, New York City, NY. What do we look for? Use the astrological alphabet as a beginning point.
- Underground: Pluto / Scorpio / 8th house.
- Transportation: Mercury / Gemini / 3rd and Jupiter / Sagittarius / 9th (an axis).
- Mechanical: Mars / Aries, Mars / Scorpio.
- Cutting edge technology and engineering: Uranus / Aquarius / 11th.
- Flooding: Neptune / Pisces, possibly Jupiter as co-ruler / 12th, Moon / Cancer / 4th.
- Organization, structure, building: Saturn / Capricorn / 10th.
Teaching Moment: Let me explain the concept of an axis activation… pick up a pencil or a pen and write with it. Notice that as you write with the tip, the eraser end wiggles. No matter how hard you try, you cannot wiggle one end of that axis without the other end wiggling as well. Both ends are involved, one directly (the writing tip), and the other (eraser end) caught up in the action of the writing tip. The same is true if you use the eraser end – the writing tip will also wiggle. The houses are activated in that way as are the signs, but in a more abstract way. The houses share a concept. The signs share a point of view.
NYC Subway Open
October 27, 1904, 2:35 PM EST
New York, New York
New York City Thumbnail
- Begin with the Sun and Mercury in Scorpio conjunct in the 8th with ruler Pluto in the 4th. The Sun identity and transportation Mercury joined in Scorpio in the 8th of economic and expanded values, a juggernaut, affecting the masses, water related, point of destiny. Pluto is underground in the 4th of home, the city’s residential basement.
- The Moon representing the nearby population in Gemini / 3rd transportation, close to the home / nest represented by the IC squaring mechanical Mars in Virgo, which is Mercury ruled, and therefore possibly another transportation sign, and conjunct the North Node, a destiny, a collaboration, development of society and cultural relationships.
- Pisces rising, old ruler, expansive possible transportation indicator Jupiter retrograde to reach back to bring something forward for completion in the 2nd of personal values, and new ruler Neptune in the Moon’s natural water sign of Cancer in the 5th house of speculation. The subway was a massive creative, imaginative. speculative venture.
- Saturn of structure and business was in the 12th of hidden or behind the scenes activity, in Aquarius of invention and futuristic, cutting-edge technology.
Astrologers, pick up on this simple natal thumbnail and read it thoroughly, expand it and then share your findings with us.
I realized the 108th anniversary of the subway coincided with a lesser-known astrological aspect: the Tredecile. I have always considered the quintile family to act as a mental trine – talent, a gift of skill inherent or easily experienced. I had never thought of it as the potential of negative impact, but here are several consequences I had not anticipated. I chose to symbolically direct the natal planets 108˚ to see if any aspects that were produced would in any way explain this devastating event to the NYC subway. As always, I will be looking at hard aspects because they can cause the type of activity that such a devastating event would require. The math is explained by the first example of the Sun. Aspects are listed directed to natal, almost all applying.
- Natal Sun 03 Scorpio 58 = 213˚58’+ 108˚ = 321˚58’ = 21 Aquarius 58 directed.
- Directed Midheaven 4 Aries 38 widely square natal Neptune 8 Cancer 07R.
- Directed Ascendant 23 Gemini 19 widely opposite natal Uranus 27 Sagittarius 06.
- Directed Venus 21 Virgo 10 square natal Pluto 21 Gemini 30R.
- Directed Mars 4 Cap 03 widely opposition natal Neptune 8 Cancer 07.
- Directed Jupiter 11 Leo 58 widely opposition natal Saturn 14 Aquarius 24.
- Directed Saturn 2 Gemini 24 opposition natal Venus 03 Sagittarius 10, widely square natal ascendant 5 Pisces 19.
- Directed Pluto 9 Libra 30 slightly past square natal Neptune 8 Cancer 07.
- Directed N Node 5 Capricorn 27 widely opposition natal Neptune 8 Cancer 07.
Since directions are an arbitrary measure, do any of the actual progressions match up in any way? Ordinarily I do not aspect direct to anything except natal, but I am curious as to whether the 108˚ tredecile in any way coincides with the progressions. Hard aspects only are listed, progressed to direct.
NYC Subway Progressed
October 29, 2012, 2:35 PM EST
New York, New York
- Progressed Midheaven 2 Aries 06, Uranus 2 Capricorn 59, Neptune 5 Cancer 39R close hard aspect to directed Midheaven 4 Aries 34, Moon 00 Libra 45, Mars 4 Capricorn 03, and N Node 5 Capricorn 27.
- Progressed exact Sun / Saturn 23 Aquarius 28 close to directed Sun 21 Aquarius 58.
- Progressed Venus 10 Aries 07 opposed directed Pluto 9 Libra 30.
- Progressed Jupiter 25 Aries 41 opposite directed Neptune 26 Libra 07.
- Progressed Pluto 19 Gemini 46R square directed Venus 21 Virgo 10.
This was very speculative on my part. The early cardinal grouping is huge. I have not ever done this type of comparison before and would probably not put this in my astrological toolbox without investigating it further.
Returning to my standard progressed to natal and progressed to progressed aspecting…
- The critical aspect is the progressed Sun / Saturn exact conjunction in the 8th of destiny.
- Progressed Mars 13 Scorpio 42 square natal Saturn 14 Aquarius 24.
- Progressed Jupiter 25 Aries 41 conjunct natal Jupiter 23 Aries 58R, 2˚ past the Jupiter return but note the retrograde position. A Jupiter return is in progress and is incomplete.
- Progressed Sun / Saturn conjunct at 23 Aquarius 28, bingo!
- Progressed Moon 25 Taurus 05 2˚, two months past square to progressed Sun / Saturn 23 Aquarius 28.
- Progressed Moon 25 Taurus 05 conjunct Caput Algol, the most malefic fixed star in our toolbox, identified as losing one’s head, devastating, bingo!
- Progressed Midheaven 2 Aries 06 square progressed Uranus 2 Capricorn 59.
NYC Subway Diurnal
October 29, 2012, 2:35 PM EST
New York, New York
As usual, the NYC subway diurnal is relatively equal to the transits in the Sandy landfall natal chart. I will use the Sandy planet positions for both 8 PM and midnight, plus the subway positions. Remember the diurnal Midheaven, Ascendant and Moon are the only positions that can change substantially between the chart for an event and the personal diurnal for the day of the event. For the purposes of clarity, I will list each set of aspects for easier comparison. I will use the Sandy key aspects we have been following: early cardinal, early fixed and mid- and early mutable. Note also the Full Moon was 6 Taurus 48.
- Early fixed: 8 PM Sandy Sun 6 Scorpio 58, Moon 8 Taurus 53, and Saturn 2 Scorpio 54.
- Early fixed: Midnight Sandy Ascendant 7 Leo 48, Sun 7 Scorpio 08, and Moon 10 Taurus 52.
- Early fixed: subway diurnal Sun 6 Scorpio 47, Moon 6 Taurus 41, and Saturn 2 Scorpio 53.
- Early fixed: subway natal Sun 3 Scorpio 58 and Mercury 01 Scorpio 37.
- Early fixed: subway progressed Mercury 5 Aquarius 21.
- Mid-mutable: 8 PM Sandy Ascendant 15 Gemini 34 and Jupiter 15 Gemini 18R opposite Mars 16 Sagittarius 30.
- Mid-mutable: 11 PM Sandy only the Mars / Jupiter opposition is in play, not the Ascendant.
- Mid-mutable: subway diurnal Midheaven 19 Sagittarius 14, Mars 16 Sagittarius 22, and Jupiter 15 Gemini 19.
- Mid-mutable: subway natal Moon 12 Gemini 45 and midheaven 16 Sagittarius 38.
- Mid-mutable: subway progressed Pluto 19 Gemini 46R.
- Early cardinal: 8 PM Sandy Venus 1 Libra 46, Uranus 5 Aries 24R and Pluto 7 Capricorn 24.
- Early cardinal: 11 PM Sandy Venus 1 Libra 58, Uranus 5 Aries 23R and Pluto 7 Capricorn 24.
- Early cardinal: subway diurnal Venus 1 Libra 32, Uranus 5 Aries 24R and Pluto 7 Capricorn 24.
- Early cardinal: subway progressed Midheaven 2 Aries 06 and Uranus 2 Capricorn 59.
- Early mutable: 8 PM Sandy Mercury 00 Sagittarius 37 square Neptune 00 Pisces 24R.
- Early mutable: 11 PM Sandy Mercury 00 Sagittarius 45 square Neptune 00 Pisces 24R.
- Early mutable: subway diurnal Mercury 00 Sagittarius 28 square Neptune 00 Pisces 24R.
- Early mutable: subway natal Venus 3 Sagittarius 10 and ascendant 5 Pisces 19.
I construct tri-wheels when I set my diurnal charts for events with the diurnal as the base chart, inside position and chart cusps, then insert the natal chart as the middle wheel and the progressions as the outside wheel. The key aspect really stands out, usually on the angles. The key to this particular set of charts is mid-mutable with multiple connections. This is an IO tri-wheel and the angle cusps are darker than the intermediate house cusps, and therefore easy to locate. When I set the tri wheels, I place the event diurnal, in this instance the hurricane, as the base wheel (inside) which sets the cusps for the comparison. The middle wheel is the natal and the outside wheel is the progressions for the event.
Please see the Chapter 6 spreadsheet following to see all this information in a color-coded format.
Web stories:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/new-york-city-subway-flooding-_n_2043710.html
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.