Hurricane Sandy, the Frankenstorm – Chapter 4

Atlantic City, NJ

by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

A very unusual realization happened as I was preparing the initial information for a look at the charts of Atlantic City and New York City. I had not yet prepared the information on New York City. What I discovered was specifically related to my Atlantic City research. Without warning, this seemingly simple workup became an astrological adventure for me.

You should be here when these things come up. I run around like a very small crazy woman, talking to myself and to any hapless person who happens to be in my vicinity. I dialogue with the universe as I grapple with the incoming knowledge, asking questions, getting and giving answers. The incident should be recorded for posterity, film-at-eleven type antics! I’m sure that method will offend the analytical types, and I do manage to do that from time to time, but I come up with good solid, provable, and replicable answers and information, much of which is new, at least to me. It started innocently…

Whenever I begin a piece of research, I do my homework on the internet, the world’s largest library. It was important that I find the correct date of birth for Atlantic City, so I started a resource document with biographical information, maps as necessary, websites, other resources, etc. While compiling the information for Atlantic City, I found sources for the Boardwalk itself, with dates of birth. Since about a quarter of the Boardwalk was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy and had to be rebuilt, I felt it deserved a mention in the article. I did my due diligence, chose what seemed to be most reliable, and set all the charts (natal, progressed and diurnal) for Atlantic City itself and did the same charts for the New Jersey Boardwalk. All that was left was to read those charts and compile the information as I did in the previous three chapters.

The name Sandy Hook came up in this information flow. How unusual – Sandy Hook, NJ, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT for the then recent (few weeks) mass killing of young children, and Hurricane Sandy. Sandy, Sandy, Sandy. Hmmm! About that same time my daughter mentioned that Camden, NJ had tremendous devastation and I wondered if I should link that into this article. I chose instead to work on Camden another time because there was so much devastation to so many communities, it would require more time and effort than I had available at that moment. So, I had to save that for further study. You would be amazed at the size of my “to do” folder!

In travel maps and source documents, I found Sandy Hook, a point of land with two lighthouses and a beach, and not a current community. This was where the earliest recorded explorer Giovanni da Verrazano anchored his ship on an evening in 1524. Ooooh! Dig a little deeper. The explorer landed at the tip of land that would eventually become New York City on April 17, 1524. So I set a chart for Sandy Hook, NJ as the evening of April 16th to the morning of the 17th in 1524. Evening and morning hours were dependent upon being able to see what the ship and crew were doing in potentially hostile territory since there was no electricity; therefore, light would be dependent upon sunrise and sunset at local mean time. This was spring, just past the Aries Ingress. I believe I am within twelve hours of a discovery chart. Wow! For such speculative charts, set noonmark of the known day, because the positions and aspects must fall between the two noonmarks, April 16th and 17th, 1524. Set April 17th, watch planetary motion between the 16th and 17th. Then look at the planetary positions and aspects. Bingo!

Discovery of Sandy Hook, NJ

April 17, 1524, 12:00 PM LMT

Sandy Hook, NJ

https://www.barstoolsports.com/

  • Sun 6 Taurus 56, Mars 4 Taurus 51, and speculative Midheaven 7 Taurus 39 are the degrees of the Hurricane Sandy Full Moon event.
  • Moon 29 Libra 34, an approaching Full Moon in Scorpio (within fourteen hours on the day’s clock) for the discovery.
  • Neptune 9 Pisces 45, Saturn 18 Pisces 12 (watch the midpoint*), close to the degrees of Hurricane Sandy’s Mars / Jupiter opposition.
  • Venus 3 Gemini 38, Uranus 01 Gemini 59, hard aspect to the degrees of Hurricane Sandy’s Mercury / Neptune square. Hmmm!

Reminder: When doing such a multiple of chart comparisons, be sure to pay attention to activation by midpoint. That one could escape detection unless you know to pay attention. When a cluster activates, the whole of the cluster activates. Figure out the midpoint of that aspect cluster and watch for activations. The timing is from the first hit to a cluster to the final activation of a cluster. Time elongates due to the degree stretch.

Does that give you enough connections between an event in 2012 and an event in? Digging deeper…

Giovanni da Verrazano

July 1, 1485, 12:00 PM LMT

Val di Greve, Italy

Explorer da Verrazano, for whom the Verrazano Bridge between New York City and New Jersey is named, was born in 1485. Hmmm! Digging even deeper in biography.com, there was no actual birth date, but his birthplace was Val di Greve, Italy. To speculate, I used the middle of the birth year. The fast-moving planets and angles will be probably worthless, but the outer planets move quite slowly so they could provide a reasonable ballpark in which to search. I set July 1, 1485, noonmark LMT. The birthplace was not in my program databank, but the village was forty miles south of Florence, so I adjusted the longitude and latitude coordinates and cast the chart. OMG again! There are two significant aspects from the outer planets to specific Sandy’s positions.

  • Neptune 12 Sagittarius 03 close to the degrees of Sandy’s Mars / Jupiter opposition. Remember that Neptune was still undiscovered. It obviously existed, but was unconscious in human experience.
  • Jupiter 00 Sagittarius 28R conjunct Sandy Mercury square Neptune. Bingo!

I am not yet even looking at the city of Atlantic City noonmark natal, progressed, Sandy landfall diurnal, the state of New Jersey natal, progressed, diurnal, or the USA natal, progressed, diurnal, but it is not difficult to deduce that  they will show connections as well.  For example, because I have done so much work with the timed U.S. chart, I know that natal Saturn is located at 14 Libra 47. Sandy Hook’s Pluto is 13 Libra 46, only1˚ orb. The listed nodes are 2˚ from the U.S. natal Neptune at 22 Virgo 24. I am definitely in a reasonable ballpark.

What I have, in effect, is a chart from 1485 that ties to an event in 1524 that ties to the U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776, to two crown colonies who ratified their position as states within the U.S. in 1787 and 1788, the official inauguration of the U.S. as an independent governing body in 1789, and an event called Hurricane Sandy in 2012. That is a 527-year span. The odds of connecting this complex of aspects between charts are astronomical… and they say this stuff doesn’t work! Oh my goodness, that could be the title to a book!

That is enough of my education by the universe. It is time to get back to the purpose of this article: the impact of Sandy on Atlantic City and environs. I want to do enough to show the thumbnail of the city plus the connections to the charts already covered, the U.S. Declaration of Independence and New Jersey, so I will sketch the connections quickly. More to the matter at hand is Hurricane Sandy and its damaging effects.

Atlantic City, New Jersey was born on May 1, 1854, and is located on Absecon Island on the east coast of New Jersey right on the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Sandy is not the first hurricane to do extensive damage. For example, the Great Atlantic Hurricane was a Category 3 storm that made actual landfall on Long Island September 15, 1944, but also did catastrophic damage to the seaboard cities of New Jersey and the east coast of the U.S.

Atlantic City, NJ

May 1, 1854, 12:00 PM LMT

Atlantic City, NJ

Atlantic City noonmark (speculative) thumbnail

  • Atlantic City has a Taurus stellium high in the noonmark chart, natal Pluto 2 Taurus 26, Sun 10 Taurus 58, Midheaven 11 Taurus 44, and Uranus 12 Taurus 27, giving an emphasis on big money, values, breakthrough or maverick energy, power and control plus visibility. Think: casinos!
  • The noonmark Ascendant is 19 Leo 33 and the chart ruler is that elevated Sun, with the verve, drama and stage presence of Leo along with Mars in the 1st in practical Virgo – lots of assertion, aggression, and dynamic activity.
  • The Moon, surprisingly, is in family-oriented Cancer, but just barely. If Atlantic City were born 76 minutes earlier on the clock, it would be a late Gemini Moon, multi-faceted, nimble, many-faced, communicative Gemini which sounds highly likely to me… but we must stay with the Cancer Moon for this exercise. Oh… the earlier time would also move the Taurus stellium solidly into the 9th house of promotion and publicity, also very possible.
  • One more important thing to point out for our quick view of this metropolis… Atlantic City is known for its fantasy concept with its gambling and theatrics. Try both Venus and Neptune in Pisces widely separated 10˚ in the house of big money. The last planet Venus passed over and absorbed its energy into its nature was Neptune. So Neptune was definitely part of Venus’s makeup.

Hurricane Sandy (timed) connections between Atlantic City noonmark natal, progressions and diurnal angles and Moon. WOW!

Atlantic City, NJ Progressed

October 29,2012, 12:00 PM LMT

Atlantic City, NJ

Atlantic City, NJ Diurnal

October 29, 2012, 12:00 PM LMT

Atlantic City, NJ

  • Progressed Midheaven 16 Libra 49 and Sun 13 Libra 36 opposed natal Mercury 16 Aries 20, and widely square progressed Jupiter 18 Capricorn 33.
  • Progressed Ascendant 25 Sagittarius 10 square natal Venus 25 Pisces 09.
  • Progressed Moon 24 Aries 49 widely square natal Jupiter 27 Capricorn 13.
  • Progressed Mercury 00 Scorpio 35 opposed natal Pluto 02 Taurus 26.
  • Progressed Venus 26 Virgo 49 opposed natal Venus 25 Pisces 09.
  • Progressed Saturn 15 Gemini 48R square natal Neptune 15 Pisces 21 and progressed Neptune 13 Pisces 47R.
  • Diurnal Midheaven 10 Scorpio 51 and Sun 6 Scorpio 41 opposed natal Sun 10 Taurus 58 and MC 11 Taurus 44.
  • Diurnal Ascendant 17 Capricorn 18 square natal Mercury 16 Aries 20 and progressed Midheaven 16 Libra 49, and conjunct progressed Jupiter 18 Capricorn 33.
  • Diurnal Moon 5 Taurus 22 conjunct natal Pluto 2 Taurus 26 and progressed Pluto 3 Taurus 05R, and opposed diurnal Saturn 2 Scorpio 52.

Atlantic City noonmark connections to U.S. timed natal:

  • AC natal Moon 00 Cancer 38 conjunct U.S. natal Venus 02 Cancer 43.
  • AC natal Jupiter 27 Capricorn 13 conjunct U.S. natal Pluto 27 Capricorn 34R.
  • AC natal Mercury 16 Aries 20 opposite U.S. natal Saturn 14 Libra 47.

Any more aspects by progression, AC noonmark to timed U.S. natal?

  • AC progressed Midheaven 16 Libra 49 and Sun 13 Libra 36 conjunct U.S. natal Saturn 14 Libra 47.
  • AC progressed Neptune 13 Pisces 47R much closer conjunct U.S. Descendant 11 Pisces 46.
  • AC progressed N Node 22 Taurus 40R square natal U.S. Moon 22 Aquarius 36. Bingo!

How about the noonmark birth of Atlantic City to the noonmark natal NJ chart?

  • AC natal Jupiter 27 Capricorn 13 opposite NJ natal Mars 24 Cancer 31R and NJ Uranus 29 Cancer 26R (watch midpoint).
  • AC natal Venus 25 Pisces 09 conjunct NJ natal Ascendant 25 Pisces 12, and square NJ natal Sun 26 Sagittarius 58 and NJ Midheaven 27 Sagittarius 26.
  • AC natal Mercury 16 Aries 20 widely opposite NJ natal Neptune 20 Libra 47.

How about Sandy’s progressed Atlantic City to the natal NJ chart?

  • AC Sandy progressed Venus 26 Virgo 49 conjunct noonmark Descendant 25 Virgo 12, square NJ natal Sun 26 Sagittarius 58 and N Node 26 Sagittarius 08.
  • AC Sandy progressed Uranus 15 Taurus 52R square NJ natal Pluto 14 Aquarius 28.

How about activations from the Atlantic City diurnal Midheaven, Ascendant, and Moon to the NJ natal?

  • AC diurnal Midheaven 10 Scorpio 51 square NJ progressed Mercury 13 Leo 32R, NJ Sun 7 Leo 55, and NJ Midheaven 6 Leo 26 (watch midpoints). *
  • AC diurnal Ascendant 17 Capricorn 18 opposed NJ progressed Jupiter 15 Cancer 16, and square Neptune 18 Libra 37.
  • AC Moon 5 Taurus 22 square NJ progressed Midheaven 6 Leo 26 and Sun 7 Leo 55.

Atlantic City Boardwalk     The Atlantic City Boardwalk is truly a famous landmark in its own right, with quite an interesting history. It was the first boardwalk in the U.S. Once you have the natal information, you can use the internet as a library to give you the happenings that have affected the Boardwalk over the century, plus years of its existence. I encourage using such well-documented historical places and events to learn mundane astrology. You learn by doing. Will you make mistakes? Some. But life is a big schoolhouse and there is no way I know of to avoid all mistakes. Just learn from them and do not publish junk astrology.

As mentioned, Atlantic City is located on Absecon Inlet. The Boardwalk begins at the inlet at its north end and extends about four miles along the coast to the city limit. It then continues into Ventnor City, about 1½ miles. The more northern part services more residential areas, and the commercial and popular boardwalk is south of that. The more residential Boardwalk was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, but the casino and more well-known Boardwalk was relatively undamaged by this storm.

Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk

June 26, 1870, 12:00 PM LMT

Atlantic City, NJ

The Boardwalk was official as of June 26, 1870, time unknown, so use noonmark, Atlantic City, NJ. The chart shows an enormous cluster / stellium / forceful conjunction starting with Pluto 18 Taurus 28 and ending at Uranus 21 Cancer 08, all within 63˚. This cluster includes eight planets: Pluto, Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Sun, Uranus, plus the Midheaven and N Node.

  • Venus / Pluto is a 6˚ conjunction.
  • Sun / Uranus / N Node / Midheaven in Cancer.
  • Moon / Mars / Jupiter / Mercury is a Gemini stellium.

If you are into chart patterns as I am, this is almost a perfect bucket chart with Saturn as the “handle”. I prefer the analogy of a kitchen funnel with nine of the ten bodies in a cluster and with one planet opposing the grouping- all the input and energy is focused through a single outlet. Talk about being dedicated for a purpose!

The Boardwalk was 142 years old in 2012, so the progressions are 142 days from the natal. A new progressed stellium in Scorpio contains Sun, Mercury, Venus and Midheaven, but the progressed chart pattern is far more spread out. The Scorpio stellium now opposes the natal Taurus planets. Neptune has progressed from a tight square to the natal Cancer stellium to an even tighter progressed pattern for Sandy. Because the Boardwalk (BW) was caught up in the state of New Jersey and Atlantic City patterns, I will limit this to a look at the triggers that contributed to the destruction of the northern end of the landmark.

Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Progressed

October 29, 2012, 12:00 PM LMT

Atlantic City, NJ

Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Diurnal

October 29, 2012, 12:00 PM LMT

Atlantic City, NJ

The three areas we have been watching throughout these charts are early fixed, early cardinal and mid-mutable, with early mutable thrown in for good measure.

  • early fixed hosts the BW progressed Ascendant 6 Aquarius 24,
  • early cardinal hosts the Sun 4 Cancer 49 and Midheaven 4 Cancer 14, a little wider than I would like.
  • Mid-mutable hosts natal Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury and progressed Mars 9 Virgo 46

*Please look at the chapter 4 spreadsheet which follows to see all this information in a color-coded format.

Your turn:     As I later proofed this chapter, the Atlantic City Boardwalk had just experienced a horrific fire. Atlantic City’s Seaside Beach (Park) just finished rebuilding the damage from Hurricane Sandy at a cost of $8 million. With the information available at this moment, “the fire started at Kohr Brothers frozen custard shop on the FunTown Amusement Pier around 2:00 Thursday afternoon. The fire escalated to six alarms shortly before 4 pm…” Source: KWY-TV, Philadelphia. Later reporting provided 2:15 pm as the start of the fire.

As luck or fate would have it, there was a professional gathering of fire fighters nearby and 400 trained personnel fought the battle until evening. Since it was mostly wood, the fire kept spreading despite the number of firefighters. The way they limited and eventually won the day was to cut away part of the boardwalk to provide a firebreak much as they do with forest fires. For the parts that burned, the destruction was complete. It is not known exactly what started it, although I did see a remark by city officials that the homeless frequently camped beneath the Boardwalk and that small fires were common. That is purely speculative and not proven, but an interesting possibility.

As a result, I learned far more about the Boardwalk than previously, and it has had an eventful history as far as fire and other damage occurrences. Of course, I set the charts for the fire…  September 12, 2013, at 2:15 PM EDT, Seaside Park, NJ, same coordinates as Atlantic City (listed on the spreadsheet).

Since the fire has nothing to do with Hurricane Sandy, the subject of this book, I will not go into further delineation at this time. However… if you choose, you can research it yourself.

You have noonmark charts for New Jersey, for Atlantic City, for the Boardwalk, for Hurricane Sandy that required rebuilding, etc.

  • Use natals, progressions, diurnals and events as previously done in the examples.
  • Keep your hard aspects reasonably tight, but remember you are looking at a work in progress.
  • Separating aspects relate to the history of what you are studying.
  • Applying aspects relate to the event and the future of what you are studying.
  • Not every aspect will be on the money because it may be a grouping of aspects that trigger for the event.
  • Watch midpoints.
  • Create a spreadsheet if it helps you see the connections easier.

Want to do more? Read about Boardwalk history on the internet library and extend my Boardwalk timeline for your research. Then use the same procedure outlined in my hurricane research and the immediately previous paragraph. You can do this.

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