The Christchurch Shootings - an astrologer’s take The Christchurch Mosque Shootings - an astrologer’s take by Graham Ibell 28th April 2019 Summary This article explores the astrology of the Christchurch mosque shootings on the 15th March 2019 from various directions, including transits to the charts of Christchurch, New Zealand and the Prime Minster, Jacinda Ardern, and through an analysis of the event chart itself. Taking the latter as the chart of an acute flare-up of a chronic collective/social ‘disease’ an attempt at a ‘diagnosis’ is made, and ‘remedy’ suggested. Introduction The worst incidence of mass shooting in New Zealand’s history were carried out early in the afternoon of Friday 15th March 2019 at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand when the worshipers were at prayer. Fifty people were killed, and another 50 wounded, many seriously. The worst since the Aramoana Massacre of November 19901, it has sent massive shock-waves throughout the country and internationally. Once considered beyond the reaches of terrorism, New Zealand has been shockingly shown that it, too, is a part of global extremism; nowhere escapes the possibility of a fare-up of the collective shadow. In the reactions to the killings tremendous grief and heart-felt care has arisen, as well as an awakening to an alarming Islamaphobia yet unacknowledged in the country. 1 Thirteen people were killed in the small seaside township near Dunedin after a neighbourhood dispute. See https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramoana_massacre [email protected] Page !1 of !15 The Christchurch Shootings - an astrologer’s take The attack was carried out by a 28-year-old white man, who had planned the attacks over the last two years, thought to be nourished by his travels through the Balkans and several Islamic countries since 2012. Although his date of birth is not available at the time of writing, he was born between March 1990 and March 1991 in Grafton, Australia. A photo of him, said to be taken at the Iron Man competition in which his father competed in mid-October 1991, shows him as an early-toddler, perhaps a year old, suggesting his birth was in the second half of 1990. Of the little personal astrology that we can extract from such vague details 2019 is his Saturn return year. That this current period is also the Saturn return of the Aramoana Massacre (Saturn then was at 20º Capricorn) is therefore interesting, particularly, as I explore below, when looked at against the chart of New Zealand. In the spirit initiated by the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern not to refer to the killer by name, I will refer to him in this article simply as the killer or the shooter. There is a curious and, I believe, not insignificant, angle on this, which encourages aspects of my stance in the analysis below: in not naming him, beyond denying him any perverted immortality, we are not falling into the trap of locating the evil in this man alone; it hints that in some sense he was carried by something darker, bigger and deeper than just his twisted, broken personality; moreover - and critically - we are gently being invited to acknowledge some degree of collective responsibility. The bought to mind words of mystic Rudolf Steiner, in what’s referred to sometimes as the Michaelic Verse. Written to inspire courage in the face of world challenges I was particularly drawn to its line referring to the on-coming future “… we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by a world direction full of wisdom”. Yes, it’s hard to hold such an idea in the face of such pointed and extreme cruelty. Yet I believe it is an important position for us to hold if we are not to be swept up in projective blame or victimisation, and to enable something constructive to be wrought out of it. From this stance the following questions, which, to be of any relevance, an astrological analysis should help to answer, arise: Can we make sense of an otherwise randomly destructive event? What is it trying to show us? Where is it leading us? What is the bigger context in which this event falls? What healing or redemption is shown in the chart itself? What follows, along with showing poignantly relevant astrological symbolism, is my humble attempt to address these, a work in progress. What I won’t tackle is the question, posed esoterically, “why Christchurch again?”, and that question that any non-astrologer could be fairly expected to ask: “could astrologers have predicted such an event so it could be prevented?”. [email protected] Page !2 of !15 The Christchurch Shootings - an astrologer’s take The Big Picture It’s important at the onset to consider the moment in history in which we collectively find ourselves, at the delicate and difficult transition between astrological ages. As we move from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius we are all suffering from an unavoidable collective anxiety, confusion, depression, alienation and loss of supporting symbol structures. These collective Ages form and carry the deepest strata of humanity’s relationship with itself and the cosmos, thus in the 200+ year transition period that we are currently living through it is so easy to get extreme polarisation, of those holding onto the old against those determined to usher in the new, with most going around in circles not having the surety of either. Whilst this is never a justification for the shootings, to help make sense of this or an increasingly frequency of similar events it is important to be able to see them also in this larger context. The Archetypal Context At the smaller, more graspable scale, two major inter-planetary cycles are coming to a close over the coming year or two: the 20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycle (December 2020) and the 32-38 year Saturn-Pluto cycle (January 2020), whilst we see the final year of the extensive outgoing square between Uranus and Pluto (2007-2019, using a 10º orb). All three contribute their own ‘tone’ to the underlying zeitgeist. The very end of a cycle suggests decay, contraction, a dying, perhaps a sort of collective kenosis, along with the inevitable backlash of resistance and collective anxiety. Key aspects along the Uranus-Pluto cycle (114-140 years) have been linked to transformative ruptures in the social and political fabric that force seismic cultural shifts. Through the recently transited signs of Pisces/Aries (Uranus) and Sagittarius/Capricorn (Pluto) we have seen that played out particularly through difficult religious/inter-cultural and institutional/hierarchical themes2. But it’s the dying stages of the Saturn-Pluto cycle, captured in the close applying conjunction in this event (under 4º), that stands out as the most significant and relevant cycle. This is a cycle linked to: “intensification of division and hostile conflict, greater ambience of threat and danger, tendencies towards authoritarianism and tyranny, totalitarian impulses, mass unemployment and economic hardship, organized violence and oppression, mass suffering and death, historical trauma, grave endings, scapegoating and projection of shadow, rigid or rigorous discipline, extreme capacity 2 For more on this see Richard Tarnas’ book Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a new world view. Viking. [email protected] Page !3 of !15 The Christchurch Shootings - an astrologer’s take for sustained effort and systematic organization of resources, and the will to confront situations of mortal danger and moral darkness, whether the shadow within or evil without.” Richard Tarnas, World Transits, an overview3, p.176) These times, Tarnas says, have “a distinctly darker and graver character than that of other periods”. One can see that clearly in even a cursory review of the intervals in which these two planets are in hard aspect. Of relevance to this very event is the Saturn-Pluto opposition previous to this current conjunction, in 2001/02, during which the World Trade Centre bombings on 11th September 2001 took place. Although not causal of this shooting and many subsequent darker world events, as Tarnas shows, it is symbolically linked to and carried by an on-going cycle through which humanity is confronted with its shadow. But note in the quote above the redeeming possibilities of a deeper moral strength and a preparedness to engage with the hidden and the dark, one of the great challenges and opportunities the world faces. Tarnas’ words seem significant when confronted with the event in Christchurch. Unsurprisingly, we find this Saturn-Pluto conjunction in the 8th house of death and crisis in the shooting chart4. The Event Chart The major focus of this article is going to be an analysis on the event chart itself, which proves rich, nuanced and instructive. Later I hope to show how locating relevant symbolism in the event chart enables a deeper understanding of the transits to related charts. Stay aware that, as is often the case with such approaches to a chart, planets may carry multiple levels of meaning simultaneously. We have in an event chart of this nature, I believe, a precious opportunity. Seeing this as an acute flare-up in the collective body of humanity brings to mind those medical practitioners who, whilst maintaining genuine concern for their patient, are able to also see, or trust in, the potential gift of an acute illness; as traumatising and abhorrent an event this is, it could be seen as chance to divine a corrective course. Though I cannot profess to have the skills or insight to do this well, I hope my attempts below show it as a valid perspective, and something that could be built further on.