Hurricane Sandy and Lord Neptune

An old infrastructure and an old system, is a bad combination. ~ Gov. Andrew Cuomo

Neptune Calming the Tempest by Peter Paul Rubens (1635)

The Frankenstorm that was once Hurricane Sandy had all the hallmarks of Mercury square Neptune written all over it.  This was the prevailing aspect of the day, as Mercury, the planet of wind, entered Sagittarius (big blustery wind), and not only entered into mutual reception with retrograde Jupiter in the windy sign of Gemini, but then made an immediate square with Neptune, the lord of the briney deep.  Fueled by a Full Moon on the 29th of October, and Mars opposing blowhard Jupiter, the tides rose up to 13 feet above normal and flooded coasts and inland low lying coastal regions in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.  The storm then merged with a Nor-easter dumping several feet of snow in Virginia and the North Carolina mountains. 

“So for those of you who are on the barrier islands who decided it was a better idea to wait this out than to evacuate, and for those elected officials who decided to ignore my admonition, this is now your responsibility,” Governor Chris Christie said, “We will not be able to come and help you until daylight tomorrow.”

Weather experts and politicians pleaded with people situated in low-lying vulnerable areas, to evacuate.  But many refused, even the Mayor of Atlantic City who encouraged his constituents to stay, which Gov. Christie referred to above.  This also had Mercury in Sagittarius (communications colored by belief, perceptions altered by misconception, exaggeration) square Neptune (confusion, deception, fear of deception, seeing only what you want to see).  After Hurricane Irene came and fizzled out after a lot of pomp and circumstance in 2011, many perceived the clarion call of danger about Sandy as a great deal of exaggerated posturing.  They didn’t believe it was going to be as bad as everyone claimed it could be. 

 

Atlantic City in the Aftermath of Sandy

Neptune is also a sign that dissolves and negates.  When coming up against the winged messenger, the message is lost or becomes garbled.  So the experts and politicians begging and pleaded like Cassandra, only to have their pleas fall hopelessly on deaf ears.  The intent of their message was not heard.  Mercury/Neptune also implies distrust and fear of loss.  People did not want to leave their homes, their belongings, and did not necessarily trust the messenger, never mind hear them.  Until it was too late to leave any more. 

Mercury, the winged one, also is the planet of travel and transportation which came to a halt in the aftermath of Sandy.  All the area airports closed, New York City’s extensive mass transit came to a halt, and the ubiquitous fallen trees and debris blocked rails and roadways.  This was from my notes for my New Moon Workshop on October 15th:

“Confusion reigns from October 27th thru November 15th!  This feels a little like the King of Hearts here... Terrible time to travel.  Avoid it, if it can be helped!  Things will get lost, connections missed....”  To say the least.

West 8th St. and Ave. C in New York City

And in the background still hovers the Uranus/Pluto square of necessity for change.  Changes that can no longer be ignored or their necessity denied.  Pluto in Capricorn periods are those in which it becomes evident that structures, the very infrastructure itself, are either old and decayed, or outmoded, or no longer relevant, and may in fact be self-limiting, and/or dangerous.  This was certainly evident in this storm, as power went dead and power plants failed and even exploded, like so many cascading dominoes.  But what was also evident, is that a new system, a new strategy, a new infrastructure is now necessary for what is being termed The New Normal.

Breezy Point in the Borough of Queens, New York

Hurricane Sandy was the 19th hurricane in 2012.  The average number of tropical storms and hurricanes have increased with each passing decade.  After a Summer of rampant and destructive wild fires sweeping across the midwest, while crops failed slogging through a relentless drought that left much of the West looking like a barren moonscape, we are not only privy to more frequent storms, but more massive monster storms.  Remember the monster tornadoes in 2011? The floods in Australia?  The crazy snow storms in Russia? The rare and inconceivable, has now become the new normal.  Sandy covered a massive area of the United States never before seen.  To deny the human participation in global climate change is not only irresponsible at this point, but criminal. 

I really believe that the idea that carbon gasses cause global warming is the greatest hoax ever presented to the American people.~ Senator James Imhofe (Oil and Gas companies have donated millions of dollars to Imhofe’s campaign) 

According to George Lakoff, professor of cognitive and linguistic science at Berkeley University in California, global warming systemically caused Hurricane Sandy.  Systemic causation is not direct.  You don’t know when it will happen, or where it will happen, but we know that it will.  Even a part of a 1 degree rise in temperature adds enough energy to equal a number of atomic bombs, so that all this extra energy is coming to the earth, which systemically is causing droughts, fires, and monster storms and catastrophes.  Its results are now legendary.  And we can no longer, through the auspices of Mercury square Neptune or any other configuration of delusion, be ignorantly self-deceived, seeing only what we want to see, hearing only what we want to hear.  The truth is here, and it cannot be denied.