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The Canberra Firestorm
& the December Eclipse

Recent events in Australia have seen some remarkable developments, including massive destructive bushfires. These fires have destroyed many homes and have devastated much of Canberra, the nation's capital. This article by Richard Giles examines this disastrous fire in the light of the effects of the Total Solar Eclipse of December 2002.

Saturday January 18th marked the second worst day in Australia's history for bushfire devastation. It was the largest loss of property since the Ash Wednesday fires in the 1983 when over 2,000 homes were lost in Victoria and South Australia.

At the latest count some 530 homes were destroyed in the 24 hours from January 18th and 4 people died on the day. The death toll in this conflagration was minimal compared to the terrible Ash Wednesday fires when over 70 people died. For that we can thank those above for the miracle.

The 4th December total Solar Eclipse position played a key part in the events of Black Saturday and I'll briefly examine how here. I've used a chart for 3 pm Saturday 18th when the fireballs began roaring through Canberra's suburbs. The sensitive degree in the Australian chart set off by the eclipse in December was 12 degrees of Sagittarius. Australia is a predominantly Sagg and Capricorn country and at the time of the fires there were three planets and the Moon's Nodes all travelling in Sagg and the Sun plus two others in Capricorn. A pivotal planet was Mars which had just entered Sagg and was approaching conjuncting of the Australian nodal axis on the day, half a degree away, when the fireballs hit.

Venus meets Uranus... and Kali

The second pivotal planet is Venus, goddess of love, value systems, creativity and the ruler of the property and possessions that us humans all call our own. In a national chart it represents a nation's asset wealth, financial and value systems. Here's the other key to the events that unfolded on the 19th. Venus is also an aspect of the Hindu goddess Kali who is the manifestation of the forces of destruction and regeneration. Kali is known as the 'Terrible Mother' - all men fear her as she both consumes them and then rebirths them.

Venus was about to conjunct the Eclipse point on the 19th and in fact was at one degree away on Saturday 18th. The eclipse also happened within one degree of the Uranus/ Venus midpoint in our national chart. According to Ebertin (Combination of Stellar Influences), the midpoint of Uranus-Venus is about peculiar inclinations, inconstancy and the tendency to be swayed. In a national chart its about sudden changes in the countries' finances or values.

I looked for a connection between Venus and Uranus in the 3 pm Canberra chart and found Uranus was 76 degrees from Venus. This angle is called the "bilien" and is 75 degrees. The bilien is a little used aspect which Kepler described as causing malice, treachery, passion or grief. Its a multiple of 15 degrees and the bilien is five times 15, a very powerful harmonic. You could clearly say that for Canberra and Australia that day and the whole week, passion, tragedy and treachery (from the fires) were very strongly manifested.

Venus holds all our need for possessions and with it, and the eclipse in our national Eighth House (life, death and joint possessions), its not a surprise that millions of dollars of property were utterly destroyed by the fires. Remember though the other side of Kali. She is both destroyer and regenerator, so something new and different is sure to come from this great tragedy.

Mars and the Moon's Nodes

Mars' position meanwhile holds surprises too. The national Moon's nodal axis is at 1 degree of Sagg/ Gemini and Mars was within half a degree of the axis. Mars is the god of fire, war, action, and violence among other things. He's also an ancient fertility god. Mars hit us with the ancient fire god. Martin Schulman in Karmic Astrology defines the nodes as representing cause and effect relationships by which we lead our lives. In a national chart its the countries' karma both past and future. He also points out the North Node is the symbol of the future as yet untried.

The transiting Moon on the day was in security conscious Cancer in our national Third House which is about our communication, media and neighbours - the connection we have with those close to us. Its interesting to see that neighbours saved other neighbours as the fire services where nowhere to be seen in some suburbs. The Moon had just squared the progressed Australian Sun in Aries earlier in the day as the fires closed on Canberra. The progressed Sun is where we have evolved to as a nation today. With the Moon squaring the progressed Sun things had deteriorated in relation to communications. Moon square Sun can bring about challenges to routines and structures, which is an obvious manifestation on the day and several areas of life reach crisis at the same moment. With the progressed Aust. Sun in the 12th House, subconscious motives were determining outcomes instead of real needs. The ACT fire services determined they could handle it, did not call in enough outside help from NSW fire services underestimating the threat. Plus, all communications with ordinary Canberra residents had mostly broken down and people reported afterwards that radio stations were still reporting no danger when fires were beginning their fiery path through the suburbs.

When Venus reached the exact eclipse point the next day, on Sunday, and Mars was exact to the Nodal axis, the full impact of the terrifying fires had sunk into the Australian public's consciousness through Sunday papers and new services.

Pluto, the Dark Transformer...

Transiting Pluto, the ruler of fundamental changes and regeneration, has been opposing our nation's Pluto over the last eighteen months. Australia has experienced atrocity and death in East Timor, a hateful and exclusivist refugee policy, citizens' shootings in Melbourne, the Bali bomb attack on our tourists and now a massive fire attack on the nation's capital.

Try applying all this to the events of January 18th and the assault on the nation's capital by out-of-control firestorms, devastating everything in their path. Its an omen for the political and international events our country is now involved with and has been involved with through our undemocratic refugee policy, our support for pre-emptive strikes on other nations, our official attitude to indigenous peoples and our need to posture on the world stage for war.

Remember, Mars is the ruler of war and in its out-of-control energy state is wanton violence causing death and destruction. The lesson from this Mars attack on Canberra with the Venus (property) connection is a lesson for the very immediate future of Australia. Will we learn this lesson or do we have to go down the path of more loss, devastation and death to get the full import of our current international policies?

On February 5th Mars conjuncts the 4th December eclipse point. What will happen then? Watch this website for more comment.

 Richard Giles is a Feng Shui practitioner and astrologer who is available in Australia for consultations on your home and business. He has been involved in astrology for 15 years and writes for several Australian magazines. He is also the director of the Earth Healing School of Queensland, running practitioner courses in Earth Healing and Geomancy. Click to contact Richard Giles.