Hurricane Katrina…Back for an encore in 2006?

The widespread and unnecessary disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2006 is just beginning to drop out of the news. Of course, it’s just the beginning of the new hurricane season, and with global warming being what it is, experts say hurricanes will become more and more powerful and destructive. The question on everyone’s mind is “will there be another Katrina for New Orleans?” For another similar disaster would surely bring the city to its knees for a long time.

We do not have the founding chart of New Orleans, since it, like most cities, just sort of accumulated over time. There are some historical charts floating around, but it is unclear how useful they are in predictive work. The best we can do is to use a Cancer Ingress chart set for New Orleans. Let us first look at the 2005 chart to see how Katrina shows up. With Ingress charts, we must be very careful, since the planetary configurations are identical anywhere in the world (and it is funny to see some modern astrologers cast charts for a particular location and seeing death and destruction visited upon their own hometown…the same aspects are happening world-wide, folks!). Thus, we will have to watch out for close aspects to angles and their rulers, since that is the only thing that will make the New Orleans chart unique from, say, the Washington, D.C. chart.

So back to our 2005 chart. Doesn’t look too bad, right? At least that’s what I thought when I first glanced at it. Mars, Lord 1, rules the location for the duration of the summer season. It is essentially strong, but accidentally (and remember, accident is what counts in these charts) very weak in the 12^th house. The preceding eclipse is lunar, and as such has a luminary above the ground, which makes the effects strong, according to Lilly. Further, the eclipse will be partially visible from North America, further increasing its effects on especially the eastern part of the United States. So this eclipse will have a lot to say about the hurricane season in New Orleans. The Lord of the eclipse is Mars, ruling the elevated Moon in Scorpio (double whammy of wetness). Mars is in a hot and moist sign in the eclipse chart, which adds yet more moisture to an already drenched eclipse. Lilly writes that when an eclipse happens in the watery triplicity, it "presages a rot or consumption of the vulgar sort of people [these were the hardest hit group in the entire Katrina devastation, as the poorest areas of New Orleans were most affected by the broken levees]...destruction of Water Foul, great inundations and overflowings of the Seabanks [!]." And this eclipse was not even angular in New Orleans - merely elevated, and then "plugged in" to the Cancer Ingress.

In the Ingress chart, Mars is also opposed by Jupiter, the planet of rain. Jupiter (and hence Mars) squares the IC/MC axis of one’s position in the world. Jupiter will afflict the city’s standing – despite being a benefic, here it is a rather malefic influence, due to its contact with Mars and the angles. Jupiter is not done with New Orleans yet – it is conjunct Vindemiatrix, a star of the nature of Saturn and Mercury. It is generally malefic, and is specifically associated with overreaching and causing one’s ruin. Finally, we get the Moon in Sagittarius trining the Ingress Ascendant. The Moon is conjunct the fixed star Sabik, which brings “wastefulness, lost energy,” among a host of other undesirable qualities. Indeed, these are words that well describe the relief effort mounted by FEMA after the disaster.

What about 2006?

The 2006 Cancer Ingress chart for New Orleans has Cancer ascending, so the Big Easy will be ruled by the Moon for the season. The Moon is in Taurus, so it is exalted, and in the cold and moist 4^th quarter. So how is New Orleans? It’s all right, but seems to be doing better than it really is (exaltation), because it is rather wet. The Moon is applying to an opposition of Jupiter, the planet of rain, in a cold and moist sign, which itself is retrograde. Could this mean that New Orleans will be inundated once again? If so, let us hope it is only with heavy rain and not with floods stemming from broken levees. The Moon also applies to the inauspicious Mars-Saturn conjunction in Leo on the cusp of the 2^nd house. There is some hope here that serious disaster may miss New Orleans this year, however, since none of the above problematical planets aspect the angles, as happened in 2005.

And the fixed stars? Wasat, of the nature of Saturn, is right on the Ascendant. According to Robson, the constellation to which Wasat belongs (Gemini) indicates “trouble and disgrace, sickness, loss of fortune, affliction and danger to the knees.” Wasat itself brings violence and malevolence. This obviously is cause for concern. Let’s see what the preceding eclipse is doing: this is the total solar eclipse on March 29, which fell on 8.30 Aries, two degrees away from the Cancer Ingress MC. Despite this strong and malefic contact, it may not bode too badly for New Orleans. The eclipse chart itself shows the eclipse below the earth, on the cusp of the 2^nd house, so its effects are not nearly as strong as they would have been had the eclipse occurred above the earth or at least in a cardinal house. The 2006 eclipse does not pass over North America, which further mitigates its effects.

Lilly writes: “you shall usually find that where the Ascendant or Mid-Heaven of those Cities or men doe concurre with the place of Heaven Eclipsed or defective, that in a great measure the effects shall appear and manifest themselves upon those men, Kings, or Rulers, Kingdoms, or Cities, especially if the Eclips be above the Earth, for all Eclipses are held to extend their effects most forcibly when above the Earth, weakly and not so vigorously when under the Earth; but that they have also then some manifest operation greater or lesser, I could manifest by many examples of Eclipses in this age, and confirm my own judgement by the opinion of severall learned men; I shall instance only Cardan Seg. 7. Apho. 81…Eclipses in the fourth House or Heaven are more forcible than those in the eighth or eleventh, those in the first more strong than they in the ninth or twelfth, and it must be acknowledged that although Eclipses in the first House cannot be visible, yet we are by no Author prohibited to judge them…”

So 2006 will likely not pack the same punch as 2005 did for New Orleans, due to the lack of angular contacts in the Cancer Ingress and the “invisible” and succedent preceding eclipse So what can we expect this year? Probably a good, healthy storm over New Orleans, but this time with far less water than before. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.