Tsunami Reflections

While spending some time here in Bangkok, Thailand, I've had the opportunity to think about ways in which this disaster could have been predicted. Besides looking at the various national charts of the countries affected, Vedic astrologers have long used the Pisces New Moon charts cast for the national capital to discern future events for the next 12 months.

The traditional Indian approach is to use only the geocentric Moon position and cast the chart from that. However, recently there has been an upsurge in interest in the topocentric or parallax-corrected chart which assesses the position of the Moon from the perspective of the observer on the surface of the Earth rather than from the centre of the Earth.

Here are some of the key data from the countries most affected.

Geocentric Topocentric

Bangkok, Thailand Asc 23 AQ Asc 1 AQ
MC 26 SC MC 8 SC

Pluto 28 SC (2* conj MC) Mars 5 TA (3* conj IC)
Mars 5 TA (1* sextile with new moon)
Sun/Moon 6 PI

Jakarta, Indonesia Asc 1 PI Asc 7 AQ
MC 2SG MC 10 SC
Pluto 28 SC(4* conj MC) Mars 5TA (2* square Asc)
Uranus 10 AQ (exact square MC)

Colombo, Sri Lanka Asc 1 AQ Asc 14 CP
MC 7 SC MC 21 LI
Mars 5TA(1* square Asc) Venus 22AR (1* conj IC)
Rahu 18AR (3* conj IC)

Certainly one indicator of trouble in 2004 is the close sextile between Mars and the Sun/Moon within one degree. however, since this applies to all countries, we need to look more carefully to the angular hits for specific national capitals.

While we see some appropriate hits here including Mars, Pluto and Uranus, there are some puzzles as well. With the exception of the topocentric Indonesia chart, there isn't a chart that stands out to the extent that one might expect. And why have Venus and Rahu angular in the Sri Lanka topo chart? Sure one could make an argument that it represents harm to tourists, but surely they were only a small percentage (<5%?) of the casualties there. If any chart should have had a Venus affliction, it should have been Thailand where foreign tourist casualties comprised up to
50% of total casualties.

For this reason, I think it makes more sense to look at both charts as a pair that one puts together. So for the Thailand chart, we can see Pluto on the angles in the geocentric chart and Mars near the IC in the topo chart. Together, the two charts begin to represent the worst natural disaster in Thai history.

All in all, these charts are a little underwhelming for an event on this massive scale although it is clear from these charts that the year did not bode well for any of the countries involved. As always, it is difficult to rely on only one chart.






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