The Titanic

This is the chart of the maiden voyage of the passenger ship Titanic, claimed to be unsinkable when she embarked on her journey from Britain to the USA on 10th April 1912. Sadly, the claim of unsinkablity proved to be wrong as she sank 5 days later after being hit by an iceberg off the Newfoundland coast.

The chart is set for 10th April 1912 at noon, which is when she sailed from Southampton, UK. The centenary of her sinking is on 15th April. This is being marked by exhibitions and by the media in various ways.

The maiden voyage of this luxurious liner, which had a strong "Upstairs Downstairs" theme with its well-to-do passengers on the upper decks and steerage passengers in the less glamourous and cramped quarters below decks, is well-documented. Interestingly, the chart image for this event could be seen as a capsized/upturned boat with Jupiter at the apex of what might be a sail or funnel - but then it's easy to say this after the event and in view of the tragedy that took place.

The overall aspect pattern shape is one which presents a solid picture - there is a 5-sided structure pinned firmly at the top of the chart by Sun, Mercury and the Moon's North Node. All are in Aries, all are in 10th house, and all would appear to herald a new start, an important event and the embarkation on a new venture. There are no less than 3 Learning triangles embedded within the overall structure, suggesting much to be learned from this event (tragically, there was).

Saturn sits, intercepted, on the Low Point of 10th, in steady and practical Taurus, and sends a questing, searching green quincunx aspect to that isolated Jupiter which in turn aspects the Sun, forming a Search figure. I can only speculate on the significance of this here (and the answers are all there in the subsequent research that was made - the provision of lifeboats was insufficient), but were the safety measures checked and secured sufficiently? This would be be one of Saturn's questions to Jupiter, symbolic of learning from experience, wisdom and knowledge, and in astrological psychology, the planet associated with perception and vision. Interestingly Jupiter becomes unaspected - and therefore not linked in to the main aspect pattern - at the time of the iceberg hit and Titanic's subsequent sinking.

You can find out more about Low Points and aspect patterns, such as Learning triangles and the Search Figure by visiting astrologicalpsychology.org where there are courses and a variety of books with more information available.