Hurricane Sandy and the Uranus/Pluto square

Chart for landfall of Hurrcane Sandy - 29 October 2012, 20.00, Atlantic City, New Jersey

It's being called "Frankenstorm", and now it's reached landfall it's causing havoc and destruction along the eastern coast of the US. Its effects are being felt far inland, with heavy snowfall in Virginia and lashing winds and rain. If you're reading this in the US you'll know more about it than I do, but it's headline news here in the UK and what people caught up in this storm are having to face and cope with is very much on my mind. Stay safe and take care if you're in the thick of it.

I've set the chart for landfall and it's an edgy-looking chart with plenty of red oppositions, and the ever-present Uranus/Pluto square. The red oppositions cross and form what looks like a Star aspect pattern. In the Huber Method of Astrological Psycholgy, a red Star pattern can indicate tearing implosive energy. But a Star which crosses in the centre of the chart - like this one - does not create a problem. In this chart, the centre of the chart is symbolic of the eye of the storm, an area of mostly calm weather found at the centre of strong tropical cyclones. The storm rages around it.

A look at the positions of some of the planets shows Jupiter on the AC opposite Mars on the DC, on the 1/7 Encounter axis. Jupiter expands and enlarges all it has contact with; the rage and ferocity of Martian energy in this storm is not to be under-estimated. This opposition is completely linear, not attached to anything else, and will behave like a see-saw or push-me/pull-you until it wears itself out.

The Sun is in Scorpio, a sign not known for taking prisoners, and is conjunct Saturn making this a formidable combination of energies. As it's also Full Moon, they are opposite the Moon and span the 5/11 Relationships axis. Will people be looking out for themselves in this crisis, or remembering to help each other? Hopefully the latter.

And what about Uranus and Pluto? Uranus sits in a strong position in the 11th house. It's in the cardinal zone of the house and to me seems to be crying out loudly that it's time to make changes  and use more of the new, clean, ecological technology that will bring some respite to what we're doing to our planet. Climate change isn't a myth - it's here and happening now. Weather patterns are changing dramatically and yet politicians and climate-change deniers sleep on.

Pluto at the other end of the square is stressed before the 8th cusp. Stressed planets have to shout and be pushy to get themselves noticed. Pluto before the 8th cusp is yelling "Wake up before it's too late". The 8th house is about society at large and our shared resources as well as transformation and death, and Pluto is ultimately urging us, as human beings, to perfect ourselves.

This reminds me of what Christopher Fry says, in his poem Sleep of Prisoners:

"It takes so many thousand years to wake,

But will you wake for pity's sake!"