Starcatsastrology’s Blog

Eclipses, The Pre-Natal Solar Eclipse And Captain Sully

(and God help me with this Mercury Retrograde!)

If you didn’t get a chance to catch me live last night on Storm Cestavani’s radio show hosted by Ask1Radio.com, here’s a courtesy link to the MP3 of the broadcast — have a listen!

As Storm mentioned at the top of the hour, we haven’t had 6 eclipses in one year since 1941. I forgot to mention on air a couple of interesting eclipse factoids:

In 1935 there were 5 solar eclipses but only two lunar ones. That is so exceptional that it only happens once every 300 years.

In 1951 there were two solar eclipses but no lunar ones. That was also an exceptional eclipse year.

Here’s a perfect example of how a Pre-Natal eclipse and the lunar nodes played a vital role in public life.

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III

January 23, 1951, 12:00 PM (no time known) CST+6:00, Denison, Texas

Captain Sully’s pre-natal solar eclipse took place on September 12, 1950 at 19 Virgo. As you can see from Sully’s birth chart, The good captain was born with a number of planets in the degree of his lunar nodes and in the exact degree of his pre-natal solar eclipse.

Sully’s North Node is 19 Pisces, the degree transiting Uranus (ruler of aircraft and aviation). Transiting Saturn, now retrograde opposes Uranus from Virgo and will do so a total of 5 times between now and 2010.

2009-2010 Saturn-Uranus Oppositions:

Nov 4, 2008

Feb 5, 2009

Sept 15, 2009

Apr 26, 2010

Jul 26, 2010

Sully’s Venus (19 Aquarius), Pluto (19 Leo), Neptune (19 Libra) are all in the degree of his natal lunar nodes and the degree of his pre-natal solar eclipse. As you can see, Sully’s pre-natal solar eclipse was set off via our current planetary transits to his natal lunar nodes.

Shout out to Michael Wolfstar who caught the USA Vesta connection in his Stariq column on Sully. “In addition, Sully’s fateful North Node at 19º Pisces is exactly sextile the U.S. Vesta (at 19º Taurus), with both being activated by transiting Uranus (at 19º Pisces), the planet of unexpected crises. Any astrologer concerned about security and safety issues—whether financial, technological, or military—would be well-served to use Vesta.”

Another shout goes to Astrologer Shelley Ackerman “The days before one’s birthday, especially when an eclipse looms nigh, are often dramatic. On Thursday, January 15, 2009 little did veteran pilot Chelsey B. Sullenberger III know when he woke up that morning, that by the end of the day, he’d be the man of the hour. . . ”

U.S. Airways Flight 1549 Take-off

January 15, 2009, 3:24 pm, Flushing, NY, 8 Cancer Ascendant

Pilots and pundits remarked again and again that no pilot had ever successfully ditched an aircraft and certainly no pilot had ever been ever to ditch on water. What in the Take-Off chart can we find that helps us identify why Sully was successful?

First, the Ascendant at 8 Cancer is closely aligned with the USA’s (1776 chart) natal Sun at 13 Cancer which is conjoined to the luckiest of fixed stars, Sirius. The Moon at 28 Virgo is void of course. This is a key to Sully’s success. First, it shows that the flight itself would come to no avail. Nothing would come of it (a flight that wouldn’t make it to it’s destination) but also anything that might occur to the craft itself would “come to no avail.” Void of course moons often signal “nothing comes of the matter. No consequences.”

Next, Uranus (ruler of pilots, aviation and aircraft) at 19 Pisces is aligned with Sully’s future oriented North Node. His Natal Venus at 19 Aquarius (Uranus ruled) is aligned with the Take-off flight’s Chiron. Chiron may signify wounds, but the base of the word Chiros means “hands.” Chiron transiting Aquarius signals a steady “hand” as well as a healing one. Remember that Captain Sully walked his entire aircraft twice to make sure all passengers were off the plane before he disembarked. Sully’s lunar nodes, aligned along the service axis of Virgo/Pisces was supercharged by virtue of his pre-natal eclipse being activated by current planetary transits.

The Take-off chart’s Jupiter (the benevolent one of the planetary gods) at 2 Aquarius, is conjoined to Sully’s birth sun. Sully has an out-of-sign conjunction to safety and security Vesta (29 Capricorn). Jupiter’s conjunction to his sun and close proximity to Vesta provided that stroke of luck Sully needed to align with his keen nano-second decision-making skills. It helps when you’re a qualified member of MENSA by the time you hit the age of 12! See Sully’s bio

It bears mentioning that the preceding Full Moon of January 10 (21 Capricorn 02) held a crucial mid-point secret. The distance between the Sun and Neptune (22 Aquarius) was 6 Aquarius — the degree of our upcoming Solar Eclipse (January 26, 2009). Pluto’s (life and death issues) ascending node in the Full Moon chart (yes, planets also have nodes) was 20 Cancer conjunct the Full Moon and in opposition to the Sun. FM Mercury at 7 Aquarius sits on the midpoint of Sun-Neptune and reiterates the upcoming Solar Eclipse degree of January 26.

Sully has what I call a natal T-square of brilliance in his birth chart. He’s got Mercury in opposition to Uranus and both planets square Saturn exalted in the mental balance sign Libra. The focal point or outflow point for energy caught in the T-square is Saturn. Quick thinking (Mercury-Uranus) is tempered and disciplined (Saturn) judicially (Libra) so that decisions made can have the best outcome.

Of course, Sully’s Mars conjunction Jupiter shows what a hot dog pilot he was in the AirForce. Placed in the sign of Pisces and in the degree of the Lunar Nodes (9 Aquarius/Leo) of the Flight 1459 chart point to Sully’s years of service (Pisces/Virgo) in the military (Mars-Jupiter conjunction) paid off. All 150 passengers and members of the crew aboard Sully’s flight survived the ditch into the Hudson. We all benefitted from Sully’s act of brillance, bravery and service at a time when our nation needed to cheer and feel proud again.

What a wonderful way to step into Barack Obama’s inauguration as our 44th president 5 days later.

But he had swear his oath twice!

And that’s my subject for another column. — Starcats, January 23, 2009

Reminder:

Our first eclipse is a Solar one at 6 degrees 30 minutes Aquarius set for January 26, 2009 at 2:59 AM, Washington, DC. It’s the first supercharged lunation (all eclipses are lunations, but not all lunations are eclipses) of Barack Obama’s presidency.

Sully-Flight 1459 Timeline

Courtesy of Newsday.com

January 17, 2009

US Airways Flight 1549 was scheduled to take off at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday. It pushed back from the gate at 3:03 p.m. and took off at 3:24. Seven minutes later, the jetliner crash-landed into the Hudson.

What follows is a timeline of the event, and a sampling of NYPD and FDNY calls that track the emergency response.

3:24 p.m.: Takeoff from LaGuardia.

3:25: Pilot reports bird strike five to six miles from airport, declares an emergency and asks to return to airport.

3:28: Just north of the George Washington Bridge, jet’s altitude is 2,000 feet and speed is 232 mph.

3:29: First of what officials call 120 911 calls reporting crash in the Hudson.

3:31: Jet drops from radar, apparently has landed in water.

3:32: NYPD Emergency

Service officers, on patrol in midtown Manhattan, board Circle Line at Hudson River and 42nd Street to go out to crash site.

3:35: FDNY receives reports of plane in the water. … Also receives multiple calls in the Bronx reporting a plane with engine fire.

3:36: FDNY Rescue 1 to their Manhattan base: “Urgent! Plane in the water with people out. We’re launching our boat!”

3:37: FDNY Battalion 9: “Have all units respond to the Intrepid. That’s where Rescue 1 is.”

3:40: FDNY Battalion Chief 9 to Manhattan dispatch: “Urgent! We have a commercial airliner down, have all units respond to Circle Line Piers, we have people on the wings, we have a Circle Line Boat pushing it to the pier.”

3:46: FDNY division chief to Manhattan dispatch: “Urgent! I want all the Marine Units responding on this incident! At this time we have numerous people on the wings on the plane.”

3:53: From a senior fire official’s vehicle: “Notify Division 1 as per FDOC [the department’s operations center in Brooklyn], there are ‘ passengers and five crew, total of 151.”

4:13: FDNY Marine Battalion:

“Marine 1 and Marine 6 have lashed the plane to ensure the remaining fuel and engine do not break away.”

4:20: FDNY FieldCom [a mobile communications unit]: “As per the pilot, there is no one left on the plane.”

Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc