Train Tragedy in Greece

According to ABC News, shortly before midnight local time: “TEMPE, Greece — A passenger train carrying hundreds of people collided at high speed with an oncoming freight train in a fiery wreck in northern Greece, killing 32 and injuring at least 85.” Many of the passengers apparently were students returning to university after a break. The New York Times wrote (italics mine): “The cause of the crash, which happened just before midnight on Tuesday near the small town of Tempe, was not immediately clear.”

The exact time of the accident was not reported at the time of this writing. Major news sources indicated that the crash took place shortly before midnight. To cast a tentative chart I used 11:55 pm (5 minutes before midnight) and the coordinates of the town of Tempe, Greece as found on Google Maps. Here is the chart with Placidus houses.

This accident took place not long after a Venus-Jupiter conjunction in Aries, which was quite visible in the sky just after sunset. It seems odd that such a horrible tragedy occurred so close to the joining of the two most benefic planets of traditional astrology. Perhaps the proximity to Chiron and the dispositorship of Mars in the 8th diminished their benevolence. In addition, the Jupiter-Venus conjunction is closely connected to Mars and the Transneptunian Hades on the 90-degree dial.

Not surprisingly the chart is quite ominous. The greater malefic Saturn is angular, conjunct the IC and also conjunct an angular Mercury, the planet of travel and ruler of the 8th of death. The “modern” planet Uranus is angular at the Dsc, opposing the Ascendant. Uranus symbolizes sudden, unexpected and often explosive events, including major accidents. The lesser malefic Mars rules the Ascendant and closely conjoins the 8th Placidus Cusp, a signifier of human mortality. Mars symbolizes violence, fire and accidents.

The 90-degree dial for this event is also instructive.

In the 90-degree dial the Mars/Hades midpoint, symbolizing grave misfortune, equals the Aries Point and is closely linked to the MC, Vulcanus (extreme force), the Uranus/Poseidon midpoint (sudden light), and Admetos (cessation, separation, death). The Mercury/Saturn midpoint is a “travel” axis and lies close to the MC of this chart.

Addendum 05 March 2023: Based on initial news reports, I can a chart for “shortly before midnight” what all the news services were reporting. Since then a more precise time has emerged. It is now stated that the crash took place at 23:21 EET (= 21:21 UTC) at coordinates 39°50′54″N, 22°31′00″E. Hence, the chart discussed above is one for time reported in the initial news about the crash rather than the crash itself. It is interesting how the 23:55 chart describes the event. Here is the revised chart for the event, cast for 23:31 EET:

Initial reports said the crash occurred “just before midnight” but more recent news sources give a time of 23:21 EET, which is the time the above chart was cast. The Asc at 10 Scorpio 44′ is opposite the Solar Eclipse of 30 April 2022 wich took place at 10 Taurus 28′. The Total Lunar Eclipse of 8 Nov 2022 took place at 15 Taurus 59′ where Uranus lies in this chart. The Solar Eclipse of 20 April 2023 will occur at 29 Aries 50′ in close square to Pluto in this chart.

The 90-degree dial for 23:21 EET looks like this:

At 23:21 EET the Asc and MC are in earlier degrees than in the 23:55 EET chart. The other positions are essentially the same. In this chart, Uranus is Near the Asc/MC midpoint which is closely connected with the Mars/Hades midpoint and 0 Aries symbolizing a destructive event causing death.