You are all welcome to the U.S. Coast Guard map information.

Map showing site of oil rig can be seen at this link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uscgd8/4551845001/sizes/o/

Here is the portion that shows the location.
Prog demi-solar anlunar for the event using 10 pm, CDT. I hadn't noticed that this chart had come in before the incident. The data for BP Oil is from Kepler's data bank. RR XX. Using this data and a noon chart for April 14, 1909 yields the following connections for the site of the incident.

The western square to the progressed anlunar MC is 275?52'. Return Pluto is 275?38'.

The MC of the progressed anlunar is 5?52'. The IC 185?52'. XX natal Uranus/Neptune midpoint 184?39'.

The Zenith of the progressed anlunar is 18?52'. XX progressed Mars/Saturn midpoint is 18?30'. 1909 BP Sun/Saturn midpoint is 18?08'. BP Sun/Mercury midpoint is 18?39'.
Bob

PS In explanation of the many errors in my work I will disclose that I am dealing with very painful, debilitating, back problems and my girlfriend has had to be taken to the emergency room 3 times in the last 4 weeks. Both situations have affected my focus during this time.

Hi Steven,
The reference is in the middle of page 354, under Jupiter, but in the facsimile edition it is spelt 'oyle'. I think your sense of what was intended by the word is correct - originally mineral oils and natural extractions for various uses, like oil for lamps. I don't disagree with anything you say, and yet personally I don't have a problem connecting the original word meaning meaning to the substance we think of, which comes out of oil-wells, either. Its an oily substance and an extraction from the earth, and there is obviously some historically recognised similiarity of principle for it to receive the same name. I think it is quite fitting that oil, like honey, comes under the signification of Jupiter. These 'essences' are precious, in just the same way that 'essential oils' are precious -- all of these things seem reflective of wealth. At the moment Saturn doesn't seem right to me. Then again, I used to accept the modern association of Neptune over oil - now I can't imagine why I once thought that was very appropriate.

Regards
Deb

here are a couple of observations

Significators for oil

Within fossil fuels, coal appears the best Saturn-signified product because its rock-like appearance fits compression associated with Saturn. It is of course black, Saturn's color, as is oil. One of the differences between oil and coal is that oil has missed some amount of geological compression relative to that received by coal. So oil is less 'dry' than coal, this lessens the argument for oil as a Saturn-ruled commodity to some degree.

In some part of America, oil is known as 'black gold' which may have entered the American consciousness through an old sitcom 'The Beverly Hillbillies' whose intro song included 'black gold' as well as 'Texas tea' as oil descriptors. Both of these names might offer clues on solving the puzzle.

So far, I have found the sign of Taurus to work well as a significator for oil. It started about five years ago when I researched the horoscope of Red Adair, the legendary fighter of oil well fires. In this chart, Capricorn rises with Mars/Taurus in the 4th (QS) of things buried. In this speculative rectification (my own, no birth time known), I found Red Adair's largest oil well fires were timed by directions of Mars to the angles:
I also considered the rise of the U.S. oil industry in the context of the last three Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in Taurus. In a separate post on the Jupiter-Saturn opposition thread, I mention that placement of the JSC degrees in particular Egyptian bounds helped to further refine historical trends for the relevant 20 year period:

1880s JSC Taurus. bound = Venus/Taurus. Rise of corporations, Standard Oil a prime example, Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 an 'anti-thesis' action.

1940s JSC Taurus. bound = Jupiter/Taurus & Mercury/Taurus. Role of oil dispute with Japan as a trigger for Pearl Harbor; dominance of American corporations (and US oil industry in particular) following WWII.

2000s JSC Taurus. bound = Saturn/Taurus. 'Peak Oil' the new fear of energy scarcity. Concern on Saudi Arabian oil reserves as motivator for securing new energy supplies; Pipelines between Russia/Eastern Europe and proposed pipelines through Afghanistan major poker chips in geopolitical power plays.

Anyway, these are my own observations which do suggest the importance of Taurus to this incident (three planets - Sun, Mercury, Venus.) Some more on this in the next post.

Regulus USA National Horoscope

Here is the 2009 solar return for the Regulus USA National Horoscope of my own design (non-precessed, natal location):
What jumps out is the Mars/Venus Taurus conjunction angular in the 1st. Mars is conjunct Algol as it is in the event chart for the explosion. I believe what has happened here is that Venus as a time lord transited Mars in this return chart and set off the explosion. Transit of Venus to Moon in the Ingress chart is the comparable measurement at the global level.

Within the return itself is another interesting configuration. I am not sure if the tradition would consider this a valid type of translation of light, but note that after Venus makes a square with Jupiter, Jupiter retrograde approaches the square of Mars. Does Venus translate Jupiter to Mars? I mention this because this year I also have Jupiter/Aquarius in the 10th of my own personal solar return this year and it timed electrical problems following a major storm system. I was actually in a hot tub when a power transformer across the street blew up, I immediately got out to avoid risk of electrocution. Jupiter ruled the 8th of death of my return, at least we received an abundant insurance settlement after the storm damage. I relate this incident because I wonder if Jupiter/Aquarius-retro/10th of the USA 2009 solar return can be delineated as electrical problems or some other type of electrostatic discharge which might have caused the initial explosion. If so, that would strengthen the argument I make which ties this accident to the USA chart and its solar return.

Finally, also see that Venus/Taurus falls in the anticion on South/Node/Leo in the 4th of things buried (You will need to mentally draw in the South Node on the chart; modern software systems often omit the South Node from their chart wheels). This configuration is another indication of the harm brought to Venus/Taurus for the return.

Some other observations from other predictive models:

Fidaria (natal diurnal series - not Abu Mashar's one-size-fits-all mundane Fidaria): Sun-Mars from 29-Jan-2010 to 3-Jul-2011. Mars is the subperiod ruler.

Primary Directions: Ascendant Distributor is Venus/Virgo. This has mostly played out through increased participation of the American populace in pornography, drugs, financial fraud, the Texas Hold-em Poker craze, etc., But the Distributor is still Venus. The Ascendant Participator is the Sun.

Profected Ascendant (Annual rate). The explosion occurred during a 6th house year, Taurus on the 6th (natal) cusp, Lord (Lady) of the Year is Venus. This ties in the with 2009 solar return because the Ascendant of the return falls in the natal 6th. Would have to judge that 6th house problems are a major theme for the US in the 2009/2010 year. Labor problems, high unemployment certainly, but the Venus/Mars conjunction can also signify illness from environmental contamination.

Looking at the profected Ascendant moving through the bounds and its aspects to planets at the rate of 30 degrees per year, I note the following:

Bound Mars/Gemini. 6-Mar-2010
conjunct Mars/Gemini. 29-Apr-2010
Bound Saturn/Gemini. 30-May-2010

The 29 April measurement is of interest, and appears to have better timed the involvement of the US military in the cleanup operations as of 28 April. Mars/Gemini/7th also signifies legal conflict and there were a couple of news reports of teams of lawyers descending on Gulf Coast for what promises a bonanza of litigation.

Fixed Stars. Finally, I do believe since the incident concerns a 'wellhead' and was timed by Venus conjunct Algol (severed head of Medusa), viewing the incident as the wellHEAD losing its HEAD speaks to the relevance of Algol's zodiacal projection (ignoring latitude).

==============================================

Given the size of the disaster and continuing uncertainty on the oil flow due to Mercury/Taurus-retrograde, perhaps the key predictive question from this point is when will the oil well be capped?

A few things spring to mind: If Venus is the oil then what planetary configuration might cause Venus to be contained? The upcoming Venus-Saturn square of 18-May appears relevant as the nature of containment belongs to Saturn. However, Saturn will still be retrograde at this point which suggests a repeated containment attempt will be necessary.

steven wrote:Just the nature of crude oil would seem to me to be Saturn. Oil is a fossil fuel formed from the remains of animals and plants (from the remains of the dead). Heat and pressure from the layers of mud and sediment covering these remains of dead plants and animals turned them into what we today call crude oil.

It is only made accessible through deep mining techniques (hole boring).

It is generally black in colour (although it can be a dirty yellow also).

It is an astringent and bitter (like black bile).

I can think of many other qualities that are not Jovian in the least.

While I can agree with this, I wonder if the final use/purpose of the product would also make a difference. Crude oil is mainly used for fuel but also for products as paint and plastics. However, these last two still could be related to Saturn since our industrialised world with so much plastic that there are even 'islands' of plastic in the Pacific Ocean is quite Saturnal. We modern people get a lot of substitutes to cover this with a thin veil.

On the other side oil palms and other oil containing plants are also used for (bio)fuel besides for its use in food. Perhaps this would make the mass production of oil of plants for fuelalso a Saturnine issue.

The Jupiter-Saturn associations for oil being discussed here are most interesting. One further point I would make in favour of a Saturn association is the fact that oil is derived from long dead marine animals and plants. Wealth from dead, black, material from deep under the earth sounds quite Saturnian to me. I also have some sympathy for Steven's point that the current Aries Ingress chart emphasizes the Saturnian link with Saturn close to the IC.

So rather than continue the discussion theoretically I have researched a few charts of previous major oil spills. I hope the event and ingress charts prior for these disasters will assist by injecting some practical astrology into the discussion. In fairness, to modern astrologers I believe Neptune is often associated with oil. So we need to consider this planet too if we are retaining an open mind on this topic.

First of all there is the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in Alaska in 1989.

From wikipedia

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated minimum 10.8 million US gallons (40.9 million litres) of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters ever to occur in history.[1] As significant as the Valdez spill was -- the largest ever in US waters -- it ranks well down on the list of the world's largest oil spills in terms of volume released. However, Prince William Sound's remote location (accessible only by helicopter, plane and boat) made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The vessel spilled 10.8 million U.S. gallons (about 40 million litres, or 250,000 barrels) of Prudhoe Bay crude oil into the sea, and the oil eventually covered 1,300 square miles (3,400 km2) of ocean

.

Here is the event chart for the Exxon Valdez accident:
The Ingress chart preceding the accident is below:
The world's first major oil spill accident was caused by the Torrey Canyon supertanker in 1967 in the South-West of England.

From wikipedia:

The Torrey Canyon was a supertanker capable of carrying a cargo of 120,000 tons of crude oil, which was shipwrecked off the western coast of Cornwall, England in March 1967 causing an environmental disaster.

On 18 March 1967, owing to a navigational error, the Torrey Canyon struck Pollard's Rock in the Seven Stones reef between the Cornish mainland and the Scilly Isles. An inquiry in Liberia, where the ship was registered, found the captain, Pastrengo Rugiati, was to blame because he took a short cut to save time in getting to Milford Haven.

Some 50 miles (80 km) of French and 120 miles (190 km) of Cornish coast were contaminated. Around 15,000 sea birds were killed, along with huge numbers of marine organisms, before the 270 square miles (700 km2) slick dispersed. Including all fish within a 75 mile radius. Much damage was caused by the heavy use of so-called detergents to break up the slick - these were first-generation variants of products originally formulated to clean surfaces in ships' engine-rooms, with no concern over the toxicity of their components.

The event chart for the Torrey Canyon oil spill (untimed)
The prior Ingress to the accident was a Libra Ingress as the Aries Ingress for the United Kingdom had had a a mutable sign rising in 1966
Its hard to ignore the Saturn Rx on the IC in the UK Ingress chart in 1966. This seems very similar to the current USA Ingress chart in that respect. Other similarities are the Saturn-Uranus opposition and Mars in Leo. Jupiter is trining Neptune in the Torrey Canyon chart. The symbolism fits the idea of an oil flow. However, the Exxon Valdez and its preceding ingress is characterized more by the the Saturn-Neptune conjunction. In regards Jupiter is noteable that Pisces is on the IC of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Exxon Valdez, and UK Ingress for 1966. Its also on the MC for the US Ingress for 1989 and the current ingress chart relocated for Louisiana. In the current USA Ingress chart Jupiter is in Pisces and and Saturn is being opposed by Uranus in Pisces. In regards oil spills at least Pisces seems to be represented a lot. Not really surprising considering the traditional nautical , watery association of the sign.

http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle ... Id=7027520

"But vindication was in the air. By the early morning of 26 May 1908, the whole camp reeked of sulphur. At four o?clock the drill reached 1,180 feet and a fountain of oil spewed out into the dawn sky."

Used First Well 4 am time first. From the results I rectified the time to 3:54 am. Then relocated the chart to the site of the oil rig and did the demi-solar and demi-solar lunar return (anlunar) preceding the explosion.

Progressed DSAL MC 344?31'

First Well natal Pluto on Asc of PDSAL at oil rig site exact at 344?31'

First Well Progressed Sun on IC 343?21'

First Well Progressed Moon was 1? out of my standard for inclusion but as it had preceded the event and was closely associated with the angular Sun and Pluto's I have included it. On the Dsc at 341?33'.

The West Point of the PDSAL was 254?31'. Return Saturn/Neptune midpoint was 255?32'

The Zenith of the PDSAL was 358?16'. Return Uranus on it at 358?32'.

Approximately 4 hours later the progressed angles would have had First Well progressed Pluto on the Asc, return Saturn on the Nadir and progressed Neptune trine the MC.

Bob

There was also the Amoco Cadiz in 1978. It might be relevant since BP/Amoco are now one.

Interesting that you mention the Exxon Valdez disaster. Last year I had a look at the captain's chart, since I believe that if there's a human element in a mundane event the chart(s) of the people involved should also be looked at.

Captain's planet positions. Since the birthtime was unknown I did the noon chart for East US thus ca. an estimated 18:00 UT.

Date/Time: 1946.09.24 18:00:00 UTC

Planet Longitude Latitude
Sun 01 Lib 04'29" 0?00'01"
Moon 23 Vir 37'24" 4?57'47"
Mercury 08 Lib 57'15" 0?44'13"
Venus 16 Sco 05'22" - 4?16'22"
Mars 00 Sco 02'24" 0?01'07"
Jupiter 29 Lib 51'42" 1?01'23"
Saturn 06 Leo 04'30" 0?18'53"
Moon's Node 14 Gem 44'09"R 0?00'00"

The close Mars, Jupiter square to Saturn and the Sun Mercury (and probably the Moon too) conjunction are interesting points.

One will note that Saturn transited his Mercury in january 1989 and was going to transit it again later that year. His previous solar return must had Saturn close to natal Moon and Sun. As he appeared to have drinking problems and since he was accused of having been drunk at the disaster (and otherwise might have prevented the accident) the transit may indicate an alcohol problem, drinking away melancholic feelings that often go accompanied with Saturn.

I wonder if there's a human element (mistakes, wrong management etc.) in the Mexico oil spill, perhaps those charts should be studied as well.

Amelia wrote:

There was also the Amoco Cadiz in 1978. It might be relevant since BP/Amoco are now one.

Funny you should mention that. I had planned to do this last night but was too tired.

From wikipedia:

The Amoco Cadiz was a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier), owned by Amoco, that split in two after running aground on Portsall Rocks, three miles (5 km) off the coast of Brittany (France), on 16 March 1978, resulting at that time in the largest oil spill ever, currently the fifth-largest in history.

In route from the Persian Gulf to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, via a scheduled stop at Lyme Bay, Great Britain, the ship encountered stormy weather with gale conditions and high seas while in the English Channel.

At 9:04 p.m., the Amoco Cadiz hit the bottom for the first time, flooding its engines. It grounded again at 9:39 p.m., this time ripping the hull and starting the oil spill. Its crew was rescued by helicopters of the French Navy at midnight, except the captain and one officer who remained on board until 5:00 the next morning.[2]

At 10 a.m., 17 March, the supertanker broke in two, releasing its entire cargo of 1.6 million barrels (250,000 m3). Because of the ongoing storm, it broke again on 28 March and the wreck was later completely destroyed by depth charges from the French Navy.

The wreck of the Amoco Cadiz is located at 48?36.00?N 04?46.00?W? / ?48.6?N 4.767?W? / 48.6; -4.767.

The Amoco Cadiz contained 1,604,500 barrels (219,797 tons) of Arabian Light and Iranian Light crude oil. . Therefore its entire cargo of crude oil (cargo which belonged to Shell) spilled into the sea.

A 12-mile (19 km) long slick and heavy pools of oil were smeared onto 45 miles (72 km) of the French shoreline by northwesterly winds. Prevailing westerly winds during the following month spread the oil approximately 100 miles (160 km) east along the coast. One week after the accident, oil had reached C?tes d'Armor.

At the time, the Amoco Cadiz incident resulted in the largest loss of marine life ever recorded from an oil spill. Mortalities of most animals occurred over the two month period following the spill. Two weeks following the accident, millions of dead mollusks, sea urchins, and other bottom dwelling organisms washed ashore.

Diving birds constituted the majority of the nearly 20,000 dead birds that were recovered. The oyster mortality from the spill was estimated at 9,000 tons. Fishermen in the area caught fish with skin ulcerations and tumors.

In terms of an event chart there seems to be various timed options. Firstly, 9:04 p.m on 16/03/1978 when the the Amoco Cadiz first hit the bottom flooding its engines. Secondly, 9:39 p.m on 16/03/1978 , when the hull of the supertanker first ripped and oil started to leak from the hull or 10 a.m on 17/03/1978 when the supertanker broke in two, releasing its entire cargo of 1.6 million barrelsl. I have put up charts for the latter two times.
I have also put up the French Libra Ingress chart for 1977 since the Aries ingress that year had a mutable rising sign.
Considering the current Gulf of Mexico oil spill probably the most comparable incident was the The IXTOC I exploratory oil platform well blow out on June 3, 1979 in the Bay of Campeche off Ciudad
del Carmen, Mexico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I

By the time the well was brought under control in 1980, an estimated 140 million gallons of oil had spilled into the bay. The IXTOC I is currently #2 on the all-time list of largest oil spills , eclipsed only by the deliberate release of oil, from many different sources, during the 1991 Gulf War. For some reason the Exxon Valdez is the spill that has remained most notorious in popular imagination. However, the Exxon Valdez spilled 10.8 million gallons, in comparison to as many as 428 million gallons for the Ixtoc I in Mexico. Exxon Valdez doesn't even appear in the top 30 oil spills in history in terms of the volume of oil spilled. However, as with the current Gulf of Mexico oil spill its proximity to unspoiled natural habitat ( and human economic activity) makes its impact more discernable

I haven't managed to find a time for the IXTOC I blowout so the chart below is untimed:
Below this is the Aries Ingress chart for 1979 located from the Mexican capital. Its noteable that the angles of the chart are very close to those of the Deepwater Horizon explosion chart. The rising degree is on the malefic fixed star Acrab (aka Graffias) which turns up in a lot of mundane charts associated with unfortunate events. Once again Pisces on the IC and and Saturn Rx on the MC.