A polar bear has mauled a 17-year-old British boy to death in the Arctic and injured four other UK tourists. A party of 80 mainly 16 to 23-year-olds were on a trip with the British Schools Exploring Society near a glacier on the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard.

The four who were hurt - two severely - included two leaders of the trip. They were being flown to Tromsoe in Norway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14415592



Jupiter ruler of large, wild animals partile square Ve/Su in its house of rulership. JU disposed by Ve on 12th cusp of sad events/large animals. ME ruler of ASC also in 12th. 8th ruler MA in fall sxt ME in 12th.

Neptune had re-entered AQ within minutes - 1 PI symbolises Civilisation whilst 30 AQ that of Wild Nature..a confused (ME-NE) meeting of the two?

Fixed stars?

ME conj two fixed stars (Megrez/Phecda) of Ursa Major (Great Bear).

Thank you for this news report, Daz. How tragic! I appreciate you providing this chart with Porphry houses. The chart has technical interest because it is cast for extreme latitudes in Polar regions. The main technical difficulty that occurs with Arctic charts does not appear in this chart because the MC is not in the sub-terrestial degrees and above the horizon. When I lived north of the Arctic Circle at Lofoten, I practiced Regiomontanus house system whenever this gave meaning or was technically possible. I therefore include the Regiomontanus chart for comparison.
Algol in the South causes someone to 'loose their Head'. Mercury, Lord of the ascendant, is retrograde on the cusp of the 12th house of wilderness and large animals. The sextile to Mars is cast through signs of long ascension. The latter causes a miscalculation, overestimation or mistake and things to go wrong; Learning the hard way. Mars is in Cancer, the sign of his fall. Generally, I would associate this with a dog-bite or a wasp sting. However, up at Spitzbergen, it is the polar bear attack. Mars in Cancer causes things to spring up in affect.

I also notice that the Sun/Moon midpoint was 19VI18 and this would have been within 2 degrees of the ascendant at the time of the event. The Moon inconjunct the MC must also add to the puzzle of things going wrong.

There are several interesting fixed stars in the chart: Algol is in the South, Mercury applies to Regulus. The Moon is coming off Spica 23LI59 and Arcturus 24LI22 (2 degree orb), but more notable the Moon is in the Via Combust at the same time as Mercury is retrograde - which could be a double testimony of hazard during travel. With Mercury retrograde the thumb rule is that it is better to return to known territory than to fare along unfamiliar routes.

Daz points out the square between Jupiter, the signifer of larger animals, and Venus. Jupiter is lord of the 7th. I do have several cases on record where events spring upon a native through the agency of the lord of the 7th. With the lord of the 7th any person is more victim of circumstances, the impulses and passions of others. Happenings on the battlefield.

It is difficult to predict, or rather tame, the actions of the 7th house and its lord. Because they are more fatal and unportended by their nature. To mind comes a case of a young man of about 18 years of age who lost his life in a car accident. He was sat in the back seat of a car speeding along at 160 km/hr. His premature death was due to the actions of the driver. The fault of the native was not backing out of the situation but leaving matters in the hands of fate. The joyride became his destiny. In this chart Jupiter was the agenting planet, lord of the 7th house and conjunct Algol. Hence, someone beyond the native did not show the propper caution and literally lost his head. However, in this cae the driver walked away from the accidenbt without injury. In the case of the polar bear, it did not.

When the lord of the 7th pops up in a chart it is often wise to take a second look at the traffic before attempting to cross the road, and after that approach matters with a defensive mode. The ball is not in the courner of the native himself, hence he may be subject to suprizes, either good or bad.

Thank you for this news report, Daz. How tragic!

There are a few more details coming out in the aftermath. It seems that the organisers of the group were warned to post a lookout and that for whatever reason they failed to do so. Obviously it is easy to be wise after the event but with the obvious danger of polar bears that have gone months without food roaming the area it does seem to have been a risk not to use a lookout/sentinel.

On January 24, Svalbard tourism adviser Stein Tore Pedersen replied to a request for safety advice from BSES expedition co-ordinator Jamie Abbey.

He wrote: ?The use of tripwire is recommended. Test your weapon, the flare gun / pen and pyrotechnical gear prior to and, by all means, also during your expedition.

?But we do know that several other tour operators have a bear-watch system in addition to the tripwires.?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nager.html



Looking at the MC/10H for a guard/lookout, there is VE 10th ruler on 12th cusp and Mercury Retro/NE square MC. Having said that it doesnt seem to be compulsory to have a guard just the common custom on these outings.



greg