One of the things that Lilly did quite a bit of in his day was shipping charts. Ships were the main mode of long distance travel and, communication being what it was, there was often a question of what had happened to a particular ship and its crew or the safety of its journey. The ferry accident at Staten Island in New York on October 15th has shown that, even today, travel by water isn?t a guarantee of safety.

Brief background: The ferry, making regular 20minute trips, left at 3pm that day. As the ferry was coming in to the terminal it crashed into the dock killing 10 people and seriously injuring several more. The pilot of the ferry fled the scene and returned home where he attempted suicide. He was found and taken to hospital. Later reports included that he had passed out at the wheel due to difficulties with blood pressure medication.

I had a look at the chart and to me it pinpoints a couple of areas of concern. I thought it might be an interesting chart to look at. I took the time of the beginning of the ferry?s journey and approached it as I would a horary, i.e. whether this was to be a safe journey. I?ll give my opinions on the chart shortly. There are some excellent articles on shipping in the horary section of this site that will give the information needed to read the chart. Here is the chart below.

This event has been described as New York's worst mass transit accident in at least a generation. Details of the accident can be found in the news report at:
http://www.freep.com/news/nw/ferry16_20031016.htm

As Sue says, there is a detailed exploration of factors concerning ships and travel at:
http://www.skyscript.co.uk/shipping.html

This chart offers an opportunity to study of the rules and aphorisms set out there as applied to this situation.

I don't know much about Horary but features of this chart that stand out...

The 9th house (travel) ruler is in the 10th (public) house ruled by Pluto (death). Opposing Moon (water) in the fifth (social affair), ruled by Mercury (information, communication) in the eighth (hidden) trine Neptune (clouded1) conjunct 1st house (what is seen) in retrograde (disruption), ruled by Pisces in Mars (i.e. severed limbs, particularly legs/feet2) conjunct Uranus (sudden, violent end3).



Exerpts from article:

1. The exact cause of the accident was not clear Wednesday night, But it was unclear how many people had been on board, Some bodies accidentally were counted twice, leading to an initial report by city officials that 14 people were dead.

2. "There was a lady without legs, right in the middle of the boat," said ferry passenger Frank Corchado, 29.

3. "People who were on their way home, all of a sudden taken from us," . Bloomberg said.

Aquarius represents the captain of the ship according to Lilly and you note Aquarius is rising. Interesting that Aquarius ruler, Saturn is in the 6th house. The boat co captain who was driving had passed out at the wheel. Ill perhaps? He was said to be sober, no drugs detected in his system.

Also if the lord of the Ascendant represents those that sail within, then, Saturn in the 6th, is surely not a beneficial sign?

The moon, the co-significator of the ship in Gemini, suggests damage to the rear of the ship. Although properly the damage was to the port side, it was astern of the ferry. The bow, being a tad starboard on entry, which is what caused so much damage to the passenger area. (this is from the pictures I saw of the accident, not from report.)

The ruler of the destination of the ferry is the 7th house, Leo. The sun is in the 8th house of death and destruction. Not a good sign. And it was at the destination that so much damage was done.

The 9th house, the journey itself does not seem afflicted? It is even blessed with the presence of Venus. It is the journeys end that looks to me from this chart to be in serious distress? Though I believe the south node is in the 9th which is an ill omen.

The tenth house is Scorpio and rules the officers of a ship and Mars its lord is in Pisces, though in the first house and indeed the second in command was sailing the vessel so in command I would say. Quincunx the Part of Fortune, which may just be an indicator that this was designed by the heavens for some purpose. I cannot help but think that Neptune and Uranus in the 1st are representative of the incident. Poseidon being the lord of the sea, and Uranus being so representative of change retrograde and the officer sailing her being represented by the lessor malefic. Another note; not only are the Sun and Mercury in the 8th, they are in the dreaded degrees of Libra.

Okay all I see at the momment. MissB

An interesting development in this situation is that the captain of the ferry (Michael Gansas) is refusing to cooperate with the authorities and steps have now been taken to dismiss him from his position. It seems that blame for the accident is being shifted away from the pilot (Richard Smith)and onto Gansas. Authorities believe that if Gansus had been at his post, standing beside the pilot as it came into port, the accident would have been averted. As Beth pointed out, Saturn (lord of the Asc) is in the 6th house. Smith did have health issues and a problem with his medication (Neptune) has been blamed for him passing out at the wheel.

One thing I found interesting is that the fixed star Canopus is not far away from Saturn. It depends on what orbs you use for the fixed stars. Lilly used up to 5 degrees for a star such as Algol and has examples in his shipping horaries of orbs of 3 or 4 degrees for such stars as Canopus. Most would disagree with such a wide orb being used today. However, many astrologers believe that the brighter the magnitude of the star, the more powerful its effects and therefore an orb of up to 2 degrees has been accepted for the brightest. Canopus is currently at just over 15 degrees Cancer. It is one of the brightest stars with a mangnitude of 0.9. Canopus was the name of the pilot of the Argo, one of the ships of the Trojan Wars. According to the Egyptians. after his death Canopus was said to be the navigator of the ship that carried people after their death to the afterlife. I generally haven't paid a lot of attention to the fixed stars but noticed this one because it was conjunct the main significator, it is of the nature of Saturn and it's profile seemed to fit the situation.

[quote="Sue"]An interesting development in this situation is that the captain of the ferry (Michael Gansas) is refusing to cooperate with the authorities and steps have now been taken to dismiss him from his position. It seems that blame for the accident is being shifted away from the pilot (Richard Smith)and onto Gansas. Authorities believe that if Gansus had been at his post, standing beside the pilot as it came into port, the accident would have been averted. As Beth pointed out, Saturn (lord of the Asc) is in the 6th house. Smith did have health issues and a problem with his medication (Neptune) has been blamed for him passing out at the wheel.

Hi Sue,

I haven't had time to go over your fine post in detail, but I thought I'd add this legal note. Maritime law REQUIRES the captain to be with the pilot when the vessel is docking, probably to prevent exactly what happened, assuming it was preventable. Gansas could go to jail for that breech alone.

Tom

Gansas Attorney said he would meet with authorities as soon as released by physician, as I understand. New Yorkers however are not known for their patience. MissB

Thanks for that bit of legal informatin Tom. I didn't know that.

Lilly talks about the lord of the Ascendant (Saturn in this case) in any ill configuration with lord of the 8th (Mercury) showing difficulties of the nature of the lord of the 8th. So with Mercury, one of the possibilities is that it had to do with communication of some kind. It is a separating square suggesting a past problem with communication. I wondered whether one of the problems lies with the fact that Smith failed to tell anyone about his medical problems. If others had been made aware, this tragedy might have been avoided.

graelhaven wrote:
The tenth house is Scorpio and rules the officers of a ship and Mars its lord is in Pisces, though in the first house and indeed the second in command was sailing the vessel so in command I would say. Quincunx the Part of Fortune, which may just be an indicator that this was designed by the heavens for some purpose.
MissB

This brings up an interesting point that I have been thinking about for some time. The time I used for this chart was the time of the commencement of the journey, an inception chart of sorts. However, I could have just as easily used the time of the accident for my chart (3.20pm) I believe that both charts are valid and personally I like to take both into consideration. The beginning of the journey is the birth of the journey and sets the tone for what is to come, a lot like a natal chart. However, the time of the accident embodies the energy of that moment of time. But just using the time of the event (the accident) to me leaves the possibility of missing out on something. It is a little like reading the last few pages of a murder mystery novel. By doing that we might know who committed the murder and how but we won't necessarily have a clear understanding of the events leading up to this. I like to look at both charts to see what has changed. I suppose it is possible to argue that you can get the same information by looking at the separating aspects but I don't believe this is necessarily so. In a twenty minute journey, which is the time it took for the ferry to leave it's port to the time of the accident, nothing much is likely to change. However, in that time, the 10th house cusp changed from Scorpio to Sagittarius. So if the officers of the ship are ruled by the lord of the 10th, are they ruled by Mars, which is in the 1st, or Jupiter, which is in the 7th? Maybe the shift from Mars ruled to Jupiter ruled means that the accident wasn't as bad as it could have been. I don't really know because I haven't thought this through yet. This is only my personal opinion but having looked at other event charts of a similar nature, I have found some interesting things by looking at both charts.

It might also indicate that there was a change of steering. someone may have been where they ought not to have been? it sorta signals a changing of comand doesn't it? MissB

Ferrry Pilot gets 18 months

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060109/ap_ ... MlJVRPUCUl

Hi Granny,

Thanks for this update. It is always interesting to follow these things to their conclusions.

Sue