Bill Sheeran - mundane astrology, Erfurt school shootings April 2002 Germany

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School massacre at Erfurt, Germany

Bill Sheeran - posted on Fri Apr 26th, 2002 at 20:51:36 EDT to the Urania website

Some astrological material relating to the shooting dead of 18 people at a school in Germany is briefly described. Mars and Saturn were very much to the fore at the time of the event. Of particular note is the exact square between Uranus and the Ascendant / Midheaven midpoint during the shooting.

[Note: If you see next to any link in the text, clicking on the link will bring up the relevant horoscope in a separate small window.]

Details
A massacre occurred at a school in Erfurt, Germany (50N58, 11E01) today at around 11:00am (-2:00) April 26th 2002. The janitor alerted the police by phone at 11:05am. Eighteen people died, including 14 members of staff. A former pupil who had been expelled stormed into an examination session and started shooting before eventually turning the gun on himself.

Astrological correlations
The for this horrific event is all too appropriate.

At 11:00am, Uranus was square the AS/MC midpoint to the exact minute. This is consistent with the sudden eruption of an unexpected or traumatic event at that time and place.

The midpoint pattern between Mars, Saturn and Pluto was moving to exactitude (SA=MA/PL, orb 3'). In Ebertin's Combinations of Stellar Influences (COSI), the negative probable manifestation is described as: "The tendency to proceed in a brutal manner; the misfortune of having to suffer violent assaults; injuries."

The Moon was applying to -135- MA/SA midpoint (orb 18'), a signature for harmful or destructive energy, death and mourning, as well as being a timing indicator.

Pluto was opposite the ME/JU midpoint (orb 3'), which is consistent with a visitation from the Underworld in an educational context. It also suggests the intensity which would have prevailed anyway if the examinations had proceeded.

Pluto was also applying retrograde in opposition to the SA/NN midpoint (orb 40'). This is a signature for "suffering shared with others; mourning and bereavement" (COSI).

While the exact Uranus transit to the AS/MC midpoint indicates a direct link for the symbolism to that location, the other patterns were/are globally relevant. This will be reflected in events (such as the earthquakes in Iran and Georgia in which people died), as well as people's reaction to the news wherever they might live. Suffering shared with others.

Transits in German Reunification horoscope
The transits to the for German political reunification (October 3rd 1990, 00:00 CET, Berlin, Campion's Book of World Horoscopes) were also very heavy and reinforce the theme. The event will have a huge national impact, and may have political ramifications (e.g. legislative changes in relation to firearms, etc.).

The main planet to planet transit is Saturn conjunct Mars (separating, orb 36'). This can be interpreted in many ways depending on the context. For example, it would be relevant for Germany's reaction to the Middle East situation, emphasising a political preference for limiting belligerence. It may even be relevant to the recent performance of a German soccer team (it's an 11th house Mars), who with a masterful display of skill and discipline held fancied English opposition to a draw in the semi-final of the European Champion's League while playing away from home. Simplistically it indicates the manifestation (Saturn) of violence (Mars).

Whatever, these two planets are traditionally seen as malefic, and together are associated with tragic death.

Reinforcing their relevance is the position of the Midheaven at the time of the killing spree. It was conjunct the MA/SA midpoint (orb 21'). The MC brings this combination into significance at that time for a longitudinal band running through Germany within which Erfurt is located.

Similarly, the transit Ascendant position reinforces the theme via its alignment with the SA/NN axis (orb 3'). This again emphasises suffering shared with others at that time (in other words a national tragedy).

The closest midpoint pattern in this horoscope was transit Neptune opposing SU/MA (orb 1'). This is a signature for sickness, vulnerability and weakness. The government's response may be quite confused, or there may be difficulty in acting decisively in the wake of the event. Questions will be asked about where and how the former pupil acquired his firearm. He is the personification of this pattern, his actions impacting on the collective psyche. A suicidal and confused armed man presumably driven by a sense of victimhood.

Addendum 1 - German event sun synastry with Littleton shooting
by Bill Sheeran on Fri Apr 26th, 2002 at 22:47:17 EDT

I've just noticed that the Sun position for the shooting at the school in Germany - 5Ta57 - is aligned with the Mars-Saturn opposition which held during the Columbine school shootings in Littleton Colorado on April 20th 1999. For that event, Mars was at 5Sc34, while Saturn was at 5Ta53.

An odd coincidence. I wonder if the Littleton event sowed seeds in the mind of the German guy.

Addendum 2 to school massacre story
Bill Sheeran, Sun Apr 28th, 2002 at 11:12:51 EDT

As mentioned in the article, on the day of the shootings transit Saturn was separating from conjunct Mars in the horoscope for German unification. I speculated that this might coincide with the generation of new legislation directed at tightening up gun laws in Germany.

In today's Sunday Times (UK, April 28th) an article on the tragedy includes the following:

It had been Germany's second school shooting in two months. In February, a 22 year old man who had lost his job killed former bosses and his former headmaster near Munich. Steinhauser struck two hours before the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, responded to that incident by approving proposals to strengthen Germany's gun laws.

(Steinhauser was the pupil who carried out the more recent shootings)

That's an interesting coincidence of events - the shootings and the passage of gun laws on the same day. Both reflect the transient Saturn-Mars symbolism of the current period for Germany. The transit itself came on stream last year, and its final phase is now moving to a close.