1918 Flu Pandemic

[Jim Eshelman]

(9/5/2014)

With the Ebola panic rising, I've been thinking that I should take a look at the largest pandemic in modern times if not ever: the 1918 flu pandemic which "killed more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century." Around the world, 500 million people were infected, and 10-20% of them (50 million to 100 million) died from the virus. (This was 3-5% of the world's population.)

The dates given for this pandemic are January 1918 to December 1920, three years covered by three different Capsolars. It cannot be linked to one location, since it struck worldwide. The highest number of deaths occurred in October-December 1918, with smaller peaks in February-March 191 and in July 1918. After the late 1918 spike, new cases of the flu dropped off dramatically, possibly because the virus suddenly mutated to a nonlethal form. (The week ending October 16 is an especially high-mortality week.)

[Jim Eshelman]

So... what about the astrology. Do the tools distinctive to Sidereal mundane astrology give us any unique insight?

My thinking is that the most important chart should be the 1918 Capsolar, and that anything it shows should be universal, world-spanning, not localized. Mostly this limits us to Moon aspects. In checking, I am not entirely disappointed, though the results could be sharper:

Neptune 12°27' Cancer
Saturn 19°52' Cancer
Moon 22°04' Capricorn

If this epidemic had been limited to the U.S., a better case could have been made, since the 20° Capricorn Capsolar Ascendant for Washington put all of this in the foreground. However, it was not limited to the U.S., so we are left with a rather wide Moon-Saturn opposition. (The chart had a Mercury-Pluto partile opposition, but this would only be important where it was angular, which is too limiting.)

One improvement of this picture, though, is that Moon's latitude made it withdraw to an earlier position mundanely, i.e., the mundane opposition of Moon to Saturn and Neptune is closer than the zodiacal one. For Washington, for example, Moon-Saturn is 2°11', Moon-Neptune 2°38', Moon is 14' from their midpoint and foreground - quite a dramatic pattern! As time allows, I should calculate these orbs for other parts of the world to see how the orbs wax and wane per location.

The 1919 Capsolar has Moon conjunct Pluto 1°16'. (And WW I is over by then, so this is no longer referring to the war.) The 1920 Capsolar (which, for Washington, has Saturn exactly rising closely square Venus) has moon square Neptune but, closer, Moon square Jupiter. (People are getting better?) By the 1921 Capsolar when this is also reportedly over, Moon opposes Jupiter 0°19' for all parts of the world.

An interesting journey through Moon aspects from year to year...

The highest number of deaths occurred in October-December 1918... The week ending October 16 is an especially high-mortality week.

And to think, WW I was getting ready to end...

On October 1 the Moon was in Leo, so the Canlunar and Liblunar deserve a look. The September 28 Canlunar had only Moon square Mercury. (For Washington, Pluto was partile conjunct Descendant.) The October 6 Liblunar had nothing to offer. (And no, the Caplunar didn't either.) During this time, Saturn opposed Uranus in space, but that seems an unlikely trigger. And, since this spike was worldwide, we can't credit it to Washington angularities.

The highest number of deaths occurred in October-December 1918, with smaller peaks in February-March 1918 and in July 1918. After the late 1918 spike, new cases of the flu dropped off dramatically, possibly because the virus suddenly mutated to a nonlethal form. (The week ending October 16 is an especially high-mortality week.)

[Jim Eshelman]

Jim wrote:

Around the world, 500 million people were infected, and 10-20% of them (50 million to 100 million) died from the virus. (This was 3-5% of the world's population.)

I don’t know when most of the world population became infected and when infected how long a person stayed inflected before death, but since the Moon in mundane astrology generally represents ‘the people’—this 1918 Capsolar Moon-Saturn opposition is certainly par-excellent symbolism for this pandemic. In July 1918 we see a partile 180 of t. Saturn to r. Moon—could be when most of the people who died in the autumn of 1918 were infected. Also, in most the ancient world’s planetary symbolism with pictograms we see Saturn symbolizing Death. . So, going by the saying ‘history repeats itself,’ we certainly don’t want to see any close or partile aspects involving Moon-Saturn with a Capsolar as long as Ebola is on the rise.

[Jim Eshelman]

Indeed!

[Jim Eshelman]

As time permits, I'm going to fill in how the mundane aspects of Moon to Saturn and Neptune (in the 1918 Capsolar) looked at different locations around the world. Should be interesting for this topic, and an interesting example of how mundane conjunctions/oppositions can vary.

Please note that even when I list "None" for a location (meaning there is no Moon-Saturn mundane opposition < 4°), there is still an ecliptical opposition at the acceptable 3°12'.

NORTH AMERICA
United States (Washington): Mo-Sa 2°11'. Mo-Ne 2°38'. Sa/Ne 0°14'.
New York City: Mo-Sa 2°24'. Mo-Ne 2°20'. Sa/Ne 0°02'.
Los Angeles: Mo-Sa 1°03'. (Mercury-Pluto exactly on horizon.)

EUROPE
England (London): None; but Moon 0°33' from MC, Saturn 4°+ from IC.
France (Paris): None.
Spain (Madrid): Mo-Sa 2°38'.
Italy (Rome): None. Venus was 0°27' from MC, Jupiter 0°20' from EP.
Germany (Berlin): None. Me, Pl, Ve, Ju in immediate foreground. (For Rome & Berlin, notice WW I would end this year.)
Poland (Warsaw): None. Me-Pl exactly on horizon.
Greece (Athens): None.
Turkey (Istanbul): None.
Russia (Leningrad): None.

ASIA
China (Beijing):
North Korea (Pyongyang):
Japan (Tokyo): Mo-Sa 3°43'. (Me-Pl on meridian.)
India (Delhi:
Pakistan (Islamabad):
Thailand (Bangkok):
Philippines (Manila):

MIDDLE EAST
Egypt (Cairo): None. Me-Pl on horizon.
Saudi Arabia (Riyadh):
Palestine (Jerusalem): None. Me-Pl exactly on horizon.
Iraq (Baghdad: None. Mars on IC.
Iran (Tehran): None. Sun on Dsc.
Afghanistan (Kabul):

AUSTRALASIA
Australia (Canberra): Mo-Sa 0°40'.

SOUTH AMERICA
Argentina (Buenos Aires):
Brazil (Brasilia):
Chile (Santiago):
Ecuador (Quito):
Venezuela (Caracas):

[Jim Eshelman]

The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus. It infected 500 million people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50 to 100 million of them—three to five percent of the world's population—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

Some alternative scholars (non-orthodox academia) who I greatly respect and have communicated with in the past believe the Great Pyramid of Giza was located because it was located in the center of the land mass of the planet. This is highly debatable or completely defined as ‘Pyramidology’ by orthodox academia, but orthodox academia thinks of astrology as something worse than ‘Pyramidology.’ When we locate the 1918 Capsolar to Giza Egypt we see the partile Mercury-Pluto 180 falling very close to the Asc-Dsc axis with a non-dormant Station Mercury. Transiting Pluto was partile 180 Mercury for most of the year with exact 180’s March 4 & April 1. When we consider the Station of non-dormant Capsolar Mercury as symbolizing something to do with News from a worldwide standpoint, and Pluto as a ‘stunning/shocking’ influence we have a perfect planetary symbolic effect for worldwide ‘stunning news’ with the worldwide influence of Capsolar Moon-Saturn opposition for this pandemic.