I probably write too many articles about murder, disaster and politics, so today I’ll write about the teenage sailor Abby Sunderland, who at the age of sixteen attempted to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world. After several months of sailing, her boat lost its mast in the Indian Ocean, and she had to be rescued.
For a short period of time, when the distress signals were first picked up, Abby’s fate was uncertain. I asked a question about whether or not she was OK, and set up a chart for the moment the question was asked. She was represented by Venus in Cancer, which was moving towards a favourable aspect to Saturn in Virgo. So it seemed likely that she’d come out of the situation safe and well.
Venus isn’t just the universal significator of young women, it’s also the ruler of the sign Libra, so it wasn’t surprising that Abby has Libra as her star sign.
To be precise, Abby was born on October 19 1993. Libra is not a sign that one normally associates with adventure and travel, though it’s interesting that she shares her birthday with American mountaineer and adventurer Annie Smith Peck, who was born on October 19 1850. There can’t have been many women who climbed both the Matterhorn and Mount Popocatepetl in the late Nineteenth Century!
As I often say when looking at female horoscopes, the Moon is probably more important than the Sun, and before looking at Abby’s horoscope I guessed that she had the Moon in Sagittarius. And she probably does, unless she was born late in the evening. Sagittarius is the sign of exploration, and a woman with the Moon in this sign will have an instinctive need for adventure.
We then come to the issue of why Abby was unable to finish her voyage. From an astrological point of view, the moment one starts a project is crucial. Yet in this case there were two starts.
Abby set sail from Marina del Rey, in California, on January 23 of this year. However it wasn’t long before technical problems start to emerge, and she sailed to the Mexican town of Cabo San Lucas, to sort these problems out. Her voyage restarted on Saturday February 6, at 10 am.
The second date is what matters. Her first attempt had to be scrapped, so the project started afresh.
I doubt very much whether an astrologer was consulted about the timing of the second attempt. Apparently Abby’s family are very Christian, and you wouldn’t have thought they would have taken into consideration astrological factors.
The February 6 chart is very poor, and Abby and her family should count themselves lucky that there wasn’t a tragic end. The Moon was in Scorpio, the sign of its Fall. Furthermore, it was void of course – in other words it had made its last aspect to a traditional planet before leaving the sign. Things that start under a void Moon very often come to nothing.
It’s also worth noting that the Moon was in the Eighth House. This House isn’t very lucky, and is often connected with death. Fortunately, the full, malefic potential of the Eighth House wasn’t realised.
The lesson of the story is then very simple. Your surface preparations might be perfect, but if you don’t take into account the astrology of what you’re doing you’re making yourself a hostage to fortune.
Copyright © 2010 Archie Dunlop
Keep visiting www.archiedunlop.com!
Site navigation for mobile devices
