Autumn has arrived early in Slovakia. The temperature has plummeted, the rain clouds have arrived and there are mushrooms everywhere. I even ventured into a nearby wood, mushroom book in hand, to see what I could find. The only thing I could identify with absolute confidence was Scleroderma citrinum, also known as the common earthball. If I ate it I wouldn’t die, but I’d probably spend half the night throwing up.
It’s not just mushrooms that have come to Slovakia. There’s also been a shocking massacre, that took place this morning, in the Devinska Nova Ves suburb of Bratislava, the Slovak capital. From what I’ve heard, a lone, middle-aged gunman attacked a Roma family, and eight people were killed, including himself.
The attack happened at around 10 am, on Monday August 30. By setting up a horoscope for this time, I hoped to get some idea about what was going on. In this case, the chart is very descriptive, but it probably doesn’t tell us anything we don’t know.
The physical body of Mars was exactly on the Eastern Horizon, in the sign Libra, making a conjunction to Venus. In astrology Mars is the planet of violence, so it’s not surprising that it was so prominently placed. Also, Mars is connected with soldiers, and the perpetrator was an-serviceman.
Yet Mars functions very badly in Libra, and this tells us that the gunman was acting from a position of weakness. For reasons best known to himself he was powerless, and he probably felt that he he no longer had a constructive role in Slovak Society.
Venus’ prominence at first sight might seem strange. Isn’t this the planet of love and harmony? However in astrology there is a tension between a planet’s intrinsic meaning and its precise function in a particular chart. Venus was strong in Libra, but it was also ruler of the Eighth House of death. So in this case, Venus was about death rather than love.
Moving from an individual to a collective level, it’s worth having a look at the horoscope of Slovakia. Slovakia became an independent nation at midnight on January 1 1993. At the time of independence, Mars was at 20 degrees 26 minutes Cancer, opposition Uranus at 17 degrees 40 minutes Capricorn. Mars-Uranus oppositions can be very violent, and can be associated with guns and explosives.
The 1990s were quite a violent time in Slovakia’s history, in the sense that there was a lot of gang warfare, as different gangs tried to carve out for themselves as bigger slice of the post-communist cake as possible. It was a time of shootings, bombings and contract killings.
Over the last twelve years or so things have calmed down, and the Mars-Uranus opposition has drifted into the background. Yes, the gangs still exist, yes guns are readily available, but things are a lot more subtle.
On the surface today’s massacre is down to one person, and it’s the kind of outrage that happens everywhere – I can think of similar events in the US, Britain, Germany and Finland.
However at the time of the shooting, Mars was triggering the independence chart’s Mars-Uranus opposition.
To be specific, Mars was at 19 degrees 44 minutes Libra. In other words it was making a 90-degree aspect to the opposition, which had as its midpoint 19 degrees 3 minutes Libra. So the potential of Slovakia’s horoscope was being brought to life, and the event should be regarded as a warning.
The ex-soldier got hold of an automatic weapon, which can fire hundreds of rounds a minute. If he can get hold of it, so can other people. The energy that created the gang wars in the 1990s has diminished but hasn’t extinguished, and if the economic and political circumstances took a dive than the bad days could return.
In the mean time, I’ll keep checking the mushrooms. Hopefully Amanita virosa, more commonly known as the death cap, will remain dormant.
Copyright © 2010 Archie Dunlop
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Hello Archie,
just to correct a few details based on most recent media reports, the family shot was not Roma (except for one person) and the shooter, Mr. Harman, was not an ex-soldier.
Andrej,
Thanks for the corrections – I should have corrected it myself! It was interesting how the details changed. I think when the story first came out the shooter was supposed to be a fifteen year old boy.
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