The Black Death

The Swine Flu Hysteria made me sort of curious about Pandemics. I just took a quick look at the planets of the Black Death that took over 14th Century Europe to see what kind of aspects might indicate a huge pandemic that kills off at least half of one's population. This will probably be covered in awesome gorey detail in Richard Tarnas' book which I don't have with me right now but should really check out.

The thing I wondered about first of all was whether something called "Black" could be connected with Saturn and Pluto. Those two working together seem to literally represent the color Black. (Back in 2002 or 3 during the opposition of those two planets I remember reading that the Blackest Black pigment had been invented. The pigment has tiny textures that absorb more light than any other pigment yet created. AT that point I was still painting and know that painters will become obsessed with trying to get really dense, intense blacks, it's actually a very emotionally fulfilling achievement, believe it or not)

I looked up the Peak Years for the Black Death which was the five years between 1347-1351. 5 years is about a Nodal Square. Although the plague lasted for a whole lot longer before and after those dates I'll just state that for the Peak the North Node was in Virgo about to back into Leo. At the end of the peak the North Node was at the end of Taurus. So for the main part of the Peak of the Plague the North Node was passing through the signs of Leo to Cancer to Gemini to Taurus. For two years during this time Saturn was in conjunction with Pluto off and on in the Middle of Aries and was squaring the Nodal Axis in Cancer/Capricorn. There was a conjunction of Saturn with Uranus in Taurus right near the end of the Plague in 1351.

So the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Aries was a real heavy hitter as it lasted for about 2 years, a really long conjunction transit for those two. And, due to even more Retrogrades, this conjunction was also squaring the Nodal Axis (Destiny) and Jupiter (Expansion) conjunct NN in Cancer. That's Cardinal Sign scary. Economist Thomas Malthus (info from Wikipedia, of course, as I have absolutely no in depth knowledge on this matter) called this sort of "Population Control" a time of "Reckoning" where the environment can't support the amount of people who are living on it. I suppose this is why Astrologers don't like to actually discuss what Pluto's transit through Capricorn can mean.

In the Back Drop, with the other Outer Planets, Uranus was transiting Taurus. Chiron (wounded healer imagery) was also in Taurus. Uranus and Taurus both represent the Fixed Signs and Resources which indicates that something Materialistic (Taurus, Earth) is going on and will Stick around for a while, but, although they share the same modalities, the energies challenge each other, conflict. Uranus, of course, needs to create shock and rebel. Taurus is related to slowness and conservative thoughtful actions. Taurus is also related to Storage and I wonder if one of the main sources of the plague was through stored food (attracting rats).

There was a famine which preceded the Plague. I wonder if this was caused by Uranus' transit in Aries and results became most destructive when the Saturn-Pluto conjunction landed on it.

To look for a big spread of disease I assume that maybe Mars and Jupiter and Neptune would be involved. Probably Moon through Eclipses or something. In 1347 there was a Mars Retrograde which lasted for an extended period of a few months. This in Leo opposing Neptune in Aquarius and was layered over the Nodal Axis. At the end of 1347, Jupiter entered Taurus and was in conjunction with Chiron and squaring Neptune-NN in Aquarius.

Neptune was in Aquarius just like it is now. This could show a lot of traveling around and migration which was caused by the Epidemic as people were fleeing the plague. There was a lot of commerce (Taurus) and travel which could have spread the disease. The Weather was also changing quite a bit at that point which caused a shift in temperatures (probably Neptune in Aquarius).

The Black Death is generally thought to have been spread by fleas that were carried by the Black Rats. At the peak of the Pandemic, though, the Germans started to think that the Jews were poisoning the well waters. In Aug., 1349 the Jewish populations of the towns of Mainz and Cologne were murdered, heaped into piles apparently and burned alive. During this month Mars was in Cancer (it's most volatile placement especially for anything having to do with home) was in conjunction with Jupiter (Religion, Opinions) conjunct NN in Cancer (Water, Wells).

Therefore, Mars-Jupiter-NN in Cancer was squaring the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Aries (Fire). In past posts I've sort of unwillingly noticed that there seems to be a connection between the signs of Taurus through Cancer with racist divides in communities. Perhaps this is just something that is connected with the first 4 signs because of their lack of community wisdom or sense of "the other" which all the rest of the astrological signs have awareness of. These signs are related to self growth and are often the most productive creatively but on the social level, interactions can be barbaric.

I checked the Eclipse activities for these years and found that 1349 was also very active in that regard as there were 7 Eclipses which is much more than usual. I don't know much about Eclipse interpretation so I'll just list the dates here: Jan. 5 (Total Lunar); Jan 19 (Solar Partial); June 16 (Solar Partial); July 1 (Total Lunar); July 16 (Solar Partial); Dec. 10 (Solar Total); Dec. 25 (Partial Lunar). Right off the Bat one can see that the Aries-Cancer square that I've mentioned was activated by the Eclipses of that Summer. I wonder if there was a big earthquake in California that year (Just checked, Italy had one: http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU2008/01427/EGU2008-A-01427-1.pdf) Don't know about California.

Amount of Eclipses for other years: 1347 = 6. 1348 = 4. 1349 = 7. 1350 = 4. 1351 = 5.

The Hundred Years' War began 1336 and lasted through 1453 so was running in tandem with the Black Death. Moral of the story, if your lymph nodes swell up, go to the Doctor.