The story of the Titanic and her swift demise due to an unseen iceberg is the stuff of legends. She was a very fine and very expensive vessel built during they  the heyday of the British Navy. She was of course not a naval ship, but benefited from the state of the art technology and quality of steel available. Nobody anticipated the disaster except for a few passengers who cancelled the voyage after it was claimed that not even God could sink her. Her passengers included some of the most affluent and fashionable of her time.

Much ink has been spilled on the sinking of the Titanic and she requires little introduction. She was a luxury liner on her maiden voyage to New York, when she struck an iceberg and sank. There were few survivors. All the charts I’ve seen for this event has used modern astrological techniques, most complete with asteroids and of course the outer planets.  However, Traditional Astrology gives us all we need to know. You just need to know where to look. If wee read the chart with nautical metaphors in mind, it becomes almost quite literal. in many respects

If someone came to me asking about a good time to make a maiden cross Atlantic voyage, I would never have chosen this time. Neither would anyone else who understands the warnings There are far too many problems to ignore.

First of all, the Moon is Void of Course. More crucially nothing aspects the Ascendant. In Hellenistic astrology the Ascendant is the helm. By sign alone, we could look to the Sun as holding this position, but he is not only falling away from the MC but also from the trine to the Ascendant.

With no configuration to the other elements of the chart, we essentially have no competent navigator. In fact for all practical purposes he appears to have left the bridge. Even if you were to allow the Sun as Helmsman, it wouldn’t be an ideal  choice. However, amazingly, the place of the Helmsman is occupied by the Greek Lot of Nemesis !

The Moon has just slipped below the horizon, probably unseen to most because of the angle of the Sun. She isn’t connecting to any planets or luminaries but she is parallel a very powerful Antares, the Heart of the Scorpion.

Mars in Cancer is in the House of Hidden Enemies and we can say in this case represents the destructive for of the ocean. Mars is in his Fall here, so all the more malicious. Mars is the Killing Planet in this chart and he is disposited by the Moon in Cancer.

The Almuten of the chart is Saturn in the Tenth disposited by Venus in Pisces in the House of Death. Mars is Lord of the Fourth, Subterranean, Submerged House – the end of the matter

The Lord of the Year is Jupiter, related to long distant travel and of course to Pisces. In the first chart he’s having fun in the Fifth House, but in the collision chart he is Retrograde in the Twelve House. We can say he’s not available to counteract other forces, even though he is Lord of the Year and Lord of the Geniture…

On 14 April 1920 at 11.40 pm the Titanic hit a deadly iceberg. The crew didn’t notice it until immediately before the ship struck. There were panicked orders to turn the ship and stop the engines, but it was too little too late. There was massive damage o the hull and it soon became evident that the ship would need to be abandoned. Request for help went out and were received by a ship whose radio operator was sleeping, so the captain ignored it.

The hidden enemy we saw in the previous chart is now in the Eighth House of Death. Jupiter is now the Killing Planet and he ‘takes the helm’ on the Ascendant. The would be navigator cannot see the helm. The Moon is Void of Couse again, this time in Pisces in the Fourth House and a poorly placed Mercury is Combust. The almuten of the chart is Saturn once again. Saturn has ancient associations with seafaring, no doubt due to the ‘outer limits’ theme of sailing beyond what is known and also the extremely dangerous nature of seafaring itself.

The story of the Titanic is full of stories of messages misunderstood, panic and several ignored warnings of treacherous icebergs. We can see how communication could be very difficult, but there is another element that comes into play here.

It is difficult to forget that the Titanic was lauded and promoted as the ship that even God couldn’t sink. In fact, this caused some passengers to cancel the voyage. The problem has most often been identified as hubris. At this time, the UK had the most powerful and advanced Navy in the world. The Titanic was the product of dizzying amounts of money and the best that money could buy. It also had aboard some of the wealthiest financiers in the world at that time. It must have seemed unthinkable that such a vessel and cargo could be defeated by a single iceberg in a little over two hours after impact. The hull split it two !

As objective as I would like to remain, this is a disaster of mythic proportions. The irony of the name on the vessel has probably not been missed by anyone. The total destruction of a Titan by a force of nature encountered by far lesser vessels everyday resonates strongly.  Of course a ship cannot be guilty of any moral failings or hubris, but a voyage is so much more than a ship. The fact that it as Valentine’s Day in the Hour of the Void of Course Moon when the Titanic crunched into the iceberg. All of the things are evocative which is why the sinking of the Titanic has become a legend

The demon of the Sun is Pride and it comes as no big surprise that the Greek Lot of Nemesis is now in tight conjunction to the Sun, in his Exaltation in the  Fifth House.  Fairly recently is has been discovered that a Super Moon – i.e. much closer to Earth than usual – caused extremely high tides responsible for dislodging a large number of icebergs but really, at the end of the day, we have to wonder why this Nemesis was unseen until it was too late

This is believed to be the iceberg that Sank the Titanic. Photo taken after the collision, showing signs of impact and red paint. Courtesy US Coast Guard