The entire world has been staggered by the destruction caused by an earthquake, the most powerful in 40 years, centered off the coast of Sumatra resulting in a huge tsunami which flooded many of the surrounding coastlines, and I have begun to receive questions as to why this may have happened celestially. The short term answer is that this event was triggered by the Full Moon; when the Sun, Earth and Moon all line up and the 'bulge' in the Earth around the equator becomes more pronounced because the Earth is being pulled in different directions at the same time. We naturally tend to think of the Earth as a solid substance, but there is a tide which not only affects our oceans, but also the land mass over which the Moon travels. During times of the New and Full Moon, this attraction is heightened, and the Earth tide becomes more pronounced. The Earth is composed of a number of tectonic plates, which, over the course of time, shift and move, with one plate sliding under another where they come together.

If there is an area of stress, as often happens, which has been building where these plates rub together, this tide caused by the Moon's gravitational attraction can be enough to set off an earthquake, as has happened this time. But the Full Moon occurs every month. Is there anything different about this particular Full Moon which would cause such destruction?

      The answer is yes.

Astronomically, we are taught that the planets do not move in circles, but ellipses, or slightly flattened circles. The characteristic of a circle is that it is a line which remains equidistant from the center. An ellipse, which is a slightly flattened circle, does have times when it comes closer to the center, and that is what occurred this month under this Full Moon.

      When the New or Full Moon is at perigee (nearest the Earth), this influence can be heightened, but it also can occur when the Sun is at perihelion (nearest the Sun) and the Sun's gravitational influence is strongest because it is the one closest to the Earth. This occurs in the first few days of January each year. The earthquake occurred at 0:58 UT (Universal Time, measured from Greenwich, England) on the 26th of December. The combination of this month's Full Moon, together with the Sun's approaching perihelion passage, was apparently enough to set off this huge, 9.0 earthquake.

We are still in the opening stages of a period of heightened geophysical and geopolitical activity. We can anticipate that there will be more powerful natural disasters around the planet as we approach the end of the Age of Pisces. Those that have been monitoring these trends have noticed a rise in weather related damage over the last few decades, with floods or storms of the century coming at quicker intervals, with greater destruction. The greenhouse effect is but one piece of this overall pattern, and it is a wake up call; not to become fearful, but to learn to turn and help each other where we can, that this is a time of transition, and to avoid sowing seeds of discord, destruction and fear on our own part, whether this be with our neighbor next door, or those from countries far from our own.

      God bless all those who have been impacted.