If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget it. This is real astrology. See the section above. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying these forecasts, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: all forecasts are expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT).

The biggest news story of December was the awful tragedy that struck on the morning of the 26th, when a Richter 9.0 earthquake (the strongest in the world in decades) rocked the seabed north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The monster quake raised a tsumani that smashed coastlines throughout south Asia and across to east Africa. From Indonesia to Sri Lanka to India, from the Maldives to Thailand, waves in some places up to 60 feet high stormed ashore without warning, sweeping families and indeed whole towns out to sea: scores of thousands killed (maybe 100,000+), millions left homeless. I had written that a big geocosmic stress window would be in effect "from the 23rd through the 29th, associated with the full moon at 5 Cancer on the 26th (the same day the Moon reaches its maximum north declination)." I described this particular alignment as signifying a heightened "risk of storms, flooding and seismic upheaval." As it turned out, that was an understatement. This part of the world will be years recovering.

On a lighter note - anything would be a lighter note - the typical Mercury intersolar entourage came through right on schedule during the November 21-December 29 period, just as forecast. An obvious manifestation of the "delays in shipping, lost or misdirected goods and messages, transportation tie-ups and mishaps (including crashes, sinkings, derailings and the like)" I had predicted for this period was the Canadian postal strike, which began on Thursday, December 9 and lasted until Friday the 17th. Some 2,500 Canada Post administrative, clerical and technical staff across the country were involved in the strike, on a rotating basis. Earlier but briefer was the shipping, air, highway and rail traffic mess in and around Japan on the 5th, thanks to a record-breaking storm that stranded ships and shut down highways, airports and train lines. And in the US, computer problems grounded over 1,000 flights of the regional carrier Comair on Christmas Day, while US Air canceled hundreds of flights and delayed others due to staff shortages. On the information infrastructure front, the Zafi-D worm infiltrated much of the online world within days of its release on the 14th, rapidly becoming the most frequently detected worldwide computer virus. This was the fourth incarnation of the Zafi worm this year, the first one having been detected in April - during, you guessed it, another Mercury intersolar cycle.

The magnitude of the Indian Ocean disaster at the end of the month makes everything else pale in comparison. But I had also warned of "unusually high tides, strong storms with high winds and heavy precipitation (in some cases causing floods or mudslides), and moderate to severe seismic activity (including Richter 5+ earthquakes and volcanic eruptions)" during the "December 9-15 SuperMoon risk window" associated with the perigee-syzygy alignment on the 12th and "the Moon's maximum south declination on the 13th." As it turned out, a killer storm pounded parts of North Carolina with torrential rain and high winds on Friday the 10th, washing out a bridge west of Charlotte. Although rescuers saved two other victims, a third man died when his car plunged off the broken bridge. Seventeen people died in the southern Iranian province of Bushehr that same day, in heavy rains and local flooding. (The Middle East, you'll remember, was mentioned as a risk zone for this SuperMoon event.) Indonesia's 1,830 meter (6,112 foot) Mount Soputan volcano awakened on Saturday the 11th, rocking North Sulawesi with earthquakes and then belching heatclouds and ash. The heatclouds (600 degrees Celsius, over 1,100 Fahrenheit) fell close to the crater, but ash blanketed a town and several villages miles away. Another volcano awoke near the town of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the 12th, where there was intense activity inside the crater of Mount Nyiragongo - to the point that the summit of the mountain glowed red at night. (Goma was devastated by an eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in January, 2002. A quick look at a globe shows that Congo lies in one of the danger zones mentioned in my forecast; specifically the north-south pole to pole longitudinal arc that passes through Prague and Kinshasa.)

It was Malaysia's turn on Sunday the 12th. Thousands had to be evacuated, and at least three people drowned, as several days of heavy rain send floodwaters surging through the eastern part of that country. The earth rumbled on the 13th, as a Richter 5.4 temblor on the seabed shook up most of Portugal. Phone lines were jammed with calls from alarmed residents to emergency services, but in the end there were no casualties, fortunately. At least six people were killed and more than 750,000 were homeless in eastern and northern Sri Lanka on the 13th and 14th, flooded out by torrential rains. Meanwhile in the Caribbean Sea, roughly halfway between Jamaica and Honduras, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale shook the seabed on the 14th. On the other side of the world at the time, towering 50 foot waves prompted local authorities to close down some of Hawaii's most famous beaches on the 14th and 15th. Oahu's Civil Defense chief Doug Aton cited "high surf coupled with unusual high tide levels" as a danger to "homes, roads and infrastructure in the affected areas." Hawaii, you'll recall, was mentioned as one of the SuperMoon danger zones this time around.