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).

I made a point of alerting you to the Mars-Saturn opposition on the 7th, "an alignment that's within a few degrees of exact from the 1st through the 14th," describing it as signifying "a lot of tension, posturing, threat displays, aggression and the like." Running the gamut "from criminality to terrorism to military confrontations," the Mars-Saturn zeitgeist, I warned, would bring "a bumper crop of the 'if it bleeds, it leads' type of headlines;" and I mentioned "workplace violence" as part of the picture. No one who has been nominally conscious this month could avoid headlines replete with these very themes. Apart from the customary Baathist bombings and terrorist atrocities in Iraq, there was the murder of Judge Joan Lefkow's husband (Michael Lefkow) and mother (Donna Humphrey) in Chicago on February 28, followed by the suicide of the self-confessed killer, Bart Ross, on March 9.

Murder in the workplace focused on another judge in Atlanta on Friday March 11, when Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Brandau and Deputy Sheriff Hoyt Teasley were shot dead in and around the Fulton County Courthouse. The shooter, Brian Nichols, later killed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent David Wilhelm. Nichols surrendered to police the next day, a little before one Terry Ratzmann walked into a church service at a hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin and shot seven people dead before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide. (Ironically, murderers Bart Ross and Terry Ratzmann both committed suicide within a few miles of each other, in different nearby suburbs of Milwaukee - both within 20 miles of a Mars line in the Astro*Carto*Graphy map for Saturn's March station, which is within a fractional degree of the Ringed Planet's place in the Mars-Saturn opposition on the 7th.)

Given that it's April 25 before Saturn moves beyond a single degree of its March 22 station point (which point was in turn within a fractional degree of the Mars-Saturn alignment), I fear I may have been premature in my deduction that the havoc associated with this alignment would be over by March 15. Obviously, the upsurge in murder and mayhem continues - as evidenced by the March 21 mass murder that left ten people dead in a Bemidji, MN school. So just to be on the safe side, you might want to keep in mind for a little longer my recommendation regarding the perilous potential associated with all this Mars-Saturn stuff: "be careful out there."

Arguably the biggest story of the month, in terms of global importance at any rate, was the killer earthquake that struck just off the coast of Indonesia on the 28th and snuffed out hundreds of lives - perhaps as many as 2,000, according to early government estimates. Measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, the quake struck near Nias island off Sumatra and virtually destroyed the main town, Gunungsitoli. The airstrip was damaged, and many of the buildings in the town of 30,000 people were reduced to rubble. There was no electricity or water, and relief workers said roads in the town had collapsed. My forecast stated that late March would be "a time of increased geophysical stress, from the 22nd through the 28th . . . and again from the 31st on into early April." In addition to "strong storms with damaging winds and lightning, plus very heavy precipitation (and resulting flooding, avalanches and mudslides)," I specifically mentioned a heightened risk of "moderate to severe seismic activity . . . the most threatening of the month."