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).
If you saw my online forecast, you may remember that I mentioned July 3-9 would bring "severe storms and moderate to severe seismic activity as well." And so it surely came as no surprise when tropical storms Cindy and Dennis simultaneously sprang to life in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean respectively, on July 5. On the very same day, a powerful earthquake measuring up to 6.7 on the Richter scale hit Indonesia's Sumatra island. Tropical Storm Cindy forced a slowdown in Gulf oil production and transport, helping boost crude oil prices to record highs on fears of short supply. On the 6th, Cindy came ashore, flooding streets and knocking out power for over a quarter of a million people in Louisiana and Mississippi. Meanwhile, Dennis intensified to Category 2 hurricane strength in the Caribbean on the 6th, with days yet to go in one of the two peak storm and seismic risk periods of the month - the lesser one, mind you. The big one, as I indicated last year in my 2005 World Forecast Highlights, is associated with the July 21 SuperMoon full moon, in effect from the 18th through the 27th.
As promised, the July 21 SuperMoon window was accompanied by major storm and seismic action. On the storm front there was Hurricane Emily, which hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula with 135 mph winds on Monday the 18th as the most powerful (Category 4) early season hurricane in history. Thanks to judicious evacuation orders by local and federal authorities, loss of life was kept to a minimum - only one death directly attributable to the storm was reported, and that came due to inland flooding after Emily made landfall. But damage was extensive, and close to 100,000 residents and tourists sweated out the storm in shelters with no power or phone service. Mexico's Gulf oil production was shut down due to the hurricane, at a loss of 480,000 barrels per day.
As it turned out, Emily was the little storm of this SuperMoon. Typhoon Haitang was hitting Taiwan on the 18th, simultaneous with Emily's landfall in Mexico. Air and rail service was halted on Taiwan, and offices, schools and markets were ordered closed, as more than a foot of rain deluged the island with killer floods. Haitang struck China the next day, where more than a million people had already been evacuated from their homes. State TV showed villages awash with floodwaters that turned streets into rivers.
An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale jolted high-rise buildings in Taiwan on the 20th. A Richter 6 earthquake struck near Tokyo on Saturday the 23rd, shaking buildings and injuring five people in a shopping center, a Japanese news agency said. The earthquake caused a steel tower to collapse in Tokyo, and brought train service to a halt. Tokyo's Narita airport was shut down after the earthquake, and some mobile phone traffic ground to a halt. Bigger still was the strong earthquake of 7.2 magnitude that shook India's Andaman and Nicobar islands on Sunday the 24th, causing residents to run from their homes. Mindful of the Boxing Day 2004 catastrophe, Thailand promptly issued a tsunami warning after Sunday's quake.
My forecast also noted that "fire, accidents and violence are always the stuff of headlines, and there's plenty of all three off and on throughout July." In particular, I advised being vigilant about such things "from a few days before to a few days after" two key dates, when Mars would transit sensitive eclipse degrees; namely July 10 and 27. Tragedy struck London at the outset of the first of these intervals, when a series of terror bombings on the 7th killed dozens and injured hundreds. "Human-caused mayhem," as I observed, "is especially deplorable because it's mostly avoidable, if people would only be decent and responsible." (These dates and cautions were first mentioned in my 2005 World Forecast Highlights last year, by the way.)
July 21 turned out to be the vanguard of the second round of nastiness, as four would-be mass murderers attempted to set off another round of bombs in the London mass transit system. Fortunately, the bombs were duds. So was the poor fellow who failed to stop when ordered to by a bunch of undercover London cops the next day. Worse, the wretch was wearing a bulky jacket (the kind that can conceal a bomb), and he ran into the subway, jumping turnstiles and leaping into a train car as he fled the police. He ended up shot dead. People, people: when the cops have a shoot to kill order and they yell freeze, you freeze. It's simple. And a helluva lot safer than the alternative. Especially under a strong Mars activation.
Egypt needed some London luck on the 23rd, but got none when suicide bombers struck the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday, in the worst terrorist attack in that country since 1981. Scores of people were killed in the bomb blasts, and at least a couple hundred more were injured.
