Google Maps 'Aflockaplypse'
This is not surprising since a plethora of theories have sprung up about these kills, from fireworks, to sudden cold air masses and even to “alien activity.” Still in astrology we practitioners have a love of our synchronistic events so it is only natural for us to look for a portent in the activity of the skies.
Digging into the phenomenon in more pedestrian sources this astrologer found the map below with an intriguing pattern of reported mass animal kills.
Map of recent animal die-offs
The pattern looked familiar. Since we recently experienced a solar eclipse I looked at that eclipse path of that but did not find a correlation. However, take a look at this:
Path of Lunar Eclipse December 21. 2010
Wow! The reports follow the path of the eclipse with the heaviest concentration in the area where the eclipse cast its shadow during the light of day, the United States.
But apparently, despite the media attention, wildlife experts assert that mass die-offs are not that uncommon.
“This is really not the unusual thing that people are trying to make it into,” said Robert Meese, an avian ecologist at the University of California, Davis. “A lot of this stuff happens without anyone documenting it.”
And:
Records kept by the United States Geological Survey list at least 16 die-offs of more than 1,000 blackbirds or starlings over the past 30 years, said Marisa Lubeck, a spokesperson for the USGS in Denver. But group deaths among animals have been going on for a lot longer than that.
In a review study published in 2007 in the journal Ibis, researchers looked through European and North American bird journals and other references dating back to the late 19th century. They found frequent reports of deaths of birds in the hundreds, thousands or more.
So the question becomes why is does the media focus on events that are natural and not so unusual events to point of even coining a name for them, which in this case is Aflockalypse?
As one commenter said responding the news reports:
Why should we believe these “experts”? If they don’t even understand why this is happening and give us bogus excuses like “it’s because of fireworks,” or “cold stress”, etc. etc. – why should we believe them. If it is true that these phenomena “happen all the time” then why are we watching these news stories so carefully – if these incidents are being reported with such emphasis, they must somehow not be like the typical mass deaths that the “experts” are used to?
Well perhaps the answer is in the stars after all. Take a look at the chart of the Winter Solstice eclipse:
Mercury is the planet that is associated with communications and with birds. Notice that Mercury is the caboose of a choo-choo train of planets, that which we call a stellium, involving the Sun, Pluto and Mars. Pluto and Mars together represent death and destruction, favorite topics for the media news mill trying to get our attention (and our ad dollars). All of that is opposite the moon, representing the public in the sign ruled by Mercury, Gemini. If there was ever a topic that fits the bill of this eclipse it that of birds falling dead from the sky.
Eclipses are famous for focusing our attention on a certain area in our lives for a time period from six months to some sources up to a year. Certainly the sychronicity of reported animal kills following the path of the Winter Solstice eclipse shows that our attention is fixed on the path of the eclipse. No doubt, if we believe the scientists, there are animal kills in other part of the world that are not being reported as assiduously. As the media hype for a supposed 2012 apocalypse ratchets up, we can expect more of these alarming stories to be portrayed in the media. Our job as discerning consumers of the news is not let these news bites shape our view of the world. That is for us to do.
Text used in newspaper image from Tech News Daily. Image created from Newspaper Generator.
