Here you go. Here’s the chart for when the massacre started in Christchurch this Friday. Saturn and Pluto conjunct in the local 8th House, trine a debilitated Mars in the local 12th House, blah blah blah.

That’s all the astrology you’ll get from me on the matter. Why? Because I was in the middle of tracking down the name of the shooter and finding his date of birth when New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this:

“I implore you, speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them. He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless”

And by God, she’s right.

You or I don’t really need to know the name of the monster who did this, or what transits prompted it. Would that be educational? Sure, probably. And Lord knows I haven’t been afraid to write about big terrible things before. We need to understand big terrible things in order to prevent them.

But I decided this is one ambulance I am not going to chase. Could I get a blog entry out of a murderer’s Mars placement? Sure I could. Would someone learn some astrology reading that blog entry? Why not?

But I decided I’m with Jacinda on this one. Going further into detail isn’t going to help me, and it isn’t really going to help you.

It’s certainly not going to help Lilik Abdul Hamid, age 58, an aircraft maintenance engineer and chairman of the Indonesian Students Association. It will be of no benefit to Hamza Mustafa, age 16, a former refugee. It’s not going to do any favors for Omar Faruk, 36 years old, whose wife is pregnant. Nothing I write will edify Hosni Ahmed, who was last seen looking for her husband who is partially paralyzed and uses a wheelchair.

Nothing I post here is going to benefit Daoud Nadi, a 71 year old retired engineer who loved vintage cars. No amount of astrology is going to benefit Haroon Mahmood, who at the age of 40 was studying for a PhD in biochemistry.

Learning about astrological transits isn’t going to do anything for Mucad Ibrahim, who reportedly was a happy and playful three-year-old.

They’re all dead now, and 43 others as well.

You don’t need to know the name of who did this. You don’t need to look at the astrology. All you need to know about this is what W. H. Auden said:

We must love one another or die.