Tesco Website and App Problems on 23 October 2021

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Tesco Website Problems

Amanda Williams • October 26, 2021

A review of the astrological conditions of the Tesco Website Outage

As readers of my Facebook post on the recent outage will have realised, I love nothing better than a technology glitch. So this past weekend I was delighted to discover that Tesco’s web and app were out of service for 36 hours. I admit I would have been less diverted by the event I had had an order being processed but luckily I didn’t. So I will concentrate on the astrology which is a delight.

Unfortunately Mr Jack Cohen was not an avid astrologer and did not write down the date and time he started his stall in 1919. Nor did he record the exact moment he decided to brand as Tesco. More is the pity. Indeed the first accurate date I have at the moment is for the incorporation of what is now Tesco PLC on 27 November 1947 and the subsequent listing on 23 December 1947. I’ve assumed a time of 8am for the latter though the market may have opened later in the 1940s than now ( who knows as unlike the USA market there is not a nice little primer on historic market hours). We’ll use that chart as there is only 4 weeks between the events so using both would be unnecessarily complicated.

Fortunately the date of the original Tesco.com website launch( April 11 2000) is also available as that should also prove a fruitful source for exploration.

Although Tesco’s first written acknowledgement of the recent problem came at 9.08am BST on Saturday 23rd, analysis of the downtime records suggests it probably started around 2.20am (1.20 GMT) so that is the time I’ve set for the charts.

Comparison of the Listing chart with the Downtime is immediately revealing.

Transiting Uranus appears conjunct the Progressed Listing Ascendant, square the Listing Pluto and Quincunx both the Listing Jupiter and Neptune. This reflects the unexpected sudden event which affected the underlying systems. Mercury is conjunct that Neptune – tying things down closer to the day and time. This may also hint at the likelihood of a hack.

Transiting Jupiter is conjunct the listing progressed Mercury as well and though trine Listing Uranus ( generally a positive) it is square the Mid-heaven of the moment and opposes the listing Saturn and progressed Mars, Once again we can see all the usual players at work. In this case the big network being attached and shut down.

Then we also see that Pluto is conjunct the progressed Moon this month and is square Mars that day. Unhappy customers abound.

Once again we have our our wider conditions and our triggers.

But does the Tesco.Com chart also reflect the problems?

Of course it does.

First we see that the month is characterised by a Saturn conjunction with the Online Neptune. The potential for suppression of widespread access to media exists. But it takes more than one swallow to make a summer.

Once more transiting Uranus ( with its quincunx to Mercury) is key. This time it picks up the Online progressed Sun and the natal Mars and even Jupiter as well as being quincunx its Pluto and sextile its Moon. The latter representing the poor customers. That is a pretty busy configuration- which is just itching to be triggered.

Jupiter is once again active being close to conjunction with the Online Uranus and sextile the Progressed Online Ascendant. Note how the Ascendant of the moment activates matters in this case.

This time the Pluto-Mars square picks up the Online progressed Midheaven. Ouch. And the transiting Sun squares the Nodes and is quincunx the progressed Mars.

So both charts show multiple contacts which reflect the events involving all the usual suspects- Uranus and mercury- technology, Jupiter – large events, Mars- attacks or accidents, Saturn restrictions. And in this case even the Sun is involved – it goes to the heart of what the web offering does.

I think what this example does is interesting in that it shows how different charts can be connected over time; in this case the original floatation chart for Tesco itself and the chart for its Online service.

Note how Pluto at 13 Leo in the first chart relates to the second – Pluto at 12 Sagittarius. A positive connection at the time ( 2000) when the company was starting to transform to digital- but setting up vulnerabilities each time that point is hit.

Similarly Uranus at 22 degrees Gemini and 20 degrees Aquarius emphasizing technology in both cases.

Further insight can be gained by looking back at Facebook and seeing some parallels or at least connections. There we saw progressed Mars at 13 degrees Virgo , Saturn at 23 degrees Libra with Venus at 23 Gemini and Jupiter at 24 Taurus. While the exact angular triggers were different we can see how the two organisations have links that can be triggered at similar times.

There will obviously be a lot of information in the chart regarding the source and the nature of the hack and whether the situation is fully resolved or will have further consequences, but this is not the place for such analysis.

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