The Astrology of the Land of Smiles

 

1: Thailand Ancient and Modern

2: The National Chart

3: Thirteen Boys Trapped in a Cave: The Tham Luang Rescue

 

1: Thailand Ancient and Modern

Despite a drop in tourist visitor figures in recent years Thailand is still the most popular destination for travellers throughout Asia easily topping its neighbours. But competition from Vietnam is rising. You land usually at the ‘city of gold’ which is the word Thais use for the capital city, Bangkok. The golden Buddhas that adorn the numerous great temples all over the country are symbolic. Gold is the essence, the core: it points to the purity of the soul especially when you do the inner work. The soul can shine with a golden light and be of inestimable value.

Fluttering in the wind, coloured flags dangle above your head in the temples. I call them ‘wishing’ lines. These flags follow the colours assigned to the days of the week and contain depictions the 12 animals of the Chinese astrology system. This is interwoven with Thai traditions and beliefs. Hundreds of people daily write their birth date on these flags and make a wish. Then they hang that flag on the line as at the ancient Wat Lok Molee temple in Chiang Mai. The wish is then left to the wind to flow with the elements.

Astrology is so deeply embedded in the Thai psyche it almost goes without saying. This is not just the popularity of these ‘wishing’ lines, but the use of astrologers at temples such as Wat Khuan Khama. Many monks will just answer ‘No’ to any random question about astrology. The ones that do know are ones that make it a special study or ajarns (lay monks) and most often use the Indian astrology system and the Tropical Western system is optional. But the answer is ‘Yes’. It is all around.

Two things struck me as important. The Lanna tradition of northern Thailand replaces the Pig with the Elephant as the last animal in the sequence. The animal series begins with the Rat and cycles around every 12 years. I had always felt the elephant was missing from Chinese astrology, but now I see it can be included it feels more whole and complete. Other traditions such as that of the Dai people of South East Asia also use the elephant. It is a very Jupiterian animal with its massive size and resemblance to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. The 12- year cycle aligns to Jupiter’s cycle which makes the 60^th birthday so auspicious as it is 5 cycles of 12 years reaching a peak. Candles placed in lotus blossoms were floated down the river on the King’s 60^th birthday.

To this day the best book on how Chinese and Western astrology comingles in unique ways is Susan White’s ‘The New Astrology’. Its 144 pen portraits are remarkably accurate based on keen psychological observation.

The other delight for an astrologer is that in Thai language the names of the months are basically astrological sign symbols from the Sanskrit original words: May is phrɯ́tsaphaa-khom the Bull, míthùnaa-yon is June the twins, July is kàrákàdaa-khom the Crab, August is sǐnghǎa-khom the Lion and so on.

So, when saying the date with the month in Thai you are using the zodiac and adding a word for the number of days. This derives from Sanskrit and Pali which influence spelling and retain older etymology. Just one anomaly is that the zodiac sign no longer aligns with the calendrical month. There has been a shift so the next sign starts around the 20-22nd of each month. There has been a precession of equinoxes over 2,000 years so the alignment to the calendrical month has moved 8-9 degrees. In the tropical system (based on the equinoxes and solstices), two signs overlap in one calendrical month. Yet when you are near the equator the impact of the seasonal determinants has less impact.

2026 has been a year of twists and turns not just for Thailand. A Saturn-Neptune conjunction in February is still having reverberations. We now have the Nodes in Aquarius and Leo. Jupiter made a move too. It shifted from Cancer into Leo. Cancer is the Thai nation’s zodiac sign. While Jupiter was in Cancer that was significant for Thailand as it is exalted there. It has transited all the planets in the Thai nation’s 1932 chart from 2025-2026. When it expands the latent power of planets like Pluto which is there at 21˚ of Cancer, it can bring on a deeper reset of values and a kind of clearing out process.

Jupiter transited Thailand’s natal Pluto back in the last week of 2025 and again in May of 2026. There have been changes to the visa regulations, troublesome incidents with locals and foreigners and more restrictions. Opinions waver about the future of Thailand. The trends on social media about whether Thailand is still the country of choice for international tourists can waver between pro and con. But the enduring appeal of Thailand goes beyond any particular You Tube influencer video.

Like many countries Thailand is multi-faceted and cannot be captured in just a few words or a few bits of film footage sewn together. It has undergone a series of historical metamorphoses. Often there is confusion as several charts could become representative of the country. It would depend on the context which period is under examination. But Cancer, Aries, Gemini and Sagittarius keep coming up.

The Lak Meuang Pillar formed the foundation stone of Krungthep, the city of Bangkok in 1782. This is in the first minutes of Taurus with a powerful Jupiter-Saturn conjunction across the Galactic centre and the early degrees of Capricorn. This was only one year after the discovery of Uranus so Bangkok has links to that rebellious and revolutionary planet. You could even say it is even more contentious at the troublesome degree of 29˚of Gemini. So, it is said, that astrologers chose the moment of day of the laying of the stone just a few minutes into the sign of Taurus. This was to ensure stability of business and money.

King Mongkut, Rama IV, is an intriguing figure of the 19^th century and the Kingdom of Siam. He was a Libra sun sign in the tropical system, born in 1804. This is cardinal air. He was a highly educated and cultivated man who spoke several languages and was an astute negotiator, very apt for a Libran. He had even had been a monk for over 20 years before he was sworn in as King. His astro-locational Pluto line runs right through Thailand. There is very often maximum intensity with this line. It is experientially very deep.

He was also himself an astrologer. He had in 1852 placed another pillar at the Lak Mueang shrine in Bangkok, near the Royal Palace, so two pillars sit side by side. Inside it he installed the astrological chart of the city. He also predicted the solar eclipse of August 18^th 1868 apparently more accurately than French astronomers. This was two years ahead of time. Both eclipses and Leo are associated with Kings. Unfortunately, he died a month and a half after that eclipse in 1868 of a malarial infection. Hence, hence it was named ‘the King of Siam’s eclipse.’ It was visible across Asia including Thailand- and the peak of the visible eclipse occurred right over the city of Bangkok.

 

2: The National Chart of Thailand June 24th, 1932

The founding of a more modern, democratic style constitutional monarchy in Thailand took place on June 24^th in 1932. This is the most commonly used chart to define Thailand even though it was initiated by a military coup. It is given the time of 5 am in the morning. This makes Thailand a Cancer sun sign, which is to say cardinal water with the Moon in sensitive and watery Pisces.

This is interesting as that aligns directly with the Geodetic assignment of Thailand to an MC in Cancer (the MC is just the sign before in the national chart) a Libra Ascendant, so we have the Thai people ruled by the Moon and Venus. Geodetic astrology is a fixed system so not very personalised. Nevertheless, it is worth noting. Go further East and it becomes Leo where Jupiter is now.

In September 2026 Mars is in the last decan of Cancer so Mars can influence events in Thailand during this time. His impatience does not express well in the sign of Cancer. This is a double emphasis on Cancer which of course the deeply intuitive emotionality and of course it rules food – said to be the direct way to the heart – and the culinary distinction of Thai food is well known.

Interesting too is that Neptune is in the sign of Virgo where it is hugely creative not just for the hand crafts, and artisan work of any kind, but also in bodywork techniques. You could almost say that Neptune here provides the spiritualisation of the body with the prevalence of massage, yoga and alternative therapies to make it ideal as Neptune rules the opposite sign of Pisces and bridges the spirit to the body making them inseparable. One good reflexology massage can make that mind-body connection feel immediately very real and the people have foot massages whenever they can. The feet are symbolically assigned to the sign of Pisces but the application of pressure by the hands would be a Virgo skill.

Cancer is about real estate too. Ideas about the home and hearth are strong and almost every house in Thailand has its own ‘guardian’ spirit. Look closely and you’ll find these just outside. This is the ‘spirit house’. They can be quite elaborate, changing to suit different styles from simple in the country to more corporate in urban spaces including male and female sides. They perch on a stand or pedestal support. They are adorned with flowers and incense and replicas of the resident spirits who live there. It bodes well if any visitors to a house make a small offering to the spirit in the San Phra Phum the ‘guardian’ before they stay there. It’s like saying ‘hello’ and acknowledging their rulership of the land. So this relationship with the the spirit can be essential, even more for those who live there.  This connection to the land is the residue of all that is sacred in the geo-magnetic energies that take on huge significance in Thailand. It links very much to ‘home’ and establishes the connection to the ‘home land’.

The Cancer national chart is based on the tropical system. However, in the sidereal system we move back 24˚ degrees to align more with the constellations. The astrology used in Thailand is largely sidereal. It can have the qualities of both. The word for astrology is often shown as ‘Rashi’ originating from the Indian zodiac system. This Indian version of the national chart would place the Sun at 9˚ of Gemini and the all-important Moon at 17˚ of Aquarius. Thus, the country’s Nakshatra is Shatabistha whose ruler is Rahu and whose deity is Varuna. The god Varuna is regarded as the Lord of all Waters and is somewhat similar to Neptune in the tropical system. These are not just physical waters but celestial waters. Water assumes a huge role in the story of the trapped boys.

There is also Thailand’s ‘National Day’ which is celebrated on 5^th December. This aligns to King Rama IX’s birthday. He was the father of the current King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) who I have mentioned in a previous article.

King Bhumibol Aduleyev, Rama IX, was a Sagittarius native which is mutable fire. He became king in 1946 and died in 2016. He was king for 70 years and 4 months which made him easily the longest reigning monarch in Thai history and the third longest reigning monarch in the world. He was hugely respected for his devotion to the country and his agricultural projects involving strategic technology and innovation. He was a Capricorn Ascendant and has a very strong and stable Sun- Saturn conjunction which is sombre but also masterly. It lands on the great attractor point at 12˚ of Sagittarius. They say that any planet on this point confers the ability to see around corners. He was an accomplished person with many strings to his bow. He even wrote a book of children’s literature about his stray dog.

While his sidereal chart would make him a Scorpio, the Moon placement would still remain in Aries, just moving back to the first few degrees. That Nakshatra is Ashwini whose symbol is a male horse and which is ruled by Ketu (the South Node).

But the previous National Day of Thailand was celebrated on April 7^th which marked the beginning of the Chakri family dynasty. So, we have a triple patterning of leadership of Fire here. The Chakri dynasty started in Aries. The King that ruled from 1946 to 2016 a fire sign and his son, Vajiralongkorn, is a Leo born 28^th July, another fire sign. The founding of the Kingdom of Ayuttayah in astrogeography is also Aries, with a conjunction of Pluto and Saturn. But find more details on this in this article.

3: Thirteen Boys Trapped in a Cave: The Tham Luang Rescue

A single event cannot define a nation but one story in 2018 it came very close to uniting the nation in an outpouring of anxiety and hope. The whole of Thailand- indeed the entire world – held its breath as a British guy from Coventry whose hobby was cave diving and who designed his own equipment was given the ultimate challenge. Yet he and his team somehow managed to figure out how to save the boys.

After a football match the boys went to celebrate inside the cave leaving their bicycles at the entrance. It was June 23^rd and the monsoon rains came early with flash floods turning the caves into a nexus of pipelines in full flow.

The boys could not get out and were forced to move deeper inside the cave. They were stranded there with little hope of escape as water levels rose to dangerous heights.

The situation was ongoing for several days so no one single chart captures the moment. It was a confluence of several different energies over a period of 18 days. On the day they were swallowed by the cave, and when all the mothers realised their sons were not coming home, the Sun had just entered Cancer. The majority of planets were in either Water or Earth signs. The Moon and Jupiter were in the water sign of Scorpio where things are hidden and Scorpio is ruled by the Lord of the underworld, Pluto. Neptune, lord of the oceans, was in Pisces another water sign with its mind-bending effect there. Both Saturn and Pluto were in the earth sign of Capricorn.

In the astro-locational chart the Saturn was on the Ascendant with the Sun on the IC over this spot on the border of Thailand with Chiron on the IC further afield to the West of Myanmar. But Chiron moved closer to this mountain border, the longer the boys were trapped.

Mercury which could represent young boys was at 20˚ of Cancer opposite Pluto which could represent the cave hidden in the depths of the earth. Mercury was also trine Neptune. Just to note too that Uranus had just entered Taurus a month before and this becomes significant later.

Holes, nooks and crannies in the mountain allowed more water to pour into the cave. A Thai engineer from Bangkok had the idea to divert the torrential rain water from the mountain top to the valley below to help the rescuers in their task. But the price to be paid was that all the local crop fields had to be flooded so there is an element of the Ceres story here too. The loss of crops was the sacrifice for saving the boys. Local villagers agreed to it but this was not the solution needed. Asteroid Ceres was at the third point of a goddess asteroid Fire Trine at 28˚of Leo with her sister goddesses, asteroid Vesta at the Galactic centre at 27˚of Sagittarius and asteroid Juno at 27˚of Aries. But Juno was conjunct the planet Uranus of sudden events. Uranus was in Gemini at 1˚ of Gemini. Gemini is regarded as its ‘home’ sign so its power may have easily overruled the three asteroids.

The mountain range was said to look like a sleeping lady called Jao Mae Nang Nom– the ‘reclining lady’s big cave’. The legend goes that she fell in love with a common stable boy. Her father had her lover killed by his soldiers so she fled into the cave and stabbed herself in the heart with a hat pin. She was pregnant with her dead lover’s child so this is a highly charged and most magical of energies. It is said that her blood flow created the Mae Sai River.

A monk from neighbouring Myanmar called Phra Kruba Boonchun (5/1/1964) arrived on June 29^th to perform a blessing at the cave entrance. During a Buddhist ceremony he declared that there was nothing to worry about, the boys were all still alive and they would be rescued in a few days perhaps with only one fatality.

This had come to him in a dream where the spirit of the cave had said he had to pray there before releasing the boys. This was designed to appease the spirit of Jao Mae Nang Non. The Sun was conjunct his North Node in Cancer 10˚ -11˚ when he said this. Cancer is ruled by the Moon which fluctuates the intuition, dreams and visions in and out like the tide.

Some said that the monk was the reincarnation of the boy who loved that guardian spirit Nang Nom and therefore somehow the father of her unborn child. The local families, many of them Shan people who cross the Thai-Burmese border, believed this was a kind of divine intervention. A cockerel and a rabbit were released at the cave entrance, and in a previous ritual, 13 Mae Non dolls were offered to the spirit in place of each boy.

According to Peter Jenx who has studied all the hidden traditions of Thailand and interviewed several important ajarns this interweaving of legend, with the land is evidence of animism. Despite Thailand being a modern nation, the underlying animistic and magical relationships with the hidden spirit world are alive and well. This is a deeper understanding than that of the academic viewpoint taken by Kanya Wattanagun which maintains that locals only used the rituals as a ‘possibility’ in case the ordinary efforts failed, or they used them in combination. Jenx’s version is more compelling.

The story acquired a strange twist as some believed that the 13 boys were kept in the cave as spirit revenge on the 13 soldiers who had come to murder Nang Nom’s lover. She kept them there as hostages, a trade off in the game between the seen and the unseen worlds.

Prayers were even offered to the grandfather Naga (phopu phayanak) the deity who controls the rain and subterranean waters of the Tham Luang cave. This was all complicated by the belief that all the obstacles and apparent failure of the rescue mission thus far all of which could be interpreted as warnings from Nang Nom the not to interfere with her wishes.

Diving in the flooded cave passageways demanded intense physical determination and technical knowledge. Treacherous conditions meant that it was life or death for everyone involved.

But around 11pm on July 2^nd, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen found the boys still alive deep inside the cave complex. News spread fast as the glare of world media was shining a light on a video showing the boys alive. These skeletal bodies of twelve trapped boys with their football coach captured people’s imaginations and garnered their prayers. This news was a relief for the mothers and hopes continued for their survival.

But the extreme difficulty of getting them out had only just begun. They had stayed alive somehow without food for over a week and conquered their feelings of being scared and lost. Their coach the oldest boy teaching them to act like a team and use meditation practice and recite the ‘Su Su’ mantra. He himself felt that people would blame him for leading the boys into the cave. He was 25 a few years older than the rest.

Rescue operations continued but on July 6^th, Suman Kunan, a 37-year old Thai Navy Seal suffocated through oxygen failure while diving in the rescue attempt. This hit hard on the Thai population as they lost one of their own. The story elaborated into a riff on the reincarnation of the monk. He too could have been the reincarnation of the lover of Nang Nom. But in this case she was reclaiming him for herself. He was a Capricorn native with the Sun at 1˚ just after the Winter Solstice. This point opposes the Cardinal point of 1˚ of Cancer when the boys were trapped and of the Thai national chart. He was lauded as a hero afterwards.

The rescue began in earnest once anaesthetist Richard Harris arrived from Australia. The logistics of getting them out seemed impossible to achieve as the boys were not trained divers. However, an idea was proposed that had never been tried before. One by one, the boys were sedated with ketamine which also carried the huge risk of drowning if the oxygen masks slipped. If the anaesthetic wore off, they could regain consciousness and start to panic. So, they had top up injections every half an hour. The boys probably have little memory of what happened, but it was a strange replay of being totally unconscious and coming through a kind of birth canal to regain life, literally being pulled from the teeth of death.

But Richard Stanton’s team with the help of the international team of volunteers managed to get all the boys out. Each boy was assigned a diver each to carry them through the tunnels. It took three days from July 8^th to July 10^th.

The moon had over the 18 days since this incident started moved from a conjunction to Jupiter in Scorpio to its opposite position in Taurus moving in to Gemini. There was still some tension here in the charts for these three days. Mars was square to Uranus – the code for accidents- and the Sun was opposite Pluto- of intense life-death events and Venus moved from Leo into Virgo. The Leo drama had ended and it was time to clear up and out.

Once they got the last boy out in the late afternoon the pumps broke and the caves instantly flooded again and became impassable. It was as if Nang Nom was saying ‘okay now you got them out, stay the hell out!’ But they had their lives back. On that day, there was a powerful trine building up in Earth signs. Asteroid Juno was conjunct Uranus in early Taurus, Part of Fortune and asteroid Ceres in early Virgo and then the third point rooted the practical outcomes was that Saturn was in early Capricorn. Trines have helpful energy if there is effort made to take advantage of the situations, especially if Saturn is there- it suggests a practical outcome.

Since that day tours are allowed inside the Tham Luang cave but only to a distance of a few hundred meters and only under strict supervision. No one is allowed beyond chamber 3 and inside the deeper recesses of the cave. I have visited the Chiang Dao caves and while they are spooky and mysterious enough, full of bats and spiders and a few dripping stalactites. The sleeping Buddha statue is only 350 metres inside. Just a short walk. But even there the air was thin. But there is no comparison with the complexity and difficulty of the Tham Luang caves. The boys were trapped 3 miles inside and it took up to 6 hours per journey to carry each one out.

A last strange note to the story came later on when the captain of the team won a scholarship and came to live in England. This was ‘Dom’ – Duangphet Phromthep. He had turned 13 during his time in the cave. So, he was born July 3^rd in 2004 a Cancer native. Two other boys had birthdays at that time between June 23^rd to July 10^th making three of the wild boar football team Cancerians- an echo of the National chart.

But on February 12^th 2023, ‘Dom’ as he was known, was found unconscious in the school where he was staying in Market Harborough. He was pronounced dead a couple of days later. He was only 17. The Sun was then conjunct Saturn in Aquarius. He was already born with a very sobering Sun-Saturn conjunction in Cancer. This meant that on his death in the North Node had returned to the exact same point – 7˚ of Taurus. His team was called the wild boars. So, the bull symbolism is apt. The Nodes are eclipse points and usually indicate fated events. This North Node aligned also with the position of Uranus in Taurus- the bull- which could indicate sudden events underground.

It is not really known why he ended his life. His ashes were returned to his family in Thailand who burst into tears on receiving them at Suvarnabhumi airport.

It is not easy to make sense of this story overall except that it dramatizes the father (Capricorn) and the mother (Cancer) archetypes. Thailand’s national chart is Cancer and the alignments are spectacular. On the day of the boys’ disappearance, the Sun was at the same degree as the National chart. Yet Saturn was directly opposite that Sun, posing serious limitations and obstacles to overcome. There is a stellium in this chart in Cancer which is about the womb, the stomach and mothers potentially losing their sons added to the psycho drama. Pluto is in Cancer at 21˚ in direct opposition to Pluto at 20˚ of Capricorn in 2018. So that is huge for experiencing a transformational event from which profound lessons are learned. But it is also conjunct asteroid Ceres, the mother of grieving and loss for her daughter yet whose grief can destroy crops and let people starve.

That is half its cycle. In another 120 years, the natal Pluto will come to a conjunction. This will be a Pluto return. It stays longer in Taurus than it does in Scorpio so its orbit is unequal.

The world degree of all the cardinal signs are solstice and equinox energies -appear to be involved as trigger points. The early degrees of Cancer (when the boys became trapped) and the early degrees of Capricorn – both Sunan Kunan who died and Kruba Boonjam the monk were early degree Capricorns- is just one layer.

Both Pluto and Saturn were in Capricorn in June/July of 2018 and both those very serious planets were building towards their conjunction in early 2020 which changed the world forever.

Caves have a feminine symbolism as secret hidden places which you enter at your peril. They are liminal spaces that feature as symbols of transformation and rites of passage, in the films of Thai director Apitchatporn Weerasathakul. The predominance of planets in water and earth signs too offers a hint of water trapped in the earth. There were hardly any planets in air or fire. Mercury in Cancer suggests boys lost or surrounded by water and all the expressions of emotion. There was a Trine of Jupiter Neptune and the Sun on the day the boys were discovered. This brought back hope of a full rescue.

It’s a story of triumph over the odds with cooperation of the world and so something of the Leo hero’s journey about perseverance and initiation along with teamwork of 13 different countries who all just offered to help, technical knowhow and for compassionate humane reasons which is so very Aquarius. Those boys will be forever marked by their experience and rumours circulate that they may still suffer bad luck. Perhaps this story still has currency and it’s not over yet?

National Geographic made a powerful and detailed documentary ‘The Rescue’ (2021) of the whole story. It was also given a more dramatized version in a film ’13 Lives’ (2022) with Viggo Mortensen playing Richard Stanton and Colin Farrell playing John Volanthen. But both these films are hard to watch if you are in any way claustrophobic in the underwater passageway scenes as anxiety levels ride very high.

Neither of these films mentions any astrology. But because of its extreme and extraordinary subject matter it makes for an emotional roller coaster of a story. The local farmers were eventually compensated for the loss of crops. The British divers were awarded medals and honours for saving lives, but for also having the special skill for doing what seemed impossible. They had to control their emotions in the cave as the slightest panic could have lead to their deaths most definitely a kind of initiation for them and for the whole of Thailand.

 

© Kieron Devlin, Proteus Astrology, 16th September, 2026

 

Sources are provided in the hyperlinks.

Photo of Wild Boar boys reunion speech, Reutersmedia.net © 2019

All other photos are by Kieron Devlin © September 2026

Written without the aid of AI.