How To Interrupt A Chain Of Events, Leading To Catastrophe

Ice storm movie still
My husband and I watched The Ice Storm, last night. This was the third time I’ve seen the movie in the last dozen years.

It’s a good story, well-acted. I admire everything about the movie but the ending is particularly spectacular, simply because it’s believable.

After the movie, my husband mentioned how he’d learned (when he was in missiles), that 88% of catastrophes are caused by human actions, or mistakes. The one mistake can lead to a series of things happening, like dominoes falling. The last domino to fall causes some devastating event.

Clearly, it’s best to avoid the wrong action. But if you’re in a situation like this, as many are with Uranus squaring Pluto, you can stop the flow of things if you just remove ONE domino.

This fact is one of those wrinkles in life, well worth being aware of.

Are dominoes falling in your life at this time, leading to some inevitable calamity?
If so, is there an element you can change, to change the outcome?

34 thoughts on “How To Interrupt A Chain Of Events, Leading To Catastrophe”

  1. The Ice Storm is one of my all time favorite movies. I feel like I am Christina Ricci part in the film, as my life – just outside of the middle, pushing buttons and edging the plot along – but, always an arms length away from the tragedy zone. There is definitely more trauma coming, and I will totally be right in the middle of it, and affected by it – but I won’t be the at the center of the worst of it.

    1. I agree, the movie is extraordinary. It makes so many other movies look like a pile of crap in comparison.

      I feel I’ve met every character in it at least once in my life.

  2. Oh, this post is so neat. 🙂 Your husband sounds so Gemini-like.. .very interesting. Sounds Uranian too 😉 I think this is true. Its just finding that one domino is hard sometimes… Sometimes it takes a ton of clear perception. You have to see everything at least 5 moves ahead. Life is a lot like a chess game.

  3. Avatar
    Warped by Wuthering Heights

    Trying to extract myself from the calamity of this money-pit house I bought in July here in frozen RI. I know I could hang in and invest more, but too afraid of more catastrophic expenses, so looking for nice 55+ apt. in CA or FL for peaceful future so I can dump the house at a loss but at least remove the potentially disastrous domino!

    1. Sorry to hear about your difficulties Warped.
      Its hard not to get caught up in the romantic mania we are fed in our culture about owning a place of our own…. thinking it will give us freedom at some point. As a fellow New Englander, like you, living in such an expensive region awashed with well built but high maintenance old houses, its always has tempted me until that first morning I have to dig my car out after the snow plows have left. lol! Best Wishes from a fellow Yankee!!

    2. I recently moved to an apt and I’m over 65 and know what you are saying. It was a good move for me – walkable area.

  4. Had to think about this for a second. . . and I thought about whether i should put my cards on the table but I think the one domino I have to find at this point is. . .I have to find independence. No matter who im with, my relationships will continue to fail if i don’t. If I can do this most of my problems will go away as well. So I basically need to form a strong sense of self. That is the one domino that can save me.

    1. As far as action/tactic, this is to take a series of ‘moves’ and sometimes Ill be winging it but my eye is on the goal and I won’t stop until its accomplished 😉

  5. Yes, I think if I do one thing now it will benefit me in the long run. It may not solve everything and if that’s the case, oh well. It could definitely lead to other, better things.

  6. Avatar
    mudlikesubstance

    It feels more like there are a number of huge things balancing on edge and I’m waiting for information, other people to get back to me, other events to move forward. If I could remove the domino that started this all I would have. I am mostly just trying to be ethical, kind, direct, and let the chips fall where they may.

    I think this may be because I did not make the mess but am just cleaning up, the liars, thiefs etc. are just coming to the surface and I wipe up, and wipe up again. It feels really surreal because I cannot for the life of me understand how no one noticed this stuff for years on end.

    I don’t know why or how but it’s like I walked in the door and all of a sudden everyone can see who the bad apples are and I’m putting them in the compost pile as fast as I can.

  7. Yes your husband is right. A lot of people create chaos and it is not easy to avoid all of the mess. You have to be able to move fast sometimes to get out of the worst.

  8. Haven’t seen it. Read the storyline. Another fun family adventure. 😀 I wonder if it has a happily ever after at the end.

  9. The seriously resonates. It looks to me, finally like I’m the only domino that can be removed in my world and I’ve known that for a while but have so feared the loneliness and isolation that was going to follow. I also have felt almost entirely alone in observing some spectacular power plays, betrayals and manipulations by people who have in the past managed to look innocent, free spirited and civil for a very long time. It’s interesting that the most toxic of people in my life claim to be anarchists and or live and let live types while being the most controlling and aggressive. Am I talking about narcissists? If so I have way too many of them to deal with right now. I would like to take a solo vacation now please world.

  10. I don’t know about catastrophe, but I seem to be focussing on avoiding the whip. There is no way I can comply with the master slave realtionship and continue to function so I guess I continue onward with avoidance. I’m still standing. And I plan on continuing to walk forward in my happy shoes.

  11. Oo. Oo. I’ve got one. It first hit me exactly one year ago. A person showed up at my house to tell me he had cancer and 2 years to live. He said he was telling me this because I am his friend. It puzzled me because although we cross paths and/or he shows up at my house once or twice a year, it fell far short of a friendship to me. He’s so wound tight I have no idea who he really is. Fast forward to recent blips on this site like disillusioned, and more recently, collection of people and one on one, and most recently people are people, while I am currently considering chucking some relationships out the window. I am no longer going to categorize my relationships, friends, associates, pals, buddies, family, sisters. Just people. Each one a person. I was placing expectations on people according to category and ergo when not living up to the labelled category I got confused and disillusioned. My bad. Probably sounds trivial. But I find sanity in it. It worked Elsa.

    1. ” I am no longer going to categorize my relationships, friends, associates, pals, buddies, family, sisters. Just people. Each one a person. I was placing expectations on people according to category and ergo when not living up to the labelled category I got confused and disillusioned. My bad. Probably sounds trivial. But I find sanity in it…”

      Thanks SOOOO much Notch! Your insight was well needed and very timely. After 4 years of a deep friendship with a yearning for more,(including 2 years of sharing space very happily with the person to make the yearning more painful), I’m going to practice this. No expectations. No more pain.

  12. The greek lady is the one domino, she had dark brown hair, it was med-long and straightened, she is medium-large build, maybe between 40-50 yrs old, she has a decoy. She was sitting in front of me on the bus, i think on my way to church the first time. She was wearing a blue dress, fitted, with short sleeves, below knee. She was talking in greek to her father on her mobile on the bus when there was less people. She can speak perfect english. She was right in front of me when we got off the bus. She walked right in front of me for a little while after we got off.

  13. Avatar
    circle.dot.oceans

    Mm. As a Cappie-Scorp, I feel a distinct lack of control in these instances. But, then I hope that hindsight leads to foresight… Learning can stop another one from falling… So, I wish I could learn faster, harder, better… I am no robot, and sometimes I’m not that smart, or that quick… So, because I’m not perfect, I feel small right now. Very small. There’s only so much I can control… and nothing I can do about the past except pray and learn.

  14. I remember this post and thinking that the domino concept was really good.
    I hope there isn’t such an effect effect in my life right now that I can’t see…! (unexpectd whammo style)
    But I have a friend who’s in a very complicated personal mess and it seems to me that she has been avoiding many things for years and now is getting near domino time. She’s in a panic, but I’m not sure which element she should remove to avoid a calamity. She functions more on feeling than logic, and playing dominos is perhaps best done by cool strategic planners.

  15. I read Pholus has something to do with “dominoes falling.” It just entered Capricorn. My Pholus is on the cusp of my IC.

  16. I think I have rearranged the dominos at least.
    Since I began using whole signs, my planets and stuff have moved quite a bit. And so has my view on my pre-ordered life as I thought I knew it.

    Some things starts to make sense now. Things I have observed in the past but could not understand was happening.

    That is my domino … things falls into place, like a line of domino, falling into empty folds that were never there, but which I can see is now empty vessels without understanding. I am a thinker. I now understand why. And I will try not to dwell too much on it, as I have always done in the past. I will try to move on and focus on the future instead of saying “oh, so that’s why this and this happened to me, now I see”.

    I think the most important insight I have found (amongst them all) is why I have had a lot of difficulty coming to believe in myself and my choices. Dang. That was a hitter!

    1. Yes!
      And choosing the correct domino is the crux!
      I agree about the point-of-view/perspective (if you are talking about Equal House vs Placidus?), it makes quite a difference.
      But the experiences of the past (whether mistaken or not) are what normally enable a person to make better choices in the present or future. For some (like me) believing in one’s self is very difficult indeed, especially when one has made horrible mistakes!
      I think I know what you mean!

  17. I’m still trying to get my head around around stopping the domino effect because it’s happened so many times in my life. Being aware of when to pull out is a problem for me.

  18. Never saw that film but now I’m curious!
    What do you do if your future is tied up in so many outcomes? I can’t dump my 401k and do much else with it as an IRA works in the same fashion though tax free. I can’t reinvest due to the unpredictable financial state of the World and can’t buy Real Estate as I don’t know where I want to spend the rest of my life yet. I feel caught in a web that is intertwined with everything else! I don’t believe in buying Gold or Bitcoins and not that silly Art stamp stuff or buying into a piece of art to “own” something like a Picasso- that’s like a time share and the value of Art fluctuates just like stocks. Just have to ride it out.
    @Warped if you read this (six years since your post) I hope you’re in a good place now.

  19. Then, there’s Karma.
    The Law of Love.
    And sayeth the Lord of Karma, Saturn, “See that pain and suffering over there? Better check it out…”

  20. Avatar
    Irmi1969 / Char555

    Saturn is not just bout karma. He’s also about timing.
    Like, WHEN to pull out the crucial domino… WHEN is maybe just as important as which one.

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