The series of violent attacks that took place in Europe this July flooded the news and the minds. The unmistakable astrological connection between all of them was the Mars signature: brutal, aggressive, bloody, and personal. It was also expressed in the choice of means for carrying out the attacks: the truck, the knives, the axe, the gun of a solo shooter.
As of today, Aug 4th, the attack in Nice, France, where a truck driver plowed through a crowd that came to watch fireworks, has been the bloodiest occurrence of all. It took place on July 14th at 22:30, just as Scorpio MAR rose to the top of the chart (Equal Houses chart, see nearby) 
and got activated by transiting MOO: violence driven by vengeance, obsession, and deep-seated emotional issues; also an ambush style attack and terrorism (rather than, say, an open battlefield). MAR in the 10th is taking the fight to the public arena. It disposits and, thus, motivates Ari URA, a planet of sudden, radical change and upheaval, placed in the 3rd house of vehicles as well as neighborhood. The two planets are in a quincux aspect of inner stress with no escape or resolution. In this case quincunx links two signs traditionally ruled by MAR: Aries and Scorpio, and thus violence becomes a bridge that allows to alleviate some of this unresolvable pressure. With MAR being very dignified and, thus, very effective in carrying out its mission, on the one hand, and Collective planet URA serving as a vehicle (no pun intended) for MAR message, on the other, the resulting impact is massive and devastating. Ari URA in 3rd also speaks to a lightning bolt realization on a Collective level that fight for one’s life / survival now occurs in the familiar neighborhoods (rather than distant foreign lands).
In the chart of the event, MAR is one of the cornerstones of the Water Grand Trine, which involves Sco MAR-MOO in the 10th, Can SUN in the 6th, and Pis Chiron in the 2nd. The presence of a Grand Trine in the chart of such violent event is a case in point that trines should not be mistaken for “good” aspects. They are soft aspects in terms that they don’t initiate action; however, they are riverbeds through which waters – clean or muddied – run unimpeded. In case of the Nice Truck Attack, we have an unrestrained, unchecked emotional flow between intense aggression in public space, emotional self-expression through duties and sacred practices, and a deep wound in self-worth in connection with spirituality and illusions or disillusionment. This is a powerful well of emotional energy, and Can SUN channels it into action as it squares Ari URA: the oath about sacred duty gets carried out through a sudden massive attack. SUN is the exaltation ruler of Ari, indicating that the decision about sacred obligations is, indeed, the second motivator behind the act, in addition to MAR.
The other important square of the chart is between Sag SAT in the 10th, conjunct MC, and Pis NEP in the 1st. It talks about religious and/or foreign cultural structures of authority coming into conflict with illusions and sacrifices of one’s identity. This is a conflict that aptly describes the inner demons of both the perpetrator, the terrorist who can’t reconcile with the Western culture, and the victim, the EU public. It is unmistakably about culture, religion, and spirituality. SAT conjunction with MC indicates that the crisis was the moment when fears, barriers, illusions, deceptions, and disassociations, which such societal conflict harbors and on which it feeds, errupted openly into the public eye.
There are more details that can be read and interpreted in the chart of this horrible event. Astrologically, it offered us a powerful illustration of personal, societal, and Collective factors coming together to leave a memorable mark on our Collective consciousness and, thus, further push the tide of changes we are currently living through.