In astrology, synastry involves comparing the astrological charts of two individuals to see what they disclose about the compatibility and differences of those two individuals. 

 

Most synastry questions from non-astrologers are about love.  Searches on my other website show such queries in the form of wondering about the astrological meaning of "his sun conjunct her moon," or "her  venus in his 4^th house."   Questions like this come from the level of understanding of synastry that has been developed over time by traditional astrology using the traditional Western chart.

 

That is, traditional astrology has not developed much valuable material concerning synastry.  The traditional chart, comprised of only one chart with 10 planets, gives astrologers too little to compare.  This astrology (described at length on the Home Page at www.angelfire.com/sd/binah.html ), comprised of 12 charts with 40 planets each (four each of the traditional 10), provides the material for stunning chart comparisons.  It makes sense of what happens between people.

 

Our charts are maps of our consciousness, indices of our take on reality.  Representative of the "individual mind," that is, individual consciousness, they graphically portray the billions of different minds crystallized out of unlimited Being.   

 

But, the stuff of consciousness is the stuff of consciousness.  What I mean by that is that the very things which makes consciousness what it is are the same things which make it similar in all beings who are conscious.  Therefore, we can share ideas, concepts, attitudes.  Therefore, we can also disagree about those things.  Therefore, each mind has a chance at an intimate relationship with one or more other minds.  Each mind and its material manifestation (the body, our homes, our "lives") has a chance at an intimate relationship with one or more other mind-body identities. 

 

Returning to the idea that our charts are maps of our consciousness, we could say, for instance, that when you meet any one it can be seen as your chart meeting his chart.  Our charts are symbolic representations of our unique energy patterns (that is, our unique consciousness)   So, I can re-phrase that to:  when you meet any one it can be seen as your energy pattern coming into contact with his or her energy pattern. 

 

But, of course, this can also happen through space, independent of distance, one example being an Internet relationship.

 

So the interaction of our consciousness with another's is not limited by space.  Or even time, since deceased writers, various historical figures, and past ancestors can have a big effect on our consciousness (though they tend to be one-way only.)

 

Each of our energy patterns, charts, are relatively constant throughout our lives, that is, we start with a certain mindset.  We do gain change through time, experience, and learning.  The first two are shown astrologically through progressions and transits.  But, our starting (birth) pattern remains the basic blueprint of our consciousness. 

 

The important point about our charts as maps of energy is that energy behaves in law-conformable ways.  The behavior produced by energy as expressed through matter can be measured and quantified.  The interactions of people can also be measured, classified, and quantified through comparing and contrasting their energy maps. 

 

Some of those lawful interactions and classes of facts are the subject of this blog.

That is, we are interested in what in astrology promotes harmonious relationship, and what bars or complicates it. 

 

Through astrology we can examine any relationship, not just that of love.  Other types of relationship subject to useful scrutiny through synastry are those of parent/child, teacher/student, boss/employee, and friend/friend.  Indeed, parent/child synastry could be one of the more useful future forms of synastry.  But, any long-term twosome could be examined through the lens of synastry.  Race, age, and sexual orientation make no difference in synastry.

 

But synastry--it was a surprise to me--is also effective in short-term relationships.  At least, that is what I have found so far.  For instance, if some one murders a complete stranger, the synastry between them still contains the same difficult compound sets as those found in traditional homicide, where the victim and perpetrator usually know each other fairly well.  Information in this area is harder to collect, so it is hard to grow this category.  Though we often know the victim, we seldom know the perpetrator of such crimes.   In order to do synastry, we need the date, time, and place of birth (from the birth certificate) of both individuals in the exchange.  So, right now I am limited to stating that so far I have seen that synastry is synastry, regardless of length of time of relationship.

 

The corollary to that is that murder is murder, based on the energy pattern, not based on the length of time of relationship.  It makes no difference whether it occurs through a stranger or a relative.  The astrology that conduces to murder is the same in both instances.

 

We don't object to the fruits of this type of inter-action when we consider "love at first sight" because we favor that exchange.  But the "love" (it would be better to call this attraction) exists because of the interaction of the energy patterns, not because of the length of the relationship.

 

I do not intend this discussion to deteriorate into something that justifies any behavior, especially something like murder.  There is a difference between justifying and explaining.  I am not saying that because certain energy patterns exist between two people that, for instance, murder has to happen.  Such energy patterns must have existed throughout time which failed to result in homicide.  That is because people have different thresholds for turning frustration into rash action.  They have different backgrounds offering a wide variety of substitute behaviors when confronted with murderous rage.  They have differing stabilities and differing past habits.  The latter is known in the East as samskaras. 

 

Samskaras is the word used to identify ingrained (perhaps over lifetimes) thought-habit patterns.  In this astrology, sign, placement, and condition of South Nodes comes closest to identifying our samskaras.  Generally speaking, in synastry it is not good if an individual's mars or saturn conjuncts our South Nodes.  It is the opposite with venus and jupiter.  To give another example, sun of one individual conjunct South Node of another is also not conducive to healthy relationship.  In that case the essential being (sun) of the first individual is pulling the second one in the wrong direction--to his past, to places he is already over-focused. 

 

On the other hand, there is no doubt (see discussion below) using this astrology, for instance, that excessive compound mars/saturn synastry between two individuals is an  astrological explanation that makes passionate murder reasonable. 

 

My more technical astrology site (address above) contains some papers on synastry.  The paper entitled "An Abductor and His Victim: the Tragedy of Polly Klaas and an Unsolved Murder" makes a number of comments on synastry.   It starts with an analysis of Klaas and her abductor, Richard Allen Davis.  Then it explores the synastry between Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari (both adults) and their homicide victim, 10 year old Jeffrey Curley.  The first two were strangers to Curly.  Gregory Godzik was fourteen and a stranger to John Wayne Gacey when their paths crossed resulting in Godzik's death.  Their synastry is so difficult it is still painful for me to look at it.  Finally, I examined the astrological relationship between Father Richard LaVigne and 10-year old Danny Croteau.  LaVigne was the Croteau family's  parish priest when Danny was found murdered.  (As far as I know, news reports have never stated whether or not Danny was molested.) 

 

All the above chart comparisons were made before I realized the importance of locality astrology in synastry.  As it turned out, it didn't matter because those crimes all occurred in the same or nearly the same locality as birth for all individuals involved. 

 

I have become more systematic in looking at synastry since writing the Klaas paper.   So far, I have written three more papers which explore the synastry of married couples.  My aim was to show the synastry of "worse case scenarios" and "best case scenarios."  Therefore, the first two papers cover the synastry between (1) O.J. Simpson and his deceased wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and (2) David and Jonelle Arien, married astrologers.  Six years into their marriage David killed his wife, then himself.  The third paper shows the synastry between the poets, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who history represents as having had a remarkably harmonious and felicitous love and work relationship.

 

All of these papers involve some locality astrology, with that between O.J. and Nicole representing the most.  More papers along these lines are in the pipeline.

 

Using worst and best cases scenarios in relationship as the field for examination uncovered their wide astrological divergence.  While there is much more to synastry than just best and worst case scenarios, these two distinctly exposed prevalence of venus/jupiter and mars/saturn, respectively.   That is, couples who draw heavily on each other's venuses and jupiters have very strong, positive relationships.  Those who draw heavily on each other's mars and saturns have painful, troublesome, sometimes lethal relationships.  Venus and jupiter are also known as the lesser and greater benefics, respectively, of astrology.  Mars and saturn, the lesser and greater malefics.

 

Most of us have less extreme synastry.  As far as I know right now, some of those less "showy" sets would be meaningless to compare.  For instance, the moon of one individual to the Ascendant of another versus uranus in one chart to neptune in another do not lend themselves to the wide divergence shown by comparing compound benefics with compound malefics.  Angle/moon is far more neutral than, for instance, Angle/saturn.  In fact, I still do not know what, if any, significance Angle/moon has in synastry.  And uranus/neptune (without lights) is so abstract that few of us could discriminate any effect whatsoever.   Mercury/Angle as well as mercury/moon would likely be good for communication, but, since I have not seen it that much, my tentative conclusion is that that is not usually what draws people together.  

 

Once we have compared charts between two individuals in terms of their exchanges of planets to each others Angles and lights, there is still more to be done in determining their compatibility.

 

Further synastry involves, for instance, whether or not they share moons.  Our moons represent the subject areas of lifelong interest.  Moons in Gemini, for instance, represent interests in writing, communication, books, speaking, and learning.  I have found shared moons (in the same sign) strongly indicative of longer relationship because the two individuals have a common interest (sign moons are in) fueled by approximately the same passion (moon).  Sun/moons also works that way, but the individual with the sun is less passionate (because he has this "knowledge" in his essence, sun) than the moon one who craves (moon) acquiring it.

 

Types of minds of each is important.  For instance, one individual may have a neptunian mind (dreamy, imaginative, illusive, myth-creating, psychic, foggy) while his partner has a uranian one (iconoclastic, inventive, maverick, intuitive, autocratic).  These two would be "agreement-challenged" in a long-term relationship because they speak different languages to begin with.  Worse, the uranian individual would be tempted to put down the neptunian one as foggy and gullible.  And either of them would pose problems to the individual with, for instance, saturn ruling his 3^rd house, for his mental approach would be orthodox, fixed, cautious, traditional, and slow to change.  A neptunian mate would make him feel the bottom had dropped out of his security.  A uranian one would fray his nerves, constantly over-riding his comfort zone.

 

Further aspects of synastry are that we cannot just opt for our best case partner by picking some one who's astrology is most benefic to ours.  We all have planets in or ruling our 7^th houses which have some say in determining qualities of our partners.  Conditions of our lights also make some difference in who we seek to unite with.  Conditions of our moons are descriptive of our models of women (moon), and those of our suns, of men (sun).   A woman, for instance, with three of her four moons (7^th chart) in sets with saturn sees herself as serious, hard-working, essential, quiet, conservative, slow to change, cool--pretty much a home body.  She is not going to be interested for very long in a strongly venusian man, who is warm, affectionate, party- and people-loving, and big on coziness.  Some one with saturn in the 7^th house is going to find an older, restrictive,  or very conservative partner more "attractive" than a philosophical, space-giving jupiterian one.  The "saturn/7^th" individual would not "recognize" or have a model for the latter Jovian mate. Therefore, he would be uncomfortable if such a potential partner showed up.

 

Some one with moon conjunct pluto on the Descendant (7^th house cusp) is going to have trouble having any relationship at all.  Their inclination is to unconsciously (pluto) drive away (pluto) those who would be intimate with them.

 

Ultimately, other factors also influence our choices.  For instance, it would be difficult for one individual to marry and stay married to another when one had a 10^th chart showing a strong career, social success and prestige while the other's 10^th chart suggested low social esteem.  Some people might object that the latter individual's relationship to society could change.  If that is possible, it will show up in their astrology.  If it does not, that couple would have trouble staying together. 

 

Ordinary people do not (usually) examine the charts of their potential mates for these things.  They nonetheless screen for them (inadvertently or on purpose) through social interaction prior to marriage.  This used to be done fairly thoroughly through courting--the couple would date and interact with extended family in a stable local environment for at least a year before marriage.  Very little screening occurs when individuals marry "on the rebound."  Very little also occurs when individuals marry shortly after meeting because, believing they have found true love, they throw all caution to the wind.  That is what happened between David and Jonelle Arien, mentioned above.  At the time they met they did have really wonderful progressed synastry--the kind of thing that would convince most people they will live happily ever after.  The excitement that produced apparently obscured the fact that they a number of un-solvable differences (as was shown by the fact that they shared several compound dark malefics, i.e., an Angle/mars/saturn set between them).  Once the progressed golden benefic passed, they were under the influence of some very hard astrology.

 

Screening for long-term compatibility can also be done through astrology.   At least, it can easily identify potential disasters.

 

Some sections of our American society still have in place more conservative, traditional approaches to marriage which encourage forethought before conjugal union.  Other sections, the thoroughly "modern," are left to re-invent the wheel of relationship one union at a time and suffer the consequences.  Marriage and procreation being what it is, these "un-tutored" couples are not the only ones who suffer the consequences. 

 

Synastry could reduce the number of bitter divorces and homicides that occur to couples caught in excessive mars/saturn relationships and other forms of extreme incompatibility.  

 

Reducing those kinds of unions would spare the lives of two people per ill-considered marriage and greatly reduce our prison populations.  Their separate progeny would then have a better start in life, one not marred by the discord, poverty, shame, endless distress, and humiliation of divorce and homicide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For an astrologer, it may seem odd that I am mostly against predictions.  I think astrology has enormous contributions to make to our understanding of mankind.  But predictions, whether good or bad, put us too much in our heads.  They create "presence deficits."  In doing that, they tend to remove us from making contribution to our own (or even another's) future.  That is never good.  It can even end up being downright harmful. 

 

Further, the predictor, no matter how good, can be wrong.  Astrological symbols have differing layers of meaning.  The astrologer may be stuck on the incorrect layer.  Life can be rich, but it is never rich enough to compensate for the error of a presumed future. 

 

Those are some of the negatives influences that come from predictions.  Below are some of the problems involved in predicting a presidential winner.

 

Unless it is a stunning victory, the winning presidential candidate, like the winning boxer in a highly publicized prize fight, is hard to identify.  All four of the individuals in these contests are engaged in a major social event with mixed "reviews."  Just by having arrived at the position to compete, they are already honored as "winners."  That means they will have strong "positive" (pleasant, easy) astrology showing it.  Too, each of the four is involved in a grueling, knock-down, drag-out battle for supremacy.  That should and does produce some "negative" (painful, difficult) astrology.  Battles, whether physical or psychological, show up as mars and saturn, planets sponsoring difficult experiences.  But, so do losses.  And finally, each has millions of people for him as well as  against him.  With numbers like that, it would be incorrect to say even the loser was "unpopular."  Being simultaneously loved and hated publicly produces both kinds of astrology--positive and negative.  

 

So, winning the presidency (or a boxing bout) is not the same as winning the lottery, especially if the fight is close.  In the lottery, the winner has strong positive conditions in his 2^nd chart (money,)  7^th  chart (main chart of this method), and 8^th chart (shared assets).  He will not have very strong negative conditions.  If he did, he would not win the lottery.  Unlike the presidential candidate, the lottery winners personality and social image are not inherent parts of his contest.  Therefore he won't have astrology regarding them.  Whether he is liked or disliked is not an issue.

 

Of course, the chart of the astrologer also comes into play.  An astrologer (or psychic or businessman, for all that) with a strongly positive chart (to begin with and for the time of the event) is going to be correct even if he suspended his astrological principles while arriving at his conclusion.  It is just like Shakespeare wrote, "all the world's a stage and..."  If it is a stage, then each individual has a role.  And if each individual has a role, then anybody cannot be anything he wants or there would be no play. 

 

So much for predictions.  To compensate the reader, below I make a few comments, based on their astrology, of the personalities of Barack Obama and John McCain using their 7^th and 10^th charts.  Mostly we know each other through our 7^th charts, the chart of important others.  It is the chart that best describes our personality.  Our 10^th chart is the one that most reflects our public and social image as well as our career.  Both charts are active for individuals running for president.

 

The astrological source of Obama's very successful use of the word "change" comes from the following:  in his 10^th chart he has conception uranus at 1 Leo 01, birth uranus at 1 Leo 05, birth harmonic venus at 1 Leo 11, and birth North Node at 3 Leo 06.   These are in an out-of-sign square to conception mercury at 29 Libra 40.  Mercury/venus is the signature of poets, great speakers (like Martin Luther King, Jr.), and smooth talkers--the latter being the slant on it through which the opposition tried to hoist Obama on his own petard.  Mercury/uranus shows intellectual brilliance.  North Node/uranus highly favors (NN) his success (NN) with change (uranus), not just in talking about it.    

 

John McCain also has NN/uranus, but his is only in his 7^th chart.  In 7^th or 10^th, it means he has been able to successfully challenge Obama's sole ownership of the word "change."   That is, McCain is also a man successfully (NN) involved in promoting change (uranus).  McCain's NN/uranus is combined with mars, all in Sagittarius.  His "change" is more combative (mars), but also based on moral/ethical principles (Sagittarius).  Node/mars/uranus is also the signature of courage.  It often exists in the charts of adventurers and explorers.  On its lower end it suggests foolhardiness.  On its upper end, great daring.

 

In fact, McCain's 10^th chart shows an individual with potent astrological resources for transformations.  He has conception sun at 2 Scorpio 10, conception harmonic venus at 5 Scorpio 56, birth harmonic uranus at 7 Scorpio 40, conception jupiter at 8 Scorpio 24, and conception harmonic moon at 11 Scorpio 04.  This is a loose golden benefic in the sign of Scorpio, the sign of transformations.  It is very wide, therefore less effective (or, less automatic).  Still, this set promises unusual success getting people to agree, for instance, on both sides of the Senate floor.  Sun, moon, venus, and jupiter in Scorpio, even loosely connected, suggest a man gifted at being able to work people from the inside, where they live.

 

Obama has an interesting set in his 7^th chart only.  He has both harmonic suns in Aries conjunct harmonic mars in Aries.  On its lower end it represents an individual subject to rash or ill-considered behavior--acting without thinking.   On its higher end it represents an individual who can keep going even in the most dreadful circumstances.  Aries is about being.  So long as some part of him can be--especially involved in an aim--the rest of his life can be in shambles and he will have the wherewithal to continue.  It's a strength based on being able to continually re-focus around blocked avenues.

 

McCain has birth sun and conception moon in Leo.  Being fire signs, there is a lot of energy in both Aries and Leo.  Leo is the kingly sign which looks with great disfavor on small, petty, or mean behavior.  It would be a mistake to treat McCain shabbily.  He might not hit back, but he would eliminate the individual from his circle. 

 

One of McCain's negatives appears already handled, that is, by aging he has smoothed off its rough edges.  He has conception South Node in Gemini conjunct his birth Midheaven.  It's the astrological source of the reputation he had (or occasionally, sometimes has) for being immature, for instance, reports from fellow POW's that McCain was too much of a maverick, too combative.  South node conjunct an Ascendant or Midheaven takes a long time to live down.  For the most part, it functions throughout life.  For that reason, some of his behavior would more easily be labeled "immature" (Gemini).  Errors in that area would "stick" (South Node) to him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently completed an Addendum to my first paper on autism.  The original, titled Developmental Astrology:  The Message in Autism, Five Autistic Children, was written in October of 2000.  It can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/sd/binah/autism1.html.  It contains descriptions of autism, identifies its astrological significators, and tells why they were chosen. 

 

The Addendum adds another 7 autistic children to the group. 

 

Here, following a brief discussion, I will cover just a little about what those papers reveal. 

 

All autistic children are not the same.  Some are fairly quiet and peaceful.  They are beautiful little non-communicating angels.  The terror of their beauty only shows itself when it becomes evident that they are toddlers who are not developing.  Some autistic children show considerable fear and anxiety.  Others demonstrate some really difficult and trying behavior.  Descriptions like this cover a wide range of behavioral forms.  Behaviorally, at least, it appears autistic children are children who may be autistic and most certainly are challenged in ways other than autism. 

 

For instance, some autistic children are actually diagnosed as autistic and schizophrenic.  Indeed, when it first started appearing as a disease, some professionals diagnosed autism as childhood schizophrenia. 

 

Autism, from my point of view, is not schizophrenia, not even childhood schizophrenia.  Schizophrenia is a distinct astrological disorder, specifically spelled out in my paper on that disorder (see Paranoid Schizophrenia and John Hinckley, Jr." on the Home Page, same site as above.).  Schizophrenic types of insanity were further sorted and elucidated in my Woolf paper (same site).  That paper included the astrology for insanity of four individuals--Virginia Woolf, Friedrich Nietzsche, Vincent Van Gogh, and Vaslav Nijinsky.  Each was examined for his predisposition to his disorder as well as its timing (when it occurred).

 

I have a relatively large file on schizophrenia.  Hinckley's schizophrenia, it turned out, was more an event than a condition.  Though it was somewhat implied, it did not exist in his birth chart.  It developed and was strongest at the time he tried to assassinate President Reagan.  Astrologically, Hinckley does not have a strong disposition toward schizophrenia--he was subject to it because he of his weak ego identity.

 

Schizophrenia involves the astrological indicators neptune (or Pisces) in the harmonic chart for the 3^rd house (representing the mind).  Paranoid schizophrenia involves neptune (or Pisces) plus mars.  Mars/neptune is always toxic to the subject area (chart) it modifies.  For instance, if it occurs forefront in a 5^th chart (sexuality), the subject can be sexually hyper-excitable, or may attract really odd (crazy) partners.  Or it can represent a sexually based cancer like cervical cancer.  In a 6^th chart (health and service), mars/neptune represents "crazy" (toxic) health conditions, cancer being one of them.  Cancer is "crazy" because with cancer the individual's cell physiology has gone "mad."

 

Present literature on autism also brings mental retardation into some definitions of autism.   My paper on mental retardation (see Mental Retardation and Astrology's Ancient Malefics, Mars and Saturn)  is also on the same site as noted above.  An autistic child could be mentally retarded.  A mentally retarded child might also be autistic.  Astrologically, however, the two conditions are separable and quite distinct.

 

Retardation involves the astrological indicators mars and saturn in the harmonic chart for the 3^rd house.

 

The children in the autistic group also share a common astrological pattern.  Each has saturn and pluto in the same set (aspect) and predominant in one or both of two charts, their harmonic charts for their 1^st and 3^rd houses. 

 

Their predominance in the 1^st chart in particular implies an influence that starts very early in life (chart for 1^st house).  Saturn/pluto there, as a set of specifications, "tells" the incarnating individual to turn around and remain at the threshold of incarnation, at saturn, at the place where the individual first splits off from soul in order to become a human being.  Having already started incarnating, he is then suspended between being a soul and being a human.  He does not identify with (or recognize) either world.

 

In his 3^rd chart his saturn/pluto influence is doing essentially the same thing.  Rather than it binding his early identity (as shown in the 1^st chart), saturn/pluto in his 3^rd are binding his thinking (chart for 3^rd house).  For humans in particular, our thinking is intricately involved in our identity.  Same result--he does not recognize either world.  Or rather, he recognizes only the most essential and abstract aspects (saturn) of this world.  Because pluto is involved he is quietly, deeply obsessed (pluto) with that "place."

 

To see what this influence does to individuals already grown, read the paper The Disappearing Priest: One Man's Odyssey, same site   (http://www.angelfire.com/sd/binah/hermit.html.  His saturn/pluto influence showed itself most strongly in his 7^th chart well after he had become a man.

 

With or without the diagnosis actually including it, autism, for some reason, suffers a frequent admixture of the other mental dysfunctions.  It is autism "with complications." It is hard to tell.  Are we truly in an epidemic of autism?  Or is autism (saturn/pluto) so dominant that it overshadows the less popular diagnoses?  We had schizophrenia and retardation--even manic depression--for a long time as single diagnoses.  Along came autism, and the diagnosis was no longer single.  Or, sometimes it was single, but it should have been multiple.

 

Their astrology shows that children diagnosed autistic often really are mentally challenged by other mental problems. 

 

Among this second group of seven autistic children, several showed schizoid tendencies (light/neptune/3^rd ) or paranoid schizoid tendencies (light/mars/neptune/3^rd).  One appeared retarded (light/mars/saturn/3^rd).   One had moon conjunct uranus in Pisces in the 3^rd chart representing a special form of mental problem for which I have no label.  Whoever diagnosed the child called it schizophrenia.  I see it as a psychosis, but not necessarily schizophrenia.  It earlier days it might have been called idiocy.

 

We can see the latter at work in the charts of Nietzsche and Nijinsky (paper cited above).  Their insanity occurred well into adulthood.  They did not just have schizophrenic episodes.  They went insane and stayed insane. 

 

Loosely, retardation represents choppy and painful, broken down, mind dysfunction; schizophrenia, toxic mind dysfunction; autism, obsession with pre-incarnational abstractness that precludes ego identification<b>;</b> and finally, moon/uranus/Pisces, an almost complete incapacity mentally to pull together any ego identity. 

 

From my point of view as an astrologer, one thing is becoming clear.  Whether it is prescriptive, or only tentatively prescriptive based on interaction with other factors like hereditary, soil, diet, or pollution, autism has distinct significators.  They are lighted saturn/pluto forefront in either the 1^st or 3^rd chart.  These are the significators all 12 autistic children shared.  So, astrologically, these two planets describe autism, and they also tend to prescribe it.  Why they describe it is covered in that first paper, link cited in the first paragraph of this blog.

 

 

 

The following involves a discussion of the astrology of a sub-group of mass murderers, particularly that of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the school shooters in Littleton, Colorado.

 

We live in ironic times.  If your family member, friend, or neighbor becomes psychotic, society at least recognizes that he needs help.  If some one, however, is neurotic--that is, dysfunctional in some important area of life and cannot meet his own human needs--too bad.  Either he himself suppresses all knowledge of his problem and acts it out, or he goes through hell trying to act like what he thinks every one else is like, or he spends enormous amounts of money trying to get fixed--if he is lucky.  We are all "free" to dysfunction or under-function from cradle to grave.  Psychosis can, but does not necessarily, attract social sympathy.   Neuroses, however, makes society functionally blind.  We'd rather not look.  Out of sight, out of mind.   Unlike psychosis, neurosis silently worms its way into our social norms.  Psychosis is blatant;  neurosis is pervasive, extensive, multi-faceted, degreed, and to those who do not want to know, subtle.  Neurosis, not psychosis, is mankind's major mental ailment.  Neurosis is mankind's very costly major mental ailment.   The emotional, economic, social, and moral devastation caused by us neurotics make everything done by psychotics look like the work of schoolgirls. 

 

Also in our time packaging is often more important than content.  Fame is sought; character is not.  Image is extremely powerful.  The huge success of advertising--which defines even our presidential campaigns--confirms this. 

 

In the astrology I work with each individual's chart tells a lot about him--not his soul, because the soul does not have parameters measurable by astrology.  But it tells a great deal about his personality, about his neuroses and, if he has them, psychoses.  We all have personalities. 

 

In astrology an individual seldom does anything without "having the consciousness" representing it.  He may not be aware he has that consciousness--that is, the material is in his unconscious--but his astrology will show it.  He gets married when he has the consciousness of marriage.  He changes careers when he has the consciousness of career change. She has children when she has the consciousness of childbearing.  And so on and on, up to and including dying.  The planets are not only descriptive, they are considerably prescriptive.  The planetary conditions that define discrete forms of consciousness are called signatures.  It is possible for an individual to have a signature for some action which he does not do, i.e., he may refrain.  On the other hand, he will hardly do something for which he has no signature at all.

 

So, some one can have many elements of the complex signature for murder, and not murder any one.  At the same time, he will not murder unless he has the necessary parts of the signature for murder.   

 

By combining the above statements about the importance of image and varieties of consciousness defined by signatures, we open the way to our current topic--school shootings. 

 

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were the two young men who killed 13 and wounded another 23 defenseless students on April 20, 1999 at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado.

 

Below I discuss the astrology they had, and had to have, in order to do such a thing.

 

An important part of the signature for murderers involves forefront mars (aggression) influencing their 7th house (others). Without this influence their aggression would be directed elsewhere.  Certainly not toward others.  Mars influence on the 7^th house sets the path their aggression takes--that is, on others, on the You part of I-You.  Aggression can go elsewhere.  For instance, mars influence to the 3^rd house directs aggression at siblings, neighbors, or other highway drivers--all of these being 3^rd house matters.  To a 5^th house, mars' aggression goes toward sexual partners or children--both being 5^th house matters.  In the 10^th house it goes into careers.

 

Mars' influence to the 7th house does not create the act of murder.  There are many socially acceptable (and even useful) ways aggression toward others can be expressed.  Mars' influence there enables the aggressive energy (mars) of one individual to be directed toward another (7^th).

 

What else?  

 

For what happened at Columbine High, the perpetrators must have had conditions in their first house (early life) connected to their fourth house (end of life) suggesting their early demise (1^st/4^th signature).  Once again, these conditions do not mandate an early demise, but are there when it does happen.

 

But, to do as Harris and Klebold did, they had to have 10th house (career, reputation) signatures symbolizing a very public death--their instant fame.  One famous example of that was President John F. Kennedy, with the ruler of his 4^th (end of life) house in his 10^th (career, mid-life).  Without this signature, we wouldn't have heard about their death.  Harris and Klebold courted fame in death.

 

All the above astrological signatures existed in the charts of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. 

 

Because their action was so unusual--to find it so easy to choose death even before adulthood is not usual--other influences had to exist.

 

Both had to have on-going consciousness of death, tending to make it familiar, comfortable, and acceptable.  Ongoing consciousness of death can be represented a number of ways astrologically.  One way is to have planets in Scorpio on or ruling an Angle (Midheaven or Ascendant).   The sign Scorpio represents the transformations that come with ego dissolution, including the ongoing mini-deaths of marriage and other close partnership, martyrdom, and physical death.   Scorpio calls for the merging of individual identities for a greater, but different, good.  But it is not always the greater good.  Harris' and Klebold's whole generation has Uranus (sudden, unforeseen) and Neptune (fascination) in Scorpio.  That answers the question of why they have been cast so often into the "death" environments of school shootings--they all have the consciousness for it.  Most of them, however, do not have these planets on Angles, so they are not obsessed with death.  Dylan Klebold had neptune in Scorpio on his Midheaven.  Eric Harris had uranus in Scorpio on his Ascendant--that is, on Angles, therefore forefront.  "Transformation thinking," was very familiar to them.   Transformation thinking augmented by rage lead them to fantasize in terms of the most radical of all transformations, death.

 

Even now many of their peers have uranus and/or neptune in Scorpio on Angles.  Most of them, however, do not have the 4th (early death) and 10th house (fame at death) influences Klebold and Harris had.    So they have a strong consciousness of death, but they are not killing each other.

 

Can you see it?  This process is a form of differential diagnosis.  Fewer and fewer people are likely to be school shooters as the number of signatures needed to describe their actions increase.  The signature that describes Harris' and Klebold's end was complex.  It took many twists--this turn, not that turn, this way blocked, that open--on consciousness to limit it to that final act.  I can not state that the sum of their signatures mandated their actions.  I can only state that their combined signatures made their acts possible.

 

So, another answer...  Why, when many of our teenagers ingest large quantities of TV and video violence every day, do only some of them become violent?   Only a small number of them have the full template (that is, combined astrological signatures) suggesting fame, violence, murder, and early death.   Most of their peers have their consciousness directed elsewhere for at least some of those signatures..

 

What else?

 

Unless they were sociopaths (not true of Harris and Klebold), they had to have some kind of internal pain which converted their Scorpio consciousness from "life transformations" to the ultimate transformation, death.   Un-requitable love is painful.  So, it turns out, is un-requitable pain.  We know from rape victims that anger that cannot be redressed spins and careens within, causing serious physical and psychological problems.  Over time anger that cannot be acceptably resolved begins to look visible for expression, for an outward sign of its invisible hell, particularly with men.  (Women tend to aim it inward, at themselves.)

 

Of the two, I believe Klebold the more normal, that is, within a prevailing norm. Of the two, I also believe Klebold the follower.   With his neptune in Scorpio, Klebold had more fascination with death than Harris.

 

But Eric Harris--more neurotic, more troubled--had the massive pain and anger.  Harris had sun conjunct mars in Pisces.  Because he had mars (aggression) and Pisces (confusion) forefront, Harris' world included his inappropriate behavior toward others and theirs toward him.  Mars/neptune (or mars in Pisces), unlike Angular venus/jupiter (e.g., Paul Newman) or Angular moon/venus (President Kennedy, Princess Diana), is not charismatic. Mars/neptune/Pisces drives people away.  It makes people comment, "he's weird."  Because he is weird, he is, in fact, treated weirdly.  So the very ground on which he stands becomes marshy, unreliable.  Harris was rejected again and again, not just socially, but at home.  Not just yesterday, but most of his yesterdays.

 

Harris' world also included a strong interest in control and personal privacy.  He would have wanted to hide his pain.  He would have tried to control its expression.

 

One picture I saw of Harris illustrated his condition.  With his body he was demonstrating belligerence, swagger, fearlessness.  But his eyes showed some one who was very frightened.  It was the photo of some one making a desperate attempt to appear tough.

 

Imagine the conflict generated by those two, differing, conditions--being very frightened, and trying to keep every bit of it hidden. His response must have been increasingly to shut down, allowing little of his real feelings out, but then, less pain in. 

 

Shutting down is not a long-term, viable option.  Psychic energy has to go somewhere: if it cannot be used in agreeable aims or in exchange with others, it is too constrained.  It is definitely too limited for most teenagers, who define themselves so much through interaction with others.  Feelings are high on the scale of normal teenage manifestations.

 

There was one more major emphasis with Harris that played into his becoming a mass murderer. He had an unusual sexuality that was in utter conflict with his need for control.  Prior to adolescence it did not present so much of a social problem. Post-adolescence, however, it became a thorn in his flesh.  His sun conjunct mars in Pisces mentioned above influenced his 5^th house (sexuality).  Eric Harris had a pronounced, receptive, submissive type of sexuality.  (Did that mean he was gay?  Not necessarily.  There is usually a difference between gay and self-rejecting)  His sexuality--it would be better to say his character, including his sexuality--had self-abnegation, humiliation, passivity built into it.  That, his submissiveness and confusion, ultimately made him interested in promoting his last image:  Eric Harris the cold, insensitive, macho male--the opposite of the way he actually was. That image was his Yang response to his too-Yin susceptibility.  It was also his ultimate rejection of his own, extremely painful, reality. 

 

Did his pain, his astrology give him (them) the right--the justification--to commit murder?  Not at all.  But Harris' and Klebold's astrology makes the murders they did commit more understandable.  Understanding will not restore the lives they so cruelly took   But understanding can give us a one-up position on the prevention of future "Eric Harrises." 

 

One specific astrological signature, then, has played a strong role in creating the Harris-like monsters that spew out the misplaced aggression of mass murder: 

 

Eric Harris had that prominent, lighted mars in Pisces. 

 

So did the Unabomber, who terrified the nation with his placed or mailed bombs from 1978 to 1995.  (An astrological analysis of this individual exists at http://www.angelfire.com/sd/binah/unabomber.html.)

 

So did Charles Joseph Whitman Jr., sharpshooter and Eagle Scout, who climbed the tower at the University of Texas, Austin, on August 1, 1966 with an arsenal of weapons and started randomly shooting at men, women, children, and even pregnant women.

(An astrological analysis of this individual exists at http://www.angelfire.com/sd/binah/whitman.html.)

 

So did James Huberty, who killed 21 people and wounded 18 at a California McDonald's restaurant in 1984.  His mars in Pisces was not forefront when he committed murder, but it was doubly lighted.  That means it was active in his consciousness then.  It had been active on and off throughout his life.

 

So did Timothy McVeigh, who killed all those people in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.  He was born with two (both harmonic) mars in Pisces in his 7^th house of his 7^th chart.   One of them was conjunct pluto in Pisces (in his 7^th house) and in the same set with an Ascendant/moon, that is, this signature was forefront. 

 

McVeigh's other mars in Pisces was conjunct progressed moon and progressed pluto in Pisces (in his 7^th, with Angular influence) on the date of  the Waco, Texas massacre occurring on April 19, 1993.  At that time men, women, and children died--either from government gunfire or through the compound fire.  McVeigh's (then second) active mars in Pisces was the astrological source for his identification with those victims.  He felt their powerlessness because he was experiencing it himself. 

 

Two years later to the day McVeigh committed his own mass murder.  He denied his powerlessness by converting it into a singular act of "power."  He let all of us know a powerless nobody can become a powerful somebody.  He sought celebrity and he found it.  

 

At that time McVeigh also had a progressed conjunction of North Node/venus/saturn/pluto all in Pisces in his 7^th house (similar to a signature President Richard Nixon had just before he resigned office).  Saturn represents lack, deficiency, want.  Pluto increases the intensity of that sensation.  7^th house is the astrological house in which we connect to others.  At that time McVeigh was feeling totally alone, exactly the right condition for the festering of old sores like Waco.  He could not make his mark in relationships, so he made it in social awareness. 

 

I do not know about the rest of these killers, but both Huberty and McVeigh had tried counseling.  They failed to get the help they needed. 

 

I am sorry, but I do not have birth data on the many other school shooters we have had in America.  So I cannot include information on their charts.  I do not know if they had mars in Pisces.  I would particularly like to see the birth chart of the young man involved in the Virginia Tech murders, but it may never be available.

 

Every mass murderer does not have mars in Pisces.  Thomas Watt, the man who slaughtered all those elementary school children in Dunblane, Scotland was a little different.  He had a prominent, lighted mars/neptune.  That is not mars in Pisces, but is as close to it as a different signature can get because neptune rules Pisces.

 

The reverse (or is it the converse or obverse?) is also true.  Every male with a prominent mars in Pisces does not commit murder. 

 

But every one, male of female, with mars in Pisces is in for some difficult life-long experiences.  In astrology mars stands for action, aggression, directing.  It symbolizes our initiative.  Our initiative is absolutely essential in defining our identity.  In order to "have" a healthy ego one must be capable of acting in one's own best interest.  In his book on the correlation of the measure formula with the twelve astrological signs, author and Bell helicopter engineer Arthur M. Young assigned different measure formula to each of the astrological signs.  For Pisces he used the formula for "moment of inertia."  That assignment was perfect.  Mars in Pisces describes the individual's initiative (mars) entangled in hesitation, flip-flopping in indecision, drowning in lack of self-confidence, and spinning on second guessing (all Pisces).  In terms of normal functioning mars in Pisces leads to lost opportunities, really bad timing, and mistrust from others.  Because it is so painful, it also allows very little learning.   Compounded over the years its experiences create the colossal rage and the enormous need to appear  powerful that is characteristic of mass murderers.

 

 

 

 

 

Sandra Weidner, the youngest of six for her parents, was born just before the outbreak of WWII in 1941 in a small town in Michigan, USA. She saw her first television when she was ten years old. Her parents, both good working class people, each had an 8th grade education. Some of the papers on this site represent interests sponsored by that background.

Graduating college with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry, she attended medical school for one year. Then graduate school for one and one-half years in anthropology. Then law school for one week. Then, a spiritual discipline for the next 25 years. She has been studying astrology since 1973. Sandra found the method used here in 1983 while playing around with numbers in a relaxed, inquisitive state of mind and has been developing it through research and readings ever since.

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