by Marilyn J. Muir, LPMAFA
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The subject of predestination is a tricky one for astrologers. While astrologers can easily see the patterns and directions of energy in a chart, it is easy to slip into a mindset that all is fore-ordained and there is not much we can do about it. I don’t actually believe that. As close as I can tell, with about 43 years of astrological research under my belt, there is a curious combination of fate and free will present in many charts and lives. I requested space from AFA to write about the tragic death of Christina Grimmie in Orlando, Florida on June 10, 2016. This is probably the best “Destiny” chart I have ever encountered in all those long years of study.
To start with I am a “Voice” long-time fan, loving to watch the progress of the contestants as they vie for winning under expert tutelage from music icons. Love the talent, love the music, love the learning curve, and love the contestants. This stems from my being raised by a “stage mother” in the late 40s and early 50s who thought I was talented enough to be a little Judy Garland or Shirley Temple. I wasn’t…but just put on a musical or a music show and I am watching!
It just so happens that I live one hour from Orlando Airport so this and the mass shooting the following day were up close and personal for me. This article is about Christina Grimmie who was born March 12, 1994 in Marlton, New Jersey at 10:14 AM EST (Rodden C-rated.) Christina was very talented and placed third in season six of “The Voice”; her coach was Maroon Five’s Adam Levine. Her natal planets are tightly contained within 141 degrees of space, tightly focused with six of those ten planets in the 10th and 11th houses. She was a New Moon child in Pisces, very creative. That Moon was last over the Sun and next over Venus in its travel, a bright, sunny, affectionate disposition. Her stellium in Pisces included Sun/Moon/Mars/Saturn, accentuating her creativity and making it very visible at the top of the chart. Gemini rising made her a communicator with the ruler Mercury in Aquarius, the sign of the New Age, conjunct her midheaven, emphasizing cutting edge, media, and communication. I think she knew what she wanted and worked her niche. I will leave the balance of her natal interpretation for other astrologers to fill in; my personal mission for this article is her destiny. Where to begin?
The Karmic astrology technique I use is based on the midpoint of the Sun 21 Pisces 49 / Moon 25 Pisces 36. Christina’s Karmic Ascendant was 23 Virgo 42 tightly opposition that New Moon and all three points were triggered by the transits for the shooting on June 10, 2016 in Orlando, FL. Her progressions placed her progressed Mercury 20 Pisces 48 conjunct progressed Mars 21 Pisces 32 tightly conjunct that natal New Moon, opposed natal Karmic Ascendant. The transits placed the Sun 20 Gemini 10 / Venus 21 Gemini 10 conjunction tightly square both natal and progressed positions as given, a mutable T-square between the charts. Christina’s progressed Karmic Ascendant is 6 Aquarius 32, which did not seem to touch the natal, progressed or diurnal. Hmmm! Look to the shooting chart itself. That Moon is 6 Virgo 47 which is directly conjunct her progressed karmic 8th cusp of death and destiny at 6 Virgo 32.
Note: To me, the progressions outline the broad details of that period and the transits provide the closer timing. I used a personal diurnal to examine the transits because transits are not usually personal. The use of the diurnal technique allows a personal midheaven and ascendant and more closely defines the Moon. Usually I use diurnals plus the Midheaven, Ascendant and Moon from the event chart, if available; the rest of the physical placements would be duplications.
Christina’s natal Mercury at 25 Aquarius 11, her chart ruler, is tightly square natal N Node 25 Scorpio 51R and Pluto at 28 Scorpio 02R, and progressed N Node 24 Scorpio 39R and Pluto 27 Scorpio 46R. How did that get activated and definitely made worse? Add diurnal Mars 25 Scorpio 36R conjunct her diurnal 4th cusp (conditions at the end of life) 25 Scorpio 20 opposition transiting Mercury 26 Taurus 58 and her diurnal midheaven at 25 Taurus 20. With malefic fixed stars Caput Algol at 25 Taurus and the Pleiades (the 7 weeping sisters) at 29 Taurus, the definitions provide themselves: “losing one’s head” (she was shot in the base of her skull) and “something to cry about.” More?
Christina’s natal eighth house of death and destiny is 7 Capricorn 02, ruled by Saturn, occupied by a Neptune / Uranus conjunction: 22 Capricorn 50 to 25:21. How did all of these figure into this tragedy? Christina’s progressed positions did not move the conjunction very far, from Neptune at 23:13 to Uranus at 26:02. However, her progressed Moon at 23 Capricorn 12 was one minute off the conjunction to progressed Neptune and determined very specific timing of that activation. Add to that transiting Uranus (a natal death house planet) at 23 Aries 33 was tight on the square to both natal and progressed positions. Destiny at work on multiple levels.
Where is the natal 8th ruler Saturn in all of this? Previously mentioned, natal Saturn is at 5 Pisces 07, conjunct Mars at 4:04, progressed Saturn has moved to 7:38. Is it being triggered by transits? Nothing showing in the diurnal… Hmmm? I have not mentioned the shooting chart itself: 10:45 PM on June 10, 2016, Orlando, FL. There it is… the event Moon for the shooting is 6 Virgo 47. The shooting event Ascendant at 25 Capricorn 43 is directly conjunct the natal and progressed Capricorn positions. The event Karmic Ascendant is a conundrum. Usually the position is in front of the Moon if a woman or in front of the Sun if a man. This is an event that pitted an armed man against an unarmed woman, so I choose to read it as 28 Cancer/Capricorn 42, close to the shooting event ascendant and all those other Capricorn placements. Karma was served.
Christina’s natal ascendant 15 Gemini 16 was widely squared by progressing midheaven 13 Pisces 18, that was turned into a T-square by diurnal Saturn 12 Sagittarius 34R, joined by that massive mutable conglomeration in the sky. That Saturn, the natal eighth house ruler is at the square of the opposition between diurnal Jupiter at 14 Virgo 45 and Neptune 12 Pisces 02, joined by the nodal axis at 16 Virgo/Pisces 50R. Does this make a grand cross with the addition of the diurnal conjunction of Sun/Venus at 20 Gemini 10 to 21:10? It is wide and separating, so it is questionable at best. If valid, it ties that entire mutable cross to all the natal Pisces and the progressed Pisces in one just awful unavoidable pattern. If we look at that conjunction in the event chart, the positions have moved to 20:37 and 21:46, even tighter than the diurnal positions.
Destiny: My first glance at the charts provided so many triggers and aspects I did not see how she could have avoided death. Her karmic activations are so tight from chart to chart. The lunar nodes are active in all the charts, and in my experience very active in charts involving death.
A couple of points that I believe deserve mentioning… Look at the diurnal Ascendant and diurnal Moon in tight conjunction: 00 Virgo 31 to 00:46. The pair are not acting as triggers to natal or progressed, but they do help define the timing. This speculative natal chart (Rodden C) is quite accurate in my estimation.
I have not mentioned that Christina’s brother did everything possible to stop the tragedy that took his sister and could have taken many others. The shooter fired several shots in a busy autographing session after her concert; one shot was to the base of Christina’s skull and the last shot was his personal suicide. Look to the diurnal Jupiter 14 Virgo 45 / Neptune 12 Pisces 02 opposition, squared by Saturn 12 Sagittarius 34R. Jupiter in the event eighth house probably did its best, but was overwhelmed and unable to stop the carnage with its opposition to Neptune and square to Saturn. Jupiter/Neptune were the co-rulers of the diurnal 8th, that death house with Saturn the natal 8th house ruler. Death was all over this pattern.
In an activation, a negative Saturn / Neptune pattern is called “the dark night of the soul”, disastrous to experience. This aspect has been dancing in the sky for all of us since the change of the year from 2014 to 2015, and out of sign prior to that. Look at the world. Does “the dark night of the soul” sound familiar? Things have been tough. This event was one example. The next night, four miles away was the awful massacre. The square has a few more dances left until Saturn breaks away and moves out of applying orb in mid-September. Perhaps then we can find reprieve from the terrible tragedies that have plagued our world for such a long period.
It was Christina’s bubbly and open personality and her spiritual outlook that led her to embrace her fans who appreciated her work and talent, welcoming all with open arms. Her open disposition, affectionate nature and spontaneity were on display even at the end as she welcomed her shooter, with open arms; diurnal Venus conjunct the Sun. Since Christina was strongly Christian, she placed “her hand in the hand of the man” and crossed quickly into Spirit.
We can see the gun that was used, ruled by Mars; perhaps Venus helped it to be clean and quick. This senseless death was eclipsed by the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando just over 27 hours later, but this was the tragedy of a talented and uplifting 22-year-young woman in her celebration of living. I am sure she was joyfully received on the other side.
Published in AFA Today’s Astrologer Sep 2016, vol 78#10, republished with slight editing.
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