by Marilyn J. Muir, LPMAFA
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On July 20, 2012, the unthinkable happened. Gunfire erupted in an Aurora, Colorado theatre just after the midnight grand opening of the latest Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises”. Once the smoke from the cannisters of gas cleared, the nine-minute massacre revealed twelve dead and 58 wounded. The mundane part of this story was originally explained in my “Tragedy in Colorado” article in AFA’s online “In the News” of August 1, 2012. That workup and the conclusions were based on the noonmark charts of the State of Colorado, the city charts of Fletcher/Aurora, and the event chart of the massacre itself. At the time of writing that article, the chart of the alleged shooter was not available. Now that information has been submitted to AFA, so the opportunity of filling in a very important missing piece of that particular puzzle became available.
I must say “alleged shooter” because it is necessary in our country to allow our courts to determine guilt or innocence. Just know that this shooter was in custody at the scene of the massacre nine minutes after the event erupted. The title “The Dark Knight…Rises” proved to be prophetic. The gunman wore a full black flack outfit and had died his hair bright red/orange. He called himself The Joker, Batman’s nemesis. That Joker was immediately revealed to be James Holmes born in San Diego on December 13, 1987. Thanks to Astrologer Kenneth Miller for completing the data as 9:04 PM PST in La Jolla (San Diego), CA for this AA data and thanks to Kris Riske of AFA for allowing me to complete this puzzle.
Resetting chart in IO is changing the house wheel too much ??? so please use this full chart and crop out what we don’t need. Have to do the same with progr and diurnals. Sorry.
I always start my readings with the overall chart pattern, which in this instance is Marc Edmund Jones’ Bucket pattern with nine planets in a 110˚ cluster with Jupiter as outlet. That means that all the elements of this Joker have a usually benefic planet as their collective application point. These nine planets are in the more subjective, introspective, nocturnal, bottom of the chart and their outlet is a lovely, benefic, trine to Jupiter in the 9th. What happened here? It is important astrologically to remember that every front has a back and that we must examine the pros and cons of every element of the chart. The dark side of Jupiter can be excessive, over the top, and feel entitled to whatever action or result it chooses. What else is there?
The Joker’s birth chart reveals dramatic Leo rising and places his Sun ruler in a four-planet Sagittarius stellium in the natural solar 5th house, Mercury is at the end of the 4th house conjunct the 5th cusp but the Sun, Saturn, Uranus in Sagittarius, plus Neptune in Capricorn are solidly in the 5th. Lots of theatrics and show when Leo goes rogue.
Let us round out this natal picture with the Moon in 29 Virgo tightly conjunct the karmic South Node as rim planet on one side of the bundle of nine planets with Venus in Capricorn as the other rim planet. Venus is square the Jupiter outlet. An analytic Moon, coupled with a cool-to-cold relating energy, contains or is the framework for that nine-planet bundle with the self-serving Aries Jupiter as the outlet. Additionally, the North Node is at 29 Pisces, not only the end of a sign, but even stronger as the end of the zodiac itself in the 8th house of catastrophe and death. Add to that a tight Mars/Pluto conjunction in Scorpio, the natural sign of the 8th house, both tightly conjunct the I.C., the root or base of the matter as well as the grave, opposing the MC, which represents the public results and achievement of the chart and the life of this Joker.
Holmes was able to accomplish his intentions with ease and with no interference. However morally bankrupt those intentions were, he succeeded and humanity recoiled. Mission complete. Lives forever changed as this macabre man played petty god successfully. I think he achieved the negative fame known as infamy, with lots of exposure and press (9th) of his personal Aries sense of entitlement.
What are his progressions? His natal nodes were square natal Uranus, and by their natural retrograde motion had tightened that overall square to the stellium and the tightening conjunction between Saturn and Uranus. Progressed Pluto had moved to the center of the original Mars/Pluto conjunction and Mars had moved to 29 Scorpio, another end of the sign signal with Mars strong in its dignity. Jupiter had moved only one degree in his lifetime, enhancing that natal trine but was now a progressed 8th house of death and catastrophe tenant. The outlet to the pattern was firmly trine the Saturn/Uranus promise which had moved into the 4th house of grave and end of matter. The Sun and Mercury had moved into Capricorn with Neptune, trading that natal Sagittarius stellium for a Capricorn stellium. Venus had moved into Aquarius. The progressed chart still looks like a bucket but we now have the Moon in Leo in the progressed 12th as the outlet: dramatic, theatrical display of emotions in the house of self-undoing and how do I sabotage myself or shoot myself in the foot fame! I think this Joker played the worst joke on himself.
I cast Holmes’ diurnal chart for the day of the event as it is the personal transit chart. The diurnal MC set off his natal Sagittarius stellium with diurnal Venus on the opposition. The diurnal Sun was again in the 5th house widely square diurnal Saturn directly on the diurnal 8th death and catastrophe house. That Saturn in turn was widely square natal Venus and widely opposition natal Jupiter, the outlet for the natal bucket pattern. The diurnal chart as a stand-alone chart had Mars in Libra in the 7th opposition Uranus in Aries in the 1st, both square Pluto in Capricorn in the 10th, all within a 2˚ spread. Uranus represented Holmes (1st), the victims were represented by Mars (7th), and the pinnacle of achievement and public attention (10th) was represented by Pluto in this very angular (direct, observable action) cardinal (sudden, acute or critical) T-square. The diurnal and still karmic south node was conjunct diurnal Jupiter, ruler of the diurnal MC and outlet for the natal bucket.
It was known shortly after the massacre that Holmes had been in psychological counseling. Did the physician realize he was a ticking time bomb and notify the authorities? This week it was announced that she had realized and did notify the school authorities. It is required that they notify law enforcement, but at this time it appears they did not do so. This will be an interesting point to watch in the future.
Because there were so many charts to compare, I did my usual spreadsheet work up for Holmes, beginning with the work I had previously done for the State of Colorado, the City of Fletcher/Aurora and the event chart itself. Through the magic of copy and paste I started a new spreadsheet and added the Holmes info at the bottom. That new spreadsheet is attached to this article. The beginning part is redundant from the previous article but necessary to do the comparison to the shooter. The ties are remarkable and too many to list here. Look at the aspect blocks on the spreadsheet itself under the chart listings. To make the aspects easy to spot, I color- coded cardinal, fixed and mutable aspects: 0 to 10˚, 10 to 20˚ and 20 to 30˚. Of course, there is always overlap and out of sign to watch for, but that simply makes more aspects.
For this kind of event I use hard aspects only. The spreadsheet also gives all the pertinent chart information. Once more, the diurnal chart is cast by starting a chart with all the normal birth information. Change the date only to the date of the event and run the chart. This is the diurnal, the personal transit chart, for that native for that single day.
One more thing… Many astrologers know I have done extensive research on the USA birth chart. My book Presidents of Hope and Change stems from that research. My choice is Virgo rising. If an event can affect the individuals involved, the location of the event, the city and state affected by the actions of its citizens through the event, then the country chart can be involved as well. Briefly:
- Holmes diurnal Ascendant is the USA Descendant.
- The diurnal IC/Venus conjunction is conjunct the USA Mars.
- Diurnal Jupiter is conjunct the USA MC/Uranus conjunction.
- The diurnal Moon is opposite the USA natal Moon.
- Diurnal Pluto is opposite the USA natal Jupiter.
- Diurnal Sun is opposite the USA natal Pluto.
That ought to prove my point that the charts are interconnected, and it does not matter if it is a human to an event, to a city, state or country. Astrology rocks!
Published on AFA In the News Onling Sep 2012, republished with slight editing.
Part 1 of story: Tragedy in Colorado published on AFA In the New Online Aug 2012
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