by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA
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The unthinkable is always a difficult experience, not just because something horrific or tragic happened, but because it is so foreign to our usual thought process that we cannot wrap our minds around it. One of the first examples I had of this was delivering supplies and water to the South Miami area after Hurricane Andrew. As I drove each block south, the landscape deteriorated into war-zone devastation, block by block, and I could not take it all in. The devastation of 9-11, as I watched the second plane dive into the second of the twin towers in New York City, was equally mind-blowing. The incomprehensible has to be faced and acknowledged and remedied.
This was my experience as the news broke of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL on June 12, 2016. This is only an hour away from my home in the Disney-like celebration atmosphere of the City of Orlando. We have lived the horror one day at a time, hour by hour, as authorities attempted to uncover what happened and why. Our TV channels have been full of the heartbreak and the grief, and finally the celebrations of the lives that were lost. Timelines kept changing. It is difficult to research when you can’t pin down the times. Even now there is a four-minute discrepancy, but I can work with that. Yesterday the birth time of the shooter came into my hands. Time to go to work!
The shooting rampage began at 1:58 to 2:02 AM EDT, June 12, 2016 in downtown Orlando; the four-minute discrepancy makes a tremendous difference in the chart. The earliest reports gave 2:02 as the first cellphone call to the police. I speculated that 2:00, the Florida club closing time, would be reasonably accurate. The latest report I have is that the shooting started at 1:58, and the off-duty police officer who was at the club ran into the building, found a shooter with an assault gun, realized he was outgunned and backed away to get help. Two other police officers were within a block and arrived immediately, but the doorway to the club was closed and the gunman threated to strap explosives to the hostages if anyone tried to enter. Real? Not real? Not sure…so wait. The killing continued inside as the shooter followed the survivors into the bathroom and slaughtered even more innocents. Forty-nine victims killed and 53 wounded is the final total. The 50th victim noted in the papers was the perpetrator. At 5:53 AM he was reported as down and dead, but that did not stop the nightmare. What about the charts?
In four minutes of time only the house angles and the intermediate cusps that ride with those angles can change.
- 1:58 AM midheaven 29 Sagittarius 11 square ascendant 28 Pisces 44. Jupiter was in the 6th house at 14 Virgo 54, ruling both angles and opposed the co-ruler of the ascendant, Neptune, in the 12th house at 12 Pisces 02. That pairing was T-squared by Saturn in the 9th at 12 Sagittarius 27 retrograde. Ambush! Confusion! Hesitation!
- 2:02 AM midheaven 00 Capricorn 06 square ascendant 00 Aries 10. The midheaven is ruled by the T-square just described this time led by Saturn. The ascendant is ruled by militant Mars in the 8th house of catastrophe at 25 Scorpio 12 retrograde, opposed Mercury in the 2nd house at 29 Taurus 02.
How do we choose between them? At 1:58 AM, the implied religious fervor, the confusion at the scene, in the media and investigation is a perfect example of Jupiter opposition Neptune. The judgment of Saturn in the house of religion has inspired religious zealots to say just awful things about the victims, mostly in the name of Christianity. As a Christian, that is repulsive to me! This is a “gay bar” but not all the victims were gay, some were there to enjoy Latino music. Was there more than one assailant? Did he have explosives? Should the police force their way in? The combination of Neptune and Saturn in stress aspect has been described as “the dark night of the soul” in experience. Jupiter would expand, promote, or exploit that already difficult aspect.
At 2:02 AM Mars as gun and gunman are in charge of the energy, opposed by Mercury of communication. What communication there was would be loud, angry, forceful, militant, and more. Mars was in and ruling the house of catastrophe, death and destiny. Mars was opposed the degree of Caput Algol, the most malefic fixed star with the ancient meaning of “death by decapitation”, more modernly read as “losing one’s head”. That works. Mercury was directly conjunct the malefic fixed star grouping called the seven weeping sisters, the Pleiades with the meaning of “something to weep about”. That works as well. Same question: How do we choose between them?
At 1:58 AM the 1st/7th house axis held an interception: Aries/Libra. That interception contained Uranus in the 1st, not quite free to act. But the Jupiter/Neptune ruling pair was not intercepted – they were free to act and did. They definitely set the stage for what was to follow.
At 2:02, with the change of the angles, that interception moved from the 1st/7th into the 12th/6th, inhibiting the free action of the Jupiter/Neptune pair and Uranus was freed to act in the 1st house.
This turned into a more than three-hour standoff before the police rammed the wall with an armored vehicle and then set off controlled explosions. At 4:49 AM, Mars retrograde is on the descendant about to pass into the 6th house (one minute of arc). The Mars military action is coming to an end, but not quite yet. At 5:03 the ascendant conjoins Mercury, which motion moves Mercury into the 12th house with Mars already in the 6th house – the controlled explosion. By 5:15 the shooter and police were engaged in crossfire and the shooter is reported killed (suicide or death by cop not known at this time) at 5:53. The ascendant is 12 Gemini 22 with Saturn on the descendant at 12 Sagittarius 27 retrograde. And they say this stuff does not work!
The intricacy of timing is four minutes, but you can see the two stages so clearly. Gunshots, policeman runs into club, realizes not enough firepower (he did get shot in the helmet), ran back out to seek help, which arrived almost immediately, door now frustrates entry, hostage taking, implied explosives, long wait (three+ hours) before culmination. If Mars rules the gunman, then he lost power at 4:49 AM when Mars moved out of the angle. But the action was not complete until Mercury moved out of the angle at 5:03 AM. Until both ends of the opposition are rendered less viable, the opposition itself is still in play. The gunman had nowhere to go as of 4:49 AM and authority won the battle when the descendant crossed over Saturn.
The Orlando, FL Massacre: the Gunman
We get to examine the unthinkable in the form of a man born, raised and educated in the US. His parents are immigrants – unless you are an American Indian, all occupants of the U.S. are the children of immigrants. This American citizen attacked Americans in an all-American city and consciously slaughtered innocents because in his mind the U.S. was attacking his country: Afghanistan. He was an American of Afghanistan heritage, just as I am an American of three different European countries’ heritages. His country was America and he, as an American, committed an outrage.
Or, if you want to try a different tack, he was Muslim as millions of Americans are, and they do not seem to slaughter innocents on a regular basis. Or perhaps his skin was darker than some. Muslims are the victims of religious- and race-baiting, in a country that supposedly appreciates the liberty of diversity on every level of being, including religion and ethnicity. Or perhaps his revulsion of homosexual being and relating tripped his knee-jerk internal judgment trigger and he did this atrocity in the name of “one man/one woman”. This is voyeurism plain and simple. It is not my right to peek into someone else’s bedroom and pronounce my righteous judgment on their behavior. That would make me a peeping tom with my ego falling out of my mouth as judgment. What other people do in the privacy of their homes and their lives is none of my business. If he were so against this, why did he visit gay bars and clubs prior to his attack? Was he casing the joints, selecting a target, or was he scratching a personal itch? He did this action during the Islamic Holy Season of Ramadan. There is a strict prohibition against violence during this holiest of Islamic seasons! He could not be acting in the name of his religion! Who was he?
- Omar Mateen was born Nov 16, 1986 at 7:00 PM EST in Queens, New York (source: BC in my file, thank you to AFA). The first thing that stood out for me was that he was born a few hours after the Full Moon with his Sun at 24 Scorpio 20 late in the 5th and his Moon at 29 Taurus 47 in the 12th; both were T-squared by Mars in the 9th house at 23 Aquarius 55. This could be a serious anger management issue.
- Mateen has a four-planet stellium in psychological Scorpio and has Cancer rising with Neptune on the descendant. That does not sound like an easy combination to me. Cancer is very clannish and the Neptune opposition can confuse his self-identity as well as misperceptions of significant others in his life. As a Scorpio I can testify to examining all experience in glorious living color, multiple times, seeking out all the nuances. Not nice! All that Scorpio is in the 5th house which gives it Leo overtones… he likes to be center stage or has a dramatic flair. Can you say “acting out”? He has a tight Venus/Pluto conjunction in Scorpio so he had intense and deep psychological and control issues with relationships.
- His Jupiter both co-rules the 10th house and is within three degrees of the cusp in the 10th. Jupiter in the 10th is not a bad placement but you do have to include its square to Saturn and Uranus in the 6th house of employment. Plus, natal Saturn is tightly square his natal midheaven. His checkered job history is testimony of that combination.
Moving forward in time, who was he currently and what was happening with his chart? His event progressions show another Full Moon chart; this time the Sun was 24 Sagittarius 18 opposed the Moon at 27 Gemini 19. His progressed Full Moon resonates off his natal Full Moon without the need of aspects just as a tuning fork sounded can cause every other tuning fork of that key to respond in kind. His natal was separating by five degrees and his progression was separating as well by three degrees. Activation by resonance. This progressed Full Moon supported both natal and progressed Uranus conjunct the progressed Sun. This combination was strongest about four to five months ago. How do I know that?
The progressing Moon travels 12 to 15˚ per year, 1 to 1¼˚ per month. We will use 12˚ per year, 1˚ per month for explaining the activation. The earliest aspect pattern we are examining begins with the progressing Sun conjunct natal Uranus 20 Sagittarius 55 about three years earlier. The progressing Sun then conjoined progressed Uranus about 1½ years ago. The progressing Moon was not in place. As the progressing Moon joined first natal Uranus, then progressed Uranus, then progressed Sun (Full Moon) and passed on, the battle plan was in place, education completed, he was ready to act, where and when is now known.
Continuing our timeline, the progressed Moon opposed natal Uranus about five to six months ago, opposed progressed Uranus about 4½ months ago, and opposed progressed Sun about a month and a half later or about three months ago. I do not know when he witnessed the two men kissing in public in Miami Beach, but I am guessing we are definitely in the ballpark time-wise.
Over several years, I have been researching serial killers, with over 100 timed charts, plus a bunch of untrustworthy untimed charts. Something provides a trigger that changes a disturbed person into an actual killer. In technical terms, those triggers are called “precursors”. This was a disturbed man with violent tendencies and something triggered him into action. This kissing event is one possibility, but there is so much unknown at this time we cannot be sure. Whatever the precursor turns out to be, there was one about three months prior to the actual action. Why didn’t he act on the Full Moon itself? Mateen’s personal charts are alive with activations and triggers, and those triggers were assuming their place in the scheme of things. The timing was June 12, 2016 at 2 AM and his choice of locations was the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Mateen’s progressed Saturn at 13 Sagittarius 37 is square progressed Mars 14 Pisces 01 and Jupiter 15 Pisces 21, both in the 9th house of religion and foreign matters. That is a hard aspect that also connects to the natal Jupiter previously mentioned. Added to that, there is a wide applying participation of progressed Mercury at 9 Sagittarius 33. We will be examining and talking about this for years!
How about transits? Here is another resonance… Mateen has a three-degree natal square between Jupiter and Saturn as mentioned. The progressions slightly tighten (intensify) that natal square to two degrees plus drawing in progressed Mars. The transiting (diurnal) square with a 2.5-degree spread resonated probably as a trigger to the natal and progressed square.
With transiting Saturn currently in the middle degrees of Sagittarius, Mateen just celebrated his Saturn Return. The problem was the company Saturn was keeping as the return occurred. Have you noticed the major mutable grand cross in the sky that has been making everyone’s life miserable worldwide? At the moment of the massacre, event Jupiter was 14 Virgo 55, N Node 16 Virgo 49 retrograde, opposition Neptune 12 Pisces 02 and the S Node, and T-square Saturn 12 Sagittarius 27 retrograde. Nearby was Diurnal Sun 21 Gemini 28 and Venus 22 Gemini 51, opposed natal Uranus 20 Sagittarius 55 and progressed Uranus 22 Sagittarius 40 and Sun 24 Sagittarius 18. I have chosen to separate the two groupings to see them more easily, but please know that this is one huge conglomeration ranging from 12:02 to 22: 51 mutable. How did this work in the life of Omar Mateen? His diurnal tells the tale.
The transiting grand mutable cross from 12 Pisces 02 ranging to 17 Virgo 40 triggered his natal Saturn square Jupiter and midheaven. Remember the midheaven is always opposite the 4th house cusp, conditions at the end of life, the grave. The Saturn return and involvement represented the ruler of his natal 8th house of death and catastrophe. That same transiting grand mutable cross triggered his progressed Mercury/Saturn conjunction square Mars/Jupiter in the progressed 9th house. The transiting Sun/Venus conjunction from 21 Gemini 28 to 22:51 opposes the natal and progressed Uranus and the progressed Sun.
The diurnal (transit/event) Mercury at 28 Taurus 42 is opposed Mars 25 Scorpio 16 retrograde right on that natal fixed Full Moon 24/29 T-square Mars 23 Aquarius 55. Caput Algol and the Pleiades contributed their malefic energy that was promised at his birth, resonated with his progressed and transiting Full Moon, culminated with this Mercury/Mars opposition, and the deed was done!
Now…go back to the unfolding event chart for 4:49 AM as the final scene in the battle emerged,
- with Mars 25 Scorpio 10 retro on the descendant,
- with 25 Taurus 09 (Caput Algol) on the ascendant,
- the event Mercury rising opposition that Mars,
- getting ready to be rotated into the 12th house side of the ascendant at 5:03,
- allowing that Saturn to rotate onto the descendant at 5:53 AM
- as the authorities in charge ended the standoff with the death of Omar Mateen.
And that is not all. Stay tuned! But the next sections will be billed as “Not for Sissies”!
Published AFA Today’s Astrologer Dec 2018 vol 80#12, republished with slight editing..
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