by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA
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Colorado has had more than its share of problems this year with the rampant and extensive wildfires and flooding, followed by the tragic theatre shooting in Aurora on July 20, 2012. Like so many other citizens I followed the tragedy moment by moment, but the astrologer within was looking for vital birth information. Birth information for the suspected perpetrator James Holmes was not readily available. What could I use besides the chart for the incident itself? I needed a basis of comparison.
I started with the admission to statehood for Colorado. The 38th state was signed into existence by President Ulysses S Grant on August 1, 1876. With no time available, a noonmark chart was used and I chose the capital city of Denver for the location; an alternative would be the U.S. Capital of Washington, D.C. Please know that Aurora is a suburb of Denver, so there is literally no difference between the choices. What else could I use? The incorporation of the city of Aurora turned out to be a problem. Actually, the town of Fletcher was incorporated on May 5, 1903 and was renamed Aurora in 1907. State records indicate that the City of Aurora was incorporated in 1929 but I could find no record of the date itself. I chose to use the original incorporation date at noon in the state capital and the events of that tragic day showed quite dramatically.
I did the traditional work-up for both the statehood and the town incorporation: natal, progressed, and diurnal, and then added the event itself. That made seven charts, three of which would be almost duplicates of one another. That is impossible for me to do on the computer so I did what I always do when I have multiple charts – I created a spreadsheet with the pertinent information: ten bodies, Ascendant, Midheaven (MC) and North Node.
For those of you who are familiar with diurnal charts, they provide the personal transits for any day in question. How do you cast a diurnal? Enter the natal data into the computer and change the birth date to the day of the event. This produces personal transits. Although I did list all the positions because I did not want to leave out anything important, please know there is some redundancy in the entries. The only diurnal placements that can change dramatically and distinctly between the state and city diurnals and event chart are the Asc, MC and Moon. Each natal has its own trilogy: natal, progressed, and diurnal.
First, I looked at the major aspect patterns for the state and town charts because such patterns tend to be triggered as a group. The state chart sported a major Leo stellium plus two fixed T-squares, one at 20˚, the other in early degrees.
Additionally, the progression for the state for the date of the shooting produced a new stellium that was based on a New Moon within one minute applying – very powerful. The town chart produced a wide 5-planet (half the planetary positions) mutable grand-cross that fit directly into that progressed state stellium and I had not even begun to use the transiting event positions.
The stellium gave five positions between 8 and 19.5 Leo: the MC, Sun, Mercury, Mars, and Uranus. Stelliums tend to act as a massive conjunction. When you trigger one planet the whole complex can become active… as it was with the shooting. The two fixed T-squares that are part of that stellium were also activated within the complex. If you ever wonder if transits can activate progressions or if the progressions show up strongly for an event, this is your example. The state, the town and the theatre are in lock step with activations involving natal, progressed and diurnal positions.
Talk about drama (Leo), this shooting was considered larger than the 1999 horrendous Colombine school shooting. This was the premier of the third Batman movie. Many movie-goers had dressed in costume. The shooter was dressed in a black complete flak outfit head to foot. The victims thought at first that it was part of the opening. Talk about theatre – this was inside a theatre. Talk about center stage – the exit door the shooter used was at the front almost under the screen. Talk about a Leo mane of hair (bright orange/red). The suspected shooter called himself “the Joker”, Batman’s nemesis.
Chaos erupted at 12:37 am about fifteen minutes into the film, with two canisters of gas and rapid gunfire. By 12:39, calls poured into the police station and they arrived on the scene about ninety seconds later. Amazing response. As they surrounded the building, the shooting was still in progress. Lack of gas masks for the police was a problem, yet the suspect was in custody by 12:46 am. From the beginning to the end of what I have described, it took nine minutes and left twelve people dead and fifty wounded (the number of victims fluctuated between 50 and 51). But this horror story was not finished.
The suspect then told the police that his apartment was booby-trapped, and this became a dark circus for police of tripwires, explosives – a virtual death trap. Not only did that building have to be evacuated, but several surrounding buildings had to be evacuated as well. Eventually the police were able to gain entry and the suspect was arraigned. All this was taking place while the story of the event, the victims, the survivors, the families, and our country unfolded moment by moment. Tales of heroism and personal sacrifice and anger at the lack of effective weapon legislation were hot topics. The question was asked repeatedly, “How many people have to die before something is done?” I am not sure there is an answer.
Astrologically, I cast the individual charts, the tri-wheels and the spreadsheet. I am going to explain the spreadsheet in brief. At the top is listed the state natal, progressed and diurnal followed by the theatre shooting chart (Aurora natal). The next group is the Fletcher/Aurora city natal, progressed and diurnal. While I have not described it so far, but just because I had access to the information, I also listed on that spreadsheet the state natal, progressed and diurnal for the Colombine incident along with the natal for that incident (Colombine natal). Please note that the Colombine incident has nothing to do with the Fletcher/Aurora city charts. While Littleton is also a suburb of Denver, it has nothing in particular to do with Fletcher/Aurora.
To make aspecting easier and one time only, I broadly color-coded the groupings so I could isolate the activations. The color-coding should be self-evident. At the bottom of that page, I placed all the chart resource information. Page two is where the tale of the shooting itself is told. Column 1 contains the natal and progressed stelliums, the T-squares and the grand cross previously mentioned. The balance of the columns contain the aspects themselves. The natal placements show that which is activated, the receptive points. The Aurora theatre activating aspects follow in red type and Colombine follows in blue type. When reading, separate the Colombine placements as a separate event.
Note that there are two columns of fixed placements. These are the keys to understanding the event itself. The fourth column contains mutable aspects and the fifth column has cardinal aspects. While these divisions are equal in importance, there are fewer of both types as fixed positions ruled that day. I tried to keep the orbs quite tight and each block of information has a description at the top.
In addition, the last column came from a work-up I had done separately on the town of Fletcher/Aurora. I naturally grouped the natal, the progressed and the town diurnal with the state natal, and then added the three personal points from the shooting chart. Five groups emerged as listed but one proved to be key because the shooting chart dove-tailed into that specific grouping, which was the 10˚ fixed aspect groups. That is why that aspect group or clustering is delineated first. It is the key to this event. As you look at the aspects, remember the individual elements: the power and control of Pluto, the extremism shock of Uranus, the deception of Neptune, the organization and judgment rendered by Saturn, the violence and terrorism of Mars and the over-the-top Jupiter influence on the personal planets and positions. Almost every point of the charts is involved. And they say astrology does not work!
For separate research it would be interesting to study…
- Symbolic degrees, and there are several techniques to choose from. My first preference is Charubel’s.
- It is quite easy to isolate the Colombine material for a stand-alone event.
- It is also possible to use the state natal, progressed and other diurnal events to explore the terrible fires and floods Colorado has endured in 2012, perhaps adding the town/city charts where applicable.
- After I had completed all of this, I also set the Aries Ingress chart for Denver to see if/how it fit, and there was 19 Scorpio rising, Serpentis, the accursed degree of the accursed sign, squaring that state natal Uranus and with Mars elevated in the 10th and ruling the ascendant. Mars equals fire and also gunfire, and both were experienced by Colorado in 2012.
This is how we learn.
Published on AFA In the News Online 8.1.12, republished with slight editing.
Sequel: “The Joker Struck at Midnight” published on AFA in the News Online 9.1.12.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.