West Nickel Mines Amish School
Paradise, Bart Township, Lancaster County, PA, USA
by Marilyn J. Muir, LPMAFA
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In part one of the story of this historical event, I explored the charts of the event and the charts of the gunman, and the connections between the charts. In part two for this event, we delineated the aspects between the charts. In the continuation of this story, we will explore the pertinent Symbolic Degrees for the event.
Using Charubel’s The Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolized (1898), his original astrological instructions are to round any minutes up to the next degree. No mention is made of retrograde motion. Because this event stretched over a 65-minute window of time, I chose three charts for the events and four charts for the gunman as explained in Part 1 of this article. Relative to symbolic degrees, I checked the degree before, the actual degree of and the degree after, just to be sure I picked up everything possible. For brevity’s sake I have only listed what was most relevant.
Charubel’s book was written over 100 years ago. Much of what we consider a normal part of modern life was unknown. For this project, I used the ten bodies, Ascendant, Midheaven, and North Node: thirteen points. While not all degrees fit the situation, many do fit almost prophetically. I have italicized those. This was a hostage-taking situation that rapidly deteriorated into a massacre of children in a one-room Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania. As you read Charubel’s symbology, remember the pastoral setting, the simple rectangular schoolhouse, the children, the police, and the gunman’s suicide. Also remember that the Ascendant and Midheaven cover all the degrees possible between 9:51 and 11:05 on the day’s clock as an ongoing process.
Note: Charts provided in Article 1 of this series.
Initial event, break-in and hostages:
9:51 AM actual Midheaven 20 Leo 21.
20 Leo: Denotes a person whose life may appear a complete failure and whose energies appear to be expended on what produces nothing; consequently, there is no apparent [positive] result.
21 Leo: A high mountain having a plateau on the summit.
9:51 AM actual Ascendant 11 Scorpio 50
11 Scorpio: A lamb looks at a distance from its dam, but looking towards her. Denotes one with strong filial affections; he cannot be happy without one to love or to cling to.
12 Scorpio: A bull pawing up the earth. Denotes a person who will have his own way; his anger is lasting.
13 Scorpio: A fox sitting on his haunches. Denotes one who is ever on selfish ends; he makes a good strategist.
Call to police who arrived at school 9’ later.
10:36 AM actual Midheaven 2 Virgo 03
2 Virgo: A wolf carrying away a lamb. Denotes deception, cunning, avarice and cruelty. Such a degree, unless there be much to counteract it, would render the native liable to become a great criminal.
3 Virgo: A man peeping around a corner at a company of armed men, who are in the act of reconnoitering. Denotes a strategist; one well adapted for the army.
10:36 AM Ascendant 20 Scorpio 43
20 Scorpio: Two men fencing with swords. A duelist, a pugilist, a gymnast; one who would not admit an equal; a very formidable kind of opponent.
21 Scorpio: A man in the midst of a lot of children at play. Great simplicity of manner; one fond of children and childish amusements.
22 Scorpio: A man holding a fowl by the neck in the act of strangling it. A cruel person and a coward; one who will take advantage of the weak and defenseless.
All event charts
Actual Sun 9 Libra 14 to 17
Sun 9 Libra: A man standing on the top of a high mountain; on the one side a perpendicular rock; he [has] a red flag in his hand… signaling a promiscuous crowd, who appear to be rushing on horseback at a gallop towards [his location].
Sun 10 Libra: A lovely garden of flowers.
Sun 11 Libra: This person should reside amid mountain scenery, and should deal in sheep and cattle (Roberts drove a milk truck).
Actual Moon 6 Aquarius 06 to 50
Moon 6 Aquarius: Two bulls fighting. A disagreeable, unsociable man, a fault-finder; one who cannot talk without argument and who cannot argue without losing his temper, hypercritical.
Moon 7 Aquarius: A crown and scepter. One who is entitled to more than he possesses, and who has powers of which he is unconscious.
Mercury 00 Scorpio 32 to 36
Mercury 00 Scorpio (30 Lib): A raven standing on a stone. Denotes individuality, moroseness; a person avaricious, destructive, or revengeful, secretive; a recluse, a misanthrope.
Mercury 01 Scorpio: A heart, affectionate, confiding, unselfish, much influenced by others.
Actual Venus 2 Libra 42 to 45
Ven 2 Libra: A man playing on a violin.
Ven 3 Libra: If such a one does not make his or her mark in his day, there must be some terrible power frustrating.
Actual Mars 15 Libra 55 to 57
Mars 15 Libra: Being nearly destitute of ambition, he will care but little how the world goes on, so long as he gets his fill of his own desires.
Mars 16 Libra: A soldier, going through his drill. Denotes one who, although possessed of military proclivities and perhaps ambitious of military honors, will ever be unfortunate in that calling. And should he ever be engaged in active service, he is nearly certain to be killed, or at the best, badly wounded.
Actual Jupiter 18 Scorpio 48-9
18 Scopio: A man holding a pair of scales in one hand and a sword in the other. A just person, but prone to become too severe.
19 Scorpio: A serpent with many heads, all in a circle, with fangs protruding. Denotes one who may become a pest and a terror to society; …will prove a curse to his relations and acquaintances. This is the cursed degree of the so-called cursed sign; yet even this may have its purposes.
20 Leo: Denotes a person whose life may appear a complete failure and whose energies appear to be expended on what produces nothing.
Actual Saturn 21 Leo 32
21 Leo : high mountain having a plateau on the summit.
22 Leo: Its nature is Mercurial.
Actual Uranus 10 Pisces 43 R
10 Pisces: A fixed star. It sheds a halo of supernal glory on the Ascendant [fame or infamy?].
11 Pisces R: The Ascendant is enveloped in gloom and blackness. This is the degree of death… their life will be a misery.
Actual Neptune 16 Aquarius 14
16 Aquarius: A vessel rolling in the trough of a rough sea. Denotes one who will ever live in a state of uncertainty, subject to many changes and severe trials; his career will be a struggle for existence.
17 Aquarius: A naked man, having a serpent coiled around the lower part of his body. A vicious degree; denotes one subject to filthy habits and deeds; he that hath this degree on the Ascendant should “Know himself” and seek to conquer his evil nature. [Neptune is separating from conjunction to IC.]
Actual Pluto 24 Sagittarius 17
24 Sagittarius: … on the whole unstable and never settled.
25 Sagittarius: A man in a balloon with the dark clouds beneath him.
Actual N Node 25 Pisces 18
25 Pisces: A very large field of corn… Denotes one whose aspiration are high and whose motives are good, but who will labor much without adequate results.
26 Pisces: A very high flagstaff, with a red flag floating on the top. An agitator, a person of great organizing abilities, a person of radical notions, a revolutionist.
Degrees for shootings speculation charts between 10:53 and 11:05 AM.
10:53 AM Midheaven 6 Virgo: A room full of machinery and jars of chemicals. A scientist, a chemist, an inventor; an active person. Great power of perception; and a promising experimentalist.
10:57 AM Midheaven 7 Virgo: A person with wig and gown. The law is your sphere of action. You will excel in forensic science; and it is possible you may attain to eminence on these lines.
11:01 AM Midheaven 8 Virgo: A coach heavily laden with passengers. Denotes a public character; one who will do much for others, but liable to forget those duties he owes to himself, and to those who may be dependent upon him.
11: 05 AM Midheaven 9 Virgo: Four long posts at right angles forming a four square: and tour rails fastened horizontally to the top of each. It looks like the rude framework of some temporary building, or “shanty”. (The schoolhouse was immediately torn down).
10:53 Ascendant 23 Scorpio: The Moon is in her first quarter. One fond of change; a speculator; one too sanguine in his or her expectations; yet on the whole, fortunate.
10:57 AM Ascendant 24 Scorpio: A woman sitting on a tombstone in the act of weeping. One sensitive and sympathetic; destined to have much sorrow through the death of friends; a lover of the shady side of life more than the sunshine.
11:01 AM Ascendant 25 Scorpio: A white flag unfurled with a red Maltese cross on it.
11:05 AM Ascendant 26 Scorpio: A mole. Great individuality; very reserved; very determined; one who hates the public.
Neptune was on the opposition to the Midheaven 3˚ 7’ earlier (twelve to thirteen minutes on the clock), the Midheaven degrees leading up to the invasion itself are:
Midheaven 16 Leo: …A giant amusing himself with a child’s doll… he condescends to employ his time and his energies in the pursuit of what is childish, whimsical, and worthless; by which he not infrequently makes himself the laughing stock of his contemporaries.
Midheaven 17 Leo: …A wild boar. Denotes one whom you may kill, but never conquer; nor will he be induced to adopt unwillingly the tricky policies of modern civilization. He has a life of his own, a sphere of his own, and pleasures of his own. He may be designated coarse and impolite, but such epithets make little or no impression on him.
To me, Charubel’s symbolic degree interpretations eerily fit the event and circumstances.
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