Monthly Archives: July 2011

Hit-Men in the Heavens

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Amy Winehouse, Grammy winning singer, was found dead on Saturday July 23, 2011 at her London home.

A reader has asked about Amy Winehouse:
“She has four tight conjunctions. I am curious about what transits conspired against her to take her out?”

Amy Winehouse’s autopsy results aren’t yet in so this question presents a wee challenge. It is apparently “test the astrologer” time on the WWW. Certainly everyone loves a mystery, but the case of Amy Winehouse will make a better cautionary tale for the school kids than adult suspense fare.

Here is a tangent:

Transits cannot, and do not, “conspire” to take anyone out.

Why? because there are no hit-men in the heavens.

It is unreasonable to believe that any one person can be picked out to be a victim of an unavoidable fate. Each intelligent person has the ability to make a choice, although the transits might seriously tempt an individual to make bad choices or to remain complacent when a choice should be made.

Sorry, but a short time out to preach just a bit: It is ill-advised to analyze a “death chart” because the tendency is for everyone to see the aspects in the death chart in their own chart (or their friends’ charts or the chart of the friend of a friend) and immediately worry that they too will die from some exotic disease or accident. AN ETHICAL ASTROLOGER DOES NOT PREDICT DEATH UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

So to open this Pandora’s Box of troubles and look into Amy Winehouse’s chart it is necessary to offer this timely reminder that the very last thing that flew out of Pandora’s Box was HOPE.

No matter what is seen in this chart, or any other chart, remember that each individual makes dozens of choices EVERY DAY.  When you leave your home in the morning you choose to turn left or right or even go across the street. Where you end up at the end of the day depends upon this choice and many others. Everyone has the ability to overcome their natal aspects as well as their transits and progressions by using Intelligence and Prayer and making wise choices.

Here is what I say about the Winehouse chart:

Most people would not have died from transiting Mars creating a T-Square with a natal square between Mercury and Neptune (this T Square is easy to see without a birth time).

Mercury rules the lungs; Neptune can rule infections or hypersensitivity. Add Mars, and stir, to create a toxic mix.

This planetary geometry surely points to the potential for an accident as well as added sensitivity to chemical substances. Some people would have had a mildly bad day and some people would not have even noticed.

Accidents however do happen and that is why any school child knows not to walk out into the middle of a busy 4 lane highway, just as Winehouse surely knew better than to take drugs.

In 2008 Amy Winehouse was warned that her lungs were compromised by smoking and drug use and she underwent treatment for emphysema related conditions. She had been in and out of drug rehabs during the past few years, including a stay as recent as May 25th 2011 when she checked into the Priory Clinic for a week long stay. (see: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20068315-10391698.html)

It also is interesting to see that transiting Chiron, the asteroid of impulsive behavior, was in square to Winehouse’s natal Jupiter (creating a T-Square that involved her natal Jupiter opposite natal Chiron).

When acting on an impulse a person with a substance abuse problem might say “I will just take one more pill.”

To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, one pill makes you larger and one pill makesyou small, but the one Amy Winehouse took was the last one for her at all.

If we continue on track with the idea of impulsive behavior then perhaps the worst impulsive behavior is represented by Saturn and Chiron. We already pointed out that transiting Chiron was powerfully situated in a turbulent aspect to the Winehouse planets. Add to this the fact that the transiting Saturn/ Chiron midpoint was opposing the transiting Mars mentioned above and conjunct her natal Neptune, on July 23. This formed a square to her Mercury.

So we have much more than JUST transiting Mars making a T-Square to her natal Mercury/Neptune square. We have the transiting Saturn/ Chiron midpoint involved and this is a crucial midpoint that can represent impulsive behavior that results in dire consequences.

In May when she was admitted for a short stay in a drug/ psychiatric clinic the transiting Saturn/ Chiron midpoint was, oddly enough, also at 23 degrees, but Retrograde. By July 23 this point was not only fully direct but just a few tenths of a degree past its position in May, and closer to the Mercury/Neptune natal square.

It is almost as though she saved herself in May, only to succumb in July.

Click chart to enlarge.

That natal Mercury/Neptune square actually is part of natal T-Square that involves Vesta. Vesta is the most closely aspected body in her natal planetary configuration. We can further point out that the transiting Saturn/Chiron midpoint was opposite her natal Vesta, while transiting Vesta simultaneously was opposed to her natal Saturn/Chiron midpoint. Wow. Does this imply that her friends were somehow involved in her demise? Was she trying to keep up with her circle of friends? Only God (and maybe forensics) can know for sure.

We can even point out that transiting Saturn had just crossed Amy Winehouse’s natal Saturn/Sun midpoint. That is definitely a point that can be related to the health and long term consequences.

We will not say that she caused her own death. But it is also true that the transits did not kill her.
Since May there had been many wake-up calls, but the fact remains that Amy Winehouse chose NOT to answer them.

But as we all know, Character is Destiny.

This woman had a choice about taking drugs and getting help. Amy Winehouse had the money and connections to obtain the best medical treatment possible. She had health problems and substance abuse problems that forced her to sign into a rehab in May and to cancel a tour in June.

Although the autopsy results are not in it is almost certain that a drug, possibly a prescription drug, caused her death. When someone’s natal Neptune is in a square with a personal planet and then is under siege by transits, that person will be much more sensitive to drugs, chemicals and environment so it is likely that a heightened sensitivity to a substance was the culprit.

But here is yet one more thing about Amy Winehouse: in her progressed chart Saturn and Juno are in an applying opposition. The progressed chart tells much about the trends in a person’s life and she could be fooled, could be gullible, or could be hoodwinked. She might have even convinced herself that she was doing the right thing, suffered from wishful thinking, or misunderstood the instructions on a bottle that said take one. (Maybe she thought that “2 X a day” meant one now and one in an hour.)

The transiting Moon crossed her natal Saturn/Juno opposition on July 23rd.

Did THIS kill her? Absolutely not. That is totally ridiculous. (i.e., there is no hit man in the heavens)

But it might have created a brief period of time when her ability to differentiate between fact and fantasy was off center (or, rather, more off center than usual).

Just because someone is famous or talented or rich does not mean they are smart or that they have caring friends or even employees to protect them from their own bad choices.

It is a very sad matter to contemplate.

God Bless you all. And remember that although there are no Hit Men in the Heavens there might be Angels.

Angles -Turbulence in the Sky

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Astrology pops up in some of  the most unusual places as do proofs that astrology really works.

In the 1940’s a radio engineer called John Nelson working for RCA was assigned the task of finding out why the RCA transatlantic short wave radio systems experienced unexplainable interference.

First of all he studied sunspots and found that when there was a high level of sunspot activity some interference occurred, but the sunspots did not explain the all of the disturbances or “magnetic storms.”  In addition there were instances of interference when sun spot activity was low or normal.

Then the engineer, who was also an amateur astronomer, began studying the entire solar system for an  answer to his problem and found that there was a correlation between the turbulence that interfered with the radio signals and certain planetary configurations. Specifically, he noted that a high incidence of radio  interference occurred when certain planets were in 90, 180, or 270 degree angles in the heliocentric system.

The records from RCA’s Riverhead NY observatory, begun in 1932, showed that “radio disturbances have occurred about ten times more frequently on the days of planetary configurations than on ordinary days.”  Nelson could also predict, in a general way, the periods that will probably be free from serious magnetic disturbances.

Astrology is the science of studying angles between planets and correlating them to earthly events. So, John Nelson studied what we call ASTROLOGY to find a solution to his problem  and ……. (Drum roll, please)….. he found one.

These angles, i.e., 90°, 180°, and 270° are all what astrologers call “hard angles.” Hard angles include the square and opposition. Squares are formed by 90 degree angles between planets, oppositions by a 180 degree angle between planets and although the 270 angle has no name in astrology it is a combination of a 90 degree plus 180 degree angle (or a 90 degree angle from the other direction).

In Magi Astrology we call these hard angles “turbulent aspects.”

In Magi Astrology we also use the heliocentric (Sun centered) system which is the positions of the planets as viewed from the Sun. Most traditional astrologers only consider the geocentric (Earth  centered) chart which is a map of planetary positions as viewed from Earth. Magi Astrologers consider both the geocentric chart and heliocentric chart.  In fact, heliocentric astrology is so important that expert financial astrologers view the heliocentric chart for indicators of market conditions.

In the study conducted for RCA that covered a period of seven years Nelson included planets separated by 0 degrees (known as a conjunction) as well as the hard angles.

In his paper published in May 1952 he stated that the most severe degradations of the radio wave signals occurred when three planets were in a “multiple of 90 degree arrangement”  which is when two planets are both were square (or 90°) to a third planet, or in a formation that a Magi Astrologer would call a T-Square.

Click here to see the  heliocentric chart of February 23 1948 and the T-Square pattern that was  present at the time of extreme radio signal disturbances.

One of the other periods with extremely severe degradation of the radio wave signals occurred September 21-23 1951.

Click here to see the  heliocentric chart for Sept. 21, 1951

Note that we included Chiron, which was not included in Nelson’s study. However, Chiron adds one more planetary body to the turbulent pattern.

One of the keys to severe degradation of the radio signals, according to Nelson’s study, was the positions in the chart of Saturn and Jupiter, the largest planets in the solar  system.

His records showed that whenever Saturn and Jupiter were positioned in a configuration that was a multiple of 60 degrees (sextiles or trines in astrology, which are considered the “easy aspects”) radio signals were of better quality than when in multiples of 90 degrees.

For instance, in 1948 Jupiter and Saturn were spaced in a 120 degree pattern (a trine) and solar activity was high but radio transmissions were of generally excellent consistency.

In 1951 there was an ongoing 90 degree pattern between Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter in the heliocentric chart so that when any fourth planet crossed the pattern of these three it resulted in correlating radio interference.  In 1951 the average radio signal quality was much lower than in other years studied,  even though sunspot activity was much less active.

FYI: In 2010-2011 Saturn and Jupiter will be facing off in a 180 degree  aspect, with the peak in the heliocentric chart occurring in February 2011.

Using the results of his study Nelson was able to forecast with an 85% chance of accuracy the conditions for radio wave transmissions in 1950 and 1951.

In his paper published in March 1951 he noted after study of the hard aspect patterns formed by six  planets (Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter) that  “all hard aspect configurations are not accompanied by disturbed conditions.”   He says, “Analysis shows that some 0°, 90°, 180°, or 270° configurations between planets can be nullified if one of them is close to 120° from another planet on the same day.”

In  other words, when there is a trine to another planet from one of the planets in the hard aspect configuration that the turbulent aspects are mitigated! That means there is always hope.

And that, my dears, is a theme of Magi Astrology and borne out by our research.

Nelson did not use all of the planets or asteroids.  It is even more amazing to view the results of his study when other planetary bodies are included. In his study he listed some of the most turbulent radio wave storms. One of them occurred  March 23-March 26 1940.  In the March 23, 1940 chart (click here to see the chart) we can see Venus conjunct PLUTO with both of these square to Saturn and the asteroid JUNO.  Nelson didn’t include Pluto or Juno, so he only  noted the square between Venus and Saturn.

By  March 26, 1940 (click here to see the chart) you see that Mercury had moved ahead to create the T-Square involving 5 planets, although Nelson only noted three:  Saturn, Mercury, and Venus.

Click  here to see the entire chart for March 26, 1940 with all planets. We can see why this series of disturbances were so notable.

Pluto  is part of the planetary pattern as well as Juno. We also see that Mars was square Neptune (which he did not use because he concentrated on planets closer to the Sun) and Chiron (which he did not use because it had not been discovered at the time) square Jupiter.

Had Nelson used ALL of the planets and asteroids throughout the study his accuracy could have been higher than 85%!

In Magi Astrology, one rule is that the more planets involved, the more important  the planetary pattern. Nelson likewise noted that the more planets involved in the configuration the more likelihood extreme disturbances would occur but he didn’t have access to as many planetary bodies as we do in 2010. In addition, with the widespread use of computers astrologers can calculate the positions of the planets in the heliocentric charts with the press of a button or two.

Naturally, an astrologer will point out that if planetary configurations can be implicated in magnetic storms that interfere with radio wave signals then it is reasonable to suggest that hard aspects between planets can set up conditions for turbulence that affect other human endeavors.

There were plenty of examples of turbulence in politics, stock markets, and economic news during the past few years and we recently discussed the Deepwater Horizon oil rig chart as an example, but it is reassuring to see that a non-astrologer like J.H. Nelson saw the value of studying planetary configurations too.

May the stars be with you!

Magi  Bette

 

Sources: Shortwave Radio Propagation Correlation with  Planetary Positions, J.H. Nelson, RCA Review 12 (March 1951): 26-34.

Planetary Position Effect on Short-Wave  Signal Quality, J. H. Nelson, Electrical Engineering 71, no. 5 (May  1952): 421-24.

RCA  Astrology, Time Magazine, Apr. 16,  1951