One of the things Planet Waves excels at above and beyond other astrology websites and services is the ability to turn around cogent, sensitive, compelling astrology articles about breaking news. The last couple days were already heavy with world events and personal challenges; overnight they were augmented with a domestic tragedy. In today’s premium subscriber issue, Eric takes a brief look at the astrology of the last two days in the context of last night’s shooting at the Colorado showing of the latest Batman movie, and the bombings in Syria and Bulgaria.
If you’re trying to make sense of such unfathomable (yet all too common) events with relation to what’s going on for you personally, today’s issue provides another angle to consider. It also includes astro-news briefs and horoscopes for all 12 signs for this week. You can check out today’s issue on its own here. Or, sign up for a one-month trial offer, and let Planet Waves help you keep your cool through the rest of the season.
Yes, I apologize for my previous comment. It was a very abbreviated excerpt from a more involved thought. This and other difficult questions had been forming since even before hearing a review of the movie just a day before this terrible slaying. I am embarrassed for allowing myself to be so tweet-like and uncaring. Again my apologies.
For several months I have been encountering many young people with Saturn in Scorpio and the particular sense of looming pressure and dread has been pulling at me. About a month ago I was discussing this with astro-familiar friend and she was pointing out the societal obsession with zombies and vampires and we wondered how this would change, morph, improve or refine itself as Saturn came into Scorpio. A day before the film release I was listening to a review of the film on NPR. Two things struck me deeply. First the evolution of individual evil villain in the Dark Knight series to one of societal. What effect would this message have? Was it a comment on waking up to corporate hegemony instead of indulgent entertainment of the victim/perp cycle? Or was this a further boxing in of our ability to live with out fear? The second striking feature was, despite the fact I knew seeing the film would hurt my psyche, I wanted to see it badly.
When the news came out about this tragedy these questions about evil as entertainment and human obsession with the macabre, came back stronger but I decided not to read about it until I could see the stark unfictionalized face of the situation in my heart and mind. I did, however, immediately think of the Uranus Pluto square. When I opened up the media flood gates and came to this remembering of the victims,
http://www.upi.com/blog/2012/07/22/Colorado-shooting-victims-remembered/1401342968748/
I couldn’t help but notice the ages of these young people and the questions came rushing together again. Looking at the larger issues and motifs is surely a way to try and make sense of the pain and not intended to sensationalize.
as Alex De Witte says:
“Before we fall into the trap of directing our attention toward good/evil, superhero/supervillain, pro-gun/anti-gun let us acknowledge what these films themselves address about the grey areas. Is Batman or Spiderman good or bad? Hero or villain? Are they protecting the ‘little guy’ out of love or duty? (Huge difference supplied by OUR psychology, although the films emphasise duty.. NOTE THAT). Or, are they moral crusaders against oppression and power or evil malignancies? (Again WE decide but the films emphasise evil as defined in that clear cut, ‘who the baddies are is obvious’ sort of way)”
There is such a pressure building in the psyches of people about when is the other foot, the really scary unspeakable foot, going to fall. A distillation of which might be called our inherent fear of death. In my most optimistic set of thoughts I wonder if the coming of Saturn in Scorpio will help us see ourselves in the grey areas as well as the black and the white. Perhaps truly seeing death as an inevitable, graceful limitation will help us be less enthralled to staring frightfully into the heart of darkness.
In the raw words of Charles Bukowski:
“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”
There is no comment or question I could ask that makes the reality of this event better. There is no perfect insight. At the same time this mimetic crossing of our darkest fears and a nightmares come true does roar with voracious intensity.
just to be clear about the storytellers telling, Batman is from the DC universe, Spiderman is from Marvel. as an actual reader of the original comics, you are correct Alex in that those making the films of these stories, are really only selling us one side of the story – their$ – which absolutely does not reveal the nuances and layers of meaning we readers bring and make from reading them. growing up i learned more about what it means to be conscious and human(e) from certain comic book writers and stories, and to simplify their complexity and multiplicity into a capitalistic binary serves no one’s highest good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
Alexander: “This is why I believe it is easier for me to state that guns debate is a decoy away from the weightier issues… whether any elusive and faceless man, wearing a dark suit, designed and planted that decoy or not.”
I so appreciate you taking the time to express your thoughts in this post.
Your question of who decides what our stories should be, mirrored a conversation amongst friends yesterday, albeit, not quite as articulately. But the fact that we asked the question, I feel, speaks volumes. I’m grateful you assisted in expanding my view and threading your words in such a way that my own mumblings could find clarity.
Thank you.
Guns in the U.S.A. is a different issue for those inside American jurisdiction and those outside it.
Of course, we are all aware of the differences between detachment and involvement. But maybe when you are very close in the story looks and feels different than when you are more of a ‘spectator’ – such as I.
Let me state clearly that I am not subject to the emotive force of this gun debate that resurfaces every time you get any such incident and therefore my views come from a different ‘space’. This is why I believe it is easier for me to state that guns debate is a decoy away from the weightier issues… whether any elusive and faceless man, wearing a dark suit, designed and planted that decoy or not.
The United States, just like the rest of the planet, is NOT the centre of the Universe. Sadly though, a powerful nation’s baggage casts its influence much farther afield. You become a kind of Litmus test for many issues, whether purportedly ‘good’ or ‘bad’. But this Litmus test characteristic is itself a lens of distortion, warping issues like intense gravity warping light. What we want to avoid is the Black Hole scenario.
Whereas the headline is being touted to be guns, in my view they are a detail in the bigger picture. Rather than “Crazed gunman kills twelve” the headline *should* perhaps be “The stories we tell ourselves come to life in a Denver theater. Who exactly is writing our stories?”
All the Marvel Comics storylines have clear motifs, especially the dualism of good/evil one, supported by the Superhero/Supervillain delineation – which is a magnification and externalisation of micro-factors within tides of individual psychology/experience; all related to human meaning-making in terms of space, place, purpose, relationality and ultimately personal identity. This magnification is projected onto a screen and the issues dramatised within fairly limited conceptual categories, carrying our latent dualisms; dualisms that successfully polarise psychology into ‘camps’. Regardless as to whether the underlying angst gets projected onto the characters in a productive way, a sort of collective validation (or even catharsis) of one’s personal, interior spaces is found in the usually untroubled safety of movie theatres, all over the globe ( Yes, Hollywood’s reach is formidable).
Once folk are committed to a camp then the battle lines are drawn for good or ill. All of one’s healthy or narcissistic rage can take a two hour vacation of fantasy right into that celluloid world. Of course, the expectation is that, like a clinically hypnotised subject, we come out of the trance once the finger click of the credits roll. Except the only thing is here that the film makers have been deliberately blurring the line between fantasy and reality for decades a.k.a. selling us ideas..
So WHO is writing the stories of our lives? Indeed, WHAT are those stories in essence? Is it just a story about violence, paranoia and suspense? Is it a story solely about firearm proliferation? Or is it the stories that WE ourselves are authoring, which are being brought deeper into global consciousness?
One of the great successes of ALL brainwashing is that it focuses attention – and insidiously, to the utter neglect of the broader picture. Life as story is life connected; with multiple plot lines and no SINGLE SOURCE of narrative that feeds a limited/limiting repertoire of themes, limits which exclude other strands of a complex human condition.
Before we fall into the trap of directing our attention toward good/evil, superhero/supervillain, pro-gun/anti-gun let us acknowledge what these films themselves address about the grey areas. Is Batman or Spiderman good or bad? Hero or villain? Are they protecting the ‘little guy’ out of love or duty? (Huge difference supplied by OUR psychology, although the films emphasise duty.. NOTE THAT). Or, are they moral crusaders against oppression and power or evil malignancies? (Again WE decide but the films emphasise evil as defined in that clear cut, ‘who the baddies are is obvious’ sort of way)
Well, one thing is fore sure. They have a POWER to change reality on a large scale in their fictional worlds that we can only dream of – and yes, we can access this as narcissistic fantasy, like the gunman in Denver. We CAN access these stories on any of the many levels they offer, or we can shut down and select only a few. A few that may be selectively appropriated by our wounded psyches, or a few that the shapers of certain grand narratives would wish us to select and emphasise.
So again, WHO decides what our stories should be? And when we select a story about guns, violence and death as the main or only motif, why are we doing that? As long as WE are doing the choosing then technically we remain free.
this, apart from eric’s friday issue, of course, is one of the most thoughtful and well-pointed bits of writing i’ve seen about the aurora shooting and assault weapons. and it was written by jason alexander (the actor):
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/if2nht
sure thing eric
To keep away from conjecture and paranoid speculation, I would ask one of two things (or both) when considering the darker shades of possibility. One, since we’re astrologers here, show me where any theory is supported in any of the charts connected to this incident.
And/or two, please show me some documentation that such a thing as you’re describing exists somewhere, and draw at least a light pencil line to the circumstances of the case you’re describing.
We have a lot of people reading. Even commenters have credibility because this is Planet Waves. Please hold yourself to some standard of fact checking or sound astrology. Thank you.
As I looked through the profiles of those who died in the slaying, 4 out of 12 of were 26/27 yrs old. Saturn in Scorpio?
i’ve been watching the comments develop over the last few days and i have a few thoughts that have been reflected here as well-
1) gwind re: heath ledger- that was the first thing that struck me about this incident-i remember reading how (yet i’m not sure how accurate the story was) ledger was having a hard time pulling himself ‘out’ of the joker character which aggravated whatever emotional turmoil that he was going through that lead to the insomnia which inadvertently lead to his death.
2) PhD student–when i read that the suspect was someone doing a PhD i thought ‘now there’s something that would send you right over the edge’- the circular thoughts, the constant revision, the isolation and the very process of doing a doctorate or higher degree where you and your work are the focus of your existence-until-you-get-it-done make for bad, bad, bad situations in these trying astrological times- and honestly, how did a PhD student get all that money for the weapons? student loans? credit cards? a rich benefactor? that seems a little off to me
3)false flag operations – and planted news stories- i think one day if we live to be old enough we might find out there were MORE false flag operations than fewer- does anyone else remember how many times audio and video tapes of Osama Bin Laden were trotted out at regular intervals to divert the populace at large? i’m super bad at chart reading and i don’t know what to look for that would indicate some kind of discrepancy in what really happened.
thanks for letting me share- what a week!
hugs
x
There was a also a Batman comic (“The Dark Knight Returns”) published in 1986 where a raving gunman man opens fire in a movie theatre . . .
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/dark-knight-shooting-aurora-theater-eerie-echo-seminal-1986-comic-frank-miller-article-1.1118713
Wasn’t this movie the sequel of the movie Heath Ledger starred in as the “Joker”? I thought I heard a reference to this gunman using a statement that he was the Joker. Strange; a de ja vous moment like that of the Superman movies. Has anyone looked into a connection, at least to that oddness that Heath Ledger passed at that time and now this?
I’m with you Eric in being suspicious of this guy Adams (I’ve read a number of his commentaries). While I can see 9/11 as a false flag operation I can’t quite wrap my mind around the idea that this tragedy was the result of some staged neuroscience research. While Holmes has been described as quiet and shy and his colleague has said that “there was no way I thought he could have the capacity to do commit an atrocity like this,” I think it is quite understandable that one would be so shocked that someone one knew could do something like this.
What strikes me about his chart is the almost exact Mars/Pluto conjunction in Scorpio which was activated by transiting square from the Moon/Mercury conjunction at the time of the shooting. I might perhaps conjecture something about this as I also have an exact Mars/Pluto conjunction in the last degree of Leo. For me it falls at the end of the 5th house and I have been able to channel it into some fiery ceramic art, but growing up I can relate this to the experience of extremely volatile rage.
I remember scenes of uncontainable screaming as a child and on my high school football team they didn’t call me steamin freeman for nothing. When Pluto squared my Sun in my mid 30’s that rage often came out in intense physical exercise during ultimate frisbee contests. In my later years it has come out in writing, in a few rants published in counterpunch against the insanity of the Iraq war and now more recently in artistic expression. In my case Mars is only just a few minutes from conjunction to Pluto while in Holmes case Mars is a degree past its conjunction with Pluto. According to Jeffrey Wolf Green’s writings my case would be an example where the conjunction is close to completion, as if for many lifetimes I have been working toward mastering dealing with this rage. In Holmes case this conjunction is new as if he has had no experience in dealing with it.
That it occurs in mid-Scorpio in his case might also account for its dark night tragic expression. That Pluto was conjunct his natal Neptune at the time might suggest how this violence was an expression of the violent culture in which he has grown up. I see this tragedy as merely a symptom of our violent society. I’m sure this guy harbored a seething rage beneath his quiet demeanor and despite his intelligence he was obviously susceptible to the dark imagery of the silver screen and the obsession with violence which so marks our culture.
Alex,
David Wilcock believes James Holmes is a mind-controlled assassin. “. . .you may start to wonder if these ‘lone nut’ assassins are really acting alone. Stories like this can dominate the headlines for weeks – and wash away other, embarrassing issues for the [banking] cabal in the meantime.”
http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1066-great-revealing
be
Some states require registration and licensing. To carry a handgun in upstate New York I have to jump through a lot of hoops. I could easily get a rifle however. Some states require no registration at all. All states require a background check *for certain weapons, but there is the “gun show loophole” and the gun shows don’t typically care if you’re an ex-felon.
I think the clue is in the word ‘obstinately’.
“That god of weapons that America obstinately worships…”
It’s the beginning of an article by the corresondent form USA on the first page of a main newspaper here today.
Eric, I agree, this is a crucial point. But a regulation, and registration, of weapons would still allow people that for safety reasons require them to still own them… I mean, 6000 cartridges…
Alex, I am in the process of debunking this guy as a Scientology plant. Just assessing his work as a journalist, it’s shoddy, illogical and full of unsupported conjecture.
Here is the Snopes piece on the “small arms treaty.” There is no evidence that Obama is any tougher on guns that was Dick Cheney.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/untreaty.asp
Please read this interesting treatment regarding this attack as a neuroscience manipulated, false flag attack that was staged with a view to chiming in with an upcoming U.N. Arms protocol.
http://www.naturalnews.com/036536_James_Holmes_shooting_false_flag.html
Huffy, it’s worse than that.
We are talking about people who own and/or advocate owning assault rifles. It’s not that they threaten the death of the politicians directly; it’s that there are a lot of guns in the room while they might be making their case for fewer guns.
I have never heard anyone in this country advocate for getting rid of all the guns. I’ve heard of people advocating fewer guns, no guns in inner cities, guns that shoot fewer bullets, and so on.
I’m your perfect litmus test — I am a Quaker and I believe that the pen is mightier than the sword. I won’t mess with firearms, even as “sport.” Yet I feel better knowing that my friend Carol has a rifle in her cabin in the middle of the Oregon boondocks (though the bears who steal the apples from her apple tree are more responsive to firecrackers). The guy who explained to me yesterday that he takes a rifle when he ventures into the Wyoming wilderness doesn’t have to explain it.
I want to know why Obama is accused of wanting to “get rid of all the guns” when in fact he’s been nothing but friendly toward gun rights.
What I want to know is why a guy can arm himself as powerfully as a SWAT team member, and when he shoots everyone, we wonder why — and no politician can even say the word “gun” — not the governor of Colorado, not Romney, not Obama, not any of them.
“As a country, though, we have not had a real conversation about guns in many, many years. The National Rifle Association (NRA) threatens the career of any politician who so much as opens the conversation”. Just read this now. Didn’t know it was that bad, but am not surprised. Thanks for posting this piece, Fe.
“I think that besides the shooting, the gas canisters and the booby-trapped apartment, the weirdest thing about this incident is that people thought it was part of the film”. It is so sinister, so horrific. I can’t get the image out of my head – the whole idea of being in an enclosed, dark, ‘safe’ place, and this violence erupting from nowhere (I have to say that I find those Batman films very dark, very disturbing and alienating).
You are absolutely right marymack, though I think the huge issue is the gun centred culture, I hear that you don’t even have to register a gun there when you buy one. And these lobbies are so bloody powerful, that nothing changes.
My thoughts go out to your son, Linda.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/batman-shooting_n_1690547.html
It is true that astrology can show the various pressures which an individual will experience but it can’t show the individual’s mental and physical strengths or weaknesses and how they handle those pressures. References have been made regarding alleged problems James Holmes had experienced during the past year or so and below is a partial look at recent transits to his chart (assuming the date given on TV – CNN or MSNBC – of 12/13/87 is correct.)
*March 2010 The trans. north node conjuncts his natal Venus (19 Capricorn) and squares natal Jupiter (19 Aries)
*April 2010 trans. Saturn 28 Virgo opposite trans. Uranus 28 Pisces is conjunct James’ south node 28 Virgo and north node 28 Pisces.
*May 2010 Trans. Saturn 27 Virgo 53 opposite trans. Jupiter 27 Pisces 53 also conjuncts James’ north and south nodes
*June 2010 Full Moon eclipse (4 Cap) conjuncts trans Pluto 4 Cap (and James natal Neptune 7 Cap)
*July 2010 Total Solar Eclipse 19 Cancer 24 (opposite James’ natal Venus 19 Cap and square his Jupiter 19 Aries)
*August 2010 trans Uranus (retrograde) re-enters Pisces and in September trans Uranus and Jupiter conjunct each other and James’ north node (28 Pisces) while trans. Sun conjuncts his south node (28 Virgo). Also, trans NN (7 Cap) conjuncts James’ Neptune (7 Cap) and trans. Saturn at 7 Libra squares his Neptune (and T-squares the trans. nodes)
*December 2010 a total eclipse of the Moon at 29 Gemini (Sun 29 Sagittarius) squares his nodes and conjuncts his Chiron in Gemini (26 degrees) while the trans. Sun conjuncts his Uranus (26 Sagittarius which is conjunct the Galactic Center by the way). This would also be considered a conjunction to his Saturn at 23 Sagittarius and Sun at 21 Sagittarius, activating his grand cross (nodes + Chiron + Uranus)
As we don’t have a time or place of birth for James, the Moon is most likely somewhere in Virgo, probably between 20 and 30 degrees. If born late near midnight and on the west coast it could be early Libra. If it is in Virgo, his Moon could be square his Sun or Saturn or Uranus or conjunct his south node, further adding to the activated natal Grand Cross.
*January 2011 Trans. Jupiter and Uranus again conjunct his north node.
*February 2011 Trans Pluto begins to exactly conjunct his Neptune at 7 Capricorn as Jupiter squares his Neptune through March.
*April 2011 Trans. Pluto stations retrograde on his natal Neptune and stays there through May.
*June 15, 2011 Total Lunar Eclipse at 24 Sagittarius conjuncts his natal Saturn (23 Sagittarius) which is also conjunct his Sun and Uranus (and the GC) The Sun and NN are conjunct his Chiron in Gemini. This eclipse once again activates his Grand Cross of the nodes and Chiron and Sagittarius group of Uranus, Saturn and Sun (also Mercury at 16 Sag)
This period of no letup of strong planetary influences lasting over a year must have both conditioned James Holmes to feel under attack and also confused (Pluto trans natal Neptune.) It is interesting that he was born with Arachne conjunct his Sun (21 Sagittarius) who would contribute the ability to “weave” a plan of defense and eventually an attack of his own. His natal Pallas-Athene at 0 Capricorn would lead this attack and she has for some time now been opposed by Hades in Cancer, both of them on Aries Points assuring that the world would know of it.
All but one of James’ major planets are bunched within about 20 Virgo to 20 Capricorn, with only Jupiter giving some balance to his chart distribution. This would indicate an individual who is primarily and tightly focused on a narrow range of experience with only the one (major) outlet to the rest of the world, symbolized by his Jupiter retrograde. That Jupiter does trine his Mercury in Sagittarius as well as square his natal Venus, allowing for a release of some of his natal fire (5 of the 10 major planets). I believe the transit of the Moon over Mercury in Leo near the time of the shooting catalyzed the event as it squared his natal Pluto at 11 Scorpio (conjunct his natal Mars at 13 Scorpio). With transiting Pluto conjunct his natal Neptune and both square trans Uranus, it would explain the fantasy effect of costume and character and the theater setting. It reminds me a lot of the atrocity in Oslo, Norway last year on July 22.
be
Per Fe’s note, if anyone is looking for patterns beyond what we already know, the August 10th 1999 shooting at NVJCC was at the time of a long anticipated Grand Fixed Cross and total Solar Eclipse.
I’ve actually never looked up my son’s charts for that day before and now find it a bit interesting:
Transiting Saturn opposed transiting Mars (as part of the cross) – said transiting Mars was conjunct his natal Mars/Mercury/Pluto stellium in 3rd house Scorpio. Transiting Jupiter was at 4 Taurus (not part of the cross, but affecting my son’s broad stellium across Scorpio) and opposed his natal Jupiter/Sun/Nessus which was conjunct transiting Pholus. Additionally, transiting Venus was on his natal Pholus which is near conjunct natal Chyron which is exact on his AC.
Interesting too to note that transiting Uranus was on my DC which is conjunct my natal Pholus and opposite my natal Uranus on my AC, near conjunct the eclipse. etc.
Not to bore here with more – just suffice to say it’s interesting to go back and take a look.
My thoughts and prayers for healing are with all of us on this day.
was curious about the 24 year info and was googling – on wiki’s entry on this event it listed another 24 year old woman who was the first public name to be released as deceased – had just survived the Toronto Eaton Centre shooting in June. crazy.
“These dates are from Darcy Burner’s blog”
With the exception of the lone female, all the shooters on that list are male. I would wonder what the shooters’ ages were. Their SES, their backgrounds, their situations at th time of the shootings, their stated or guessed motives.
There has to be a pattern here somewhere. Looking at the dates can give us the astrology but it would be more informative to have all the shooters’ charts to look at to see if there are any similarities between them.
Michel Guaqeline found similarities in charts of policemen and doctors; specific planets in specific placements of their respective charts. It just makes me wonder if the shooters have a similar pattern?
This is where astrology, were it elevated to a respectable tool, could help find people with such patterns and get them help before they “go off.”
Sadly, astrology is relegated to the label of pseudo-science or “that New Age mumbo jumbo.”
We do need a serious action about guns here. We also need a huge paradigm change that makes it easier for people to get help when they need it.
I continue to be horrified by the mentally ill folks out there (in here) that are not cared for. It is criminal, in my humble opinion, that we don’t know how to reach or care for such troubled souls.
In regards to Fe’s post below, the Columbine shooting was in Littleton, CO. Columbine is the name of the high school involved, and it is also the state flower of Colorado.
These dates are from Darcy Burner’s blog, found on Daily Kos (if anyone wants to compare charts to find similarities in these dates):
On January 17, 1989, a gunman in Stockton, California walked onto a playground and opened fire, killing 5 children and injuring 30 more.
On July 1, 1993, a gunman in San Francisco walked into a law office and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 6.
On April 20, 1999, two gunmen in Columbine, Colorado walked into their high school and opened fire, killing 13 people and injuring 21 others.
On January 16, 2002, a gunman in Virginia walked into a law school and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 3.
On July 8, 2003, a gunman in Mississippi walked into a factory and opened fire, killing 6 and injuring 8.
On March 21, 2005, a gunman in Minnesota walked into a high school and opened fire, killing 7 and injuring 5.
On November 20, 2005, a gunman in Tacoma walked into the mall and opened fire, injuring 6.
On March 25, 2006, a gunman in Seattle walked into a party and opened fire, killing 6 and injuring 2.
On February 12, 2007, a gunman in Utah walked into a mall and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 4.
On April 16, 2007, a gunman in Virginia walked onto the Virginia Tech campus and opened fire, killing 32 people and wounding 17 others.
On December 5, 2007, a gunman in Nebraska walked into a mall and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 4.
On December 9, 2007, a gunman in Colorado Springs walked onto a church parking lot and opened fire, killing 2 and wounding 3.
On February 7, 2008, a gunman in Missouri walked into a city council meeting and opened fire, killing 5 and wounding 2.
On February 14, 2008, a gunman in Illinois walked onto a college campus and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 17.
On June 25, 2008, a gunman in Kentucky walked into a factory and opened fire, killing 5 and injuring 1.
On January 24, 2009, a gunman in Portland walked up to a nightclub and opened fire, killing 2 and injuring 7.
On March 29, 2009, a gunman in North Carolina walked into a retirement home and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 2.
On August 4, 2009, a gunman in a suburb of Pittsburgh walked into a fitness club and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 9.
On November 5, 2009, a gunman at Fort Hood in Texas walked into a medical center and opened fire, killing 13 and injuring 29.
On November 29, 2009, a gunman in Lakewood, Washington walked into a coffee shop and killed 4 police officers.
On January 7, 2010, a gunman in St Louis walked into a power plant and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 6.
On January 12, 2010, a gunman in Georgia walked into a truck rental place and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 2.
On February 12, 2010, a gunwoman in Alabama stood up in a college faculty meeting and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 3.
On August 3, 2010, a gunman in Connecticut walked into a warehouse and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 2.
On August 7, 2011, a gunman in Ohio broke into his girlfriend’s house and opened fire, killing 7 and injuring 1.
On September 6, 2011, a gunman in Nevada walked into a pancake restaurant and opened fire, killing 4 and injuring 7.
On October 5, 2011, a gunman in Cupertino, California walked into a quarry where people were working and opened fire, killing 3 and injuring 7.
Sadly, I could go on.
But the numbers don’t tell the stories. These were people. Rachel Scott was a 17-year-old aspiring writer and actress who wanted to change the world through small acts of kindness. Dave Sanders was a 47-year-old teacher and girls basketball coach who was shot and killed while trying to evacuate students. Cassie Bernall was hiding under a table praying. Jack Berman was a lawyer who founded a program to help homeless people find housing. John Scully died while shielding his newlywed wife with his own body. Drew Keriakedes and Joe Albanese were musicians with wicked senses of humor. Every one of the hundreds of people shot in the incidents I list above had dreams and aspirations, laughed and cried, had friends and neighbors and parents.
As a country, though, we have not had a real conversation about guns in many, many years. The National Rifle Association (NRA) threatens the career of any politician who so much as opens the conversation. As a consequence, our country has not discussed assault weapons – which have no use except killing large numbers of people in massacres like the ones I’ve listed. We have not discussed the fact that anyone can buy a gun at a gun show without any background check, even if they have a history of criminal violence. We have not discussed the expiration of the ban on large clips, which allow shooters to kill more people in a shorter time because they don’t have to reload. We have not discussed what a sensible, rational approach to regulating guns in our country might be.
Enough.
It’s time we took steps to stop the mass killings.
It’s time we had an adult conversation about guns in this country. The NRA can go to hell.
In deepest sympathy,
Darcy
Since my only brush with mainstream new media is filtered through this site, it was not until I read my PW emailed article late this morning that I found out what had happened yesterday. The confusion and absolute sickened feeling I got is shared by all here on this site, I am sure. The confusion even being well-addressed. What raised my curiosity however in a way was how I was faring yesterday –very very edgy–and I had really been riding the squares and oppositions with my head screwed on straight thanks to all here–but I awakened utterly “wrong”–with not one obvious reason–and thought of Elise Novak’s mentioning the little girl she had lived with for a time awakening and screaming until they figured out she was picking up something from across the world–she then said, I believe, that they prayed and went back to sleep, and did that because it was bewildering, the strength of my internal discomfort. . I am relatively sure now that was the main reason for the excessively agitated state I was in. I was also considering as I was going through that the mention of Eris being in the mix yesterday–and I was thinking of how the true yin-yang symbol has the dot of the opposite in the center of each of the paisleys, and I was considering how hard it is to be the male in the midst of all that female and vice versa (sp?).. That kept coming back to me, and so today, I again think of the possibility of the rage and confusion that many men have because of their inability and lack of support to integrate that nurturing pin hole in their hearts. It is so covered over, because the worst thing a boy can be called is a “pussy” or some female related epithet. How desperately we all need this integration and balance, and also to be more aware of our /my own internal state versus a state that I am picking up from elsewhere and perhaps could affect somehow somewhere in a positive way.
Thanks for the community of common sorrow and sharing. Thank you for your beginning post to this thread, Chief Niwots Son and Len. And all other posters, also, thanks for the sharing.
Excuse me, please disregard the Saturn square Chiron (1st ref.) and accept the Saturn opposite Chiron as correct in the previous comment.
By the way, Alex’s asteroid info is astonishing! Thanks for posting it.
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Thanks Amanda. Just got the birth time of 12/13/87. Chiron 25 Gemini (r), Sun 20-21 Sagittarius, Virgo Moon, Mercury 14-15 Sagittarius (conjunct Great Attractor) Venus 18-19 Capricorn, Mars 12-13 Scorpio, Jupiter 19 Aries (r) squares Venus, Saturn 23 Sagittarius (squares Chiron), Uranus 26 Sagittarius, conjunct Saturn and opposes Chiron, and. . . . . . Neptune 7 Capricorn as trans. Pluto at Cap 7 degrees and 46 min. Also, Pluto at 11 Scorpio is conjunct his Mars.
His Moon is probably square the Sun while Jupiter trines the Sun and Saturn and Uranus are conjunct his Sun. Transiting Mercury (and Achilles) square his Pluto. Nitro glycerine.
be
At the time of the shooting, exact Mercury Moon conjunction square natal Pluto/Mars.
James Holmes DOB is reported as Dec 13, 1987 (don’t know time yet). Just a quick glance this puts transiting Pluto exact on natal Neptune. He also has natal Pluto/Mars conjunction and all planets are ruled by Pluto. He has a Sun/Saturn conjunction also loosely conjunct Uranus and Mercury and that stellium opposite Chiron.
hi bkoehler —
thought you might find this info interesting. it’s from alex miller, who dug up some asteroid data. i believe this is all for the incident chart:
tentative time, 12:20 AM MDT (http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20120720/NEWS01/307200009/Police-respond-shooting-Colorado-mall?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE)
14 dead, 50+ wounded in shooting at Century 16 movie theater, Aurora, CO, at midnite showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” (note: CO police have since revised dead count to 12 – amanda)
Aurora, CO 104w51, 39n44
The 24 year old man in custody would have a natal Neptune somewhere between 6 to 10 degrees of Capricorn which means it would be within range of the (1st) recent exact square between Uranus (square his Neptune) and Pluto (conjunct his Neptune).
During that time 24 years ago there was also a conjunction between Saturn and Uranus (29 Sagittarius-0 Capricorn) that Neptune would be sextile now and which would have started being effective in January 2012 (from 29 Aquarius-3 Pisces). Twenty four years ago that conjunction was in orb (5 degrees) from November 1987 through and beyond August 1988. Part of that time Jupiter trined Saturn and Uranus (from late Aries and early Taurus), and part of the time it trined Neptune and opposed Pluto in Scorpio.
From July ’87 through late June ’88, Chiron was in the degrees of 23 Gemini through 29 Gemini. It entered Cancer in late June 1988. In May this year Venus stationed retrograde at 23 Gemini 59 just as she was about to exact a trine with Saturn at 24 Libra 01. In 10 days these two planets will perfect that trine at 23 Gemini-Libra 48. The south node presently transiting in Gemini would have been conjunct a Chiron at 23-29 Gemini from early March through mid July of last year. In the Pluto ingress Capricorn chart Mars was at 24 Gemini. At the 2nd ingress of Neptune into Pisces, the Moon was at 24 Gemini in a T-square with Venus in Pisces and Mars in Virgo.
The information regarding 24 years ago is from the ephemeris for July 1987 through June 1988, and applies to everyone born at that time. Only when we get the “suspect’s” actual birth time will we know how his personal planets interact with these outer planet transits. I hope I haven’t repeated information you already have.
be
I agree, Eric. Where have we “lost” our discernment? What is real and what it not? Has everything just become “real”? As many of your are familiar, my son and daughter were present for a shooting incident at their summer camp in 1999. This seems to me to have been the early stages of this ‘era’ of bizarre shootings (such as Columbine which had occured only months earlier).
Considering that my son was at the local Midnight Premier of Dark Knight last night, the CO shooting is emotionally close to home. He is still sleeping just now from the late night out……I wonder what he will think of this, when he wakes up and learns the news? Will his anger – still engaged since that attack when he was 4 – find some release at the tragedy ? Or will the news of CO be just a shrug of the shoulder’s; “that’s life” -?
Light and Love,
Linda
Please tell Eric that I am grateful for his horoscope for Virgo in July 2012.
While the horoscopes are always thought-provoking and relevant, this one has a particularly strong impact. It has the quality of being written just for me. I don’t mean to sound utterly self-absorbed.
Eric has clarified the core issues I’ve been facing, and validated the growth I’ve been struggling to achieve.
Thank you, Eric.
Sincerely,
E. B.
well, we are in a post-rocky-horror era, and a yes-men/guerrilla theater era, and an era of people dressing in costume for all sorts of fan conventions/events, and an era where there’s so many advertising and publicity stunts that are theatrical in some way…
i agree the line has probably gotten too blurry, what with online avatars for role playing games and regular internet commenting, and so on. but given the hype around the opening of this film, it’s totally in the realm of possibility/expectation that a theater might have some sort of “live event” for the late showing.
but yeah… we’re incredibly adept at losing ourselves in imaginary worlds these days.
I think that besides the shooting, the gas canisters and the booby-trapped apartment, the weirdest thing about this incident is that people thought it was part of the film. I don’t mean nut crackers, I mean your ordinary suburban types who like to go to the movies. This to me illustrates the ways in which real and staged violence are conflated. People cannot tell the difference, and I believe that this is why these things happen more and more.
small consolation:
colorado police have revised the death toll to 12, rather than 14.
still too many, by far. but…
seems a bitter irony with colorado considering batman is (generally) against guns. dark nights in deed.
I just learned about the terrible news in Colorado here, have been buried in work most of the day. It’s so horrific, so shocking. My heart goes out to all the readers from that part of the world.
Thanks Eric, Genevieve, Carol, for all your hard work, for this exceptional newsletter. And for the wonderful horoscopes, Eric – 1992 QB1 “coupling”, exciting stuff!
Thanks guys. I fell asleep with the TV on curled up with Jonah (my newly adopted dog) and woke up to MSNBC reporting this news at about 2 am. I listened to the reports, basically memorized the story, and woke up at 7 and wrote the lead.
I had help from Genevieve Hathaway who helped explain the Syria situation (which had planned to write in the morning, after a too-long day) and Carol van Strum helped with the Bulgarian suicide bombing segment.
Follow up on the Middle East part of this piece. Ramadan begins today, so for the next few weeks Muslims (which is 90%+ of the folks in the most Middle East countries) will be fasting all day and then eating and staying up to party all night. Depriving the brain of much needed nutrition (add in an extra helping of Mercury retrograde) is not the way to make smart, thoughtful decisions. This could further add to important key folks making dangerous, possibly deadly decisions.
There are times I really wish my longer term memories would be wiped clean from my head. The shock of having this be a real surprise — a place where this kind of thing could never happen — could maybe ease the hopelessness felt over the repetitiveness of these violent acts. But that is wishing a wish inside a delusion. Guns and violence are all too real here and everywhere.
I just wanted to echo Len’s comments. As tragic as this event is, you have done some really excellent work addressing a breaking news story.
Eric: Thank you. Given the hour of the incident at the movie theater, one can only imagine the hard work through sleep deprivation and the burden of sorrow that you and others went through to get this piece published this morning. Your work (and the work of those who assisted you) is deeply appreciated for its service to dharma and Planet Waves readers.
It is with a heavy heart that I once again see my State on the front page of the news. My prayers go out to the victims, their families, and for everyone affected by this event.