Note:This article is rather long and technical, I advise to read it only if you already have some astrological skills.
The meaning of the terms I use can be looked for in my glossary.
Maybe the text is too long for a web article, in fact it was meant for a paper magazine.
Introduction
In the past any astrologer seemed sure that astrology could foresee death; but today the matter raises discussions among the disciples of the art, some of them are more cautious of their predecessors about the potentials of the discipline.
We can suppose that the caution by some astrologers of today can be caused by the progresses of the medicine that allow the survival of a person seriously ill or wounded that, in similar circumstances, in the past would have been surely dead. So we can imagine that some astrological influences that in the past would have been deemed fatal, now could not give a so radical result; at least the death could be postponed by month, or even years, form the moment foreseen by the stars.
Personally I am convinced that the death can be foreseen at least when it doesn’t derive from natural causes, because it would be a sudden and evident event that must be noted working on the birth chart, otherwise astrology, or at least its predictive branch, would be bereft o any value.
As for the natural death I believe that it must be much more difficult to foresee because it is the natural conclusion of the slow depletion of our vital energy, so it is much less visible of a sudden death caused by external circumstaces, that could occur in a moment of great health.
I try to show you the differences examining two examples combining different forecasting methods: primary directions, to which the ancient astrologers gave much consideration, secondary progressions and solar returns.
The first example is that of Hosé Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the “Falange Española”, a marginal political movement much influenced by Italian fascism. He had been shot at the prison of Alicante on 20th November 1936, following a sentence for plotting against the Spanish republic and for being in contact with Francisco Franco.
The other is Ernst von Salomon, a nationalist German writer hostile to Nazism that, notwithstanding, had been imprisoned by the Allied authorities in a camp for Nazis with his hebrew fiancee [sic!]. Although he had seen much more action than Primo de Rivera, first joining the freikorps and then in underground nationalists organizations that worked both against the Weimar republic and the French troops that occupied some parts of Germany after the first world war, he died of natural death in 1972.
Violent death: Primo de Rivera
A birth chart suggests the type of death that the subject will encur; to begin we must find signs of violent death on the birth chart to foresee it, so let’s examine the birth chart of Primo de Rivera.
The birth data I own have a Rodden Rating B (1) and they tell us that he has born on 24th April 1903 at 19.45 in Madrid.
The most useful book I found to look for risks of violent in a birth chart is “Christian astrology” by William Lilly. (2)
In short the author tells us to look for difficult and intense aspects (square and oppositions, but also the conjunction) between the luminaries (since the Sun represents the “inner fire”, our energy, and the Moon the “source of life”) or with the lord of the ascendant (since it represents the native as an individual) on one side and Saturn or Mars on the other; other possible signals are similar interactions with the lord of 8th house (since it’s the lord of the house of death, but the situation of the planet itself must suggest an unnatural death) or a conjunction with dangerous fixed stars, that is those associated with the nature of Mars and Saturn.
Lilly stops more or less here, but we could think that the ascendant, and not only its lord, if strongly afflicted could give reason to fear a violent death (about the ascendant Lilly mentions only the conjunction with some fixed stars). We could suppose that even Arabian parts like the Part of Fortune, linked to the Moon and that counts, among its meanings, also the soul and the body of the native; that of the spirit, linked to the Sun and so, like the previous one, to the soul and the bofdy of the subject, and finally the part of life, if in a bad situation, could bring a violent death. But I haven’t found a good example where these elements constitute the main proofs.
Lilly obviously could not take in account the transaturnians; we could take in account the interactions between Uranus and the luminaries or the lord of the ascendant, at least with a conjunction or an opposition, since this planet is tied with sudden events.. The others probably can’t be associated directly to a sudden death, anyway Neptune could (naturally) be linked to a death on the sea, during earthquakes, and, maybe, particular self destruction cases like overdose; Pluto is the god of death, but this doesn’t say much, everybody will die, if it would be doing a difficult aspect to a luminary or to the lord of the ascendant probably it would signal more a tendency to isolation (but maybe the native will die underground, for example in a mine, Pluto being the god of the underground). Anyway these planets rarely act alone, it is more probable that they give us useful informations that complete what the other planets are already telling us.
Back to our example we can not a Mars-Moon opposition that, although separating, it is rather tight, being distant only 23’.
A similar configuration is not only something that we could expect in a person that affirmed “vida es lucha” (life is struggle) but it is also a sign of violent death. (3)
Somebody could object that Mars rule the ascendant so, since it represents the native, can’t show a violent death (unless it is a suicide), but a birth chart is a multilayered element in which every component represents different many things at the same moment, the same Mars, for example, beside representing our man, rules also the 6th house, so it has something to say about health problems, servants, domestic animals etc.
This is the main proof; but we have other hints too, like the star “souther plate” (one of the Libra’s palte) that rises on the ascendant, one of the “royal stars” because it is considered one of the star that helps in earning a kingdom, probably also because it can give the ruthlessness and the pragmatism often necessary to conquer the power. It represents the plate where are put the negative actions of the soul during the judgment after the death.
In truth José Antonio obtained only the command of a little movement and some fame, not much for the descendant of a noble family and the son of a general that rule Spain for about seven years; maybe the star expressed mainly the dangerous side of its nature.
The Sun is on a dangerous star as well, Sharatan, one of the Aries’ horns, expressly associated to destruction by fire and war by Vivian Robson. (4)
Venus is on Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus, another royal star, this too often dangerous, although less that the southern plate; Venus could seem marginal, but I rule the 7th house (the declared enemies) and the 12th (prison, hidden enemies, disgraces and self destruction), so having it conjunct with a fixed star of a violent nature is not a good thing.
Besides the Part of Fortune is conjunct to Vindemiatrix, a star tied to self destruction.
There are other dangerous fixed stars touching elements of the birth chart, but I think that these are that signals that really matter.
So this chart is compatible with a violent death, but what can it say about the type of death? I believe that an opposition like that of Mars to the Moon, with Mars in a human sign, is represented by a firing squad in a rather literal way, rarely found elsewhere. Naturally we could have had a different death, for example the opposition happens in earth and water signs, this could have manifested with a death by drowning, a fall from a rock, a shipwreck etc.
We would be surer finding other elements confirming an execution by shooting and in fact there is something more: Mercury, lord of 8th house of death is in mutual reception with Venus that, as we have said, is the lord of the 7th house of the enemies (and of 12th, tied to incarceration, and Rivera died in a penitentiary), moreover Venus is in the 8th house and Mercury in the 7th.
This is the main element; we could consider also some minor hints like the fact that the part of death calculated by the formula: Ascendant + VIII – Moon (from now on Part of Death 1) fall on 25° 18’ Capricorn, and so it is ruled by Saturn that is in a human sign and trine Venus ruler of the 7th, the enemies again. Another part of death is calculated by VIII + Saturn – Moon (Part of Death 2 from now on) and falls on 21° 39’ Aries, so ruled by Mars, already part of the main proof.
We have already said that Venus is on a fixed star of a violent nature, but even the descendant, besides being conjunct to the meek Almach, is also near the more sinister Menkar, the jaw of Cetus, the mythical sea monster, these elements make clear that the enemies of our native, although being represented by Venus, do not seem having much qualms in using direct violent means, otherwise we could have expected more indirect means such as venom; besides our Venus is hardened by the trine with Saturn in Aquarius.
Mercury is fast and well represented by the death of the founder of the Falange, that at least took benefit from a quick death.
We can even suppose that the chart suggests the reasons behind its death: Mercury lord of the 8th is doing a trine to Jupiter lord of the 5th (and of the 2nd house of values too), José had no sons during his life, but in this case we can read it as an analogy for the “creation”, the Falange Española, an idea confirmed by the Mars-Moon opposition that happens on the 5-11th axis that is linked, among various things, to desires and aspirations and in fact this man died for his ideas.
Finally we can see if the predictive techniques suggests it death.
The primary directions, to which the astrologers give great consideration, give some ideas of the perils that wait him (I used the primary directions of van Dam, calculated using the Planetdance software).
The main suggestion is given by the directed ascendant opposed Venus, this suggests a clash of some sort, but this aspect is still 50’ from the culmination; directed Mercury is conjunct both to the natal Venus and the 8th cusp, this could seem ambiguous since it could be interpreted as death for the enemies, however this aspect is not exact and, to conclude, the directed Sun is applying to a sextile to the Moon and a trine to Mars, the elements of our main signal of violent death, being 39’ from the exact trine to Mars and 1° 2’ from the sextile to the Moon.
Someone considers the harmonious aspects like trines and sextiles as “beneficial” and so he would be brought to not consider this as a signal of death, but in truth the nature of these aspects is not necessarily related to a positive influence, but rather to the harmony with which its respective influences merge each other. If square and opposition are regarded as malefic it is because, even when in truth they bring a positive result, this usually happens through difficulties and attrition; the influence of trines and sextiles are instead acts so easily that sometimes we do not even notice; but they can be harmful in a fluid way, like dripping on ice.
I would have expected at least an exact aspect for the day of the death, but it doesn’t seem being this way, unless he wasn’t born about four minutes before of the given data; this would make the Venus-ascendant opposition exact for the day of the execution, nonetheless one of the main signals is the activation of the Moon-Mars opposition by the Sun.
We could consider even the fact that the directed MC us conjunct at less than 1’ to Copula, a nebula under the tail of Ursa Major, the constellation that represents Callisto, transformed in a female bear and chased by her son Arcade, not knowing her real identiry. Usually this fixed star is associated to sexual passion, but is also tied to negative events and setbacks. Knowing the legend it is interesting what de Rivera seems having told to his executioners, he would have said that they were wrong in seeing him as an enemy, because he dreamt the good for the Spanish people as a whole, the poors in particular. So we could say that, in his eyes, they were doing an error similar to that made by Arcade.
Other interesting contacts are that of the Part of Fortune only 9’ from Khambalia, a little star moderately negative and the Sun is near Alcyone, a star with a sinister reputation, even if related more to fever and accidents to the eyes.
Let us see now the secondary progressions:
We have the progressed ascendant just after Antares, the heart of the Scorpion, a “royal star” and rather dangerous as well, so probably a boring moment is not to be expected, the progressed Venus is doing a sextile to Mercury the lord of death of the birth chart.
But the most striking element is that Mars, retrograde in the birth chart, in the progressed chart is direct and only 12’ after the exact opposition to the Moon and we can take into consideration the fact that the decision of executing José could have been taken even before of the trial. Anyway in my opinion this is a very interesting element that seems to “activate” the main hint of a violent death.
To see how the potentialities shown by directions and progressions will be expressed I think that it is a good idea to see the solar return of the year (like everyone, I usually use the birthday of the native for progression and directions, this time I used the day of the execution only to see if the aspects were precise, but this doesn’t seem to be the case).
The solar return is not only with houses similar to that of the birth chart, the ascendant of the solar return being only 6° before that of the birth chart, but is also rather explicit about what to expect.
We have the Moon, an element always very important in the solar returns, conjunct to the cusp of the 8th house and to the fixed star Prima Hyadum, a star associated to death and regret since it represents the hyades, seven mythological sisters brought in the sky for the sorrow they shown at the death of their brother Iante.
The Moon also is conjunct to the natal Venus, that rules the 7th house in both the chart, this suggests that for his enemies has come the moment of action. So matters tied to the 8th house will be rather important this year, but the 8th house is not linked only to death, but also to other things, for example it is the derived 2nd, and so it could speak of the goods of the other persons, let’s look other informations.
Mars, lord of the ascendant, is in the 7th house, ruled by his enemies (if any) and conjunct to a newly quick Mercury lord of the 8th house and both conjunct to natal Mercury; besides it is not only square the medium coeli, but also conjuinct to it by antiscia. All these signals I believe that clearly show the great importance of matters tied to the 8th house in the year, that will become evident also to the public.
IN truth, Venus is in Aries, so we would have a mutual reception, and usually mutual receptions do not bring one of the side to kill the other, but Venus is also conjunct to the Part of Death 2 translated, that is the position of the Part of Death 2 in a way that it at a distance from the ascendant of the solar return equal to that it had on the birth chart (a method used by the famed astrologer John Frawley). (5) This clearly suggests what to expect; besides this Venus is also aspecting the MC so, even if she has low accidental dignity, her actions can have a degree of resonance among the public (and having Mars, lord of the ascendant, in her power, it doesn’t need much accidental dignity to act on him).
To conclude Uranus is conjunct with the Sun and the descendant, adding stimulus to any sudden event that will happen to the subject.
We could go more in depth and try to restrict the interval of time of the foreseen event, let us see the lunar return of 27/10/1936 18.58.09:
Here the ascendant falls at 8° 21’ Gemini, conjunct to the violent fixed star Aldebaran, natal Venus and the 8th house cusp; the descendant obviously falls on Antares (star opposite to Aldebaran) and Pluto, the god of death, is trine the Moon.
This clearly emphasizes the theme we are facing and, as if this were not enough, the Venus of the solar return is conjunct the descendant and opposite her natal position, stimulating her to action. Mars, conjunct to Neptune and opposed Saturn, is doing a trine to natal Mercury and a square to natal Pluto. If the first two aspect of Mars can be of marginal value, probably giving only some context information, the last two are much clearer about the topic of the month
I hope not to be too burdensome if I examine the new Moon preceding the execution.
The culmination of Pluto is a note of interest, but this is the chart of the new Moon, so it isn’t linked only to the person we are studying, and is probably referring at least to the Spanish civil war as a whole. This new Moon is also made worse by the fact of happening near Unukalhai, the heart of the snake, a rather malign fixed star, this being somewhat balanced by the rising of Spica and Arcturus, stars usually positive.
Comparing the chart with that of José Antonio we can notice that the ascendant of the sygyzy falls on the cusp of 12th natal chart, a rather interesting element, while Mars is conjunct both to the cusp of the 12th house of the sygyzy and his position in the birth chart, and of course opposed the natal Moon, while it does a sextile to new Moon’s Pluto; Mars travels all the zodiac in slightly less than two years, so he is already returned in his position more than ten times, but this return happens concurrently to the same return in the progression and with the solar and lunar return we examined, this is very meaningful.
The Venus of the sygyzy is conjunct to Jupiter and the north node, and all three are conjunct to natal Uranus, besides they are doing a square to natal Mars and to that of the new Moon (Venus, that in the birth chart represents enemies, prison and disgrace, is also nearing Acumen, the Scorpion’s sting… clearly not related to kitties and pies’ slices…). This suggests a Venus (enemies) very active and that does a direct action against Mars, Primo de Rivera’s ruler of the ascendant. Another interesting element is the fact that the sygyzy, together with our famous mercury, is square the natal MC.
Mars’ position, since his interaction with Venus, I think is the main element activating the event foretold with the progressions and the solar and lunar returns.
To conclude we can signal that, at the moment of his death (Rivera has been taken out of his cell for the execution on 20th November 1936 at 6.45 a.m.) (6) the Mars-Moon opposition was stimulated by a Sun-Mercury conjunction in Scorpio, with Mercury only 3’ from the perfection of the sextile with Mars, the aspect reaches its perfection at about 7.45; so the moment when the lord of the 8th house does a perfect aspect to the lord of the ascendant. This is a very interesting fact, but I do not know the hour when the execution happened, it could be have happened before.
Other minor elements are our old acquaintance Venus that trines the natal Sun and, naturally, Pluto is still acting on the Mars-Moon opposition. Although now is separating by retrogradation, while Jupiter is still in square to the opposition and in transit over the natal Uranus.
For obvious reasons of space I can’t examine every year of Rivera’s life to see if there were other possible dates of death and why they hadn’t given a similar result, he had other moments astrologically negative of course in different years of his life, for example in the intervals 1907-12 and 1929-30, but they were not so unequivocal like those we examined, they were incompatible with the type of death that we expected and, above all, they were not stimulating the Mars-Moon opposition or the conjunction between Venus and the 8th house cusp as we have seen in the examined charts and so hey manifested themselves with negative events of a different nature (for example the his mother’s death by childbirth on 1908 and his direst love disappointment on 1929, followed on January 1930 by the exile of his father, that had ruled Spain for seven years and that died few month later).
Natural death: Ernst von Salomon
We have once again birth data with a Rodden Rating B. These data are given by von Salomon himself in his book “Der fragebogen”, written taking inspiration from the questionnaire he had to answer while he was interned by the allies authorities after WWII.
He was born in Kiel on 25th September 1902 at 2.15 a.m.; for us astrologers it is worthy of note the passage where he gives us the date: “4. Date of birth: 25th of September 1902, hour two, minutes fifteen of the morning: […] At the moment of this birth the sign of Leo was rising in the east, belonging to the element of fire, the Sun its lord, that was in the sign of Libra. […] Until here the horoscope of an astrologer, according to what I’ve been told frequently sought for”. (7)
Let’s examine then the chart calculated with the given data:
The first thing that we can notice is that we have a rather nearly no tight aspects, at least between planets. We have only a Moon – Neptune conjunction, that forms a square to the Sun, not much strong though; there is a strong Pluto-Uranus opposition, but this configuration of slow planets has relevance more to the generation of class 1902 as a whole (and those of the years around it), even if it has a direct importance for the specific case in exam since at least Pluto is doing a tight aspect to the ascendant. Only other elements such as the house cusps some Arabian parts receive strong aspects, like the Sun conjunct to the 3rd house cusp and the Moon sextile to the MC.
This is a difference rather evident in comparison to the previous birth chart where the main element of a violent death was a tight Mars-Moon opposition.
Obviously there could be other elements that bring a violent death, but this time I do not see any of them in this chart, Pluto may be the god of death and do a sextile to the ascendant, but he could hardly bring a violent death without something defining the death in this way, and I do not see anything acting in this direction. In theory we could regard as a signal the Uranus-Pluto opposition, the trine of Uranus to the ascendant is a bit loose; it is a vague hint that must be taken with caution without other supporting elements. It is at least a signal of a quick death.
About the violent fixed stars, there are much less than that in the chart of de Rivera, the most worrying being Algol on the Part of Fortune, one of the most dangerous fixed star, this could bring to an unnatural death indeed, if it were conjunct to the Moon we could have been much more convinced of a similar risk. Her conjunction with the Part of Fortune doesn’t seem to be enough without other proofs; Vivian Robson, focusing mainly on the ancient idea linking this part to material richness, associates instead this conjunction with poverty, (8) but the Part of Fortune is strongly related to our soul and, its conjunction with Algol, can give a violent temperament and this chart supports this second interpretation, with Mars in 12th conjunct to Acubens, Cancer’s claw, often associated to plots and hidden activities of a violent and criminal nature, while the the 12th cusp falls on Pollux, a star of a nature similar to that of Mars, but its influence manifests itself usually in giving courage and predisposing to violence rather than in a violent death (the more so since this is the immortal of the twins), and here we have a man that fought as volunteer in the freikorps, joining when still of minor age, and then he entered in an underground nationalist organization whose activities culminated in the killing of the foreign minister Walther Rathenau.
This emphasis on 12th house matters gave him also a predisposition to be incarcerated but, to kill a native with a disgrace or an act of self-destruction, we should have a tight aspect of the Moon (that rules the 12th house) or maybe Mars (because it is inside the house) to a key element that represent the person’s life, but I don’t see anything like that and we do not have enough concurring hints to suspect a similar death.
The English wikipedia tells us that Ernst von Salomon died by heart failure on 9th August 1972. (9)
This is compatible with a Jupiter lord of the 8th house in the 6th of health issues, Jupiter is ruled by Saturn, a natural significator of old age and decay, and Saturn is also doing an aspect to both parts of death I use, being in square to the Part of Death 1 that falls on 23° 1’ Aries and trine the Part of Death 2 that falls at 23° 30’ Virgo.
Guessing with precision the type of death of this chart I think is rather hard, maybe an astrologer specialized in medical astrology would have more tools to identify critical issues with confidence. On my part I can notice that the ruler of 4th house, that corresponds to the breast and so also the heart, is in 12th house, a house usually regarded as negative and, as we have seen, conjunct to a generally malefic fixed star. The Sun in fall could be taken in consideration too, being the natural significator of the heart, but it would be equal to say that all those born in Libra (or in Aquarius, the exile of the Sun) are prone to a death by heart failure, that is untenable.
Worthy of greater interest is the trine to the Moon, ruler of the 12th house, to the cusp of the 4th, to which we could add the (loose) square by Jupiter.
These are vague hints that can be easily taken in consideration in hindsight, knowing what to look for, but few would be ready to make a similar diagnosis examining a birth chart of a person still in life.
Let’s start with the primary direction of the day of the death, 09/08/1972:
It is worthy of note to find the directed Pluto, the god of death, conjunct the natal ascendant, but is nearly 3° after it, if it were really meaningful von Salomon should have died before, unless the birth data are wrong and the subject has been born some minutes after the hour we own.
The directed ascendant is trine to Jupiter, lord of death and, again, about 3° after, but to have an exact aspect, this time the birth should have happened some minutes before; a contradictory picture and, having to choose, I would opt to this second aspect.
Another element of interest is the conjunction between the directed 8th cusp and the radical MC. This element could be interpreted as the manifestation of the death, maybe as the visible manifestation of a problem already present from some time.
This time too the progressions are maybe somewhat clearer than the directions on the given hints.
The strongest aspects are a trine to Uranus, that is only 9’ past a perfect trine to the ascendant, suggesting the eventuality of sudden and uncommon events, but this can’t say much more, still it can help in bringing changes and death naturally represents a relevant change (if the hour of birth is correct of course).
Probably the element really worthy of note is the trine between the natal Jupiter, lord of the house of death, and the progressed ascendant, aspect that has still to culminate; to this wee can add the opposition, now separating, of the progressed Jupiter to the natal Mars, the opposition happens in the “negative” axis 6-12 and, as I have already said, Mars rules the 4th house, so representing the heart,
Once again the 8th house was going toward a conjunction the radical MC, the aspect is rather distant for a progression but, once again, an error of few minutes in the hour of birth could make this more interesting.
To this we could add that the progressed Mars is applying to the natal Part of Death 2 that falls on 23° 30’ Virgo and the progressed Moon, is separating from progressed Mars and applying to both parts of death.
Another suggestion of a dangerous period is the fact that the progressed Sun is only 15’ from Rastaban, a fixed star that represents the Draco’s head, a star with a bad reputation, although associated more to violence, criminal tendencies and incidents rather than on a natural death, butr still it represents a negative signal, that could add a detail to the picture.
All in all this is more than I expected. We could imagine that an event like the death be signalled by aspects that are much more precise, but we must consider that, in truth, the progressions show potentials and, to have a clearer picture, they must be integrated with other techniques; as with de Rivera, I tried using the day of death to see if the aspects were exact, anyway the difference with the chart for the 69° birthday would have been of just some minutes, except for the Moon in the progressions, anyway the hint she gave was secondary.
So, let’s have a look to the solar revolution.
This is surely a meaningful year with Hamal on the ascendant, a star that represent Arie’s horn dangerous and traditionally associated to a Mars-Saturn nature although it is linked more to violence than to health issues (it is also called “mortal wound”).
If in the progression chart Jupiter was opposing natal Mars, in the revolution Mars is opposed to himself, and it is also conjunct the north node (so we have the south note conjunct the natal Mars); it is also worthy of note having the translated Part of Fortune at 11° 20’ of Aquarius, conjunct to the Mars of the solar return adding relevance to the configuration for the health of the native
On his part Jupiter, that is ruling the 8th house even in the solar return, is doing a sextile to the Sun from Sagittarius, where it is conjunct the dangerous fixed stars Yed Prior (a conjunction perfect to the second), Isidis and Graffias.
Isidis is the right claw of Scorpio and Graffias its head, while Yed Prior is the left hand of Ophiucus, a constellation associated to the newborn Heracles killing the snakes or the doctor Asclepius. In any case we have all stars tied to dangerous matters like death and regeneration, energies that probably our writer was not in condition to manage any more.
To livening things up we have Uranus at 5’ from a perfect square to the return’s MC, so we must prepare to radical changes, it is also trine to the revolution’s Mars and sextile the natal one.
Another signal worthy of note is the Moon in fall, opposed to natal Part of Fortune and sextile to the Pluto of the solar return.
The last minor point is the fact that Pluto is at the end of Virgo and, when He will finally enter in Libra, it will be conjunct the Sun. Obviously we won’t have a death every time that a similar configuration occurs, it could have other consequences like an increased tendency to self-isolation, a work on unconscious or something linked to natural resources like mines or oil, but in the given context it is another negative signal adding up.
Let’s see now the lunar return of the death.
We can note that the ascendant falls on the 2nd-8th antal axis, but the ascendant is on the 2nd cusp this time, so this isn’t a proof as convincing as that of the de Rivera’s return where the ascendant was on the 8th.
More interesting is the fact that Pluto ha finally changed sign and now it is conjunct the natal Sun, intensifying the death possibility looming on the horizon.
In this context we have the lunar Sun conjunct the natal Mars and to the 12th cusp of the lunar return, the house of disgraces and self-destruction; the Sun is also conjunct to Acubens. At 69 years it is improbable that this fact can manifest as a violent underground activity and it is rather improbable that he could commit a crime that could make him incarcerated, we can expect something different, maybe something more similar to a disgrace or a self-destructive action.
Another hint is given by the square of the lunar Sun to the translated Part of Death 1 that falls on 11° 5’ Taurus and the sextile to the Part of Death 2 in 11° 34’ Libra; the lunar Mars is also doing a trine to the natal Part of Death 1.
The lunar MC is showing an important theme of the month by its conjunction with the radical Part of Mars; both are opposed Neptune, I don’t know how much this opposition could be meaningful, Neptune is related mainly to deception, illusions, evasion tendencies and also earthquakes, a possible link could be investigated only with a more in-depth knowledge of the period antecedent his death.
To conclude we can also note that the Saturn of the lunar return, still ruling the 6th house of the health issues, is conjunct to Natal Pluto and so opposed natal Uranus, stimulating in his own way this interesting configuration while obviously doing a sextile to the natal ascendant.
The Sun passes on natal Mars every year ans Saturn is already passed on Uranus-Pluto opposition in more occasions, so these facts alone can’t bring the death, or even a serious health issue, we need an array of concurring factors in directions or progressions and the solar return
We can conclude observing the new Moon preceding the death, strangely it occurs the same day of the death on 6.25.48 a.m.
The new Moon is square the natal Part of Spirit and this should give some stimulation to the subject‘s life, let’s see if we have more information on the effects of the new Moon.
Mars is doing a trine to the Part of Death 1 and a square to the Part of Fortune, while it is near the fixed stars Alphard (Hydra’s heart, another star linked to dangerous energies) and Adhafera (Lion’s Mane, evocatively called also “the funeral pyre”, clearly not tied to merryfull events) while it’s doing a trine to Jupiter, that rules the 8th even in the sygyzy chart.
These are the main elements suggesting that something “really bad” is going to happen, obviusly are always accompanied by the background elements present during lunar return, that happened only three days before.
This time we don’t have useful aspects reaching completion in the same day of the death like happened with Primo de Rivera, this is an interesting element to consider, it seems that at least the natural death doesn’t need this.
Of course we have other “risky” periods suggested by previous progressions and directions, as in the years 1907 and 1914-1915 (sadly informations regarding his youth are limited) and for example the years 1918-1920 when he fought for the freikorps, in particular on 1919 he seems to be narrowly escaped form an execution by the Bolsheviks in the Baltic, at least according to what he tells in his book “The outlaws”; (10) another interesting year is the 1922, when he had a marginal role in the assassination of the foreign minister Walther Rathenau, and then he has been arrested notwithstanding his attempt to die in combat against the police to join his best friend (Rathenau’s murderer), already killed by the authorities.
But this time the birth chart wasn’t speaking of violent death and, like with Primo de Rivera, his solar returns didn’t give the impression of a real risk of a similar event.
Conclusions
We have seen that both the ancient directions and the progressions that have been introduced afterwards can give useful informations, but it is more about potential, suggesting particular periods of interest whose details mus be investigated using solar and lunar returns.
Anyway we must be very cautious at least with the directed and progressed ascendant since an error of only four minutes can mean an error of about a year in dating any event. I must confess that I’m a bit surprised on the trust the ancients gave on the ascendant’s direction since an error of few minutes in the hour of birth must have been much easier than nowadays.
We must also keep in mind that the influences represented by the planets can express themselves in different manners according to the context in which they operate, the influence of Mars, for example, can be expressed by death in a firefight, an accidental explosion at work or many other ways, the chart can help us in restricting the possibilities, but it can hardly make us able to identify the single and only possible death for a given person.
We must also keep in mind that we are working in hindsight on these examples, only to study how an event like that may be showed by astrology. This means that we already knew the result and we were looking for possible hints bringing to it, ignoring any other element of the examined chart.
Working on a birth chart to do a forecast would be much different. We would expect rather events of other kind (after all death come only one, there are other things happening more frequently) so we could be very hesitant before going to such a definitive prevision, expecting only the clearer of the signal for it.
Personally I am convinced that I would have foretold Primo de Rivera’s death, limiting the time span at least at the lunar return; regarding Ernst von Salomon I have to say that I was expecting hints less clear than those we have found, but still I’m not sure I would’ve been able to foretell the event, anyway an astrologer proficient in medical astrology would have had less difficulties than me.
It must be added that, even among violent death, probably the example of Primo de Rivera is clearer than the average; working for a customer, that could take important decision based on what we tell him, would make an astrologer want to be really sure about what he is saying, hoping to have much clearer proofs than a chart could usually give.
Researches on death can be very interesting and, I believe, there is still much work to do on this topic, notwithstanding the long story of this fascinating art.
- The cat
_________________________________________________________________
1) Source: the brief biography in José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Scritti e discorsi di battaglia, Rome, Settimo Sigillo, 1993, cur. Siena Primo, p. 9
2) Lilly William, Christian Astrology, London, John Partridge, 1647, pp. 644-650
3) Lilly William, Christian Astrology, London, John Partridge, 1647, p. 648 “Mars square or opposed of Moon in humane signes, the native will dye either in tumult, in warre or by his owne hands” che significa “Marte al quadrato o l’opposizione alla Luna in segni umani, il nativo morirà o in un tumulto, in guerra o per propria mano”
4) Robson Vivian, The fixed stars and constellation in astrology, 2005, Abingdon, MD, Astrology classics, p. 208
5) John Frawley, “On the architecture of the soul”, in “The astrologer’s apprentice”, 22, London, pp. 15-32, in particular on pp. 22-23
6) José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Scritti e discorsi di battaglia, Rome, Settimo Sigillo, 1993, cur. Siena Primo, p. 80
7) Personal translation form the Italian edition of the book: Ernst von Salomon, Io resto prussiano, Milan, Longanesi, 1954, pp. 20-21; original version: “4. Data di nascita: 25 settembre 1902, ore due minuti quindici della mattina: […] Al momento di questa nascita saliva in oriente il segno del Leone, appartenente all'elemento del fuoco, sovrano il Sole, che si trovava sotto il segno della Bilancia. […] Sin qui l'oroscopo di un astrologo, secondo quanto mi vien riferito, assai spesso consultato”
8) Robson Vivian, The fixed stars and constellation in astrology, 2005, Abingdon, MD, Astrology classics, p. 125
9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_von_Salomon page visited on 27/12/2021; when I visited the page on the first time it was more vague about the circumstances of death, giving the impression that he died of illness; so I had to revise the article after having read the update
10) Ernst von Salomon, The outlaws, London, Arktos, 2013, pp. 75-77