Ordinarily, an asteroid turning direct -- or retrograde -- does not comand much attention.  But as the asteroid Juno turns direct November 3, it is plugged into a trio of fellow-travelers which includes newcomers Sedna (by sextile), Varuna (by trine). and old devil Uranus (by conjunction).  It is the last one which bears watching.

 

The chart below is for the moment Juno turns direct in Washington, DC.  Juno is in the Tewelfth House with Uranus -- a sign of scandalous affairs, secret admirers (or stalkers) as well as blasts from the past.

 

 

Juno is strongly associated with Venus and the Seventh House.  Venus rules this chart's Seventh House, which is altogether fitting, but it opposes the Aries Ascendant, which is ruled by Mars.

 

The Sun and Mercury are in the Seventh House, showing a spirited dialog.  But they square off with Mars -- this is a showdown, not a negotiation.

 

 

Juno is the focus of this chart, and the match-making asteroid conjoins radical Uranus in the zone of secrecy, seclusion, and self-undoing.

 

The possibilities are legion, and include (a) clandestine liaisons, (b) overcoming restrictions and inhibitions, (c) breaking vows, and (d) the proverbial blast from the past.  The Twelfth House is also the house of karma and unfinished business.

 

 

It takes more than the transit of a single asteroid to produce life-changing events but Juno is not acting alone.  It is teaming up with Uranus, which has a penchant for upsetting the established order.

 

Its effect on individuals depends on Juno's -- and Uranus' -- contacts to individual birth charts.  If, for example, they trine Venus or a planet in your Seventh House, you could meet your future spouse (probably in unusual circumstances).  If, however, they oppose Saturn, you might file for divorce.

 

There is one eternal truth.  When Uranus is involved, something's gotta give.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, is an idyllic mountain hamlet, a picture postcard New England village.  It is especially scenic in October, during the peak of the foliage season.  But under the glare of the Harvest Moon, the town became a scene of horror.

 

Kimberly Cates and her daughter, Jaimie, were the victims of a murderous home invasion by four teens who had plotted to kill anyone they robbed.  The gang chose the house at random.  Kimberly was hacked to death in her bed.  Jaimie was slashed in the throat but survived and called 911.

 

The reputed ring leader of the attack was 17-year old Steven Spader, in whose car the gang drove to the Cates family home.  Spader's accused accomplices include 19-year old Christopher Gribble, a self-styled "angel of destruction" armed with a machete.  Spader and Gribble have been charged with first degree murder and attempted murder.

 

The two others, William Marks and Quinn Glover, were arrested for burglary and related charges.  Police believe that Steven Spader and Christopher Gribble butchered Kim Cates in her sleep and slashed Jaimie's throat when she tried to escape.

 

The chart below is set for the reported time of the home invasion, 4:00 AM, October 4, hours after the Full Moon.  Included are namesake asteroids of the victims and suspects -- or their closest proximity.

 

The phonetics are more important than the spelling; and I prefer singletons without surnames unless they match, too.  There are many asteroids named Kim and Kimberley but all have family names attached, so I picked the asteroid Kimea, based more on intuition than intellect.

 

That hunch is vindicated by including the asteroid Kate for Cates.  Kimea conjoins Kate in Virgo, both hemmed in by Mercury and Saturn -- and opposite Uranus in the Seventh House of enemies.  All are in range of a square to Pluto in the Fourth House, ruling the home, denoting a violent home invasion.

 

Kimea and Kate oppose another asteroid, Juno, also in the Seventh House.  Juno symbolizes spouses; Kim Cates' husband was away on business when the intruders burst in.

 

 

Kimea and Kate square Pluto, conjoin Saturn, and oppose Uranus.  In the parlance of astrology, they are "afflicted," reflecting the brutality of the attack.  With Saturn there is no escape; Uranus reflects the surprise attack, Pluto shows the deadly outcome.

 

For Jaimie Cates I have used the asteroid James.  It conjoins the dwarf planet Ceres, which strengthens the symbolism.  Jaimie squares Mars in the Eleventh House of gangs but it trines Neptune and Chiron in the Sixth House, which represents emergency services as well as healing.  She is slowly recovering, physically, from her wounds.

 

 

Steven Spader, the alleged ring leader, is represented by the asteroid Stevens on the cusp of the Fourth House.  By this, he was the first intruder to break in and led the way to Kim Cates' bedroom.

 

The asteroid Christophe is the astrological stand-in for "angel of destruction" Christopher Gribble.  The asteroid is in the Fifth House, ruling children; Gribble reportedly tried to cut Jaimie Cate's throat with the edge of his machete.  The Fifth House is also theatrical, and Gribble's photos have been splashed across a two-page spread in the Boston Herald which headlined him as the "Angel of Death."

 

William Marks, not charged with murder, is sumbolized by the asteroid William in the Twelfth House, which rules secrets, prisons, and stealth.  William is opposite Neptune in the Sixth House of subordinates; it is powerless and subservient; a follower.

 

The asteroid Quine isn't pictured in the horoscope but it is strongly placed, conjunct the Midheaven in Gemini.  This is the best I could do for Quinn Glover but if it is accurate, he will cut a deal, turn state's evidence, and testify in grisly detail.

 

 

 

Santos was stabbed to death in the early morning hours of October 2, after leaving work at 1:15 AM.  Her body was found outside her apartment building.  According to the D.A., the murder took place between 1:30 AM and 2:30 AM.

 

The chart below splits the difference; it is set for 2:00 AM.  The asteroid Vesta is rising, conjunct the Ascendant.  Despite Vesta's virginal reputation, it is often prominent in the birth charts of sex workers.  Leo rules performers; the victim was a dancer.  Still, it is all speculation.

 

Guessing the Ascendant was not the purpose of this exercise, however.  I was curious about the asteroid that bears the victim's name, Sheila.

 

When Sheila Santos was murdered, the asteroid Scheila was in 16 degrees of Gemini, square Venus and the Moon, which were in opposition.  All three formed a T-cross (or T-square), an astrological bugaboo.

 

Factor in the asteroid's opposition to the dwarf planet, Ixion, which is linked to violence, and Scheila forms a grand cross.  Scheila also conjoins the asteroid Alex, the name of the club where the victim was targeted by her killer.  The murderer was probably a heavy tipper with ownership issues, who believed gratuities entitled him to intimacy.

 

Others influences were active, of course, including a contraparallel between Saturn and Uranus that ignited the energy of their continuing opposition.  In this speculative chart, Uranus is in the Eighth House, denoting sudden death.  It conjoins the Moon, identifying the victim's gender.  And it squares Scheila, giving us her name. 

 

The asteroid Scheila fills in the blanks and adds a startling dimension which, as usual, leaves me scratching my head.  (See The Death Chart of Abraham Lincoln in Archives.)  Was all this somehow "written in the stars" or is it only a quirk of coincidence?  Do the transits of named asteroids have a special resonance with their human namesakes?  If so, they can't be ignored.

 

There are thousands of named asteroids.  Chances are, one of them has your name on it -- or the name of somebody you know.  You can locate yours at Astrodienst www.astro.com/ by typing in your birth data and clicking on "Extended Chart Selection."

 

The asteroids George and Parker probably don't mean much to you but I have begun to track them religiously.  You can't be too careful in times like these.

 

 

Update:  WBZ-TV in Boston reports that police have arrested Antonio Marcos Ferreira for the murder of Sheila Santos.  They once had a relationship but according to WBZ, "the relationship ended nine months ago, but Ferrerira continued to pursue her.  Santos rejected his advances, and the DA's office alleges Ferrerira was extremely unhappy with the rejection, leading him to kill her." 

 

The asteroid Antonia (the female form of Antonio) is in the Fourth House of the homicide chart.  The suspect was reportedly lying in wait at her doorstep.  The asteroid squares Jupiter in the Seventh House as well as the Ascendant and the asteroid Vesta.

 

 

"Something's gotta give" when Saturn opposes Uranus, and it is usually Uranus that wins out.  With Saturn, however, it is a protracted struggle.  Their natures are poles apart, as befits an opposition: Saturn upholds the status quo; Uranus incites rebellion.  Their oppositions occur about every 45 years and cause a "breakdown in society."

 

 

From 1918 to 1920, Saturn made recurring oppositions to Uranus as World War I ended, followed by the overthrow of Europe's royal houses, dynasties which had endured for centuries.  The "isms" rushed in to fill the vacuum.  Communism took control of the Russian Empire; Fascism seized power in Rome; Al Capone set up shop in Chicago.

 

It was the advent of the Roaring Twenties, the age of flappers, hair bobs, and abbreviated skirts, along with speakeasies and bathtub gin.  A disaffected Lost Generation defied authority and lionized lawbreakers, especially bootleggers.  Intellectuals embraced Karl Marx and hailed the Soviet Union as the hope of the future.

 

 

Saturn and Uranus were in opposition again from 1965 to 1967.  This was the era of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, along with antiwar rallies and radical chic.  A stoned-out counterculture became media darlings; revolution was all the rage.  China endured a bloody "Cultural Revolution" while America experienced assassinations, urban riots, and the escalation of the Vietnam War.

 

It was the age of long-haired hippies and mini-skirts, as well as psychedelic acid trips.  No gathering was complete without a doobie or two.  Passing the joint was a community ritual and an act of rebellion.  Even non-stoners took a ceremonial hit, for etiquette's sake, but didn't inhale (a la Bill Clinton).  The New Left emerged from the marijuana haze, spawning groups like the Weathermen who believed that bombing public buildings was the way to peace.

 

 

Now Saturn is opposite Uranus once again and history is about to repeat.  There are five oppositions between 2008 and 2010.  If the past is prologue -- and it probably is -- we know just what to expect: the end of the world as we know it.  Something's gotta give.

 

 

 

The Sun conjoined the asteroid Kennedy on the day of Ted Kennedy's funeral; they both conjoined the Senator's natal Moon, the culmination of an opposition to his Sun.  That he would be the center of attention was written in the stars.  The asteroid Kennedy is an exclamation point.

 

And typical of the clan, it is written in a bold hand.  Below is the natal chart of Massachusetts statehood, including the position of the asteroid Kennedy which is inextricably linked to the state's Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Pluto -- all in progressive Aquarius.

 

The Bay State's official name is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, reflected by that congregation in the Eighth House of shared resources.  This zone also rules death and taxes, which may also account for the state's unofficial nickname of "Taxachusetts."

 

The stellium, as a mass conjunction is called, is part of a grand trine involving Jupiter and Neptune, resulting in heavy spending for education and social welfare.  The asteroid Kennedy is part of that grand trine.

 

Cancer is the Ascendant of the Massachusetts chart; this is the cusp of the First House, which represents the people.  Bay Staters treasure their history and tradition (Paul Revere's house still stands in Boston), yet that tradition includes the radicalism that ignited the American Revolution and later inspired the abolitionist movement.  We love our history, but not as much as we love making it.

 

Uranus is in the First House, and it was hit by the total solar eclipse in July -- the longest of the century.  Eclipses signal the passing of leaders.  In the Bay State's progressed horoscope, the asteroid Kennedy squares Uranus.

 

Ted Kennedy's loss was felt on a deeply personal level by most Bay Staters (the official name for Massachusetts citizens*)  He had a well-earned reputation for taking care of his own, for rescuing constitutents from faceless federal bureaucrats; and we repaid him by electing him, again and again, even when we disagreed with him or deplored his behavior.

 

But now Saturn has completed its transit of the Bay State's nadir, and an era has come to an end.  This does not necessarily denote the end of a dynasty.  Kennedy, the asteroid, is tightly interwoven with the state's "personal" planets -- as well as compelling  Pluto.  There is no extinguishing this torch.

 

* "Bay Stater" is the official name of a Massachusetts resident, according to an act of the Great and General Court, aka the state legislature.

 

 

 

Britain has released its classified files on UFOs and if you were to believe the coverage of the U.S. media (always a mistake), the files only showed that UFO sightings spiked when the X-Files was at the height of its popularity.

 

Ha-ha, right?  Wrong.  Those files revealed a lot more than that, as the page below clearly shows.  (Names and other "sensitive" information were blacked out by the Ministry of Defence.)

 

Notice the item at the end about a "precautionary plan for counter-information."  Wonder what they meant by that?

 

 

Warren G. Harding was the 29th president of the United States, and the sixth to die in office.  He was the Bill Clinton of his day, married to a politically savvy woman, Florence, while servicing a stable of mistresses, including the wife of a friend and the daughter of another.

 

That might be enough to get you shot but Harding died of natural causes, according to the official record.  All told, we have lost eight sitting presidents, half by assassination, the rest through illness.

 

President Harding took sick with "food poisoning" while on a West Coast tour.  His condition quickly worsened, and he developed pneumonia.  He died in San Francisco, one week after falling ill.

 

The cause of death was given as shock or heart failure.  We don't know for certain because the First Lady, Florence Harding, refused to permit an autopsy.

 

At the time, her refusal raised suspicions that she was implicated in her husband's death.  She had poisoned the president in a jealous rage (so the story went) after discovering another one of his many affairs.

 

The flaw in that proposition is that they were thousands of miles apart when Harding died.  There is no way she could have slipped poison into his food.

 

The First Lady has an airtight alibi but the chart for Harding's death screams, "Cherchez la femme!"

 

 

Poisoning is murder by stealth, and sneaky Neptune -- ruling poisons -- is in the Seventh House, the "house of the enemy."  Neptune is opposite the Ascendant, representing the victim, who never saw it coming.

 

We might attribute that to feminine wiles, associated with the asteroid Juno, which conjoins Neptune in the Seventh House.  Juno rules spouses and consorts, and it joins Neptune opposite the Ascendant.  For my money, that makes the First Lady a "person of interest."

 

As further evidence that this was an attack, Mars is opposite the Ascendant, too.  But it hits below the belt, from the Sixth House, ruling health and servants.  Did the butler do it?

 

The asteroid Florence squares Mars along with Neptune and the Ascendant, and it opposes Jupiter in the Ninth House of journeys -- all forming a Grand Cross.  Florence is up to her neck in this; the asteroid, at least.

 

As for Florence Harding herself, we will never know beyond a reasonable doubt though her grief seemed genuine.

 

On the night before Harding's funeral, Florence spent hours talking to his corpse.  Nobody knows what she said.