When 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky failed to meet his mother after day camp on Monday July 11, his parents feared the worst. But nothing could have prepared them for the horror to come, as their son’s dismembered body was recovered early Wednesday morning from a suitcase dumped in a trash bin in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
Thirty-five-year-old Levi Aron was arrested and charged with the crime. He was identified from a grainy surveillance video where he was seen in company with the child. When police entered his apartment and asked where the boy was, he nodded toward the kitchen. There beyond the blood-stained freezer door police found Leiby’s severed feet, wrapped in plastic, and in the fridge, a cutting board and three bloody carving knives.
The karmic element to the tragedy is poignant. That walk home from day camp was the first that Leiby, from a Hasidic Jewish family, had been allowed to do alone. He missed a turning in the seven-block route, and appealed to a stranger for help. That stranger was Aron, who had no prior record beyond a summons for public urination. At the time of this writing, the cause of death is unknown, but early reports indicate that there are no signs of sexual assault. Aron claimed he panicked when he saw the neighborhood plastered with posters of the missing boy, and killed him; no motive was given for the abduction or the dismemberment.
Astrologically, such a tale conjures mythic resonance to the story of Tantalus, an ancient Greek king who killed and dismembered his own young son, to serve as a delicacy in a banquet for the gods. Punished for his heinous crime by an eternity of being chained in Tartarus, the level of the Underworld reserved for the worst offenders, Tantalus was doomed to forever stand in a lake of pure water which receded whenever he stooped to quench his thirst, overhung with boughs of luscious fruit which lifted up and out of his reach when he tried to assuage his hunger. His story has come down to us as the word “tantalize,” meaning to tempt or torment with the sight of something that is unobtainable or always out of reach. Astrologically, it relates to hideous crimes, temptation and teasing, tantalization, and dismemberment.
When Leiby Kletzky was abducted, the transit Sun at 18 Cancer was squared asteroid Tantalus at 14 Libra, itself in exact trine to Mars (violence, death) at 14 Gemini, with Mercury (children) on their midpoint at 14 Leo, in sextile to each.
TNO Sedna, named for an Inuit goddess who lives in the deepest part of the Arctic Ocean, also has an astrological affinity with dismemberment. At one point of her tale, Sedna, who refuses to grow up and accept a suitor, is thrown from a boat by her father, who proceeds to cut off her fingers and limbs as she tries vainly to cling to the craft. Sedna appears in this chart at 22 Taurus, in exact square to centaur Nessus at 22 Aquarius, a celestial body noted for involvement in stories of sexually inappropriate or violent acts, so astrology suggests that there is likely a sexual motivation behind this crime, yet to be revealed.
Asteroid Child at 2 Capricorn retrograde is conjoined transit Pluto, modern ruler of death who also governs abductions, at 5 Capricorn retrograde, and Tantalus itself is within orb of Saturn, ancient lord of death, at 11 Libra. Child is also exactly opposed asteroid Persephone at 2 Cancer, named for the Greek goddess most noted for her abduction by Hades.
Birth dates for both victim and attacker are known. Aron was arrested on his 35th birthday; born 13 July 1976, his natal Tantalus at 14 Sagittarius was exactly opposed by transit Mars (violent death) at 14 Gemini when Kletzky was abducted, exactly sextiled by transit Tantalus at 14 Libra, and conjoined by transit TNO Ixion, named for the first murderer in Greek mythology, at 16 Sagittarius.
Natally combined with asteroid Persephone (abduction) and Neptune, ruling disappearance itself, at 9 and 11 Sagittarius, Tantalus was also exactly trined by transit Mercury (children) at 14 Leo for the murder.
A natal combination of asteroid Child with natal Pluto at 5 and 9 Libra repeats their transit sky conjunction, with transit Pluto exactly squared natal Child. These square natal Nessus, sexual violence, at 4 Cancer, itself conjunct Apophis at 11 Cancer, Nessus opposed by transit Pluto, which also forms a Grand Trine with Aron’s natal Mars at 4 Virgo and Sedna at 4 Taurus, as well as being inconjunct his natal Saturn at 4 Leo.
Transit Persephone at 2 Cancer is also activating natal Nessus at 4 Cancer by conjunction. Natal asteroid Karma at 12 Libra is within orb of natal Child/Pluto and closely conjoined by transit Saturn at 11 Libra, itself exactly squared natal Apophis. Natal Mars at 4 Virgo was also conjoined by transit Apophis at 0 Virgo when Kletzky was taken.
Leiby Kletzky was born 29 July 2002; his 6 Leo Sun is exactly opposed Aron’s 6 Aquarius Nemesis, the point of karmic undoing, and was inconjunct transit Pluto at the time of death. His Nemesis at 11 Libra conjoins Aron’s natal Karma at 12 Libra and was exactly conjunct transit Saturn when he disappeared, exactly squared Aron’s natal 11 Cancer Apophis.
The Sun is also conjoined Mars, indicating a potential for violence, at 10 Leo, and conjoined Aron’s Saturn at 4 Leo. Kletzky’s natal Apophis at 25 Leo conjoins his natal Tantalus at 26 Leo, prefiguring his dismemberment in an act of unspeakable evil.
Kletzky’s natal Nessus at 16 Capricorn is opposed Aron’s 21 Cancer Sun and 19 Cancer Mercury (ruling children), and exactly squared his natal Persephone at 16 Libra, which is within orb of natal Nemesis and was closely conjunct Saturn’s January station retrograde degree of 17 Libra.
Kletzky’s natal asteroid Child at 9 Scorpio conjoins Aron’s natal Ixion (murder) at 8 Scorpio and opposes Aron’s natal Sedna (dismemberment) at 4 Taurus, conjoined by transit Jupiter (fame, publicity) at 6 Taurus for the killing.
Kletzky’s Sun/Mars opposes his natal Neptune at 9 Aquarius, itself conjunct Aron’s Nemesis and squared his Sedna, and speaks to the child losing his way, as well as his disappearance.
Kletzky’s natal Chiron (wounds, maverick behaviors) at 4 Capricorn is currently conjoined by transit Child and Pluto (death, and the planetary ruler of abduction) at 2 and 5 Capricorn.
Kletzky’s natal Pluto at 15 Sagittarius was conjoined by both Aron’s natal Tantalus at 14 Sagittarius and transit Ixion at 16 Sagittarius at the time of his death, while opposed by transit Mars at 14 Gemini.
Alex Miller is a professional writer and astrologer, whose website AlexAsteroidAstrology.com offers a trove of info on the role of asteroids in personal and mundane astrology. He is the author of The Black Hole Book (available on Amazon.com) and The Urban Wicca, former editor of “The Galactic Calendar,” and past president of The Philadelphia Astrological Society. His pioneering work with Black Holes in astrological interpretation began in 1991, when his progressed Sun unwittingly fell into one. Alex’s books and writings are available on his website. Alex can also be reached for comment or services at .
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