The explosive effects of the Uranus/Pluto square continued to manifest as violent shootings in the summer of 2012. Within barely a month after the massacre at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater which left 12 dead and 58 wounded, three more shootings came to national attention.
On Sunday August 5, 40-year-old Wade Page, an army veteran who played in a far-right punk band and espoused white power views, entered a Sikh temple in Milwaukee’s Oak Creek suburb and opened fire on the worshipers. Page left six dead and four wounded before being himself shot and killed by police in the temple’s parking lot. Page, who was born on Veteran’s Day 1971 and sported a 9/11 tattoo, had been given an honorable discharge from the army in 1998 after six years’ service marked by “patterns of misconduct.” He had just purchased the 9mm handgun he used for the shooting on July 28, and had apparently confused the bearded Sikh men with Muslims.
The shooter is represented astrologically by two exact matches, asteroids Wade (#4710) and Page (#71556), which appear prominently in the sky that day. Asteroid Wade at 6 Leo is conjunct the Sun at 13 Leo, marking Wade as pivotal to the day’s events, and also conjoined Mercury (news) at 1 Leo and asteroid Karma at 5 Leo. Asteroid Page appears at 10 Sagittarius, close beside asteroid Nemesis (vengeance, retribution) at 9 Sagittarius, forming a Grand Trine with the solar stellium and transit Uranus (shootings) at 8 Aries retrograde.
The victims are only sparsely represented astrologically, partly due to their national origins and the preponderance of Western names in asteroid designations. But fully five of the six dead included “Singh” (a common Sikh patronym) somewhere in their names (Suveg Singh Khattra, Ranjeet Singh, Satwant Singh Kalek, Prakash Singh, and Sita Singh), and asteroid Singhal is a close linguistic approximation. This appears at 12 Scorpio for the shooting, squared the Sun/Wade/Mercury/Karma stellium, and is exactly conjoined asteroid Requiem, the funeral mass for the dead, as well as conjunct asteroid Osiris, named for the Egyptian god of the dead, at 17 Scorpio. One of the victims, Sita Singh, has a second celestial referent, asteroid Sita (#244), which falls at 1 Pisces, closely conjunct Neptune (ruling victims) at 2 Pisces, with Sita exactly inconjunct Mercury (news).
Ten days later, on Wednesday August 15, Floyd Lee Corkins, 28, entered the lobby of the Family Research Council offices in Washington DC, and after proclaiming, “It’s not you, it’s about the policy!” shot unarmed security guard Leonardo Johnson, 46, wounding him in the arm. Though injured, Johnson helped others to subdue and disarm Corkins, who used a 9mm handgun he had carried in his bag, which also contained 50 rounds of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. Corkins, who volunteered at a DC support center for the gay community, was obviously reacting to the anti-same-sex marriage comments voiced by Chick-fil-A founder and CEO Dan Cathy earlier that summer, and the Mike Huckabee-sponsored “Chick-fil-A Day of Appreciation” held by conservatives two weeks prior to the shooting. The Family Research council is a fundamentalist Christian organization which opposes gay rights in all forms and considers homosexuality a sin.
Corkins is represented astrologically only by his middle name of “Lee”, and on August 15, asteroid Lee (#3155) was at 5 Capricorn, conjunct transit Pluto, modern ruler of death, at 7 Capricorn retrograde, making Lee a direct part of the Uranus/Pluto square. Asteroid Washingtonia at 22 Capricorn is tightly inconjunct the Sun, marking the day’s events, at 23 Leo, and also squared to an exact Mars (guns, attacks)/Saturn (conservatism) conjunction at 24 Libra. The victim is represented by two exact asteroid matches, with asteroid Leonardo (#3000) at 11 Cancer opposed to Corkins/Pluto and squared Uranus at 8 Aries, thus forming a T-Square, and asteroid Johnson (#5905) at 13 Leo, conjunct Karma and Mercury at 7 and 4 Leo, trine Uranus and sextile Jupiter (political philosophy) at 12 Gemini.
Just after 9 AM EDT on Friday, August 24, shots rang out in front of the Empire State Building in Manhattan as shooter Jeffrey Johnson, 58, pumped two bullets into the body of Steven Ercolino, 41, a former supervisor whom Johnson blamed for his 2011 layoff. Ercolino as VP of sales for the Hazan Import Corp had singled out Johnson for departure based on poor sales performance, and in Johnson’s frequent visits to the company following his dismissal, the two often became confrontational, both men filing harassment complaints with police. After shooting Ercolino once in the head and again in the torso, Johnson left the scene, but drew his gun on approaching officers in pursuit, who shot him dead. Nine bystanders were wounded by police in the crossfire, none critically.
A chart cast for 9:05 AM EDT in Manhattan shows Pluto, modern ruler of death, at 7 Capricorn on the 5 Capricorn IC, with Uranus, ruling shootings, at 7 Aries on the 4 Aries Descendant. Jeffrey Johnson is represented by asteroids Jeffers (#1934) and Geoffroy (#12896), both for “Jeffrey”, and Johnson (#5905). Jeffers appears at 18 Sagittarius, conjunct TNO Ixion at 17 Sagittarius, named for the first murderer in Greek myth; Geoffroy appears at 25 Scorpio, exactly conjoined asteroid Juno, a point noted for rage, a sense of betrayal or injustice, and an easily injured pride. Geoffroy is also conjoined asteroid Osiris, ancient Egyptian god of the dead, at 22 Scorpio. Asteroid Johnson falls at 17 Leo, conjunct Karma and Mercury at 14 and 16 Leo and in exact trine to Jeffers/Ixion. Johnson also opposes Damocles at 19 Aquarius, the doom hanging unseen overhead, and exactly squares asteroid Requiem, the funeral mass for the dead, at 17 Scorpio.
The victim is represented by asteroids Stephania (#220) and Stevens (#38540), both for “Steven”. Stephania falls at 23 Cancer, in trine to Geoffroy/Juno/Osiris, with Stevens at 15 Libra is in broad contact with Pluto and Uranus, forming a T-Square. Asteroid Manhattan (#12464), the venue for the shooting, appears at 10 Capricorn, conjunct Pluto, which is also conjoined by asteroid Icarus at 6 Capricorn, representing the reckless, rash shooting by the police, which injured 9 bystanders.
Two of the wounded were Erica Solar, on her way for coffee at Dunkin Donuts, and Robert Asika, a city tour guide headed for work. Asteroid Eric (#4854, for Erica) falls at 26 Scorpio, part of the Geoffroy/Juno/Osiris stellium. Asteroid Roberta (#335) is at 8 Sagittarius, conjunct asteroid Nemesis at 10 Sagittarius and trine Uranus, while asteroid Roberts (#3428) falls at 18 Virgo, semisextile asteroid Johnson at 17 Leo and squared Ixion/Jeffers at 17 and 18 Sagittarius.
Three more incidents born of the stress, volatility and deadly potential of the Uranus/Pluto square, brought down to all-too-human terms in the infinite variety of the cosmos.
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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