A pair of bizarre crash stories in the winter of 2015 highlighted the “deadly accident” potential of the square between Pluto and Uranus, and further showcased the power of PNAs when they interact strongly with other celestial factors and intersect with Fate.
On January 2 a small private Piper plane went down in a wooded area of rural Kentucky, en route from Key West, Florida to Mount Vernon, Illinois. Aboard were a family of four, father Martin Gutzler, wife Kim, daughters Piper and Sailor, and their cousin Sierra Wilder. The plane landed upside down, and four of the five passengers were killed—the sole survivor being the youngest, seven-year-old Sailor Guzzler (pictured above).
The crash occurred at night in the cold woods of a Kentucky January; Sailor was still dressed in sunny Florida togs—shorts and a tee shirt, barefoot save for one sock. Somehow, she made it out of the overturned plane, through three quarters of a mile in heavily wooded, boggy terrain, in the dark, to the home of Larry Wilkins, whose dogs alerted him to the faint knocking at his door. As if by some miracle, the girl apparently had only bruises, scrapes and scratches from the briar patches she had come through, and a bloody nose. Wilkins called 911 and state troopers came to take her to the hospital, where her lack of serious injury was confirmed.
The Sun of the day taps directly into the Uranus/Pluto square; at 11 Capricorn it conjoins Pluto at 13 and closely squares Uranus at 12 Aries. Uranus rules aircraft, air travel and accidents; Pluto of course rules death. The oddity here is not so much the crash itself, as the bizarre circumstances of Sailor Gutzler’s survival.
Just a spit down the zodiacal road there’s a remarkable confluence of factors, comprising a triple conjunction of asteroid Rip (which equates to the acronym “RIP”, “Rest In Peace” and often shows prominently in death charts), Mercury and Venus, all at 26 Capricorn, with asteroid Karma right beside at 27 and Icarus at 29 Capricorn.
Mercury rules travel generally, as well as children; Venus rules females—four of the five passengers were female, and three were children (the eldest was cousin Sierra, at age 14—sister Piper was 9). Rip shows the deaths per se, but Karma suggests there was an undercurrent of fatedness in operation, certainly as regards Sailor’s miraculous escape from serious injury, let alone death. Icarus, named for the mythic character who flew too close to the sun and melted his waxen wings, then plummeted to his death, is often prominent in the charts of air disasters.
Martin Gutzler seems to have been the trigger in this case. Besides the obvious centrality of his role as pilot and head of the family, we see asteroid Martina, for Martin, at 7 Capricorn, within orb of Sun/Pluto. Additionally, in Martin Gutzler’s natal chart (born 13 November 1966), the Sun/Pluto conjunction and the Uranus/Pluto square are very forcefully centered on natal asteroid Icarus at 12 Capricorn, on the degree intervening between the transit Sun and Pluto, and exactly squared by Uranus. With natal Rip at 24 Capricorn, Martin had just experienced a “Rip Return” and found all those late Capricorn points still conjunct this death indicator.
Adding deadly emphasis to the day was asteroid Nemesis, which at 17 Leo exactly opposed Martin Gutzler’s natal asteroid Requiem, named for the funeral mass for the dead, at 17 Aquarius, and formed a T-Square with the natal Sun at 20 Scorpio. Transit Requiem at 25 Virgo conjoined natal Uranus (planes, accidents) at 23 Virgo and opposed a natal pairing of Saturn (ancient lord of death and representing the father) at 23 Pisces conjunct Martina at 28 Pisces, personalizing the moment directly to Martin Gutzler.
Also connected to transit Sun/Pluto and the Uranus/Pluto square are asteroid Kimdavis (for Kim Gutzler) at 20 Libra and asteroid Wild (for cousin Sierra Wilder) at 6 Libra, both in broad square (asteroid Sierra at 29 Cancer is also opposed to late Capricorn stellium of Rip/Mercury/Venus/Karma/Icarus, opposing Icarus exactly). Sister Piper has no PNAs to represent her, but homeowner Larry Wilkins, where Sailor found assistance, is very prominent, represented by asteroid Larry at 8 Libra, also in square. Asteroid Wilkens at 4 Scorpio conjoins asteroid Child at 12 Scorpio, perhaps drawing Sailor to him like a magnet.
In Sailor’s birth chart (born 25 May 2007), asteroid Wilkens at 29 Aquarius is broadly conjoined Neptune, the savior, at 22 Aquarius (which was exactly conjoined by transit Mars at the crash), while asteroid Larry at 11 Taurus was exactly trined by the transit Sun when the plane went down, lending support for Sailor in her plight. It may be that transit Mars conjunct natal Neptune gave Sailor the force, stamina and determination (all Mars) to overcome her victimhood (Neptune).
Also of note in Sailor’s nativity is asteroid Saylor at 14 Sagittarius, which conjoins Jupiter at 16 Sagittarius, perhaps the source of her phenomenal good fortune in surviving the crash and finding Wilkins’ house, one of only three in the area with winter residents. Transit Saylor at 18 Virgo for the crash was also squared to natal Jupiter, reinforcing the “lucky” theme; Saylor made its retrograde station less than a week later, a that same degree, giving its terrestrial namesake the “staying power” to beat the impossible odds.
Kim Gutzler’s (born 15 August 1968) nativity was stressed by several death-related transits. The Sun at 22 Leo was exactly opposed by transit Mars (violent death); natal Icarus at 3 Sagittarius was being encroached by transit Saturn (ancient lord of death) at 1 Sagittarius, which also opposed natal Osiris, named for the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, at 0 Gemini; natal Saturn at 25 Aries was receiving squares from the late Capricorn stellium; and a natal Rip/Martina combination at 10 and 15 Leo was being hit hard by transit Osiris and Nemesis at 9 and 17 Leo.
A second bizarre crash story emerged just a month later, when on February 3, Ellen Brody’s SUV was struck by a Metro-North commuter train while stuck on the tracks in Valhalla, NY. Brody’s vehicle was stopped in the crossing while involved in a traffic back-up, and became trapped when the crossing gates descended at the approach of the train. Brody first exited the car, attempting to free the gate from her rear bumper, but when this failed, she re-entered the vehicle and nudged forward, immediately into the path of the oncoming commuter train, which struck her at approximately 49 mph, killing her instantly.
Five others died on the train, where a fire broke out in the first car, possibly due to sparks from the rail combusting gasoline from the SUV. Among the victims were Walter Liedtke, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York, Eric Vandercar, Robert Dirks, Joseph Nadol and Aditya Tomar.
A chart set for 6:30 PM EST when the crash occurred shows Neptune at 6 Pisces setting on the 0 Pisces Descendant, perhaps the source of the apparent confusion in Brody’s response to the crisis. Witness Rick Hope in the car behind her describes her movements as casual, almost nonchalant, with Brody apparently oblivious to the impending danger.
Neptune inaugurates a string of Piscean points including Venus (representing Brody herself) at 9, asteroid Anubis (named for the ancient Egyptian deity governing funerary rites) at 13, Mars (violent death) at 17, and asteroid Adityajain (for victim Aditya Tomar) at 14 Pisces.
Ellen Brody is also present with two exact PNA matches—asteroid Ellen at 20 Capricorn is within orb of Pluto at 14 Capricorn, itself closely squared Uranus at 13 Aries, again yielding the theme of “deadly accidents”. The Sun at 14 Aquarius also ties to the Uranus/Pluto square, by sextile and semisextile, and opposes the Full Moon at 14 Leo (exact less than a half hour before the accident), which aspects the square by trine and inconjunct. Asteroid Brody at 25 Sagittarius conjoins the Galactic Center at 27 Sagittarius, signifying the global notice and attention received by Ellen Brody via her demise.
Mercury, ruling vehicles and transportation generally, commuting specifically, appears at 5 Aquarius, in tandem with asteroid Rip (death) at 8 Aquarius and Josephina (for victim Joseph Nadol) at 4 Aquarius. These oppose asteroid Osiris, named for the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, at 2 Leo, Nemesis (undoing) at 11 Leo, and Tamara (also for Aditya Tomar) at 8 Leo. Other victims represented include Walter Liedtke, with asteroid Walter at 28 Sagittarius with Brody on the GC and asteroid Liedeke at 18 Capricorn with Ellen on Pluto; Robert Dirks, with asteroid Roberta at 17 Leo conjunct the Moon and opposed the Sun, asteroid Roberts at 29 Pisces squared the GC, and asteroid Dirikis at 21 Sagittarius with Brody on the GC; Eric Vandercar, with asteroid Eric at 14 Sagittarius sextile the Sun and asteroid Erika 16 Taurus squared the Sun; and an additional contact for Joseph Nadol, with asteroid Josefa at 29 Leo on the 0 Virgo Ascendant and opposing Neptune.
The transit Sun at 14 Aquarius was highlighting a mini-stellium in Ellen Brody’s (born 27 March 1965) birth chart, comprised of asteroid Karma (the results of our actions) at 10 Aquarius, Icarus (rash, reckless decisions or acts) at 11 Aquarius and Damocles (the doom hanging unseen overhead) at 17 Aquarius. Brody’s natal Jupiter at 24 Taurus was exactly conjunct the Midheaven at her death, granting her some degree of fame (Jupiter) as the focus of all eyes (MC). Also within orb of that transiting MC was natal asteroid Brody at 17 Taurus, and natal Osiris at 28 Taurus. Natal asteroid Ellen at 17 Aries was just coming under the influence of the Uranus/Pluto square, while natal Saturn at 11 Pisces was highlighted by transit Venus, Anubis and Mars. Natally Saturn exactly opposes Uranus at 11 Virgo, carrying with it the implication of possible death (Saturn) via accident (Uranus).
Oddly, Martin Gutzler shares this exact opposition from Saturn to Uranus, further binding together these two tragic tales.
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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