Sometimes I get pretty tired of chronicling all the politics and the misery (not sure why I included those as separate items). I also wonder if readers think, “well, swell, so Hillary has an asteroid and all those people who become famous for their horrible deaths do, too; what does that do for me?”
Not much, probably, and this story won’t, either. But it does illustrate how PNAs (Personal-Named Asteroids) follow us, one and all, throughout our lives, and continue to manifest their effects even in the most mundane and benign moments.
Not that this particular moment I’m about to describe is especially mundane, nor is it benign; it does involve a death, albeit not a human one. This is the story of my 80-year-old father and his latest success in the killing (corn)fields of eastern Pennsylvania.
My father, Marshall Miller, is a lifelong hunting and fishing enthusiast. And at 80, I can truthfully say “life-long”! He’s a marvel; although he’s been battling leukemia for almost three years, he’s in better shape and has far more energy than I do. So after completing his 26th course of chemotherapy on Friday the 18th of September, what more natural than that he should go to bed at midnight, get up again at 5, and be in his favorite tree stand a half hour before dawn that Saturday morning?
It was the first day of antlerless deer season in the PA Game Commission’s local management district, and my father was on the lookout for barely an hour after sunrise when a nice big doe wandered into range. She was briefly broadside, sniffing the wind, and Dad had a clear shot between some brush. He took it, and in a split second, had his first deer of the 2015 hunting season.
Fortunately for our astrological purpose, Dad also just a tad OCD about times and details, so I accept his word unquestioningly when he tells me he fired that fatal bolt from his crossbow at 7:52 AM. It’s totally in character for him to have glanced at his watch and mentally recorded the time before he even saw where the stricken doe ran off to die, so he could write it in his daily calendar later.
So let’s take a look at the sky for that moment: 7:52 AM EDT, Saturday, 19 September, 2015, in Moorestown, PA. Moorestown is the administrative center of Moore Township, and there’s an asteroid Moore, which at 2 Libra is rising on the 8 Libra Ascendant, along with asteroid Huntress at 1 Libra. Clearly, something’s up on Opening Day for hunting in Moorestown! The Ascendant broadly squares my father’s natal Sun (born 7 January 1935) at 16 Capricorn, and the IC, or Nadir, of the chart is at 9 Capricorn, so Dad’s natal Sun is about to anti-culminate, marking this time period as a crucial one for him on the day in question.
The Moore/Huntress grouping more closely squares his natal asteroid Bowman (on this first day of archery season, my father was hunting with a crossbow) at 3 Capricorn. Transit Bowman for the day at 11 Gemini is broadly conjoined transit Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt, at 19 Gemini. Artemis exactly squares my father’s natal asteroid Miller at 19 Pisces, refining that hunting energy to him personally, while Bowman is exactly trine his natal asteroid Huntress at 11 Aquarius, granting a positive energy flow between the archery of the day (Bowman) and my father’s propensity to stalk game (Huntress). The double Bowman/Huntress contacts, transit to natal, emphasize the importance of the weapon of choice in the pursuit of the day’s quarry. Bowman also squares transit Jupiter at 8 Virgo, perhaps relating to the outsized doe, weighing in at some 120 pounds, as well as my father’s luck in the hunt.
That Jupiter is conjunct transit asteroid Marcia (the closest phonetic match to “Marshall”) at 0 Virgo, which is accompanied by transit Diana, Artemis’ Roman counterpart, at 5 Virgo. This grants positive outcomes and brings “luck” in the hunt (Diana) to persons with resonant connections to the name/sound “Marcia”. These in turn square transit Saturn at 0 Sagittarius (Sign of the Archer), which exactly squares Marcia, denoting Dad’s “senior” status, as well as being the ancient lord of death, a role my father embodied for the deer in question. Saturn is accompanied by the Moon at 4 Sagittarius and asteroid Hind at 3 Sagittarius. The Moon denotes the energy of the hour, and describes the wild, natural setting. A “hind” is an old English term for a female deer, what we call a doe. Again, a pretty apt image of the circumstances, wouldn’t you say?
The transit Jupiter mini-stellium conjoins a natal grouping in my father’s chart, comprising asteroid Hunt at 6 Virgo, Diana at 10 Virgo, and Hind at 12 Virgo. It’s a fact that, while my father has harvested his share of bucks over the years, does have been the majority of the meat he’s brought home. Note also that he’s about to experience a “Diana Return,” with transit Diana just five degrees shy of its natal place, re-energizing the natal impact on his psyche. The Saturn mini-stellium conjoins his natal asteroid Moore at 2 Sagittarius, defining the locale of the hunt in his birth chart, just as transit Moore defined its importance in the sky by its Ascendant conjunction.
Transit Miller at 0 Scorpio is exactly semisextile transit Saturn, exactly sextile transit Marcia, and broadly squared transit Hunt at 25 Cancer. This point in turn exactly conjoins dad’s natal Pluto, probably as good a day as any to kill (Pluto) a deer (Hunt). Transit Miller also opposes dad’s natal asteroid Marcia at 2 Taurus, linking a name referent on the day to one in the nativity.
In my work with PNAs, I always look for those telltale stationing points, easily identified by bodies lying in trine aspect to the Sun, before or after. These can lend important information about what’s “stuck”, or about to change direction, in a life or a life event. In a natal chart, these show energies which are “embedded” in the psyche, and can create an effect disproportionate to their size, aspect placement and apparent importance.
Three PNAs pertinent to this story which are stationary in Dad’s birth chart are Diana, goddess of the hunt, which turned retrograde on 15 January 1935, little more than a week after his birth; Hunt itself, which turned retrograde on December 31, barely a week before his birth; and Hind, a female deer, turning retrograde on his actual birthday! All three are at their station degrees in the birth chart, within 6 degrees of each other, reinforcing the “hunter” gene in my father’s psyche. These are also within orb of dad’s natal Neptune at 14 Virgo, lending a spiritual (and somewhat addictive) quality to their expression. Although my father has been a fundamentalist Christian his entire life, it was a love of nature which he imbued within me from an early age, which led directly to my current pagan practice.
So you see, it’s not just psychotic mass murderers, tragic weather disasters, scandalous celebrities and hapless victims who get caught up in the PNA parade, each and every day. These energies also form the warp and woof of our lives, the underlying fabric of our everyday reality, for good or ill. They can even pinpoint a proud old man’s latest success with his bow.
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 .
Your old man is quite a guy and it was fun to have a lighter focus for an asteroid study than all the heavy stuff we normally look at.
Still, I understand he had an accident recently. Best of luck for his recovery and maybe we’ll see him up a tree again soon.