The John Zachery Delorean Epic
Zip Dobyns
Fortune magazine has featured him twice; the latest follow-up in the Nov. 15, 1982 issue. The Los Angeles Times has featured him repeatedly, including front page billing complete with picture after he was indicted on Oct. 29, 1982. From “young genius” as a car designer to accused drug dealer facing possible jail not to mention bankruptcy of an international company formed to build his cars, Delorean’s life would match any of the popular pulps for drama and suspense. Astrologers can go beyond some vicarious excitement enjoyed by the general public as they read such accounts. Astrologers can gain insight into human nature and the correspondences in the sky through a study of his horoscope.
The Gauquelin Book of American Charts, published by Astro Computing Services, gives DeLorean’s birth data from his birth certificate as Jan. 6, 1925, at noon in Detroit, MI. Gauquelin quotes biographical accounts which describe DeLorean: “flamboyant; nonconformist; rose quickly through the ranks; admired by his colleagues; ingenious; he revitalized the G.M.; ambitious; hard-working; conceived the boldly designed ...; backed a massive publicity campaign; frustrated by inactivity; formed his own company; standing out among corporation executives; profile of a matinee idol; sports enthusiast; energetic; seemingly tireless; can do a day’s work in half an hour.”
According to Fortune magazine, DeLorean started as a hard-working “square,” the son of a Ford foundry worker. His mother left his father when John was 13, and for a few years, he went to school in Los Angeles and spent his summers working on the assembly lines in Detroit. After attending the Lawrence Institute of Technology in Detroit, DeLorean worked successively for Chrysler, Packard, and G.M. He rose rapidly through the ranks, by 1972 becoming President of the entire General Motors North American car and truck group. The company presidency was only one more step, but DeLorean left G.M. the next year. In 1974, he started his own company, to build his special cars, was backed by the British government on condition that the cars be built in northern Ireland, but some shady financial dealings were casting shadows on the record; the high priced, gull-winged cars had flaws, the recession deepened, and cocaine was the final cliff in a precipitous descent. Oct. 19, 1982 should be a big day in his horoscope. The British announced the closing of the Northern Ireland factory just about six hours before the narcotic squad sprung their trap on DeLorean in a Los Angeles hotel room.
What kind of emphasis would we expect in a horoscope belonging to that kind of life? Certainly, there should be some strong fire and earth combinations in addition to fixed emphasis for the energy, drive, involvement with money and design, and general excesses. We would expect an emphasis on letter ten (Saturn, tenth house, or Capricorn) in some form, both for the rise to an executive position and the eventual confrontation with the Law. Letter eleven should also be prominent in addition to the fire for the rebelliousness and independence which included three marriages and some degree of identification with the counter culture. If several of the new asteroids (Lilith, Dudu, Pittsburghia) are similar to Pluto any or all of them might be prominent in the natal or progressed chart. If Hidalgo and Dembowska are similar to Saturn, they might also support any emphasis on letter ten. We might look at Urania if we think it similar to Uranus. A prominent Toro has been associated with strong will and tenacity, and may indicate artistic flair or sensuality. If Psyche can indicate self- absorption with a danger of lack of attention to how our actions affect others, and perhaps too much emotion and too little reason, we would want to check it out in the chart. I now have an asteroid named California! DeLorean met his downfall here, perhaps in more ways than one. He might have stayed more “square” if he had remained in Detroit?
Looking at the horoscope, the fire-earth prediction is certainly borne out. DeLorean’s Sun in Capricorn in the Capricorn house is a typical executive combination, and it is supported by a close conjunction with Icarus (similar to another Sun, with a danger of over-reach), a wider conjunction with Lilith (a potential Pluto) another potential Pluto (Pittsburghia) also in Capricorn in the tenth house and Dudu (still another possible Pluto) rising in Aries. Additional fire and/or fire-earth combinations appear with Mars rising in its own sign, Aries, at the midpoint of Ascendant and East Point; Chiron (like another Jupiter) conjunct Ceres (Virgo) in Aries in the first house, north node of the Moon and Neptune in the Leo sign and house, Venus and Mercury in the sign and house of Sagittarius, while Jupiter is in its own house but in Capricorn, close to the MC. The fire and earth emphasis is loud and clear, stronger than the fixed, but Saturn is in Scorpio, indicating lessons in handling joint resources, while the nodes are in Leo-Aquarius, and the Moon in the Taurus house. The asteroid, California, is closely conjunct the natal Moon, so our anticipation of prominence is validated, and it was his mother who brought him to California. The progressed asteroid California is sextile the Ascendant, sextile-trine the nodes of the Moon, and in a double quincunx (yod) to Saturn and Icarus. With Icarus in the sign and house of Saturn, a new direction is certainly suggested involving the Law and rules of the game.
What about our two alternative Saturns? Dembowska and Hidalgo are both conjunct Saturn in Scorpio, with Hidalgo just over the line to fall in the Scorpio house! To make the pattern more intense, natal Dembowska is at the midpoint of natal Saturn-progressed Hidalgo and progressed Saturn-natal Hidalgo! Progressed Dembowska is octile (semisquare) natal Sun-Icarus. Yes, Toro is also prominent; both Pandora and Toro conjunct the seventh cusp in Libra; an exact conjunction in progressions and opposite natal Dudu. Natal Urania is widely opposite the tenth house group of Sun-Icarus-Lilith, but progressed Urania is exactly opposite Lilith and conjunct Pluto. What we are seeing is our predicted fixed emphasis present through the nature of the planets and asteroids though they are in cardinal signs and houses. Assuming that our hypotheses on the nature of these asteroids are correct, we have a grand cross involving Scorpio-Aquarius (Pluto-Urania) at one corner; Taurus (Toro) at another corner; Leo-Scorpio (Sun-Icarus-Lilith) at another corner; Scorpio (Dudu) at the fourth corner with Mars also there if we consider it a co-ruler of Scorpio.
Psyche was the other asteroid hypothesized to be prominent, and we find it natally closely conjunct the Los Angeles East Point; in effect, on this auxiliary Ascendant in Los Angeles. Progressed Psyche is octile progressed Icarus and in time will square natal Mercury (by the time the court case has been worked through). Other appropriate progressions include Pittsburghia on the Los Angeles Ascendant and Moon in the grand cross listed above, involving fixed planets and asteroids in cardinal signs-houses. At the time the axe fell, the progressed Moon was in its own sign and house, opposite natal Sun, square natal Dudu and progressed Pandora and Toro. To further support our anticipation of earth and fire emphasis, progressed Ceres in Taurus was opposite natal Saturn in Scorpio; progressed Mars in Taurus was opposite natal Dembowska in Scorpio as well as square progressed Frigga in Leo and sextile natal Uranus. Of course there are always some harmonious aspects along with the stress patterns, but they may support over-confidence and over-reach. In this case, they would include progressed Sun-Mercury trine progressed Saturn and progressed Jupiter in a long conjunction to natal Sun.
Much more might always be said, but the main point has been made. The chart fits the description of an ambitious, driven, competent person, with both creative talent and practical ability; one who set life up as a power struggle (the fixed-cardinal cross) and did well as long as he played by the rules. When he tried to make his own will into law, he found out the law was bigger than he was. Further developments in the case will probably be reported in the nation’s newspapers, and we can keep you informed for those who would like to follow the chart in the future. As is so often the case, people with dramatic lives offer opportunities to test the theories of astrology in dramatic ways.