An Infant Death

Zip Dobyns

With the escalating level of child abuse which is largely hitting the unwanted children, it is especially tragic to read of cases where the baby was loved but the parent was still unable to protect him. The Los Angeles Times on March 18, 1991 reported a case of a baby apparently shaken to death by a hired baby sitter. The newspaper gave the date and time of the baby’s birth in Los Angeles and the approximate date of the death just three months later in his birth hospital, so the chart can be added to our research files.

Aaron Abernathy was born to a single parent who, of course, had to hire someone to care for him when she returned to her job. She found a grandmother originally from Belize who had raised six children of her own in Los Angeles. The caretaker, Dora Kerr insists that she is innocent but the doctors who examined Aaron at the hospital say that he was violently shaken to death. Unfortunately for the court case, the death occurred right after the coroner’s office was overwhelmed by many bodies from a plane crash at the L.A. airport on February 1, 1991, and Aaron’s brain which presumably would have provided needed evidence is missing. Since the mother, Lysa Abernathy, was at work on the afternoon Aaron stopped breathing and was taken to the hospital, and since the plane crash was during the evening of February 1 which was a Friday, the death might have occurred that night or (possibly) on Monday, February 4, 1991. The newspaper says that Aaron stopped breathing in his sitter’s arms on a cold February afternoon and died hours later in the hospital.

Aaron was born just 7 minutes after midnight on Halloween, October 31, 1990. His stellium in Scorpio clusters around the IC square a Leo stellium which includes the Ascendant. Still, at first glance, we would not expect such a quick and violent end with Jupiter rising and Venus exactly on the Sun. The Moon is in Aries in the eighth house, but it forms a grand fire trine to Juno, the East Point, and the south lunar node. The three outer planets in Capricorn cluster around the sixth house cusp, with its implication of health issues, but Aaron was chubby and healthy. Mars is retrograding on the cusp of the eleventh house with a close quincunx to Mercury and another to Neptune which is within two degrees, forming a yod. Jupiter’s sextile to Mars and quincunx to Neptune forms a second yod, an indication of major changes in the life. Ceres, our capacity to “mother” or be “mothered” is octile Jupiter-Ascendant on one side and Mercury-Pluto on the other side. Midpoints tighten the conflict aspects, with Ceres exactly octile the midpoint of Jupiter/Ascendant and Ascendant exactly square the midpoint of Mercury/Pluto. The Sun/Moon midpoint conjuncts Saturn within two minutes of longitude, and the Moon is conjunct the midpoint of Mars/Saturn within 15 minutes of longitude. The natal Part of Death seems less relevant, but the progressed (P) Part of Death opposed Saturn and P Moon squared Uranus when Aaron died.

There were also relevant asteroids. Hispania in the first house could signify the Hispanic baby-sitter. It was quincunx Saturn and P Moon reached a trioctile to it for the death. Iphigenia, who was sacrificed by her father, was conjunct Venus along with Dionysius who was torn apart by wild females. Bacchus, the Roman version of Dionysius, was on Pluto. Phaethon, who tried to control the Sun’s chariot and was struck down, was on the IC. Two “underworld Moon goddesses” were prominent, Hekate on the Ascendant and Hecuba on the Sun. Hera, the Greek version of Juno who seems very Plutonian; Atlantis, who is so often connected to the abuse of power; and Apollo, a sun god associated with fame, were all on Ceres, the mother figure. Demeter, the Greek version of Ceres, was quincunx the preceding cluster in 29 Virgo. The two versions of Ceres’ daughter, Persephone and Proserpina, were both in the first house with the first trioctile Neptune and the second conjunct Pallas. Siva opposed the East Point and Nemesis was on the eighth house cusp. Water is the element of closure, of endings, including the ending of a brief time in a physical body, so the cusps of the water houses are relevant.

Much more might always be said, but even though the topic may seem morbid, such charts are useful, letting us test the techniques and theories of astrology. The chart is enclosed for readers to check their own ideas. I have not mentioned the heliocentric version, but will note that the Barycenter, the center of mass in the solar system, was on both helio and geo Venus.

Copyright © 1991 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.

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