Asteroid-World Winter 1993
Zip Dobyns
The New York World Trade Center included the tallest building in the world until the Sears tower in Chicago topped it. A single tower with its 107 floors provides business space to 50,000 to 60,000 people, and visiting clients, delivery persons, etc. add many more temporary occupants to those numbers. On February 26, 1993, one or more bombs were detonated in the underground parking garage of Tower 2. The initial estimated destruction was 5 dead, 2 missing, over 1,000 people injured (mostly with lung damage from smoke inhalation), and a potential billion dollars of damage costs including lost business. At least one building may not reopen until April. Two Japanese insurance companies have estimated they would respectively lose 12 and 20 million dollars each day that the buildings remained closed. Many small companies which lacked insurance will go out of business. Some firms have said they will not return to the buildings even after they reopen. The already financially stressed city of New York has to deal with the cost of the damage and the loss of personal and business tax revenues.
A friend in New York phoned to tell me that the bomb(s) went off at 12:18 P.M. The chart has many aspects to the Earth-Mars (E-M) heliocentric conjunction which I have described in the past. Readers who save past issues of Asteroid-World will have the E-M chart for comparison with the bomb chart. Mars in the bomb chart is within one degree of the Moon in the E-M chart. Juno, our Plutonian asteroid, was retrograde in the E-M chart on January 7, 1993. In the bomb chart, it is on the Ascendant with both in a one-degree conjunction with the E-M Juno. The meaning is the same as having Pluto conjunct the Ascendant, highlighting issues around power struggles versus learning to share possessions and power. Vesta, another of our “first four” asteroids, is also meaningful. As I have often written in the past, Vesta’s tunnel-vision commitment to its job can often lead to alienation from and indifference to the needs and suffering of others. Vesta in the bomb chart was opposite asteroid Columbia which could stand for the District (seat of our federal government) or for the country which is the headquarters of the world trade in cocaine. It was on the Descendant of the E-M chart calculated for Washington D.D. opposing the asteroid America which was exactly on the Ascendant in the E-M chart in Washington. The bomb Descendant is also just 1 1/2 degrees from the E-M Vesta making one of those repeated messages: Vesta in each chart on the Descendant of the other one.
Adding more emphasis to Vesta in the bomb chart, asteroid Beograd (Belgrade) is conjunct Vesta within 19 minutes of longitude and conjunct Pele, a goddess of volcanoes and/or earthquakes on the other side so Beograd is on their midpoint to the minute. The Vesta-Beograd-Pele configuration is also quincunx Fanatica at 28 Gemini 7 in the twelfth house. The bomb chart has 29 Gemini 33 on the Ascendant when it is relocated to Washington, DC so P Fanatica will soon conjunct the local Ascendant and hold the aspect for some years while the Vesta group holds a progressed quincunx to the local Ascendant. The patterns point to continuing repercussions from this incident and/or others to follow. Of course, the FBI and police immediately tightened security around the White House and other public buildings and Congress is planning tougher punishment for terrorists.
As I have written repeatedly, I think that astrology is a symbol system which pictures psychological principles. A horoscope shows mental states. Which of many possible details will be produced by those mental states is always a guess. So finding geographic asteroids in prominent positions in a chart tells us that those areas are of concern at the time, but there is no certainty that the countries are actively involved in the event. They may be suspects but not perpetrators.
The bomb chart does certainly show the potential for a Serbian connection but the initial arrests suggest that even though the first phone caller claiming responsibility identified himself as part of the Serbian Liberation Front, he may just have been trying to bluff the U.S. into stopping their aid to Bosnia. If that was his intent, it would be likely to produce the opposite effect. News reports say that 63 calls have been received claiming “credit” for the bomb. It seems bizarre, to put it mildly, for uninvolved groups to want publicity enough to assert a connection to such an act, but apparently most deliberate terrorist actions are followed by such calls.
The country of Serbia is certainly highlighted in the bomb chart since in addition to Beograd’s conjunctions and its opposition to Columbia (and the Washington, DC Ascendant and America in the E-M chart), the bomb chart Antivertex (an auxiliary Ascendant) is square Saturn and conjunct asteroid Srbija (Serbia) with Srbija also conjunct Dresden. As usual, I only list aspects which are within one degree of exact. Srbija in the bomb chart is also conjunct Williams (for Bill Clinton) in the E-M chart—within 5 minutes of longitude! Serbia is definitely one of Bill Clinton’s current problems. Readers will remember that Dresden, along with Guernica, can symbolize military attacks on non-combatant civilians. To further hammer in the message that Serbia is “on the mind of the U.S.,” the other alternative Ascendant in the bomb chart, the East Point, is conjunct Heliocentric (H) Srbija and H Dresden within 15 minutes of longitude! The current actions of Serbia in Bosnia can only be compared to the Holocaust. Horrifying through they were, a single attack on a single city such as Dresden and Guernica is not genocide.
Other asteroids in the bomb chart include Yugoslavia in Leo on the third house cusp for media attention, and Slavia (for the Slavs) at 25 Pisces 33, just past Mercury. Hybris (hubris for over-confidence) was conjunct Mercury within my permitted one-degree orb and it will soon reach Slavia by progression. Slavic peoples inhabit a wide area in eastern Europe including Serbia, Ukraine, Byelorus, and Russia. According to a Russian personal friend who recently visited me, though there is no official government support, many individual Slavs in these former U.S.S.R. Republics are aiding the Serbs—especially providing weapons. In the bomb chart Russia is in 23 Cancer trioctile the Sun and the Washington, DC MC and quincunx Saturn.
Russia is also conjunct Dionysus, a Greek god of religious revels which included wild behavior encouraged by alcohol and drugs. In the myths, Dionysus ended up being torn apart by his crazed followers. Also conjunct Russia is Ankara, capital of Turkey, one of the Islamic countries which is very concerned with the Bosnian slaughter. Both Ankara and Dionysus share the quincunx to Saturn, and Dionysus is also within my orb so it trioctiles the Sun and local MC. Salome and Sphinx at 24 Cancer are just over a degree past Dionysus, Russia, and Ankara, but within orb of an octile to the local East Point. The world’s most famous sphinx is just outside Egypt’s capital, so the asteroid brings Egypt into the picture. Turkey and Egypt (and other Islamic nations) are obviously disturbed by the plight of the Bosnian Moslems. Greece has been supporting Serbia. The current battle is largely Slavs versus Moslems. Ukraine at 0 Leo is less closely aspected in the bomb chart, but Byelorussia at 1 Capricorn 49 is quincunx Williams, square Washingtonia, trioctile Hephaistos (who made weapons for the gods of Olympus), and it will soon progress into an opposition to Juno. Winchester, the asteroid I consistently find associated with guns, is at 29 Sagittarius 52, closely opposing the local (Washington, DC) Ascendant and quincunx Ukraine. It will progress to conjunct Byelorussia.
Salome, the other asteroid mentioned in the preceding group in 23-24 Cancer, was named for the daughter of Herod, ruler of Palestine in the time of Jesus. Salome, prompted by her mother, asked for and got the head of John the Baptist. Her inclusion in the preceding Cancer group brings in the other major player in the turbulent Near-East. Much of the former Palestine is now Israel where the ruling Jews have been locked in a life-and-death struggle with their Islamic neighbors since the nation’s founding. Note that the Cancer asteroids are conjunct Mercury in the U.S. Declaration of Independence horoscope. The U.S. has been a major ally of Israel from its beginning. The eeriness of the asteroids became even more intense when the first suspect arrested for the bombing turned out to have a name that sounded like Salome if one accents the first syllable and pronounces the last syllable like the letter “a” or like “eh.”
Since a large majority of the asteroids are orbiting between Mars and Jupiter and often traveling at similar speeds, aspects between them can sometimes persist for weeks or months during which time they will be present in all charts. It is the charts with aspects between the angles and the asteroids which pinpoint relevance to those specific events. So even if it turns out that Serbians were not involved in this particular bomb other than to be the first group claiming credit for it, the event may be meaningful. The asteroids reflect some of the problems reported daily in our news stories. The event demonstrates the ease with which a few angry men can set off a bomb and the enormous economic damage it can do.
Though I have singled out aspects involving Serbia so far, asteroid Croatia is also prominent in the bomb chart. At 8 Taurus 6 it is conjunct the Ascendant/MC midpoint and asteroid Europa. Europe is obviously deeply concerned over the Balkan crisis. The First World War started there. Asteroid America at 17 Cancer is closely conjunct Guernica (mentioned above) and Hygiea (the issue of healing which could mean its presence or a need for it). The three are square Venus, quincunx the north lunar node, and octile Williams. Other asteroids include Photographica conjunct the Sun, Phaethon (overreach) conjunct the Moon, and Hiroshima conjunct Jupiter and the E-M Ascendant calculated for Belgrade, Serbia. Hiroshima is, of course, named for the target of the first atomic bomb used in war but it could share the larger meaning of Dresden and Guernica since the city of Hiroshima was not a natural military target and, in fact, had a sizable Christian population compared to most of Japan. The Sun and Photographica are on the MC within one degree when the bomb chart is relocated to Washington, DC.
The heliocentric asteroids are also dramatic in the bomb chart. As mentioned above, geocentric (G) Srbija is on Dresden and the Antivertex while H Srbija is on Dresden and the East Point, the other auxiliary Ascendant. The latter two are also quincunx H Beograd and H Helio, a Sun god for power and fame. H Icarus (overreach) opposes the Ascendant. (G Icarus is quincunx the local Ascendant. I am continually amazed by such repeated messages in the two different systems, geocentric and heliocentric). Three H asteroids conjunct H Mars and quincunx the MC: Columbia, Russia and Sphinx. The three asteroids are also octile H Washingtonia. H Yugoslavia is conjunct H Chiron opposite H Saturn with all of them square the Antivertex. H Europa conjuncts H Croatia and opposes H Pluto. H Slavia (1 Aries) opposes H Hiroshima (1 Libra) and they are sextile-trine H Hephaistos (1 Gemini) suggesting the ease with which the Slavs are obtaining and using weapons. They are also octile-trioctile one of our newest asteroids, H Sumeria at 16 Aquarius. (G Sumeria squares the Antivertex). H Chaldaea opposes H Williams and H Gaea (earth). Ancient Sumeria and Chaldaea covered areas that include parts of modern Iran and Iraq. Iraq is busy trying to protect its remaining military supplies against U.N. destruction, and at the same time to destroy its own Kurd and Shiite citizens. Iran is today the primary government which trains and supplies weapons to terrorists. It has also tried to get weapons to the Bosnian Moslems, another link in the developing conflict between Slavs and Moslems.
But what is H George on the Washington, DC Ascendant telling us? One of the reasons I thought he would be reelected was the continued prominence of his name asteroids in later mundane charts. Do they mean that he could have won in which case he would have continued to be prominent in world affairs, that the final outcome was not predetermined but could have gone either way depending on how he and Clinton and their associates handled the contest? Or are the asteroids simply saying that he still has some influence in the world or that his past actions continue to affect current events?
After the initial announcement that the first man arrested and charged with the bombing was an Egyptian fundamentalist, I went back to look at other asteroids connected to Egyptian mythology. (Later information identified the accused man as a Palestinian.) In addition to the prominence of Sphinx, G Nephthys and Osiris are both conjunct Pluto. Nephthys, the wife of Set, was associated with death, and Osiris symbolized the seasons with the death and rebirth of vegetation. G Anubis, another Egyptian god associated with death, is also in Scorpio in the fifth house with a trine to Ceres just past the MC. Ceres was the Roman version of Demeter and, like Osiris, they were associated with the seasons. Ptolemaeus, named for the famous Egyptian astrologer, is on Washingtonia.
The aspects could point to Egyptian associates of the suspect, Muhammad Salameh. He is a Palestinian, a citizen of Jordan though born in an area which is now part of Israel. He came to the U.S. as a tourist but stayed on illegally. He attended the same New Jersey mosque as the man accused of killing Rabbi Mayer Kahane of New York. The latter suspect was acquitted of killing Kahane but is in jail for the possession of weapons. The Imam of the mosque is described as a blind Egyptian fanatic that the U.S. is trying to deport. Though the Imam, Sheik Rahman, has publicly denounced the bombing of “innocents,” he preaches the overthrow of the Egyptian democracy in order to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state. He was tried for but acquitted of involvement with the Islamic fundamentalists who killed former premier Anwar Sadat and who are currently threatening Mubarak. Egyptians who are currently being tried for killing tourists as a way to destabilize the country have said that Sheik Rahman is their spiritual leader. Again, the prominent Egyptian asteroids in the bomb chart do not prove that Egyptians helped to personally prepare or plant the bomb. They could just point to the influence of the Egyptian Imam who encouraged his listeners to participate in violence.
Salameh rented the van which is believed to have carried the explosives into the World Trade Center, using his own name, address and driver’s license. He was arrested when he came back for the third time to try to collect his deposit of $400 for the van which he had reported stolen. The consensus opinion of terrorist experts is that he might be the most stupid terrorist in the world but that it is more likely that he was an underling in the group which actually planned the act. They may have assured him that the van would be so destroyed in the blast that there would be no remaining evidence to identify it. Salameh is reported to have been astonished and shocked when he was arrested and charged with the crime. The FBI reported that they were looking for some of his associates who had disappeared and may have left the country immediately after the bombing. Hopefully, if Salameh was a part of one or more organized terrorist groups which are really responsible for the event, he may provide information leading to the higher-ups.
So far, I have mostly emphasized the asteroids, but astrology offers an inexhaustible number of tools and techniques. For those who work with midpoints, the 1992 version of Mark’s CCRS computer program added a great tool—midpoint trees which show all of the stress aspects from each of the planets and angles to the midpoints. At first glance and limiting ourselves to traditional factors, the bomb chart is not really impressive. Most of the stress aspects have wide orbs. Mars is the primary focus, placed in the first house, but 6 degrees from the Ascendant. It squares Jupiter widely and Venus still more widely and it is trioctile both Saturn and Pluto which square each other but none of these aspects are exact to one degree. Mars is also trine the Sun and the Moon is sextile both Mars and the Ascendant. Even the midpoint trees at first glance show smaller numbers of conflict aspects to Mars and Pluto but a closer inspection shows that the combinations were potentially quite deadly. The midpoint of Saturn and Pluto is 9 Capricorn 15, so Mars is on the axis within 12 minutes of longitude. (Remember that each pair of planets has two midpoints which are opposite each other, forming an axis across the chart). Pluto is widely conjunct the Vertex, opposite the Antivertex, but the midpoint of Pluto/Antivertex is conjunct Saturn within one degree. Pluto is on the axis of Venus/Juno, Venus/Ascendant, and Moon/south lunar node while it squares Mercury/Vesta, Moon/north lunar node, and Mars/Jupiter. Mars is octile-trioctile the same midpoints. Using midpoints, we see that the chart has a network of very close, stress aspects.
Many more factors might be mentioned, but perhaps it is more important to alert readers to potential times of new violence in the future. During the last week of March and the first week of April 1993 there will be new activations of the E-M chart. The most important is transiting Mars returning to its position in the original chart setting off its opposition to Sun-Uranus-Neptune and its double quincunx (yod) to Saturn-Medea-Urania and to Winchester. Another time to watch is mid-October to mid-November when T Saturn stations and turns direct on the E-M Saturn. Also during this period T Mars, Mercury, and Sun will conjunct the E-M Pluto and square Saturn and T Venus will square the E-M Mars, Venus, and Uranus-Neptune. The E-M chart is activated many times during the two years of its theoretical useful “life” until the next H conjunction of earth and Mars in 1995 but these two periods look especially important during 1993. They may be continuing repercussions from past events and/or new Mars-related events.
The same New York friend who provided the time of the bomb called later to give me the time that Salameh was arrested just outside the rental car agency in Jersey City, NJ: March 4, 1993 at 10:28 A.M. EST. Most of the planetary positions had not changed much from the chart for the bomb but the Moon at 21 Cancer had moved into oppositions to Neptune and Uranus and a quincunx to Saturn. There were some very interesting asteroids including H Sumeria on the MC and four H asteroids on H Mars: Russia, Sphinx, Vaticana, and Ukraine. Even if we stopped at that point, we would have a neat summary of the contenders in the current semi-religious conflicts in the world: Vaticana for the Roman Catholics which includes most of the Croats; Russia and Ukraine for the Slavs which includes mostly eastern orthodox Catholics; Sphinx and Sumeria for the Moslems.
G Srbija and Dresden are still conjunct each other in the arrest chart, and both are on the East Point. G Kiev, capital of Ukraine, is on the Descendant. G Chiron, like Jupiter signifying religious beliefs, is on the IC as ancient religious and ethnic rivalries destroy the land and its people. 6 G asteroids were within one degree of the MC. Pallas and Astraea are both associated with justice and social causes. Metis is connected to prudence; in this case its glaring absence. Atropos was one of the three “Fates,” the one who cut the thread of life in retribution for human misdeeds. Megaira symbolized envy and was one of the three “Furies.” Circe turned men into pigs. Remember that as in all astrology, asteroids signify a principle which is an “issue.” The principle may be present or lacking and needed in the situation. The chart just shows the issue! The details in our lives depend on what we do with the principles.
Other G asteroids include Slavia conjunct Hybris and Attila, the Hun; Sumeria conjunct Saturn; and Beograd still conjunct Vesta with Orpheus joining them. Orpheus, like Dionysus, was torn apart—the ongoing fate of former Yugoslavia. Chaldaea is on Bacchus, the Roman version of Dionysus. Dionysus itself is on the Moon, Russia, and Sphinx. Croatia is on Europa, Vienna, and Moskva (Moscow). Yugoslavia is quincunx the Sun and completes a yod with its sextile to Jupiter. A number of countries could be implicated in the preceding mixture or it may just point to the current “state of the world.” As mentioned above, if Salameh does prove to be an underling, it is possible that the master-minds of the bombing included men from more than one organization. Both the bombing and the arrest charts certainly highlight the Balkan, Slavic and Near-East areas. We can follow the news in the weeks ahead and especially watch the end of March.
I was initially impressed with the similarity of Salameh’s name to asteroid Salome which was prominent in the charts for both the bombing and the arrest. As I have written in the past, the asteroid names seem to “work” for “sound-alike” people, places, etc. Sumeria was especially prominent in the arrest chart—its G position on Saturn and its H position on the MC. Since Saturn and the MC are the same principle, the law and the consequences of past actions, this newly discovered and named asteroid seemed worth another look. Sumeria has long been considered a birthplace of civilization. Hieroglyphic writing may have originated there, as well as codified civil law, banking systems, standard weights and measures, etc. It covered parts of modern Iraq and Iran. Asteroid Sumeria’s prominence supports the possibility that modern Iran or Iraq are part of the power behind Salameh.
But before leaving the asteroid Sumeria, I looked up a “sound-alike” name associated with the Near East. I remembered Samaria from the bible as the home of the “good Samaritan” in the parable of Jesus. I struck pay dirt when I looked it up in an encyclopedia. The town was the capital of the northern part of Palestine which split into two regions after the death of Solomon. My reference says that its inhabitants were rejected by the southern region of Judea because they intermarried with foreigners who believed in other religions though the latter mostly converted to Judaism. The Samaritans are also described as the oldest heretical Jewish sect, accepting only the first five books of the Old Testament. The original site of Samaria is a town which was in Jordan prior to the 7-day war and afterwards it became part of Israel. Salameh was born in the village of Biddiya near Nabulus in this area taken from Jordan by Israel in the brief war just before Salameh’s birth. His father was in the Jordanian army and when Salameh was two months old, the family moved to Jordan where Salameh grew up. My encyclopedia says that a small community of people holding the original Samaritan faith still lives near Nabulus. With one prominent asteroid, the arrest chart points to the possible power behind the bomb (Sumeria-Iran), to the origin of the first arrested suspect (Samaria-Israel-Jordan), and to the issue of religious conflict.
Every time I think I have finished writing about this episode, my New York friend calls with more information. This time it was with the birth date of Salameh: September 1, 1967. Of course we have no birth time as yet, but I like to put a chart on a wheel to see the aspects so I attempted a totally speculative rectification. The most reasonable time is shortly before 3 P.M. which would put Capricorn on the Ascendant. A late evening time around 11 P.M. would bring the progressed Moon into a square to P Saturn for this crisis with the law, but that would give Salameh a Gemini Ascendant which seems less likely. If this afternoon birth time is “in the ball park,” Salameh’s P Moon will reach the square to P and natal Saturn in a few months and the aspect could indicate his trial. I will include the afternoon chart for those who like to play with such things, but remember that the time is really totally speculative since I had only the date of his arrest and the approximate age when his family moved.
Salameh’s relatives in Jordan describe him as a nice and well-liked person and they cannot believe that he is guilty of the bombing. They say the family was never involved in political protests which would support the importance of the fundamentalist Egyptian Imam in the New Jersey mosque where Salameh presumably met militant fundamentalists. Salameh regularly sent money home to his relatives which helps explain his urgent need to recover his $400 deposit on the rented van used in the bombing. He was below average in school and worked as a laborer. The speculative time I am testing puts Saturn in the third house in a square to the Ascendant which it rules, fitting insecurity about his mental ability but also his sense of responsibility for his large family with ten siblings. The heavy Scorpio and eighth house often indicate the feeling that other people have the power. The individual may react by giving in and trying to please other people or by attacking and trying to recover the power or by withdrawing for security. Of course, the goal is to learn to share the power for mutual pleasure.
The Balkan asteroids are less prominent in Salameh’s chart (unless they are on angles which we don’t have) though Srbija was on his south lunar node signifying a lesson in relationships. The Near East asteroids look appropriate. P Chaldaea is in a close conjunction with P Winchester (guns) with both square Juno and Uranus. With Juno, like Pluto, often indicative of money coming from or owed to others as well as with power struggles if we fail to learn to cooperate, and with Uranus associated with rebellion and explosives, the aspects would fit Iran and/or Iraq as a power behind the action. IF my speculative birth time is right, Sumeria is on the midpoints of both Salameh’s natal AND progressed Sun/Moon. Both P Sun and P Moon were octile Sumeria at the time of the bomb. P Sumeria squares Vesta. If astrologers in Israel turn up a birth time for Salameh, we can take another look at the chart. Even with just the birth date, readers can watch the transits as new evidence is released.
The New York bomb cost far more in dollars but there were actually more deaths in another violent episode which started while T Mars was conjunct the Moon in the E-M chart. As this is written in early March, a religious cult named the Branch Davidians is under siege by police and officers of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the ATF. I don’t have a date for the origin of this U.S. Bureau which is part of the Department of the Treasury, but one article said that it was 21 years old. Its chart should be interesting since part of its job is to investigate explosions so it is also very involved in the bombing in N.Y. Few of our citizens had even heard of it before it hit the headlines with these two dramatic events.
The Davidians are barricaded in their 77 acre compound at Elk, TX near Waco. Officers of the ATF went to arrest the cult leader on Sunday morning, February 28, on a charge of unlawful possession of firearms. Apparently he had been tipped off and the officers were met with a barrage of bullets which killed 4 of them and wounded 15. The cult members are said to have 1 or more dead and others wounded, including the leader who uses the name of David Koresh. The group separated from the Seventh Day Adventists in 1942 and the original offshoot was based in California—where else? Currently, it has thousands of members in several countries. Australian and English members are said to be present in the barricaded compound. Two elderly women and 21 children had left the compound as this is being written. 19 children, 43 men and 47 women are reported to be still inside. Koresh became the leader of the Texas group around 5 to 7 years ago.
The sketchy reports received so far point to some parallels with other well-known cults led by charismatic men. Koresh was a school drop-out but demonstrated a phenomenal ability to memorize and quote the Bible. A former member of the group described him as the best teacher he had ever seen. At one point in the siege, Koresh promised to surrender if one of his sermons was read on local radio and TV stations, but when this had been done, he refused to come out. He stated that God had told him not to come out yet. He has claimed to be Jesus Christ, returned to rule the world after the time of tribulation. He is also reported to have asserted his right to all of the women in the group, claiming that his seed was superior to the other men. He may have married or had sex with as many as 19 of the women, some as young as 12 years old, and he may be the father of an equal number of the children in the group. An alternate explanation for his sexual claims was that after the “end time,” God would create a special woman for each man as he had created Eve for Adam, and that all the women would be brides of Christ (Koresh).
The group remained in telephone contact with the outside world for some days. They said that they will not commit suicide (like Jim Jones’ group in Guyana) and the officers say they will just wait outside in order to avoid additional bloodshed. But students of cults point out that the group would have to abandon their core beliefs to come out willingly. Koresh taught that Armageddon was immanent when unbelievers would be destroyed and Jesus would rule the world. The group expected to be attacked in the “time of tribulation,” and they stockpiled weapons, including explosives and rocket launchers. The raid by ATF agents was the signal to them that Koresh was right and they were to fight to support God’s will and, if necessary, to die. Students of cults emphasize that when small groups become isolated from the rest of the society, especially when the leader emphasizes a message of “us versus them” to maintain his power over the group, there is the danger of such paranoia. Their dead members (some reports said ten) and the sight of hundreds of officers surrounding their compound is not likely to lessen the paranoia. After hearing that the group was armed with rockets, the officers brought in tanks for self-protection. One estimate says that the siege is costing the U.S. as much as one million dollars a day.
News sources have given contradictory information on the original time of the episode. A PBS news program reported some kind of action began at about 9:45 A.M. Newsweek and the first Los Angeles Times report estimated a time of about 9:30 A.M. for the beginning of the raid and the battle, approximately an hour after an ATF agent left the compound at 8:30. The Times and Newsweek also agreed that the shooting lasted for 45 minutes after which a cease fire let the ATF agents retrieve their dead and wounded and retire to a greater distance from the compound. A later Times report put the beginning of the shoot-out at 10 A.M. and said that it lasted nearly an hour. A CNN report mentioned 9:55 for its beginning.
If the shoot-out started about 9:25, Uranus and Neptune would be on the MC. Their conjunction, which will be exact three times this year, fits the situation of an atypical religious faith which is at odds with the society—in this case, in open rebellion. But there ought to be aspects between the angles and asteroid Davida in light of the name of the group and the self-selected name of the leader. At 9:56, just a minute after CNN’s reported time, the MC squared H Davida and the Ascendant opposed G Davida, so I think that this is one of the crucial times for the episode. If it is the end of the shooting and the beginning of the negotiations, and if the firing lasted forty five minutes, the beginning would have been at 9:11 A.M. At that time, H Davida opposed the Texas Ascendant and was quincunx the Washington Ascendant. The Texas Antivertex started a quincunx to G Davida just a couple of minutes later. The Texas MC was also on the Sun-Neptune-Uranus conjunction in the E-M chart with the E-M Mars on the IC of the Cult battle chart. This timing puts H Davida on the Descendant for the beginning and G Davida on the Descendant for the end of the shooting.
However, if 9:56 A.M. was the beginning of the battle, the end could be anywhere from 10:40 to 11:30 A.M. A chart for 10:43 puts the Texas East Point opposite G Davida and the Washington Antivertex opposite G Davida. Maybe one of our Texas subscribers has more exact times on the episode.
Jill, my previously credited New York source of information, gave me the original name of David Koresh—Vernon Wayne Howell, so I was able to do his numerology. The full name of Jim Jones was dominated by “1”s and “5”s. Howell’s full name is totally dominated by “5”s. He has 8 of them: 3 ‘e’s, 3 ‘n’s, and 2 ‘w’s. I associate number 5 with Leo, and Koresh’ position of leadership, his teaching, as well as his emphasis on sex and children are all associated with Leo and/or a strong Sun or fifth house. Jim Jones also claimed the right to have sex with any member of his group. He had Sun in Taurus in the fifth house. Rajneesh encouraged sexual freedom until AIDS appeared on the scene and then he shifted to abstinence. Most numbers are present once in Howell’s name though he has two ‘3’s and two ‘6’s. There are no ‘2’s in his name, the number of cooperation.
Turning to a far more important person, I have previously discussed the charts of the Clintons but in view of the escalating Balkan crisis, I think it would be worthwhile to look at Bill Clinton’s chart calculated for Belgrade, Serbia. It clearly shows the bind he is in. P Jupiter is on his Belgrade MC within the one-degree orb allowed in progressions, and it holds a long square to natal Saturn in the local seventh house. Ceres in the first house completes a T-square. The seventh house can be manifested as partners or as open enemies and the Saturn square to Jupiter and the local MC certainly looks more like the latter. Clinton is truly idealistic with his tight natal Mars conjunct Neptune and the MC-Jupiter shows that he would like to “save” the Bosnians, but the Earth-Mars chart looks more like an escalating crisis this spring. It would be quite possible for the Serbs to agree to a division of Bosnia into small pieces but then to refuse to give up their weapons and to continue to destroy the Moslems until the U.S. and Europe cannot handle it any longer and start dropping bombs. In time for the N.Y. bomb, Clinton’s P Moon is now joining in the T-square mentioned above conjunct Ceres, square P Jupiter and opposite Saturn. In the spring and summer it will square P Mars and oppose Mercury and P Saturn. He took on an awesome job when he ran for President!
As a reminder of the complication that private individual Slavs in former U.S.S.R. Republics are supporting Serbia, Clinton has his P Moskva (Moscow) and P Ukraine on his Belgrade MC. A triple conjunction of P Icarus, P Srbija, and P Pallas is approaching Clinton’s Belgrade Ascendant. P Guernica and P Slavia are conjunct each other and the Belgrade Part of Death. Natal Karma and Beograd are conjunct in the Belgrade eighth house. P Karma has moved beyond the one-degree orb but it has moved into a square to P Winchester. P Williams holds a continuing opposition to P Uranus though this could fit any of the monstrous problems faced by Clinton. As a timer of some kind of action, Clinton’s Belgrade P MC will conjunct P Croatia in the spring of 1993—about the time the E-M chart shows major events and while Clinton’s P Moon is still in the fixed cross. I trust that those who believe in prayer have the Clintons on their list.
Stop the Presses!!! As this was about to go to the printer, Lois Rodden gave me the birth date of David Koresh, including the birth time within an hour or two. According to his grandmother, she took his mother to the hospital in Houston, TX between 7 and 8 AM on September 15, 1959, and the baby was born “soon afterwards.” 9 AM plus or minus a couple of minutes gives dynamite angle aspects, including P local Ascendant on P Davida. P Mercury is on natal Davida in the first house even if the time is not exact. If this birth time is accurate, P Mars has been progressing over the local Ascendant for several years and is now on David’s birthplace Ascendant. P Moon is trioctile natal Mars, square the natal Part of Death as well as quincunx P Part of Death and the Antivertex to form a yod. P East Point is conjunct Icarus and opposite Phaethon—our two major keys to overreach. P MC is conjunct Pluto and opposite the Moon. P L MC is conjunct Fanatica and P Siva and square P Jupiter. P MC in Washington D.C. is conjunct natal Sun. P Juno is conjunct natal Washington Ascendant. All of the preceding angles are, of course, dependent on an accurate birth time.
By now, readers know that Winchester is associated with guns. David Koresh has P Winchester on natal Sun and P Sun octile natal Winchester! Remember, all asteroid aspects are exact within one degree.
There is so much in the chart, it could fill a book. Some of the other horoscopes discussed in this issue of Asteroid-World have had Juno on the Ascendant. If this birth time is accurate, David joins the club. The more I work with Juno, the more it looks like Pluto. David’s East Point is on Neptune for ideals and Pallas for social causes. In this case, it points to a religious cause that became highly destructive. The first house Neptune fits both David’s original goal of becoming a musician and his eventual identification as God or as the Son of God. Jupiter in the first house for the 9 AM birth time repeats the danger of personal inflation, and P Ascendant on Jupiter brings it into current action. Chiron, our little brother to Jupiter, was also prominent with a square to Jupiter which shows some kind of religious conflict, a quincunx to the Sun, and a trioctile to Mars. P Chiron retrograded back to hold a long conjunction with the Part of Death and an exact quincunx to the Sun.
In astrology, the Sun symbolizes the ego - our ability to be proud of ourselves, our self-esteem, our capacity to achieve recognition from others and power over them. David’s total power over the group, his sexual excesses, including a claim on all the females in the cult, some as young as 12 years old, his drive to be a star, all point to major issues around the ego. In addition to the aspects already mentioned, David’s natal Sun was conjunct asteroid King, beautifully symbolic of his power in the group. It was also square his Antivertex and octile Neptune, East Point, and Pallas. His battle aspects include conjunctions to his Sun by P Winchester (guns), P Starr (again dramatically appropriate -our sun is a star) , P Darwin (jungle type survival of the fittest), the Arabic Part of Uranus (for rebellion, unexpected changes, explosions, etc.), and his P MC calculated for Washington D.C. P Neptune maintains a lifetime octile to his Sun and P Icarus was on the Antivertex square his Sun. P Lucifer and P Chiron hold long quincunxes to the Sun to form a yod. Natal Lucifer was exactly on the Descendant. I have only scratched the surface of this chart. The sheer quantity of meaningful asteroids suggests that the influence of David Koresh will extend far beyond this standoff near Waco Texas.