A Birth Time for Koresh
Zip Dobyns
Our readers will remember that we had an approximate birth time for David Koresh which fit the tragic events of the Waco siege and massacre (Winter 1993 and Spring 1993 Asteroid-World). We now have what we hope is his precise birth time—8:49 A.M. Bonnie Haldeman got the time from Koresh’s mother and passed it on to Lois Rodden who sent it out in her monthly Data News. David’s mother was described as “hesitant” to give the time to an astrologer since she is a fundamentalist Christian and uneasy about astrology. It is tragic that one of our most useful gifts in our world should be so little understood and so often distorted and feared.
I had considered this time a strong contender when I was doing speculative charts on David but ended up choosing a time which put Mars in higher focus because of the guns, fire, and general violence in the episode. The 8:49 chart makes Saturn the most prominent planet. It is conjunct the IC and square the Ascendant. David’s move to the Waco area from his native Houston was just far enough to make the aspects exact to the degree from progressed Saturn. He certainly lived up to his potential for a struggle against the Law with drastic consequences. Instead of Mars being on the Ascendant, P Mars was on David’s Antivertex when the compound was burned and David shot to death with a bullet in the head. His P MC was still in orb of an octile to natal Vesta, and P local MC and P Ascendant along with P Juno were all octile natal Mars, P local Ascendant was octile natal Venus.
I also expected an aspect from one of the angles to David’s “name” asteroid—Davida. P local East Point conjunct it satisfies that expectation. P Davida was in 16 Scorpio 2 at the midpoint of Saturn and the local Ascendant, octile both and trioctile the local MC. P Themis (divine justice) shared the aspects at 15 Scorpio 9. P Moon squared both progressed MCs when David died and it was also opposite Neptune, trine Pluto, trioctile Vesta, and quincunx the north lunar node. Other planetary aspects were discussed in the earlier article, so this update is primarily to provide the accurate chart and to point out the appropriate angle aspects.