A Speculative Chart for the Unabomber
Zip Dobyns
The evidence in the media seems overwhelming that the FBI has finally caught one of the most wanted men in their history after the longest manhunt in their history, over 18 years. I'm sure our readers are familiar with the case, since it was extensively covered in all forms of the media. Theodore Kaczynski was born on May 22, 1942 in Chicago, IL. We have no birth time for him, but hope that an astrologer in the Chicago area will be able to track it down. TK (as I will call him to save spelling his name every time) was the oldest of two boys whose parents valued education and pushed them to excel in school. TK went to Harvard at the age of 16, and by 1967 he had earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Michigan. He taught very briefly at the University of California at Berkeley, and then disappeared from public life until his dramatic arrest on April 3, 1996. He had been living as a hermit in a home-made shack in the forest near Lincoln, MT without electricity or plumbing.
Meanwhile, the Unabomber started making headlines on May 25-26, 1976 when a home-made bomb left in a parking lot at the University of Illinois in Chicago exploded, injuring one person. Another bomb on May 9, 1979 injured someone at the Northwestern University Technological Institute near Chicago. On November 15, 1979, a bomb in the cargo hold of an American Airlines plane forced it to land at a Washington, DC airport. Twelve people suffered smoke inhalation. On June 10, 1980, the president of United Airlines was injured in his home in the Chicago area. On October 8, 1981, the University of Utah in Salt Lake City was the target, but no one was injured. On May 5, 1982, one person at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN was injured. The next victim was a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at U.C. Berkeley in CA on July 2, 1982. On May 15, 1985, another person was injured at UC Berkeley. On June 13, 1985, a bomb mailed to the Boeing Co. in Auburn, WA was discovered and safely disarmed. Two people were less lucky on November 15, 1985 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The first death occurred on December 11, 1985 when Hugh Scrutton was killed in Sacramento, CA. He had found the bomb near his computer rental store. Another injury came on February 20, 1987, again from a bomb left behind a computer store in Salt Lake City. By this time, the FBI had named the mysterious assailant the Unabomber, having recognized the pattern of attacking universities and airlines and modern technology. He was seen for the first time in Salt Lake City, and an artist's sketch was broadcast around the nation, apparently scaring him enough so there were no more attacks for six years. He struck again on June 22, 1993, injuring a geneticist at UC San Francisco with a bomb sent to his home. Just two days later, a Yale University computer scientist was injured in his office. The second death came on December 10, 1994 to Thomas Mosser, an advertising executive in North Caldwell, NJ. The third death was again in Sacramento, CA, the locale of the first fatality. On April 24, 1995, a bomb addressed to the former president of the California Forestry Association killed Gilbert Murray, the current president.. These dates and places are included in case any readers want to check the aspects and local houses in TK's chart. The current word is that he will be tried in Sacramento, the scene of two of the three deaths.
Up to this time, the FBI was empty-handed despite a special task force of dozens of men devoted to trying to track down the elusive killer. Apparently, the killer's ego was threatened by the huge publicity given to the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995. The next day, the serial terrorist sent letters to the New York Times, to two scientists, and to a Yale professor he had dismembered. In the notes, he complained about how hard he had to work at night and on weekends preparing dangerous mixtures. He taunted the FBI as “a joke.” And in the same month, he mailed the fatal bomb to the California timber lobbyist. In June, he threatened to blow up an airliner in Los Angeles as a “prank” to remind the public “who we are.” But his big mistake was sending his 35,000 word Manifesto in June to the Times and the Washington Post. He basically advocated a return to “wild nature” and threatened to kill again if his Manifesto was not published in one of the papers.
With considerable ambivalence on the part of the newspapers, his diatribe was published in September, seen by TK's brother's wife who called it to the attention of the brother, David. David was shocked to see the similarities in the Manifesto to his brother's ideas. Eventually, I think in January 1996, he went to the FBI. Wanda, the mother of the two brothers, was convinced that her beloved son, Ted, could not be the Unabomber and she turned over a large collection of TK's letters to the FBI, thinking that they would exonerate him. Instead, they added to the evidence against him. After some months of surveillance, the FBI arrested TK on April 3, 1996. In his cabin, they found what sounds like conclusive evidence against him, including the manual typewriter used to type the Manifesto, a completed bomb and another partly made along with material to make more, manuals describing how to make bombs, etc.
Though we do not have a birth time for Ted Kaczynski, his dramatic life should permit us to rectify the chart. To attempt a rectification from an unknown birth time, I start with secondary progressions, especially noting the P Moon. Two possibilities immediately appeared. P Moon could be conjunct P Mars for his arrest, or P Mars could be on N Moon for the recent years when the Unabomber killed two men, published his Manifesto, and was arrested. The latter choice would put many of TK's planets in the first four houses where we may focus on personal needs with less involvement with other people. A choice of early Taurus on the Ascendant puts Pluto in a lifetime square to it. Testing this time of 4:13 A.M. CWT provided appropriate aspects for the major events and also gave local angles in Montana which fit the situation. An MC of 18 Capricorn provided a quincunx to the Moon and P Mars, and the local Ascendant at Lincoln, MT would be 19 Pisces to form a double quincunx or yod. The chart must be called speculative, but it seems to work very well.
We can see the potential intellectual brilliance with the tight Uranus-Sun-Saturn conjunction in early Gemini and Mercury conjunct Jupiter later in Gemini. Pluto sextiles the early Gemini and the Moon sextiles Mercury. However, tension in personal relationships is suggested by Mars in Cancer square Venus in Aries, with both octile the early Gemini. Conflict between ideals and what is possible in the material world is often present with the nodes across Virgo/Pisces unless the person does something practical with the Virgo to make the world more ideal for the Pisces. Vesta as the ultimate Virgo asteroid opposite Chiron as an alternate for Jupiter gives us the same message. So does Neptune square Mercury. Neptune square Jupiter shows conflict within the area of beliefs, goals, and values. The individual may lack a clear faith or may be in conflict between head goals and heart goals. Chiron in the middle, octile both Jupiter and Neptune, repeats the theme of major issues in the area of faith, morals, ethics, etc.
Yet, in spite of the strong evidence for tensions involving beliefs, TK's chart shows a strong potential for arrogance, for the possibility that he believed he knew what was true and right, how the world ought to be. The identification with God can be experienced as “I ought to be perfect” which often leads to feeling we are never good enough. Or, at the opposite extreme, we can think we “are” God, know how things ought to be, and have the right and the power to make the world conform to our beliefs. Out of such feelings, we get gurus and religious fanatics. IF we have the approximately right birth time for him, TK has Venus as ruler of his Ascendant in the house of Pisces along with Aries, the sign of identity, and the two auxiliary Ascendants, the Antivertex and the East Point. Mercury, which rules the Gemini in the first house, is conjunct Jupiter. Chiron in Leo connects the ego to God as further support. Saturn in the first house is identified with the LAW, though as always we can manifest the principles in many ways. We may say “my will is law” and try to make the world conform, or we may say “the world has all the power. I might as well not try. I would just fail.” The Sun in the first house identifies with the King while the Sun on Saturn can say “My ego is Law.” Uranus added to the mixture can defy the world. “No one can tell me what to do.”
Obviously, a middle place is more comfortable and more effective. The Law is bigger than any individual. We should have our share of the power but not try to do it all. For the need to be perfect, my favorite motto (as regular readers know by now) is “I will be god tomorrow. Today it is OK to be human, on the way to perfection and enjoying the journey.”
In general, an excess of fire and air tend to be over-confident. TK has enough water to be empathic with Mars in Cancer, Juno in Scorpio, and Ceres and the south lunar node in Pisces, and he demonstrated this on occasion by making toys for kids. But by sending his bombs mostly to institutions or to men he did not know personally, he maintained the air detachment which let him turn his fire personal will against the world. Also, the south lunar node is initially a lesson, and if he is the Unabomber, TK flunked that one. The south node quincunx to Chiron adds to the theme of problems in the area of beliefs, and IF this birth time is right, P south node retrograded to hold a very long octile to the East Point, one of the keys to identity.
The extra asteroids are phenomenal, as usual, and only one-degree orbs are listed. Lincoln turned up within one degree of the MC I had chosen. CalTech, named for one of the most famous centers of technology, turned up on my selected Ascendant. Montana was on the local Antivertex. Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, was on the birthplace Antivertex along with Recha, which I am testing as a key to tolerance, a major issue for TK. P Recha is currently on the Ascendant square Pluto. You wonder if TK is capable of learning, or too arrogant? Additional support for this birth time comes from factors which are in more general use and which hold aspects to the angles. The East Point is on the midpoint of Saturn and the south lunar node, (using the calculations for the true node), I see that midpoint as a major key to lessons. The midpoint of Mars/Antivertex is on natal Uranus and Sun, repeating the potential for arrogance. Jupiter and the midpoint of Ceres and Neptune are on the Montana fourth house cusp, intensifying the mutable dilemma—ideals versus realism or conflicts between beliefs, ideals, ethics, etc.
As readers know, we have lots of asteroids for war and death. TK has Hela, a death goddess, on Chiron opposite Vesta. Libitina, another death goddess, is in 3 Capricorn trine the Ascendant and quincunx Pluto. P Uranus moved into a long-term quincunx to Libitina to form a yod with its potential for constant changes and separations. Natal Wisdom opposed Libitina, and P Mercury and P Ascendant are now in that aspect in 3 Cancer. P Fanatica has been retrograding over Libitina for some years, and is still within orb of the opposition to P Mercury. Hel, a third death goddess, was quincunx the Antivertex, Recha, and Nobel. P Hel is now octile P Chiron. Siva, Hindu god of destruction and creation, was on the Moon and P Mars while P Siva is now on the lunar node quincunx Vesta.
There are just too many to include all of the relevant asteroids. In spite of the impressive mythical and geographic asteroids, I think I am most blown away by the way the personal name ones work. TK's brother, David, was initially a supportive partner, helping TK buy his property in Montana and, along with their mother Wanda, sending money from time to time. They realize now, to their horror, that their financial support let TK buy the materials for the bombs and travel to other cities to mail them. But in the end, David felt morally obligated to tell the FBI of his suspicions that his brother was the Unabomber. Letters seven and eight in our astrological alphabet are the keys to partners, to close, lasting, cooperative peer relationships. However, these same parts of life can be manifested in competitive relationships and can become open enemies. In TK's chart, Juno, the marriage asteroid, is in Scorpio, and IF this birth time is right, it is in the seventh house so it connects the seven and eight sides of life. The asteroid Davida is on Juno, both natally and by progression!!! In the natal chart, they opposed Una which was rising in the first house. In the current progressions, they were quincunx P Saturn when David turned TK in to the authorities.
As our readers know, my son Mark Pottenger provides these asteroids to the astrological world. I keep a file of all 5,000 plus on my hard disk, but have a more workable 600 plus in a separate file for use on this type of unusual chart. Whenever I get the data for someone in the headlines, if I have time to work with the chart I check to see whether his or her personal name is included in the complete set. There is an asteroid named Theodora, so of course, I added it to my working file. I was traveling when the news broke about TK's arrest, so had done the tentative rectification of his birth time before I got home and was able to add Theodora to my list. It turned up in 19 Cancer 54, just a half degree beyond the one-degree orb I use to put it conjunct the fourth house cusp. If I added two minutes to the birth time I had picked, it would bring the IC to natal Theodora. But, there is another possibility. The April 22, 1996 issue of Newsweek had an excellent article describing TK's life. They reported that when he was just six months old he had a severe allergic reaction to medication and had to be hospitalized. He was isolated for several weeks, with his parents unable to see him or hold him. Family members have told the Feds that after this, the baby's personality seemed to go “flat,” He had previously seemed bubbly and vivacious. Skeptics doubt that such an experience could have a permanent effect on a baby, but psychologists consider it possible. My belief is that experiences can only bring out what is already potentially present in the individual. We can see the potential for the air and fire emphasis being bubbly and vivacious and we can see the problems with faith and the possibility of a retreat from others when the faith is shaken. Since the P MC moves one degree a year, this birth time would bring it to the opposition to Theodora at the age of six months.
P Theodora is even more dramatic. It was in 19 Leo 1 when TK was arrested, conjunct his Siva, Moon, P Mars, and P Berkeley. P America was just short of 18 Leo so it was also on the Moon and Siva. The P Moon in 11 Leo was conjunct Nemesis, the god who “got” you if you flouted Themis, the divine law. It was also square Juno and David, the brother who had been a partner. Natal Themis was on Neptune. P Themis was square P Jupiter, key to our judgment, which is based on our beliefs and ethics. Yes, there is more, but there is also a limit to the endurance of readers.
IF this birth time is close, TK's P Moon has just reached P Chiron as he is about to be moved from Montana where he has been held in jail to California where he is probably going to face trial. I had rarely dealt with the charts of lawyers until the recent OJ trial, but during that spectacle, I found Chiron prominent, supporting its association with the various potentials of Jupiter. One of those associations includes law courts, judgment, and justice. Until recently, TK had only been held in jail for possession of illegal bomb-making material. He will presumably be charged with murder while his P Moon is on P Chiron. The government will request the death penalty, and the case against him seems watertight. You wonder what he is thinking with that brilliant mind which went so far astray?
