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The Astrology of the Alabama Gunman

On March 10, 2009, Michael McLendon (4/11/1982, time unknown) went on a rampage in his home town of Kinston, Alabama, resulting in the death of eleven people including his grandmother, aunts and uncles. He killed his mother and her three dogs and then set the sofa on fire, an act of extreme rage. Although he left a “grudge list” of people that he felt had harmed him, none of those individuals were killed.

As in so many cases like this, people that knew McLendon have said he was a “quiet, very reserved individual.” But another report quoted a neighbor as saying that McLendon was always firing off guns and scaring his cows. Astrology can provide a clue into the underlying psychology behind these events now that we have a birth date for the shooter..

Michael McLendon was born when the Sun was in Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. Aries is the sign of initiation, of inspiration, and of warfare. Ruled by Mars, Aries individuals need to express themselves through acts of courage and independence and you can see in the little that is known about McLendon’s history that he tried to do just that. Graduating from high school he enlisted in the Marines, only to be discharged a month later for “fraudulent enlistment” (no details available).

The Sun in this chart was opposed by both Saturn and Pluto, the two planets of challenge, death and transformation. When Saturn is in a challenging aspect to the Sun there is a sense of isolation and loneliness, and Pluto in that position tends to create an intensity and a thirst for power that needs expression in some way. The combination of Saturn and Pluto in that position can be quite challenging. […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2009-03-17T08:22:07-04:00March 17th, 2009|Crime|Comments Off

My Mars Pluto Story

I hesitate to write this, because the transit of Pluto to my Mars is only at its midpoint now, but many of you have written and are curious to know my experiences so I’ll tell you what I’ve learned so far.

First let’s look at the players. Mars in the birthchart shows the way we express our desire nature. What we want, how we set boundaries to defend what we have, how our basic drives are expressed and what those drives desire. Pluto is often called the “higher octave” of Mars, because where Mars acts as the Will of the individual self, Pluto acts as the Will of the higher self. The outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, each is a higher octave of a personal planet and assists in the soul’s evolution of that personal planet. For example, Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, and takes the concept of learning and communication to a higher level.

When Mars and Pluto interact, either in the birthchart or by transit, on a transformational level we have the Will of the personal self colliding in some way with the Will of the higher self. Our individual desires are subsumed by the process of the soul’s evolution to take us on a path of growth rather than personal satisfaction. This can result in tremendous frustration and dissatisfaction, especially if Mars and Pluto are in stressful aspect in the birthchart, or if the individual is successful at aligning the individual Will with the higher self, there is a tremendous focusing of individual power.

Someone asked me yesterday, “how do we know that we have worked through our issues so that we get to the higher manifestation of the planets?” Our personal issues and personality […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2008-05-05T10:54:00-04:00May 5th, 2008|Astronomy|Comments Off

Pluto and Enhanced Interrogation Techniques

Posted by Dharmaruci

From the New York Times:

“The Justice Department has told Congress that American intelligence operatives attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use interrogation methods that might otherwise be prohibited under international law…

Determining the legal boundaries for interrogating terrorism suspects has been a struggle for the Bush administration.”

This is Pluto in Capricorn: setting the boundaries (Capricorn) around torture (Pluto). I think it’s also a measure of how hideous the present US administration is, that you end up with this sort of debate. It’s like something from a horror spoof.

But it’s no surprise given that the 2005 Presidential Inauguration chart has a Mars-Pluto in Sag conjunction in the 8th House: secret (8th House) torture (Pluto) in a war of ideologies (Mars in Sagittarius). The 8th House suggests that while practices like waterboarding are being publicly debated, the CIA under Bush may well be getting up to much worse stuff that the legal system never gets to hear about.

But at the same time, does the US do anything that other countries do not do? At least it is more out in the open and subject to public scrutiny, which I think is a good thing. Of course, it also means that some practices become formally legitimised and therefore more widespread. It’ll be the local police force wanting to use waterboarding next.

It was the Gestapo, incidentally, who came up with the term ‘Refined Interrogation Techniques’ as a euphemism for torture. The Bush administration also has ‘Special Methods of Questioning’, ‘Extraordinary Rendition’ (for kidnapping), ‘Sleep Management’ and ‘Stress Position’. The themes of political misuse of language and government control are central to George Orwell’s 1984, a book whose time may have come under Pluto in Capricorn. I’m not suggesting that society will end up fully like […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2022-10-15T13:31:29-04:00April 28th, 2008|Astronomy, Miscellany|Comments Off

Mars Back into Cancer Tomorrow

Mars, which had retrograded back into Gemini where warfare tends to be more verbal than physical, moves back into Cancer tomorrow. Mars has been in Cancer, where it is typically more hypersensitive and touchy, on and off since last November. Mars will make the final opposition to Pluto on March 6 and then move on to greener pastures.

While Mars is in Cancer, emotions are heightened and there is much more sensitivity evident in the world around us. Mars is said to be in its fall in Cancer and has difficulty expressing its warlike nature directly. Often anger and irritations tend to be suppressed and burst out inappropriately or with frustration.

Mars in Cancer also increases our drive to nurture, often through food, and to protect those less fortunate than ourselves, so we are likely to see a big push toward philanthropy over the next few months and perhaps an increased desire to feed the hungry. Sometimes our own frustration can masquerade as our frustration with the fates of others around us, and as with all water signs it can be somewhat difficult to know whose emotions are whose under this influence. Cancer’s main concern is with emotional security, and Mars in Cancer wants to erect solid boundaries with which to secure the heart.

Mars will not be interacting much with other planets until it opposes Jupiter in late April, so it will be acting pretty independently where it will stay out of trouble for the most part.

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By Lynn Hayes|2008-03-04T00:43:00-05:00March 4th, 2008|Astrology, Planetary cycles|Comments Off

It’s all about Mars

I’ve been feeling particularly Marsy today – snippy, irritated and generally difficult. Mars is approaching a square to my progressed Sun and I am really feeling it, and the upcoming New Moon in Aries will accentuate the influence of Mars which is currently in Pisces.

Evidently I’m not alone:

Elsa writes about drawing fire because of her Mars.

Susan writes about angry crusaders, and cites

Kathryn who connects Mars in Pisces with spirituality.

Meanwhile April and Jeffrey are having a Marsy Astroblogger Throw Down (® April Elliott Kent) over the ethics of celebrity blogging. I went over and threw a slug or two, be sure to read all the comments for a bit of fun. With Mars in Pisces you don’t really know who is throwing the punches, which makes it all the more exciting.

Mars demands that we access the aggression within us and give it a healthy outlet, so I went to the gym and pushed some heavy things around and felt better. Yoga is a good thing too since Mars in Pisces likes to hide its energy under a blanket of spiritual questing.

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By Lynn Hayes|2018-07-15T09:55:46-04:00April 15th, 2007|Planetary cycles|Comments Off