(Editor's
note: On May 11 the planet Mars turned retrograde and the government announced a 30-day delay of the execution
due to the discovery of FBI documents that were not shared with McVeigh's
defense team. The opposition from Uranus to McVeigh's birth Jupiter on
May 16, the original execution date, will remain in effect until late
July.)
Timothy McVeigh
killed 168 innocent people—men, women and children—in the worst terrorist
act in U.S. history. He has no remorse, referring to the dead children
as "collateral damage," and said in a biography written by two reporters,
he wished he could have leveled the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma
City.
On May 16,
Timothy McVeigh will be executed by lethal injection at the federal prison
in Terra Haute, Indiana. The execution will be broadcast over closed circuit
television for viewing by 250 relatives of the victims. About 1,300 reporters
are expected to converge on the prison to cover the execution, and 400
law enforcement officers are scheduled to be on duty around the prison
grounds.
Despite the
monstrous indifference McVeigh shows toward the victims of his own acts,
he claims that what motivated him was sympathy for the victims of the
U.S. government—those killed by government agents at Ruby Ridge and the
Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas. Can such twisted reasoning be
explained astrologically? Is there a star pattern in his horoscope that
can provide some explanation?
Sun
and Mercury in Taurus
McVeigh
was born on April 23, 1968, in Lockport, New York at 8:30 am. Both the Sun and Mercury are in tight conjunction in the fixed earth sign of Taurus.
When Mercury, the planet of thinking and communicating, is that close
to the Sun, it is said to be "combust," indicating that the
individual's reasoning processes may be blinded to objective reality by
the ego needs of the Sun. Placed in the fixed sign of Taurus, the Sun
and Mercury also form fixed ideas that once formulated can be clung to stubbornly, to the point of obsession in some cases.
McVeigh's
Moon is located in Pisces in the Tenth House. Pisces is the sign of compassion
and meditation on the plus side, and delusion and confusion on the negative
side. In itself, McVeigh's Pisces Moon indicates a highly impressionable
personality. The Moon receives an opposition from Pluto and Uranus which
are conjunct in Virgo in the Fourth House—the sector of the chart related
to the psychological impact of childhood and the past. This indicates
a turbulent home life during childhood that probably had a traumatic effect
on his emotions.
So far we
have a picture of an individual with an impaired emotional life, who,
with Mercury and Sun in Taurus may have a tendency to hold obsessive ideas.
While Mercury is in charge of thinking and communicating, ideas and ideology
are the province of Jupiter. Let's take a look at McVeigh's Jupiter to
see if we can learn what his beliefs were.
Of
Heroes and Kings
Jupiter,
the planet that helps us form our beliefs, is in Leo, the sign of heroes
and kings, possibly pointing to a need to believe in the self as someone
heroic, echoing Mercury's tight conjunction with the Sun. Jupiter is under
considerable stress caused by square aspects from Neptune in Scorpio and
Mars in Taurus. Jupiter is actually the apex planet in what is known as
a t-square formation.
A t-square
creates a dynamic structure within the personality that can become the
dominant overriding force that drives the individual. The apex planet
is the outlet for the formation, and can be the most important planet
in the horoscope.
In this case,
Jupiter is influenced by Neptune in eye-for-an-eye Scorpio. McVeigh's
belief system was tinged with Neptunian fantasies of revenge for perceived
wrongs whether real or imagined. Neptune and Jupiter together prompted
Mars in Taurus to take action based on potentially delusional misperceptions.
McVeigh's
Mars also receives favorable 120 degree trine aspects from Pluto and Uranus
in Virgo. Remember Uranus and Pluto oppose his Moon, creating extreme
emotional stress. Uranus is revolutionary and rebellious while Pluto,
ruler of Scorpio, wants vengeance, reform and change. The Pluto-Uranus
combination can be a highly volatile combination, and would only encourage
Mars to take whatever action is deemed necessary in order to relieve the
emotional stress of the Moon.
A
Twisted Idealogue
Whatever
name comes to mind when you think of McVeigh—monster, mass murderer, psychopath—if
you really stop to think about it, perhaps "twisted ideologue"
is more accurate, since his actions were based on the belief that the
U.S. government had become oppressive. In an interview on 60 Minutes
last year, McVeigh said he became disillusioned with the U.S. government
while he was serving in the Gulf War, asking himself whether he was doing
the right thing "to come over to this persons' country and kill him?
How did he ever transgress against me?"
Disillusion
often comes with transits of Saturn, the planet of reality. In 1991, as
Saturn in Aquarius squared his Taurus Sun and Mercury, McVeigh was discharged
from the Army early. He had tried and failed to qualify for the Special
Forces, clearly a blow to his heroic self concept. Disillusionment with
the government grew with the deaths at Ruby Ridge and Waco. In March 1993,
while transiting Saturn still in Aquarius opposed his natal Jupiter and
squared natal Neptune, McVeigh actually went to Waco and stood outside
the police cordon around the Branch Davidian Compound. After the siege
in which 70 people were killed McVeigh said he was "shaken, angered
that that could happen in this country, where our core beliefs are freedom
and liberty."
Two years
later, on April 19, 1995, when transiting Saturn, now in Pisces, opposed
his natal Pluto in Virgo and sextiled his angry Mars, McVeigh, with the
help of his friend Terry Nichols built a truck bomb that McVeigh now admits
he drove to the Murrah Building. By now McVeigh had become a hero in his
own mind, striking back on behalf of helpless victims of an "oppressive"
government, and as a result 168 innocent Oklahomans lost their lives.
Execution
Day
When the
state of Indiana delivers the lethal injection into McVeigh's body on
May 16, transiting Uranus will oppose McVeigh's misguided Jupiter. Jupiter
is often activated at the time of death, indicating a sudden final release
from the Earth plane. This transit gives weight to those who say McVeigh's
wish to be executed rather than spend life in prison should not be granted
because it will release him from further punishment.
Finally,
as the media circus surrounding the event unfolds that day, the transiting
Sun will be in opposition to McVeigh's natal Neptune in Scorpio and his
misconstrued existence (Sun) will come to an earthly end by means of intravenously
delivered drugs (Neptune).
Society will
have exacted a punishment to fit the crime, but with a televised execution,
and some even attempting to have coverage of the execution disseminated
over the Internet, or on national television, it will be a day calling
not for blood and exploitation, but for reason and introspection.
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