Timing the Shooting

This is the kind of stuff that keeps astrologers awake nights.

Whenever there is any sort of major event, one of my very first instincts as an astrologer, is to ask – do we have an exact time? Can we get a timed chart of that?

One of the main rules of astrology timing, is that any major event should show multiple significant correlations pointing at the event, and the more major the event, the more correlations there should be.

Another main rule is that the angles – the Ascendant and Descendant, Midheaven and IC – are the places of action, so that an event timing should show significant planetary triggers at angles.

These correlations should not be subtle – they should be significant, redundant, and tight. In your face.

With the mass shooting that took place in Las Vegas last Sunday, we have a very exact time – news sources say that the call to the police dispatcher was at 10:08 pm, so the shooting must have started a few minutes before that. I am using 10:05 pm.

Yesterday, word came out that we have a reliable timed birth chart for the shooter, Stephen Paddock. The astrodienst site gives his birth time as April 9, 1953, at 11:05 am in Clinton, Iowa, and cites reference to a birth certificate, which is considered the highest level of reliability.

What I want to share here is just a couple of the most striking of the correlations that I found, analyzing this data in the light of the traditional timing techniques that I use. In the last couple of charts that I will present here, they are tight enough to be kind of spooky, and I felt shivers down my spine when I saw them.

This is the natal chart of the shooter, Stephen Paddock.

There is far more going on in this chart than I could possibly look at in a brief blog post like this. For our purposes, I want to point out that there are two very nasty oppositions in this chart, and oppositions are aspects that are tense and potentially explosive.

First, we have the natal Sun up in Aries, loosely conjunct Venus, and those two planets are in opposition to Saturn and Neptune in Libra. These planets are in the strong and angular 10th and 4th houses, so they are prominent, visible and active. The Sun – Saturn opposition is particularly nasty since the reception between them is very bad – the Sun is in the sign of Saturn’s fall, and Saturn is in the sign of the Sun’s fall – you could describe this as saying the two planets despise each other. Oppositions are difficult, and the bad reception makes it a lot worse. This opposition is in a tight square to the Ascendant, which makes it stronger yet.

The other opposition is between the natal Moon, which is Aquarius in the 8th house, and Pluto in Leo in the second house. Eighth house planets typically are difficult to express or control. The Moon is particularly important since it rules Cancer, which is the Ascendant in this chart. Also, the Moon in Aquarius is ruled by Saturn, which is in that Sun – Saturn opposition we mentioned above.

Keep those two oppositions in mind.

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There are four main timing techniques that I use in analyzing charts, and I am going to look at three of them here. (The fourth technique is primary directions – there were numerous correlations in the directions that tied in with this event, but it is beyond the scope of this article to cover them here).

First, there is the solar return chart, the chart of the time when the Sun exactly returns to its natal position. Traditionally the birth location is used for the solar return chart. This is the chart of Paddock’s solar return for this year, 2017.

First, note that the Ascendant axis of the chart is Sagittarius and Gemini – this means that those two signs are particularly activated this year. That will end up being very important later.

Note that we have Saturn rising in this chart, which means that Saturn is likely to be an important planet this year, and that activates the potential of the natal Saturn, including the opposition.

The ruler of the solar return ascendant is Jupiter – and Jupiter in the solar return is in tight opposition to the natal Sun in Aries – so that activates the Sun – Saturn opposition in the natal. Jupiter, ruler of the Ascendant in the solar return, is sitting right on top of Saturn and Neptune in the natal chart.

Also, in this solar return Uranus is in Aries conjunct the Sun – so Uranus in the solar return is sitting right on top of the Saturn – Neptune conjunction in the natal. That is strong, and explosive.

So the Sun/Venus opposition to Saturn/Neptune is activated in a couple of ways here in the solar return.

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Next I want to look at the profected chart for Paddock for this year. Profection is a simple predictive technique where the chart is moved forward by one sign a year. In its simplest, just the Ascendant is moved, but it is also common to move all of the elements in the chart forward a sign a year. You then note what signs the various planets are in, what dignity they have in those signs, and what natal houses those signs correspond to.

This is Paddock’s profected chart for 2017.

There are two things I want to point out here.

First, note that the Sun/Saturn opposition has moved to Aquarius/Leo – so it is sitting right on top of the Moon/Pluto opposition in the natal chart. The two oppositions are coinciding here.

Also note that the profected Moon/Pluto opposition has moved to Gemini/Sagittarius – which are the signs along the Ascendant/Descendant axis in the solar return chart. The Moon in Gemini is considered to be debilitated since it is in the 12th sign from its home sign of Cancer, and it falls in the twelfth house in Paddock’s natal chart – twelfth house is related to self-undoing.

Note that the profected Moon is at 22 Gemini.

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This next chart is of the time of the shooting, October 1 at 10:05 pm.

Note that the Ascendant of the chart is 21 Gemini – again the Gemini/Sagittarius axis which we saw in the solar return chart.

Most ominously, note the position of Saturn – at 22 Sagittarius, it is sitting right on the Ascendant/Descendant axis at the moment of the shooting.

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This next chart is a biwheel, which has the chart of the shooting in the center, and the profected chart of the year in the outer ring.

Note that the Moon/Pluto opposition in the profected chart sits right on top of the Ascendant/Descendant axis at the time of the shooting.

Also note that the Moon at the time of the shooting is at 25 Saturn – on the profected Sun/Saturn opposition, which coincides with the natal Moon/Pluto opposition.

There is one final chart I want to look at here. I also use secondary progressions, and this biwheel has the shooting chart in the inner wheel, and the progressed chart for the time of the shooting in the outer wheel.

Note that the progressed Sun is at 21 Gemini – right on the Ascendant at the time of the shooting – right on the profected Moon – and opposite Saturn at the time of the shooting. The progressed Sun to transiting Saturn replicates the Sun Saturn opposition in the natal, and sits on the profected Moon/Pluto opposition.