cho

Cho Seung Hui

The Sexually Repressed Outsider

The asteroid Juno plays a critical role in the timing and underlying psychology of this troubled student. Cho's Juno is found at 3º Taurus, exactly opposite his Mars-Pluto. Juno's function in the chart is to seek out committed partnerships, but in the process, the desire for social equality and fairness is paramount. And when afflicted by Mars and/or Pluto, Juno can become enraged by perceived injustices. Then she becomes the avenging Storm Goddess.

By transit on April 16, Juno was at 18º Libra, where she activated the U.S. progressed Mars* at 18º Libra. Because this Mars recently turned retrograde, it's become extra potent, and any major transit to this point can unleash an act of terrorism or extreme violence. In addition to Juno, transiting Saturn was at 18º Leo, with transiting Jupiter at 19º Sagittarius also a factor.

A Mars-Pluto aspect in a man's chart often reflects an intense, almost overwhelming sex drive. Since Cho also has Saturn in Scorpio, this drive was repressed, hidden away. Saturn quncunx (150º) the North Node may also indicate sexual abuse from trusted elders. In general, Saturn represents our ability to get along with the consensus reality, but on April 16, transiting Chiron in socially-aware Aquarius was exactly squaring his Saturn, reflecting his sense of being sexually wounded, and being an outsider.

Flashback: The Colmbine Massacre

excerpts from NewsScope for April 26, 1999

Natural Born Killers

The two boys who stormed the Colorado’s Columbine High School last week had fed their psyches on a steady stream of violent media, including Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, the Basketball Diaries which featured a trenchcoat killer played by Leo DiCaprio, and the gory video game Doom.

Astrologically, this thunderbolt to America’s homeland was clearly foreshadowed by a planetary confluence around the powerful angles of the U.S. horoscope. The murderous rampage came only one day after the deadly Mars-Saturn opposition aligned with the U.S. Scorpio Ascendant. On the day of the shooting (Hitler’s birthday, April 20) the Great Awakener Uranus was also exactly on the U.S. fourth house cusp, the gateway to America’s domestic political climate.

While the shocking savagery of last week’s event was a clear manifestation of angry masculine planets, the feminine planets and asteroids also played a major part in the action. The U.S Ceres, which governs the parent-child relationship, has been under stress for the last year from transiting Pluto, the planet of death and regeneration. Across America people are wondering what went wrong in the families that created such monstrous children.

Eric Harris (April 9, 1981; 9:37 pm; Pittsburgh) was born with his combative Aries Sun square Ceres, indicating a family environment that promoted paramilitary attitudes. Dylan Klebold (September 11, 1981; 9:11 am; Denver) was born with his service-oriented Virgo Sun conjunct Ceres, which can also be interpreted as a family background devoted to military service, especially since his Mars is in proud and defiant Leo.

The central polarity in Eric Harris’s chart happens to perfectly align with America’s Juno-Chiron axis. Juno in the U.S. twelfth house feels like a social outcast, and by her opposition to an aggressive Aries Chiron (in the sixth house of public health and military service), tends to act out violently and irrationally. This planetary combination points to America’s violence as a national health crisis rooted in social envy and feelings of isolation and abandonment.

Social Outcasts

Astrologers looking at the horoscopes of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold will find signatures indicating a dysfunctional home combined with an active fantasy world and explosive rage. Both boys had severely afflicted Moons (emotional and family life): Harris with his Gemini Moon opposite Neptune and squaring Mercury was not living in the real world. Klebold’s Aquarius Moon feels unwanted and wounded by squaring his Uranus-Chiron opposition.

Harris, with his Aries Sun-Mars opposite Pluto, was a clear candidate for expressing vicious hostility against others. The Mars-Pluto combination by itself brings extreme acts of anger, as does Mars in Pluto’s sign Scorpio, or Mars tensely linked to Scorpio planets. Klebold’s Mars in Leo squared Juno in Scorpio, a combination that grows furious under peer group pressure.

Perhaps the most unexpected common element in these two charts is the prominence of Libra and Venus, the so-called Love planet. These boys belong to the generation born with Pluto in Libra, and so naturally are exceptionally intense about their peer relationships. And they both have Saturn in Libra, plus several other planets and asteroids in the sign of social acceptance. But these planets are all under severe stress, and social acceptance was too difficult to find.

Both boys have Venus-Pluto aspects. Kip Kinkel (b. August 30, 1982), who perpetrated High School assault in Oregon, also has a Venus-Pluto link, (plus Venus squaring ruthless Scorpio Mars). All three of these deranged teens became unbalanced by their Venus-Pluto aspects. At the time of last week’s shooting, transiting Venus and Pluto were opposing each other, and Juno, the most socially aware of the asteroids, was also conjunct Pluto.