Recently I’ve seen an uptick in horary questions on the Let’s Fuck with Astrology subreddit (which is awesome – I’m glad that so many people seem to be curious about this!). For those unfamiliar with what horary astrology is here is a definition from Wikipedia (it’s less “wordy” than anything I tried to type up myself hahaha):
“Horary Astrology is an ancient branch of horoscopic astrology in which an astrologer attempts to answer a question by constructing a horoscope.”
So, essentially, what you do is you ask a question such as “will I get into university?” (or whatever) and then you cast the chart for the date, time, and location that the question was asked/came to your mind. The chart can, hopefully, answer the question in a direct yes or no way. One of the best ways to use horary astrology is for direct “yes” or “no” questions. If a client has a question like “will I get into university A or university B?” – questions where there is more than one “yes” or “no” thing to be answered in the question – I will break the question down to ONE thing. Even though they are asking about two different universities I will focus on university A (or university B) when casting the chart. **Another way to use horary astrology is when you’re looking for something that you’ve lost. That will be talked about in a different post**
Real Quick! For those of you who would rather watch stuff than read stuff, video incoming below:
In order to do horary astrology, you have to know WHAT houses to look at in a horary chart. For a question like the one above (“will I get into university?”), you would be looking at the Ascendant (which represents the querant) and the 9thHouse (which is the house where university and higher learning falls). It’s also important that you understand planetary rulerships, too. For this reason, below you will find a list of all of the houses (and the WHERE/areas of life under their domain)
*First House – sense of self, knee jerk reactions to the world, the vibe of the person *Second House – resources/money, values/self-value, security, stability, survival, where we are comfortable (or not!) *Third House – communication, basic learning (school), thinking, area that is local to you, logic & reason *Fourth House – home, family, private spheres of life, the deeply conscious *Fifth House – creative self-expression, risk taking (or not), leisure/hobbies, lighter side of sex and dating, where we create (this can include children) *Sixth House – work/work environment, daily routines/habits, health of the body & mind, real world, unequal relationships *Seventh House – relationships/partnerships of ALL varieties, legal contracts, balance (or lack thereof) *Eighth House – other people’s money/resources/values (or those that are shared), deep soul merging between two people, insecurity, instability, discomfort, inheritance (tangible & intangible), the bridge between the conscious & unconscious *Ninth House – understanding & assimilating information, higher learning (university, etc.), areas that are NOT local, abstract thinking, beliefs of all kinds *Tenth House – public spheres of life, career, reputation, goals & ambitions (or lack thereof) *Eleventh House – long term goals, hopes & wishes, influence, (career) legacy, what we share with other people, friends/groups/social & humanitarian causes *Twelfth House – health of the mind & spirit, release (what this house wants most of all), the unconscious/unseen, imprisonment (of all kinds), escape, spirituality **This above is in no means a complete list, lol, but it gives you an idea for the purposes of this blog post**
You also need to have a firm grasp on basic planetary rulership to do horary astrology. They are as follows: *Aries is ruled by Mars *Taurus is ruled by Venus *Gemini is ruled by Mercury *Cancer is ruled by the Moon *Leo is ruled by the Sun *Virgo is ruled by Mercury *Libra is ruled by Venus *Scorpio is ruled by Mars (traditional) & Pluto (modern) *Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter *Capricorn is ruled by Saturn *Aquarius is ruled by Saturn (traditional) & Uranus (modern) *Pisces is ruled by Jupiter (traditional) & Neptune (modern) **Specifically in horary, I’d focus more on traditional than modern rulership (since the traditional ruling planets move faster than the modern ones)**
….and just throwing this out there: if you want to REALLY learn the language of astrology (for horary astrology purposes, general astrology purposes, etc.), check out The Star Cards! Also, if you ever want me to read for you (a horary question, a regular astrology chart reading, whatever), you can get a reading from me by clicking on this text.
Some simple guidelines that I follow when I do horary astrology for clients and friends: (this is not a complete list AT ALL 🤣 but it’s pretty good and gets the highlights across)
Focus on the Ascendant (the querant) and the planetary ruler of the Ascendant. The other part of the equation is the house with which the question deals. If you’re asking about money, you would probably look at the 2nd House (and planetary ruler(s)). Asking about marriage? You would look at the 7th House (and planetary ruler(s)). Focus on looking for an aspect between these two planets. -If there are two rulers of one (or both!) of the houses that you’re considering with your question, focus on traditional rulership first. If there is no aspect made between the traditional rulership planets, then I would extend that to look at modern rulership (should that exist).
Planets applying in a trine or a sextile are thought of as a “yes.” Planets applying in a square or opposition are thought of as a “no.” Planets applying in a conjunction could be a “yes” or a “no” (though, generally speaking, I find them to be a “yes” more often than not). -While the quincunx isn’t a major aspect, I think of planets applying in a quincunx as EITHER adjustments need to be made OR “ask again later.”
Aspects between planets only matter when they are applying. An aspect can be considered applying anywhere from 0° to 29° of a sign. Orbs don’t matter as much in horary. For instance, in horary astrology Venus at 3° Sagittarius can be considered applying in a trine with Mars at 26° Aries. Another example is Mars at 17° Sagittarius and Venus at 21° Aries. Since Venus is the faster moving planet
If the Moon is void of course, I won’t fuck with it (lol). When the Moon is void of course things don’t always go “as planned.” The energy can be “off,” and things might not make as much sense. It can also translate as there won’t be much that comes of the question, or it might not really matter. I tend to think of the Moon void of course in a horary chart as a magic 8 ball saying “ask again later.”
The Moon is always co-ruler in a horary chart. The Moon can be used to reinforce (or not!) the answer that you get from looking at aspects between the planets in question. For instance, the Moon making an applying trine to the ruler of the 9th House (from the example question of getting into university), that would back up a “yes” answer that was already seen via the rulers of the Ascendant and 9th House making a harmonious/”yes” aspect.
Finding Pluto and/or Mars in the 1st House will back up an already found “no” answer. Finding Venus and/or Jupiter in the 1st House can back up an already found “yes” answer. Finding these planets in the 1st House very rarely gives the “yes” or “no” answer in total.
Retrograde planets don’t automatically mean a “no” answer. I only bring this up because I’ve seen it different places that when you have a retrograde chart ruler/planetary ruler of the Ascendant (or whatever), it means that the answer is a “no.” I haven’t found this to be the case. I have found, however, that retrograde planets ruling one of the important houses in a horary chart can point towards a “yes” or a “no” answer to take a little longer to play out in real life.
Planets that are “domicile” or “exalted” are strengthened while planets that are in “detriment” or “falls” tend to be weakened. I tend to look at this in horary as “strengthening” or “weakening” the “yes,” “no,” or “ask again later” quality of the answer that comes up.
This is one of the MOST important things (and will greatly “simplify” how you find an answer): Go into the reading with a strategy in mind. In the example question “will I get into university” (chart pictured below), I am the Ascendant (and planetary ruler of the Ascendant) since I’m asking the question. The 9th House (and planetary ruler) represent the university part of the question. I am going into this reading looking for aspects between the planetary ruler of the Ascendant and the planetary ruler of the 9th House.
In the chart above, you will see that I (the querent) am the Capricorn Ascendant with Saturn at 27° Pisces in the 3rd House. The 9th House (university) is in Virgo and its planetary ruler is Mercury at 0° Scorpio in the 10th House. The Moon (co-ruler of the chart) is at 8° Aries in the 3rd House. Mercury (the faster moving planet out of Mercury and Saturn) is making an applying trine with Saturn. The applying trine between the two planets would indicate to me that the answer to this question is a “yes.” Because Saturn is retrograde, it could indicate that it might take a little longer for me to get into university (or something like that), or for this to play out in real life.
There are a couple of other things to mention with horary:
If you are doing horary astrology on behalf of someone else, you want to use the time, date, and location of where YOU (the reader) were when you first understood a question was being asked.
Some astrologers feel like if you are running a horary chart for someone else, that the “someone else” asking the question should be represented by the Descendant (since the 7th House is the house that deals with the concept of “the other”…among other things). I personally DON’T subscribe to this way of doing horary astrology (it’s totally fine if it’s your jam to do this and it works for you – not knocking it 🤣). The way I think of it is if the question didn’t initially come organically from me and my mind, then the other person asking the question is still the querent meaning they should still be represented by the Ascendant and the 1st House planetary ruler/chart ruler. The other person is still the one ASKING the question, I’m just the astrologer translating it.
This is my personal preference as a practitioner, but I will ask ONE horary question at a time about the same subject. In the example of getting into a university, let’s say there are multiple universities that I’m curious if I will get into. I would ask about university A first. Then a day later (or whatever) I would ask about university B (and so on).
Recently I did a YouTube video with Brandy on the Astrology Surrounding the Disappearance of Amy Bradley (make sure to like and subscribe 🤣!) on March 24, 1998 from the Rhapsody of the Seas cruise ship between Aruba & Curacao in the Caribbean. People left comments on the video wanting to see the other charts for her last time seen – in the video we only covered the astrology chart for the 3:40 am chart which was the last time she was recorded (via keycard) entering her hotel/cabin room. So…. I figured I’d do a blog post covering ALL of the charts (and explain our reasoning for NOT looking at the 5:20 am or 6:00 am charts).
Backstory – Amy Bradley and her family were on a cruise vacation in March 1998, going from island to island in the Caribbean. The so-called “formal night” on the ship was March 23, 1998 (everyone getting dressed up for dinner and then partying late …. or that’s how I interpret the events of that night). Amy and her brother Brad were up late dancing and partying, not returning to their room until 3:35 am (Brad) and 3:40 am (Amy) on March 24th. The reason that THIS chart was focused on in the YouTube video is because THIS is the only chart with a “recorded” time (all the others are approximations). She and her brother are said to have gone out on the balcony for a while to talk and smoke cigarettes once they arrived back to the cabin. Sometime between 5:15 and 5:30 am (not timestamped) Amy’s father woke up and saw her sitting in a chair on the balcony (but only saw her hips and legs). He didn’t think anything of this and went back to sleep. Then, at 6:00 am, her father woke up and realized that Amy was no longer on the balcony, and she wasn’t in the room with the rest of the family, either. He started looking for her in the common areas of the ship, couldn’t find her, and woke up the other family members around 6:30 am to let them know that Amy was missing. This was reported to the ship’s security around 7:00 am – the family pushed to have an alert about her missing to go out over the ship’s PA system, but they refused to do it this early (felt it was too early to make an announcement and it could have been seen as intrusive to other guests). The ship was docking into Curacao around this time and people were starting to exit the ship for the day. It wasn’t until 12:15 that a search of the ship was conducted (to which they came back not finding Amy). FBI agents from a field office in St. Thomas weren’t able to board the ship for a day or so, and by then the family’s cabin room had been cleaned (causing any evidence of ANYTHING to be gone). She has never been found (though there were several supposed sightings in the late ‘90s and early 2000’s on different islands in the Caribbean).
There are several theories that people have about what happened to her: -She fell overboard sometime between 5:15 and 6:00 am after getting sick/needing to puke after a night of partying -She committed suicide -She vanished on her own volution -She was locked out on purpose and tried to climb over the railing to a neighboring cabin balcony -She was abducted and sold into something like sex-slaveryOriginally when I saw the episode on her case about 15 years ago on Disappeared (lol in the YouTube video I said the episode was on Forensic Files – it wasn’t 😅) I thought “oh, she jumped or fell overboard.” But….looking at these charts, neither Brandy or myself felt that this was an accident OR a suicide. **Yes, Uranus is in the 1st House of the chart below (which can point towards something accidental happening), but in the case of this chart and the contacts that Uranus is making with other planets, it seems to us that there were other people than JUST Amy involved in her disappearance. ***I’m not going to recount EVERYTHING about the 3:40 am chart in the blogpost below (please DO watch the video because we go into more detail about THIS chart than I will do here). What I say about this chart in the post will be the quick and dirty version.
In the chart above, we have the Ascendant in Aquarius, and the chart rulers are Saturn (by traditional rulership) in Aries in the 3rd House and Uranus (by modern rulership) in Aquarius in the 1st House conjunct the Ascendant. All of these are representative of Amy at 3:40 am on March 24, 1998, along with the Moon (in Aquarius in the 1st House conjunct the Ascendant and Uranus) which is always co-ruler of an event chart like this. This shows Amy in an environment that was comfortable to her/her “territory” (Moon and one of the chart rulers in the 1st House). This also shows her “on the move” with Saturn in the 3rd House in Aries (though, Saturn is not “well placed” in Aries…where it is in fall). This makes sense because she was “on the move” coming back to her cabin on the boat. On the other end of things, we have the 7th House in Leo with the Sun in Aries (exalted, which means it’s “exaggerated” or “strong”) in the 2nd House applying in a conjunction with Saturn. I mention the 7th House because this is where you look for the perpetrator (if there is one) along with things like the catalyst and/or cause of the death or disappearance. The Sun makes an applying conjunction with Saturn AND an applying sextile with BOTH Uranus and the Moon – THIS is what tells Brandy and me that this wasn’t a suicide and there WAS some other involvement by someone else. Oftentimes in suicide cases you won’t see any aspects between the rulers of the 1st and 7th Houses. The 7th House ruler in the 2nd House can oftentimes point towards a “robbery” or even an abduction – something was taken from the person (or the person was taken). This tells us that the other person/people involved in this were not “helping” her to leave of her own free will. -There is also the concept of “interference” in this chart. The Sun is in an applying conjunction with Saturn, but Mars and Mercury are between them…so the exact conjunctions between the Sun and Mars, and the Sun and Mercury, will happen before the conjunction between the Sun and Saturn. The exact trine between the Sun and Pluto in Sagittarius in the 10th House would also happen before the Sun’s exactitude with Saturn. This makes us think that there were probably other people beyond one perpetrator involved in all of this – almost like she was passed from person to person OR there were many people involved in her disappearance (as the ball was rolling). –These “interference” planets ALL have ties to sex in this chart. Mars can absolutely be something sexual expressed. Mercury, while not normally a sex planet, IS the ruler of the 5th and 8th Houses in this chart (both are houses that deal with sex in some capacity). Pluto is another planet that ties in with sex (and violence in a chart like this). This kind of made Brandy and I go “huh? Maybe there IS something to the sex trafficking angle?” —Another thing about Pluto here – it is the modern ruler of the Scorpio 10th House. In a chart like this, the 10thHouse can be the perpetrators territory/home. The 10th House can also point towards the way law enforcement/authority responds to the case. With BOTH rulers of the 10th House, Pluto and Mars, being involved in this concept of “interference,” it does make me think that AT THE VERY LEAST the security on the ship and the ship’s response to her going missing played a role in her getting (taken) away. At the worst, they had some kind of hand IN her disappearance (not saying that is actually WHAT happened, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the context of this chart).
The chart above is for 5:20 am. I chose this time because different sources say her dad saw her on the balcony at 5:15 am, some say 5:30 am – I was trying to split the difference. We didn’t look at this chart in the YouTube video because the time was captured by someone who had been asleep (and no offense, but people don’t always catch the right ANYTHING when they are half-awake and half asleep). By this point (following the rulers from the previous chart), we have the rulers of the Ascendant in the 2nd House (Saturn) and in the 12th House (Uranus). The Moon also finds itself in the 12th as well. The ruler of the 7th House from the previous, the Sun, is now in the 1st House (someone on Amy’s territory, perhaps?). I don’t think that she was TAKEN from her cabin room, but I DO think that someone may have met her there (like, outside the door…. essentially coming onto her turf). We also have the ruler of the Virgo 7th House in the 5:20 am chart, Mercury, conjunct Saturn within a few minutes (coming right to her, essentially). In the chart above, the Ascendant is Pisces, which makes Jupiter in the 1st in Pisces and Neptune in the 11th in Aquarius her dispositors. Jupiter in the 1st points to her being on her territory still, while there does seem to be some kind of “group involvement” with Neptune in the 11th House in Aquarius (both Aquarius and the 11th House deal with groups of people…among other things). **Even though we have a lot of 12th House activity in this chart (which can be a death marker), this chart doesn’t feel particularly “death-y” to me…especially in regard to the 3:40 am chart (that didn’t feel “death-y” to either Brandy or myself). Nahhhh, this chart, the 5:20 am chart, feels more like “slipping away” into the unseen realm of the 12th House (but not to one’s death). It could also be an indicator of some form of imprisonment (which would unfortunately make sense with what Brandy and myself felt like probably happened to her).
There is a theory that she may have been looking to score some drugs (and then was abducted). The theory goes something like this: Amy was looking to get a hold of some substance through someone who knew the area/someone local (this could also point towards what Saturn in Aries in the first chart was doing in the 3rd House (an area that is local to you/the notion of “locals”/etc.)). Honestly (and no judgement!) this wouldn’t surprise me in the least with both of these charts. In the 3:40 am chart you have Neptune (which can absolutely be intoxicants and shit like that) conjunct the Ascendant in the 12th House. In the 5:20 am chart you have a Pisces Ascendant (Pisces is modernly ruled by Neptune). I don’t know if Amy had any kind of history with drugs. Whether she did or didn’t doesn’t really matter here (people do all kind of things on vacation, even things they wouldn’t normally do). No shade or hate to her family, but she was on a FAMILY vacation in a very tight space (the cabin rooms were very small and all 4 of them were sharing one room). Maybe she wanted something to “take the edge off?” My wording there wasn’t on accident either – shortly before the trip Amy came out as a lesbian to her family. From what I understand, her family wasn’t particularly happy about it (though they made it clear that they still loved her). It seems very possible that she could have wanted to take the edge off, especially if there was any tension between family members from her recent sharing. **At the VERY least, Neptune in the 12th House conjunct the Ascendant in the 3:40 am chart could point towards being intoxicated (and this being a contributing factor to what came next). Neptune also deals with “luring” and “being lured,” which also seems possible. Like, she was “lured” to go somewhere with someone else under some kind of false pretense. This *could* be echoed back with the Pisces Ascendant in the 5:20 am chart (and the 6:00 am chart below).
The chart above is set for 6:00 am, when Amy’s dad noticed that she was missing from the room. This chart is also interesting in the context of what was going on at the time (or what would later be found to be going on). Following the rulers from the 1st chart, we have Saturn AND the Sun in the 1st House (which could point towards Amy not being uncomfortable or on “familiar” territory) but the rulers ARE together. Uranus and the Moon (modern ruler of the 1st chart and co-ruler, respectively) are in the 11th House….pointing to some kind of group involvement (or she was in some kind of group, even if not directly away of it). At the VERY LEAST, this shows Amy in the presence of someone that she felt was a friend/that she was friendly with (11th House deals with both friendship and groups). From the rulership of the 6:00 am missing chart, we still have the Pisces Ascendant but by this point Jupiter (traditional ruler) has slipped into the 12th House (meaning Amy is in the unseen world of the 12th House and can also point towards forms of imprisonment). Modern rulership has her as Neptune, which is in the 11th House (showing that she could very easily be in the company of a group or someone she was friendly with). The Moon as co-ruler of the chart is also in the 11th House echoing back a similar thing. We have Mercury, the ruler of the Virgo 7th House, in the 1st House of this chart…showing the perpetrator up close and personal (in some way) with Amy since the 1st House is her territory/her space.
Let’s back up just a little bit – this is the part of the post where Alister Douglas (aka “Yellow”) needs to be mentioned (who was/is a suspect and who’s polygraph test came up with inconclusive results). He was the bass player for the ship’s band and was seen talking, dancing, and drinking with Amy in the early morning hours of March 24th. They may not have been good friends, but they certainly seemed friendly with one another. He was observed by a few people on the ship as being with Amy between 5:30 and 6:00 am the morning she went missing (which fits in between the time Amy’s dad saw her on the balcony and when she was first noticed as missing). The observers saw him and Amy (with a drink) walk to the glass elevator and go up to wherever that went. Shortly after, the same observers saw him come back down to the main level alone. This is the last sighting of Amy on the morning/day she went missing.
Brandy and myself, from the 3:40 am chart alone, felt that she was probably taken off/lured off the boat and then probably sold into sex-slavery (ugh I feel gross even typing that out). All of this seems even more likely with the other two charts. Why did she leave the boat? Could have been for a whole host of reasons, but the drug angle does seem very possible. If nothing else, just being intoxicated could have been the reason (Neptune in the 12th House conjunct the Ascendant clouding things/not using her normal judgment). What happened in the days, weeks, months, and years that followed is anyone’s guess. There were several sightings of her in the late 90’s and early 2000’s (though none since the early aughts which makes me wonder if she is still alive to this day). The picture below is of my notes of the various sightings of her over the years (I don’t feel like typing it all out so forgive any spelling errors and other bullshit 🤣).
Amy Bradley was declared dead on March 24, 2010, but her family still isn’t sure what happened to her. I really hope that she can be found at some point (either alive or dead) so that her family and loved ones can finally have closure. Brandy and myself do have hope that something CAN be found out about her case from the 3:40 am chart that we looked at (Moon ALMOST over the Ascendant/horizon). In the 5:20 am and 6:00 am charts, the Moon is completely above the horizon. The Sun, though, happens to be below the horizon in ALL the charts. The luminaries in a crime chart below the horizon tend to show that things won’t be found out, but above the horizon points that things will be figured out. This is why we have hope – one luminary above the horizon is better than NO luminaries above the horizon.
On December 6, 1991 in Austin, Texas, shortly before midnight a police officer on patrol noticed the “I Can’t Believe it’s Yogurt!” shop off of W. Anderson Lane going up in flames and called it in to the fire department, to which AFD arrived and put the fire out. Once the fire was out, AFD noticed that there was much more to all of this than just a run of the mill fire – they found the bodies of four females inside the shop. The victims were Amy Ayers (13 years old), Eliza Thomas (17 years old), and sisters Sarah Harbison (15 years old) & Jennifer Harbison (17 years old). All four had been shot execution style and piled on top of each other, though Amy’s body was found away from the other three – the bullet missed her brain (they found a second bullet wound in her head which the other girls were lacking) which seems to suggest that she moved herself from the pile. Eliza Thomas & Jennifer Harbison were employees of the yogurt shop, while Sarah Harbison and Amy Ayers were said to be visiting Sarah’s sister at work (and they were going to get a ride home with her). These murders have haunted the city of Austin for over 3 decades and have come to be known as the Yogurt Shop Murders.
There were so many fuckups with this case – so, so many. I’ll link some articles below if you want to read about this case in further depth (since the case is long at nearly 30 years old at this point, I won’t be covering all of the history here). APD was already starting with a fucked crime scene since AFD had to put the fire out (this isn’t their fault – the fire fighters had no idea they would find four bodies in the aftermath of the fire) – and as far as I’m concerned, APD’s biases and just wanting SOMEONE to hang for this crime fucked the case further.
Two men ended up going to prison for this – Michael Scott (who was essentially coerced into confessing – a picture of Scott having a gun held to his head during the 18-hour interrogation by some piece of shit detective that worked for APD showed up online) and Robert Springsteen confessed to these murders. This was 8 years after the murders occurred in September 1999, though these men were on APD’s radar in the early years of the investigation…and it’s like APD just couldn’t let them go – even though there wasn’t any forensic evidence actually linking these guys to the crime. Both Scott and Springsteen were convicted of these murders (in 2002 and 2001 respectively), with Scott getting a life sentence and Springsteen being sentenced to death. In June 2009, both men were released on bond from prison, and in October 2009, both men had the charges against them dropped and they were exonerated. The reasons for such had to do with the coerced confession, the lack of DNA evidence (there was DNA found at the scene that didn’t match either of these men), and the major one – Scott and Springsteen’s confessions were used against one another at their trials which was found to violate the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment.
So, nearly 30 years later, the families and the city as a whole still have no idea who actually committed this particularly heinous crime – snuffing out the lives of 4 teenage girls whose lives hadn’t even really had the chance to begin yet feels particularly tragic and unnecessary. And I guess this is where myself and people who engage in this kind of astrology come into play … to try to give answers to events that are long overdue for fucking answers.
Since we only know the exact date and that the fire was called in shortly before midnight, I set the chart to 11:45 pm on December 6, 1991. Why 11:45? I don’t know, honestly it’s just the time that I felt instinctually inclined to use as far as when the fire was probably called in by the patrolling officer. A picture of the event chart is found below:
The first thing I notice about this chart is that the chart ruler is Mercury Rx! This stands out because this WHOLE CASE was handled so fucking poorly from the start, and just feels very Mercury Rx in nature. WAY too much BULLSHIT NOISE (which Mercury Rx is known for) across the board. The next thing that stands out to me obviously are the angles (which is what you should always look at first when reading a chart this way).
The Victims – Ascendant @ 7° 28′ Virgo The Victims are always indicated by the Ascendant and the chart ruler (in this case, the chart ruler is that Mercury Rx I mentioned before in Sagittarius in the 4th House). By dispositions, you would then go to Jupiter (since it rules Sagittarius) in the 1st House in Virgo conjunct the Ascendant. That means that Mercury and Jupiter go back and forth in a mutual reception (or what feels like back and forth) – so there is no final dispositor for the girls’ side of things but instead the mutual reception between the two. Also, it should be noted that Mercury Rx and Jupiter are in an applying square aspect between one another (it would be applying here since Mercury is moving retrograde/backwards), making it a more insidious square aspect. It should also be noted (which I will talk more about in the Perps section) that Jupiter is the traditional ruler of the Descendant, which makes Jupiter one of the representations OF the perp/perps in this case. This makes this particular square aspect even more insidious since we see tension between the victims and the perp(s), moving closer together in motion.
With the chart ruler in the 4th House, this makes me think that the girls were comfortable and familiar with where they were when this happened, in the Yogurt Shop. I almost get the feeling that the perp/perps were patrons of the shop earlier in the night and came back right before closing at 11 pm, claiming that someone had left something in the shop (a wallet, a pager, a passport or something, perhaps?). The chart being ruled by Mercury RX makes my mind go this way. I also think this patron, or these patrons (and I’m inclined to think that there IS more than one perp here) were people that Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas had served in the store before (or at least ONE of the perps were known to at least ONE of these two girls as someone who came to the shop somewhat often). Harbison and Thomas, one or both of them, didn’t feel threatened by this person (or these people) normally – though all the girls were clearly in more danger than they would’ve thought since Mercury happens to be “under the Sun’s beams” in this chart (Sun & Mercury are within 3-degrees of one another and moving closer together with Mercury being Rx which can indicate the victim(s) being in immediate danger). I have this feeling that they let this person/these people into the shop shortly before closing (hell, maybe this was even AFTER they’d locked the doors and closed up shop) to retrieve this item that was claimed to have been left behind. Once inside, this person/these people attacked, probably surprising the fuck out of them. Another possibility might be a door in the back having been left unlocked on accident (forgotten about, as how Mercury Rx can function – or even NOT forgotten about but just unlocked for the purpose of carrying out closing duties like taking out the trash, etc.), leaving them vulnerable to someone attacking them once they’d closed the shop for the night. I could even see a mix of the two occurring – a patron Harbison and/or Thomas knew comes (back) to the store shortly before or after closing claiming they left something behind in the store (from earlier that day or even some other day – wanting to search the stores “lost and found”). The girls let this person in – they know him as a patron and aren’t concerned. In the meantime, someone comes into the back of the shop (through a back door or some shit that was left unlocked) to keep the girls from escaping once they realized that the person up front wasn’t there to retrieve anything.
The Perpetrator(s) – Descendant 7° 28′ Pisces
In these kinds of charts, the perpetrator(s) are indicated by the Descendant. We are talking about a Pisces Descendant, which makes this chart have TWO planetary rulers for the perp(s), Jupiter by traditional rulership and Neptune by modern rulership (though I will say that since this crime occurred at night, I would give Jupiter a little more weight here). Jupiter falls in Virgo in the first house conjunct the Ascendant, which means that this perpetrator surprised the girls with his actions in a big way (probably by drawing some weapon they weren’t expecting once he was in the shop) and was up in their space. From there by way of dispositions we go to Mercury in the 4th in Sagittarius (since Mercury is the planetary ruler of Virgo), which will then dispose of itself back to Jupiter in Virgo in the mutual reception mentioned in the Victim’s section.
**With Jupiter being opposite the Descendant, I’m thinking that we’re dealing with someone much more deliberate than he appeared to them normally – he may have appeared more harmless, maybe a little spacey normally (perhaps like he wasn’t always “on Earth”). I actually think this perp is someone who was probably college aged at the time, and maybe it’s Jupiter’s influence, but I’m thinking they may have attended a religiously affiliated university. Here in Austin, St. Edwards University and Concordia University come to mind, though with Pisces on the Descendant we might be dealing with someone who actually went to school somewhere else – there could be a foreign element at play here, too, or they could’ve just been a transplant to Austin. The foreign element could make them an actual foreigner as well. With Jupiter in Virgo, it makes me think of someone pretty tall and lanky. Jupiter tends to indicate something “big” about the person, but here this feels more height related than anything else.
Even though I would give Jupiter more weight as the main Descendant ruler in this case, I still want to look at Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces. Neptune falls in the 5th House in Capricorn. Perhaps it is common sense (it does seem like to corral 4 girls you would need to have at least two people involved in the crime), but it’s also the dual nature of Pisces that makes me think two perpetrators (this isn’t universal with a Pisces Descendant, but fuck, I feel it here). I feel like Jupiter is representative of one perp, and Neptune is representative of the other. The second perp – I have to wonder if this person had some kind of addiction issue. Pisces on the Descendant definitely plays into this train of thought, for sure, but so does Neptune falling in the 5th House (the 5th House is, like, the pleasure house, among other things). It’s in Capricorn, which almost makes me think of someone who represses some kind of addictive urge until they just can’t anymore. This could be an addiction to anything, though with the ruler of the 7th in the 5th House, and something sexual in nature being a hallmark of this disposition (and there was evidence that one of the girls had been raped), I’m almost wondering if this Neptune in Capricorn person was a serial rapist (or at the very least, this wasn’t their first rodeo with rape), or some other kind of sexual deviant. Supposedly the police found the motive to be “robbery,” but I’m gunna go on out here on a limb and say I think the motive of this crime was really for the person signified by Neptune in Capricorn to “have a good time” (though I don’t think this was necessarily the motive of the Jupiter in Virgo person). Next in line with the dispositions is Saturn in Aquarius (since Saturn is the planetary ruler of Capricorn), also in the 5th House, which kind of reinforces that this person wanted to have a good time and have a weird kind of control over the girls (or that is how it feels to me here). From here you would go to Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, which also falls in the 5th House in Capricorn. This is where this chain of dispositions stops since it would bounce back to Saturn in Aquarius, being part of the mutual reception between both planets. -I have the feeling that the actual brains behind this whole thing was probably the person represented by Neptune in Capricorn. I actually don’t think the Jupiter in Virgo person knew exactly what the plan was when they surprise attacked the girls (maybe this person just thought it would be a robbery) – but the Neptune in Capricorn person had other plans…and the Jupiter in Virgo person didn’t resist them. The Jupiter person just feels more out of the loop to me, and I don’t think they were really in any control – though I do think they were absolutely how the Neptune in Capricorn person got their foot in the door.
The 5th House has even more importance here than just being where one of the rulers of the descendant falls – in crime charts when you’re dealing with victims who are underage (I tend to look at victims under 16 as being part of this house), you want to look at the 5th House and its rulership since the 5th House tends to also represent children. The 5th House has Capricorn on the cusp, which makes its planetary ruler Saturn in Aquarius. This makes me feel like the girls felt powerless to what was going on around them. Saturn in Aquarius would then dispose of itself to Uranus in Capricorn (where they would go back and forth in a mutual reception in the 5th House). You could technically stop with Saturn in Aquarius (since Saturn is the traditional ruler of Aquarius), but I like to look at BOTH traditional and modern rulership.
**This part is pure visualization, but as I was typing all of this up, I envision someone banging on the shop door/windows after they’d closed up shop for the night. This person was known to at least one of girls that worked there and seemed frantic yelling through the glass that they thought they forgot something in the store (earlier that same day/night or even a day or two earlier). Since Mercury Rx feels so important to the overall tone of the chart, beyond just representing the victims, I have to wonder if they were yelling about forgetting a pager in the store or something like that (it was 1991 after all and I’m thinking that something communication related may have been involved), or even a driver’s license (since Mercury deals with cars and transportation). Other things that seem likely are something Jupiter related – maybe a textbook or something along those lines, or even something like a passport. Whether this item correlates more with the Mercury or Jupiter (or even both) doesn’t really matter. I do think something along these lines transpired. I also think that the girls had been doing their nightly closing routine of taking out the trash and all that shit, and probably left the back door unlocked as they were doing this. If something like this happened, it would’ve given the other perp the opportunity to sneak in the back door and hide in the back of the store. After the perp got inside that claimed to have forgotten something, he probably pulled a weapon on the girls, and they really weren’t expecting this. Some of them probably tried running to the door at the back of the shop, where they were surprised by the second perp lying in wait who was then able to corner them further. **
The I.C/4th House @ 5° 54′ Sagittarius and the Moon @ 26° 42′ Sagittarius
The 4th House ruler and the 4th House in general is also something you want to look at in these charts. The Moon is another planet that you always want to look at in charts like these, for it operates as co-ruler. In this chart, the Moon is in Sagittarius in the 4th House loosely conjunct Mercury (and by proxy, the Sun). Something like the Moon falling in the 4th House backs up the notion that the girls were in familiar surroundings and comfortable at the Yogurt Shop. The Moon, even though it isn’t tightly conjunct the Sun, would still be considered “under the sun’s beams” (any planet within 17-degrees of the Sun is considered as such), which also backs up the idea that the girls were in much more danger than they realized. Since we’re talking about the 4th House, and we have the Moon and the ruler of the 12th House (the Sun) there, this can show the start of a death pattern (since the 4th House is very much “cradle to the grave” energy).
Another thing to notice about this house is the fact that Mars is damn near dead-ass conjunct the IC, and Mars is also the ruler of the 8th House (which can also point to a death pattern, with the ruler of the 8th House in the 4th House). Mars can be incredibly violent and aggressive, which definitely fits here by the way that these girls were murdered. This could definitely show something like fire being used somewhere in the crime, though while the crime feels a little more planned out overall, the fire part almost seems like it was done on the fly.
The 10th House @ 5° 54′ Gemini
The 10th House can represent a few different things in a chart like this. It can represent the way that the public reacts to the case. It can also represent law enforcements handling of the case. The planetary ruler of this house is Mercury Rx in the 4th House in Sagittarius. First, this shows that the girls were in a public place (10th House ruler in the 4th can show this, and they were in a public place – this is reinforced further since Mercury Rx is also the chart ruler representing the girls). Beyond that, though, you’re looking at a case that would make the public very curious (which it did and still does). Scattered and lack of good communication would also be great ways to describe this case (and the handling of it). The Austin Police Department, as far as I’m concerned, were far too dogmatic in a very backwards way (per that Mercury Rx in Sagittarius) about who was to blame for this all of this. They were too inflexible about looking about other leads, getting too fucking hung up on the noise surrounding the case and trying to make what the officers thought happened fit the case at hand.
Here’s my advice to APD….if y’all happen to read this, go back to the original case files and look at the crime as if it just happened. I know that’s hard to do after 30 years, and really, I’d pull some new blood into this – new eyes that don’t have any bias regarding the case. I would bet a little money THEY HAVE ONE OF THE PERPETRATORS NAMES IN THE FUCKING CASE FILE. This may not have ever been an actual person of interest, but I would imagine that names of patrons who went to the Yogurt Shop in the days/weeks/months/etc. leading up to this event were taken down – THEY NEED TO GO THROUGH THESE FUCKING NAMES. I also think they need to probably have a lead detective on this case that’s pretty intuitive/leads by intuition (will kind of roll with hunches they have and see where they lead while not becoming to set on any one hunch). Mercury Rx needs to learn to trust it’s intuition, so it would make sense that this case would be served well by someone who does trust their intuition (not making arrests and bullshit based on intuition only but is comfortable with exploring intuitive hunches). THIS WHOLE CASE NEEDS TO BE WORKED FROM THE VERY BEGINNING ALL OVER AGAIN. Crime scene photos also need to be poured over in massive detail. I really think APD has exactly what they need to nail the correct person/people to wall for this crime (assuming this person/these people are still alive – a lot can happen in 30 years’ time). The details of this case got super fucked by too much of what feels like mental dogmatism in all the wrong areas and towards all the wrong leads (per Mercury Rx in Sagittarius). They have all the details they need to solve this mother fucker. They just need to do it.
-As I’ve mentioned before, I really think they are looking at two perpetrators for this case, though only one might be in the case files. This part is more intuitive than anything, but I also think it’s very possible that there is an age difference between these two perpetrators. Exactly how much of a difference, I’m not sure, but maybe something like one of them having been college age in 1991 with the other being 10 or so years older. -I also want to mention the possibility that one of the perps knew one of the victims’ families in a by proxy kind of way. Kind of like the perp knew one of the families of the girls but didn’t know them well (like a friend of a friend kind of thing). I make that mention because of the mutual reception between Mercury and Jupiter being in the 1st and 4th Houses. It at least seems like a possibility that should be explored if it hasn’t already. -It would even include the possibility that one of the perps was an employee or a previous employee of another business in that same strip mall (or in the area close by). Perhaps because one of the rulers of the Descendant falls in the first house – it seems like one of the perps may have been very comfortable in the Yogurt Shop himself, and very comfortable with the area. They may have even lived in the area at the time this happened.
I don’t normally mess with fixed stars in regular natal chart readings unless requested, but there were a few that really stood out in this event chart that I wanted to mention: —Thuban is at 7° 27′ Virgo which is conjunct the Ascendant in the event chart. It can indicate “burning alive in one’s own house.” This feels very literal to me. —Coxa is at 13° 25′ Virgo which is conjunct Jupiter. This fixed star is “good for voyages,” strength, and wisdom. —Ras Algethi is at 14° 45′ Sagittarius, which happens to be conjunct the Sun in the event chart. This can indicate some kind of nefarious plan carried out (and this fixed star is a reason that I do think there was some pre-meditation to at least some of this crime). —Manubrium is at 13° 36′ Capricorn which happens to be conjunct Uranus within a degree and within a couple of degrees of Neptune (both which have to do with the perp’s side of things). This fixed star can indicate fire, arson, or the burning of a body being involved. –Sabik is at 17° 58′ Sagittarius, which is conjunct Mercury by a degree and the Sun by a couple of degrees. This fixed star is like the pervert of the bunch. One of these perps was a massive fucking pervert (and people like this should absolutely be on APD’s radar). Anyone in the case file who before this crime or has since this crime had any kind of run in/arrest for being a fucking pervert, child-molester, rapist, etc. should most definitely be explored as a possible suspect. This fixed star can also represent wastefulness and lost energy; with Mercury also the ruler of the 10th House it seems like this could point to APD wasting their time on suspects that didn’t matter (in my opinion). –Vega is at 15° 19′ Capricorn, and this one is really interesting because it happens to be EXACTLY Neptune, one of the planetary rulers of the Descendant. This might explain how they got so fucking lucky by getting away with this for so long – there is definitely a luckiness to this fixed star. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be caught, though.
If anyone has any information about this case, contact the Austin Police Department’s Homicide Cold Case division at 512-477-3588.
Do you want me to do an astrology reading for you? That can be done here 🙂 If you want me to look at the astrology surrounding an event, crime, or a missing person, shoot me an email and let me know.
Last seen charts are both ominous and of much interest to me. I’d like to think that I can eventually help to use my astrological “powers” for good, and I can’t think of anything more “good” than helping to give families answers to their missing loved ones whereabouts and what happened to them in the first place.
At this point, a lot of people are aware that Naya Rivera (of Glee fame, among other things) went missing in Lake Piru on July 8th, 2020. The circumstances of this case are, well, just kind of weird and ask more questions than they answer. She rented a boat and was last seen around 1 pm with her little boy going out into the water. Hours later, around 4:30 pm, someone called 911 to alert authorities that there was a toddler on a boat in the lake (her Son), unaccompanied. Exactly what has been ascertained from the boy is a little unclear (to me anyway), though that’s totally understandable. He’s, I’m sure, in shock, and he’s only 4. It sounds like they were swimming, or she was just swimming, and she never got back into the boat. My heart absolutely breaks for her son and her whole family (and I’m not that much of an emotional person, really….but this situation is just really, really sad). Because I had (and still obviously have) some questions about what happened to her, I decided to pull a “Last Seen” chart to try to shed some light on the situation. It is above at the top of the page.
When looking at these charts, you use horary astrology techniques. The Ascendant & 1st House (circled in Purple) represents the person in Question (Naya). The Descendant (also circled in Purple) & 7th House typically represent the perpetrator should one exist. The Moon is always considered “co-ruler” in these sorts of charts, so you definitely want to look at this as well (it’s circled above in the 5th house in Orange). In this case, Libra rules the Ascendant and Aries rules the Descendant. Using the technique, one way that you know an event chart is “good” is when the Ascendant falls between 5 and 25 degrees of the sign (anything from 0 to 5 degrees or 25 to 30 degrees can make things a little less “clear”). The 1st house is empty, as is the 7th (this automatically makes me think that there wasn’t actually a perpetrator involved, but I still want to look closer, anyway). The next thing that you want to look at is where the ruler of both Libra and Aries fall in the chart, and to see if they aspect one another. This is another tip off that the chart in question is “good:” when the ruler of the Ascendant and the Descendant aspect one another. In this case, we have Mars in the 6th house in Aries making a sextile with Venus in the 8th in Gemini.
Now, the first thing that popped out to me right away with this chart is the fact that Venus, the chart ruler, falls in the 8th House. While I don’t correlate the 8th house with physical death all of the time in general practice, using this sort of horary technique is different. The chart ruler in the 8th house almost always signifies that the person has passed on. It falls in Gemini (which rules over things like the lungs and breathing), while Taurus, the 8th house cusp ruler, deals with things like ”swallowing.” Swallowing too much water and not able to breathe, perhaps? Uranus is right on the cusp of the 8th house, and since Uranus is all about shocking change, this seems very much like something that was a “freak accident.”
A few other things stand out to me. The Moon in the 5th in Pisces makes sense here, since she was out having a good time with her little boy (Moon/5th house) in water (Pisces). Aries ruling the Descendant and Mars in the 6th could show something like an underlying health condition (perhaps something to do with her breathing….asthma or something of the sort?). I also notice that Mars is really tightly square Mercury-the only harsh aspect that Mars makes. This makes me think that she could’ve hit her head on something, knocked herself out, and drowned. I get the distinct feeling that there wasn’t a whole lot of struggle with her death (a lot of that is pure intuition), which leads me to think that she may have been unconscious when she went under OR it happened so quickly that she didn’t really have time to react (such as getting caught in an undertow…I’m not sure if Lake Piru has those or not).
When looking at these sorts of charts you also want to take Saturn into account (for it tends to represent the body) and the 4th/10th axis. The 10th house in a chart like this can represent Law Enforcement and the public’s response to the case (among other things, though for THIS chart I’m just focusing on those things). With the 10th house ruled by Cancer, the public (and even Law Enforcement) is going to have a more emotional response to this case, which will only help in finding her body. And I DO think that her body will be found. The Sun on the cusp of the 10th house (super close to the Midheaven) will keep that light focused on the case until she is found. And she probably WILL be found in the water since the Sun makes a trine to Neptune (which is water). Saturn is found in the 4th house, and as I mentioned before, Saturn tends to show the location of the body. The 4th house sort of represents the “womb and the tomb,” so having it fall here kind of backs up the theory that it’s a body that we’re looking for.
So what does one “do” with this information? The next step would be to map out, based on the chart, where the body could be located. It’s tricky when something happens in water….people/bodies float and move around, which makes mapping hard. It’s also difficult because I don’t have exact coordinates of where they found her son on the boat (but even then, boats can drift). I will say that after playing around with the mapping a little bit, I have a feeling that her body initially drifted the way of Devil’s Cove. Even if she sunk right beneath the boat I still think she drifted somewhat that way. Where she is actually found in the water is another matter entirely. But I DO think she will be found.
