Auschwitz

[Jim Eshelman]

A traditional challenge to astrologers has been the boundary between natal and mundane astrology, between the individual's relationship to the universe and that of the collective. Usually, when this has come up in print historically, the classic argument goes something like this: "The horoscopes of all 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust couldn't have had it show in their horoscopes."

Of course they couldn't! At least, not in their individual horoscopes. That's where mundane astrology comes in, a "layer" that sits above our individual horoscopes not to interact with them directly (e.g., natal planets on ingress angles don't seem to mean anything at all) but, rather, to reflect a collective level where the individual horoscope is irrelevant.

So yes, all 6 million who died had the same horoscope in the form of the Sidereal solar and lunar ingresses operating in the part of Earth where they were concentrated.

The worst center or horror was Auschwitz in Poland. Other camps were in the same general part of the world, with similar charts, but Auschwitz was uniquely a place of horrors and grief. It was run as a Nazi camp from May 1940 until it was finally liberated January 27, 1945. Gassing of prisoners began in September 1941. In all, about 1.3 million human beings were sent to Auschwitz and about 1.1 million of them died there.

Does astrology show shared horrors on a vast scale in that part of the world across that five-year range? It does indeed. We can see it most simply in the two main Year charts, Sun’s ingress into Sidereal Capricorn (Capsolar) and Cancer (Cansolar), which kept a steady stream of malevolency concentrated on that general part of the world.

The Reich took control of Auschwitz in May 1940. The 1940 CAPSOLAR shows a dreadfulness from the start. Sun squares Saturn 0°43' with Sun on Eastpoint. Moon opposes Neptune 0°43', both 2° from square Ascendant. (The 1940 Cansolar was dormant.)

The 1941 CAPSOLAR shows a much commotion but, mostly much change. Uranus was 2° from Ascendant with Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn more widely foreground.

Killing of prisoners with poison gas began in September. The July 16, 1941 CANSOLAR has Mars 0°03' from square Midheaven and 0°06' from Ascendant for Auschwitz. Other factors include Mercury on IC square Mars ecliptically and square Neptune (0°58') mundanely - a reference not only to deception but to the means of killing. Yet this is small compared to the precision with which Mars defined an area within a roughly 5-mile radius where the worst would be felt.

CAPSOLAR 1942. Pluto squares MC 0°32'. Venus sets, square Saturn within 0°34'. Saturn, of course, squares Ascendant. Mars is widely angular. Both the death and the grief are quite vivid.

CANSOLAR 1942. Pluto is 0°48' from Ascendant. Other details describe much about the conditions, but the main, strong, clear master note of the chart is that exactly rising Pluto.

CAPSOLAR 1943. Sun squares Ascendant (1°11'). Venus opposes Pluto a few degrees off the meridian. Authority and the emotional ripping apart of Venus-Pluto. (The Cansolar is dormant..)

CAPSOLAR 1944. Pluto squares MC 1°45'. Neptune squares Ascendant 1°32', adding to the repeatedly angular Pluto further extremes of emotion, confusion, and uncertainty. (The Cansolar is dormant.)

CAPSOLAR 1945. Auschwitz was finally liberated January 27, 1945. Thirteen days earlier, years of planetary symbolism shifted in the new 1945 Capsolar with Uranus 0°06' from Ascendant! Furthermore, Venus squared Uranus (0°15') and Ascendant (0°24'), literally the first clear signs of happiness for that spot in years. Finally, Moon aspects Jupiter - first attracting attention by its 0°04' ecliptical trine which, on closer inspection, is a 1°21' mundane square, a mark of joy.

This is the five-year tale of Auschwitz, and my response to this historic philosophical puzzle in astrology.