The Day the Music Died

[Jim Eshelman]

On February 3, 1959 at 12:55 AM CST, a plane took off from an airport in Clear Lake, IA carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and Big Bopper. Within minutes (before 1:00 AM when it was confirmed unresponsive), it crashed, killing everyone on board at 43N13'13" 93W22'53" (nearly exactly the coordinates for Clear Lake, IA, but a few minutes different in latitude).

The plane would have been carrying Waylon Jennings, too, except he gave up his seat at the last minute because Big Bopper, who was sick, seemed to need it more. (Tommy Allsup was also supposed to be on the plane and, depending on the story, either decided not to fly or lost a coin toss to Richie Valens. We have no birth data for him.)

We have A or AA birth data on all four of these people. The event gives us at least two major opportunities. First, it allows us to contrast the charts for Waylon Jennings from the other three, which should be starkly different. Second, it should be a great example of an age-old astrological philosophical problem: When multiple people are drawn together to the same tragic (or even positive) fate, do each of their charts show it?

Buddy Holly: September 7, 1936, 3:30 PM, Lubbock, TX (A)
Richie Valens: May 13, 1941, 12:56 AM PST, Los Angeles, CA (AA)
Big Bopper: October 24, 1930, 8:00 PM CST, Sabine Pass, TX (AA)
Waylon Jennings: June 15, 1937, 10:30 AM CST, Littlefield, TX (AA)

[Jim Eshelman]

The chart for take-off has a few interesting features, although nothing was closely angular to distinguish the minute.

Mot interesting is that Venus opposed Pluto (0°16'). This is the defining aspect of the night. It was already additionally tragic worldwide because they both trined or sextiled Saturn (Pluto 20', Venus 36'). But for takeoff, it was even more severe, since mundanely Mars squared Venus-Pluto, all orbs being within 2° (Ma = Ve/Pl 0°05').

Additionally, Sun opposed Uranus (0°38'), widely foreground. While this is potentially explosive (at least startling),it was intensified (again in the mundoscope) by a square from the recently-risen Neptune, within 3° of both Sun and Uranus and almost 5° above Ascendant. - Separately, Neptune squared Mercury ecliptically (1°01').

There are a few other interesting features, but not as close as these. For example, a 2° Mars-Jupiter opposition is consistent with the bad weather.

[Jim Eshelman]

Before getting into the individual charts, I'd like to explore the mundane considerations. This was a world (at least national) impact event (but for where? for where it occurred? Washington? other?). We should at least rule this out.

The new CAPSOLAR had Pluto 0v14' from Asc, Mars 1`10' from MC, and Mars-Pluto in 1°24' mundane square. Uranus was on EP (0°43') with a Mars-Uranus sq. in RA 0°25'. Toss in a Moon-Mercury square for transportation (1°49'). Jupiter sq. Asc (1°38').

So yes, the mundane charts certainly picked out a spot for a high-impact terrible accident.

In the CAPLUNAR, Pluto is 1°06' from Westpoint. The recent LIBLUNAR has Uranus 2°56' from Dsc and a rising Venus almost 5° from Asc: While adequate for a crash, I think it better shows the concert hitting town that night. (All places on the tour schedule had Venus somewhat rising angular through the region.)

Transiting Mars, on Capsolar MC when it set up two weeks earlier, had advanced to square Capsolar Asc 1°05', opposite Capsolar Jupiter (0°33').


Did these mundane charts interact with the victims' nativities? Buddy Holly's Moon was on Caplunar IC and squared CapQ Asc (and Capsolar Moon opposed his natal Venus exactly). These may have tied him to a nationally exciting tour and drawn him to that location but, in general, this hardly describes dying in a plane crash. Richie Valens' chart could be taken as fatally tied to the Capsolar and his Mars rose in the Liblunar (look for yourself if interested), one of the few times I've ever seen personal planets tying into mundane charts to describe an event. Bib Bopper's Moon (opposite Holly's Moon) was near Capslunar MC, again perhaps drawing him to that place, but nothing describes the main events that happened to him there. Waylon Jennings gets transiting Mars exactly opposed his Mars that night (the opposite of what we'd expect), right along the Clear Lake Capsolar MC. Otherwise, he has no personal connection to these mundane charts.

So, overall, these are like all the other examples I've checked where the mundane charts do NOT act like a different layer of personal return chart for people EXCEPT Richie Valens' charts have some good fits.

[Jim Eshelman]

BUDDY HOLLY
t Saturn sqq. r Mars 0°25'
t Mars sqq. r Mercury 0°07'
t Moon aspecting his Sun, Jupiter, and Neptune
Quite a good description!

RICHIE VALENS
t Neptune ssq. r Moon 0°59'
t Saturn sq. L Asc 0°24'
t Saturn sqq. r Saturn 0°43'
t Jupiter op. r Venus 0°23'
-- sq. r Mars 0°50'
t Mars conj. r Jupiter 0°10'
-- t Mars conj. r Uranus 0°47'
Mixed and imprecise, but not bad overall. Saturn's exact transit to his local angle nails it and reminds us to watch angles as we travel.

BIG BOPPER
t Mars sq. r MC 0°30'
-- t Mars sq. L MV 0°35'
Precise and to the point!

WAYLON JENNINGS
t Pluto sq. r Mercury 0°44'
t Moon sq. r Neptune 0°19'
I could not have picked this as a man who saved himself by making the right choice.

[Jim Eshelman]

BUDDY HOLLY Nothing distinctive.
However, transiting Mars squared s Mercury 0°27' and conjoined s Mars 0°59', drawing these out of the background.

RICHIE VALENS
Pluto is mundanely 2° from Asc and ecliptically 1°+ from opposite his Mars. Sun squared Asc. Not bad.

BIG BOPPER
A very interesting SSR: Uranus rising square Neptune on IC, but Mercury-Jupiter conjoined moderately foreground (which didn't turn out to mean "good for travel"). The Mercury-Uranus ecliptical square (again, with Uranus closely rising) is probably what nailed it. Oh, and natal Mars is on EP. Good chart.

WAYLON JENNINGS
No particular luck - quite the opposite, and perhaps showing the death of his friends? - It shows he definitely shouldn't have been flying from that location. Transiting Saturn is 1°08' from Asc, Mercury 0°23' from Dsc, Sun 1°49' from Dsc, Mercury-Saturn opposition 1°06'. Reportedly he carried a lot of guilt for swapping out his seat on the plane; maybe this is the store we shall see.

[Jim Eshelman]

I've ceased being impressed by Demi-Solars and Quarti-Solars, but this is a good chance to test for that again.
\
BUDDY HOLLY Quarti-SSR December 7. Pretty good: Saturn 2° above Dsc, but a Mercury-Venus partile conjunction nearby (not conjunct Saturn closely).

RICHIE VALENS Demi-SSR November 15 has Mercury and Saturn 5-6° from IC, not in aspect; I'm not impressed.

BIG BOPPER New Quarti-SSR January 21. Transiting Pluto 0°35' from EP, not bad. Natal Moon on IC, which is obscure.

WAYLON JENNINGS Demi-SSR December 16. The most important thing is natal Neptune square MC. Nothing else foreground except Jupiter 6° off. (Some partile aspects would be operative independent of this chart, as transits.)

So... mostly ho-hum.

[Jim Eshelman]

This is actually the one I wanted to check when I started this study. Let's see how it goes.

BUDDY HOLLY
SLR Jan 20. Neptune on WP 0°02'. Jupiter 1°10' above Dsc. Mars 4°, Sun 6° from angles. Doesn't show the event but does show his successful tour up to that point.
Demi-SLR Feb 2 (a few hours ealier). Sun-Uranus opposition exactly square MC. (Pluto & Neptune more widely angular.) Natal Mars 3-4° above Asc. Pretty good!

RICHIE VALENS
SLR Jan 7. Mercury on EP square (18') r Neptune on MC. Notice, though, that this SLR was nearly expired.
Demi-SLR Jan 21. The key point is natal Mars rising. His natal Mars at 4°10' Aquarius actually rose in Clear Lake at 8°18' Aquarius; the Demi-SLR Asc was 5°55' Aquarius, just over 2° away.
SLR Feb 3, 12:11 PM CST. Under the observed 24-hour rule, we'd expect this to already be in force for the crash. It's an ambivalent chart without strong indications, though the indications it does have are a big of violence and a bit of fame. Mars is 7° above Asc, Jupiter (closest) is 3° below Desc - surely the nation's reaction as this SLR set up - with a widely-foreground but small-orbed Sun-Uranus opposition. The Mars is in the same degree as his natal Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, with natal Venus and Mercury nearby. I'd have liked it to be clearer, but everything here is correct.

BIG BOPPER.
SLR Feb 2, 5:24 PM. Occurring a few hours earlier, it shows a partile Sun-Uranus opposition exactly across horizon and a foreground partile Mercury-Neptune square. Perhaps of greatest importance, natal Mars was 0°15' from square MC.

WAYLON JENNINGS.
SLR Jan 28. There is indeed a bit of luck. Most angular is Moon, 1° from MC; but the next most angular is Jupiter 5° above Asc. (Jupiter opposes Mars, so the luck came at a cost.) Transiting Pluto squares Asc 0°19'.

[Jim Eshelman]

BUDDY HOLLY.
Q Asc sq. natal Uranus 12'. p Moon-Pluto trine 18'. I'd like better, but everything here is correct.

RICHIE VALENS
Nothing angular, no Moon aspects. Progressed Sun-Mars square 42'.

BIG BOPPER
Nothing close enough to the angles to count, no Moon aspects. Unfittingly, transiting Jupiter conjoins progressed Sun 33'.

WAYLON JENNINGS
Mixed an unsatisfying. The best part: Transiting Mercury on SNQ MC. The worst: Progressed Venus on SNQ Asc. A progressed Mercury-Uranus sextile is correct symbolism but weak and not narrowing on the date.

[Jim Eshelman]

Switching to the Q1 variant:

BUDDY HOLLY.
Nothing angular. p Moon-Pluto trine 22, hardly a major aspect.

RICHIE VALENS
Nothing angular, no Moon aspects. The Sun-Mars progressed square is 42'.

BIG BOPPER
Nothing angular, no Moon aspects.

WAYLON JENNINGS
SNQ MC op. p Sun.


All of these are inferior to the Q2 versions in the last post.

[Jim Eshelman]

BUDDY HOLLY
Nothing angular, no Moon aspects.

RICHIE VALENS
SQ Asc conj. r Sun. It pouts him in the limelight but doesn't describe the primary event.

BIG BOPPER
SSR Neptune on SQ Asc. Also, his natal Sun and Mars are only slightly past the angles (and his birth time is even-hour). It's better than OK, less than great, so I guess it's good.

WAYLON JENNINGS
Nothing angular. SQ Moon sq. s Neptune 58' separating.

[Jim Eshelman]

Let's compare to the PSSR - using mean rate estimation, since that's what I can check easily. It will give a clue whether it's worth coming back to look more.

BUDDY HOLLY
Nothing close enough to angles, no Moon aspects.

RICHIE VALENS
A bad showing: PSSR Asc sq. s Mercury but PSSR MC conj. s Venus. I'd call this poor.

BIG BOPPER
PSST EP seems to be opposite transiting Mrs. Natal Neptune may be on MC.

WAYLON JENNINGS
If correct, this is the chart I was expecting to see! PSSR Asc sq. r Jupiter or 4° off s Jupiter. I'll have to calculate it better to test for sure.

[Jim Eshelman]

BUDDY HOLLY
KLR Jan 14. Sun-Mars paran (Sun Asc 0°39', Mars IC 2°21'). Natal Mars sq. MC 0°04'. Excellent!
Demi-KLR Jan 28. OK, but less precise. Uranus on IC 1°47'. Natal Moon exactly rising but opposite Jupiter, mundane square natal Mars a few degrees off IC. Technically fits, but not well.

RICHIE VALENS
KLR Jan 24. Quite good Saturn 1°52' below Dsc, Pluto 3°54' past IC, 2°02' mundane square. The setting Saturn opposes progressed Mercury 0°05'. Progressed Mars is on MC 0°256' (ecliptic, so estimated). Couldn't be much better except maybe add some Mars.

BIG BOPPER
KLR Jan 7. Quite poor, benefics all over the place. (May show how the tour was going thus far.)
Demi-SLR Jan 21. Natal Neptune is close but, gosh, it doesn't say much (other than that he was foggy from being sick).

WAYLON JENNINGS
KLR Jan 22. Saturn is the most angular, but not as close as I'd like to see a planet to the EP. Mostly nothing going on at all.

[Jim Eshelman]

Careful calculation, using the apparent solar rate gives the following:

MC 9°59' Can -
Asc 3°58' Lib - r Pluto 3°30' Can
EP 14°42' Lib - r Venus 15°07' Ari

Careful calculation, using the mean solar rate gives the following:

MC 5°54' Can -
Asc 0°44' Lib - r Jupiter 1°58' Cap
EP 10°21' Lib -

I think it's a toss-up. The Jupiter is exactly what I was seeking, but it's just a tad too wide. The AA birth time is given to the nearest half hour. The first example would be fine enough and, given the loss of his friends, perhaps even a little preferable. The second one, if slightly later birth time (even 1 minute), is more exact for what I sought and expected.

Inconvlusive.

[Jim Eshelman]

The mundane charts and the take-off chart were quite expressive. (The individual natal charts did not interact with the mundane charts at all except for Richie Valens.)

Transits were great for two of them, compromised for two of them.

The SSRs were overall pretty good, provided we allow that Waylon had an experience most characterized by shock and loss of his friends. (Demi- & Quarti-SSRs, consistent with my experience, were generally worthless.)

The SLR and Demi-SLR, used together as usual, were quite good.

The quotidians had an occasional hit but we could easily view this event without considering any of them. Considering that we got four different bites of the pie, their performance was quite poor overall.

The Kinetic Lunar Returns (used in combination with the Demis) were generally good to excellent, except that Jennings' didn't really show anything.

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

If the chart ends at death, and the death was quick, not drawn out and painful, perhaps we shouldn't expect to see death in the chart?

[Jim Eshelman]

If the chart ends at death, and the death was quick, not drawn out and painful, perhaps we shouldn't expect to see death in the chart?

Gog thought... except there's a lot of history showing that we do see it, or at least the experience of the accident.

I stumbled on this when starting to accumulate what I hope will be 100 well timed births with event data for severe accidents and/or violent death. So far, I have not quite half that many. This was the category of events that Bradley used for his main testing (I think he'd accumulated close to 500 by the end) and every time someone would throw a new predictive technique at him he'd run it on that set. (An early version of it is the "accidents" statistical study for SLRs that appeared in American Astrology in he '50s.

When I hit about 100, or as many as I can get, I'll probably start doing large blocks of statistical analysis to compare the different techniques. Hopefully that won't be wasted time

Today I;m utterly out of it - very depleted. (No, not sick, just wiped out.) After finishing SMA it's hard to concentrate on anything non-mechanical, to actually be present for much of anything at all, from the burn-out of this workweek just ended and the finishing of that 17-month project. So forcing myself through some number crunching was the best I could pull out.

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

That's just your body (mind?) demanding the rest of the weekend off. You should listen.

[Jim Eshelman]

That's just your body (mind?) demanding the rest of the weekend off. You should listen.

There's laundry. And a garbage run. And a gigantic grocery shopping trip tomorrow (the last one stocked us for almost four weeks, this will probably be smaller). Then there's a broad need to be doing something worthwhile and creative.

More than ever, one has no idea how long one has to finish one's work. There really isn't time to look up from it; except, this time I don't want getting sick to be the excuse.

Monday I return to work in the office, but only for the day. We have a project that needs me on the ground to oversee. Generally, I've been working full time from home, with at least one super quiet day, one or two "OMG we're busier than when we're in the office!", and the rest somewhere in between. Last week was busier than its predecessors.