Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer

[Jim Eshelman]

Marion came across a fascinating, well-documented case for which I discovered we have an accurate birth time. I haven't had time to work any of this up astrologically, but want to document it here (for later work-up) before I lose the data.

Carl Switzer was "Alfalfa," the most popular figure in the popular Our Gang films (later titled Little Rascals. He had an unusually tragic life - one difficulty after another - ending in his violent death in his early 30s, most likely by murder. Here is a decent summary:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_%22A ... 22_Switzer

According to his birth certificate, he was born August 8, 1927, 1:00 AM, Paris, IL. He became one of the earliest child actors, had limited success later in a few movies, especially spaghetti Westerns, and also worked as a hunting guide and dog breeder. Besides his initial Our Gang success, the one bright spot in his life seems to have been his marriage to Dian Collingwood, an heiress to the Collingwood fortune, though that ended in divorce less than three years later.

He died from a gunshot injury January 21, 1959, 7:00 PM, Mission Hills, CA. The man who shot him was found not guilty (self-defense) but the weight of evidence still weighs to it being intentional, malicious murder.

[Jim Eshelman]

Carl had Cancer-Scorpio luminaries that explain many things about both his successes and his failures, as well as his general character. Perhaps the most important mark in his chart, though, indicative of a life of great struggle, is Saturn partile square MC at birth. (Moon and Neptune are more widely foreground and in exact [13'] mundane square. Venus widely squares Ascendant.)

Relocating his chart to Hollywood brought Sun widely square Asc (especially if the birth time ere just a few minutes earlier).

The most interesting and best timed event is likely his death (though there are other events for which dates are recorded).

TRANSITS: Pluto is just past his IC and just past square Saturn. I won't be surprised to find this (and/or Saturn square his Jupiter-Uranus) on the Solunar angles. Transiting Uranus conjoined his Sun (19'). It's at least curious (though I don't know what it means) that transiting Sun crossed his Mission Hills local MC for the shooting.

PROGRESIONS: If his birth time were as much as 10 minutes earlier, progressed (primary) angles would have contacted progressed Mars and Pluto. However, this is too much of a departure from the stated (even hour) birth time to be anything more than speculative. More interesting is that his local (Mission Hills) primary angles had matched his natal angles, so that progressed MC squared natal Saturn (without needing to modify the birth time). -- His SNQ brings transiting Mars and Uranus to angles but neither quite close enough: It would be fitting aspect because of its symbolism and because it was on angles in the event chart for the shooting death.

SOLAR ARCS: Nothing really interesting. Directed Asc conjoined his Mercury, directed Mercury conjoined his Neptune. (This, of course, discloses a natal Me = Ne/As picture.) Ah, but for location of the shooting, directed Pluto squared natal Asc 08', reminding us to always look at local angles for solar arcs as well.

SOLAR RETURN: His final SSR was not descriptive. The most angular planet was transiting Venus. A few other things appear, but that's the main feature. Nor were transits to the SSR interesting.

LUNAR RETURNS: His January 6 SLR was similarly boring except for transiting Sun opposite natal Pluto (partile, moderately foreground). However, his January 20 Demi-SLR was another matter: SLR MC squared transiting Mars, among other (more widely foreground) matters including Uranus' partile transit to his Sun. It's not a great chart but it's an accurate chart capturing the right moment.

SQ & PSSR: The SQ might be an impressive chart, but - given the even-hour birth time - it's hard to tell. Transiting Saturn was 2-3° off a quotidian angle, which is too wide and would require the birth time to be several minutes later.

Overall, I'm disappointed. The natal chart reads very well and describes his life well. The timing for his violent killing is thin. (The Kinetic Lunars and Anlunar were comparably weak.)

[Danica]

To add to the SLR picture (i.e. smaller cycles charts):
his final Decilium 1/15 for Mission Hills has Sun, Moon and Uranus each about 9* from angles (DC, MC, AC, respectively); the Sun and Moon are sq with 00*00' orb (in mundo)!

[Jim Eshelman]

Ha, I missed that. Glanced at the Decilium and, at a glance, it wasn't worth mentioning.

I guess at least it was... life-changing.

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

The timing for his violent killing is thin.

With Uranian Astrology, they would first look at his natal midpoint structure for Neptune, since he had d Me 0 r Nep in early April 1959. Then, since a Uranian Astrologer would have already known there was a violent killing (Hades) under thin (Nep) circumstances, a Uranian would have stopped at the tightest orb midpoint of:

Pluto/Hades = Neptune which is key-worded by Witte's book as:

To get slowly, unnoticeably and irresistibly into an evil situation. Sneaking crises of the most evil kind. Going down. Break down. Deterioration.

Alfalfa also had a Direct Natal Sun/Mars = Nep. This suggest he was killed by either the woman's husband or lover.

There are other obvious midpoints involved with his r Nep which suggest it was an illicit love affair with a woman, But to type -up all these midpoints takes too much time. Also note, he had d Node = r Neptune at about the same time in 1959. No matter the specific circumstances, Hades is involved for violence.

Over, and over, with lectures by different Uranians they emphasize always find out

WHATS GOING ON WITH HADES

with dial pointer on Hades when involved with life happenings.