A medical astrology example - Melissa Duarte

[Jim Eshelman]

I just came across birth data of an interesting example to add to our medical astrology files. Melissa Duarte was born July 13, 1979, 9:25 AM EDT Wareham, MA. She died suddenly - out of the blue - on September 6, 1996, Rochester, MA.

Melissa is one example of a rare death - happening a couple of times a year - where a bacteria mysteriously hits and causes rapid death. Evidently she was in good physical shape (a high school athlete). She had flu-like symptoms, stayed home from school, and was found dead when her parents came home at the end of the day.

My first point of focus is the immediate cause of death: She had a massive hemorrhage of her heart and lungs, caused by meningococcemia, defined by one sources as "a rare infectious disease characterized by upper respiratory tract infection, fever, skin rash and lesions, eye and ear problems, and possibly a sudden state of extreme physical depression (shock) which may be life-threatening without appropriate medical care." The fact that her body gave out from hemorrhage of her heart and lungs suggests Aquarius (or maybe Leo) and Sagittarius (or maybe Gemini) as the points of activity. In fact, her Moon was in Aquarius - angular and severely afflicted at birth - and her Sun in Gemini. Bingo!

Here is the natal birth pattern. We couldn't have told the specifics, but could have suspected an innate vulnerability of her heart from either something inflammatory and invasive or from physical attack:

13°06' Leo Asc
15°59' Leo Saturn
17°48' Aqu Moon
17°51' Tau Mars

So much for the basic observation - her natal potential. My other question (not yet explored) is whether predictive systems timed (and better described) the death.

[Jim Eshelman]

Melissa Duarte was born July 13, 1979, 9:25 AM EDT Wareham, MA. She died suddenly - out of the blue - on September 6, 1996, Rochester, MA.

Because Rochester is virtually in the same place as Wareham, I'll use birthplace throughout for convenience.

Let's first see if any major indicator takes us to that general part of her life. Following Steve's lead, let's narrow it by looking first at solar arc directions, then secondary progressions, then transits. (This is easy to do with SF: Animate a biwheel, set the outer circle to solar arcs, switch to a dial, and read the aspects at a glance for directions, then for progressions, then for transits.)

One solar arc direction leaps out - at least enough to signal something "out of the blue," sudden, startling. d Uranus conjoined natal IC 0°01'. At age 17, this had so many other possibilities, most of them exciting and desirable, but let's concede that this fits the "out of the blue" descriptor I first applied, and signals a major event (in this case, her sudden death).

There is a supportive solar arc aspect: d Mars ssq. r Mercury 0°00. Again, I'm left with, "Sure, this is symbolically correct, but I wouldn't have picked this kind of event." (Inflammation of the meninges or of respiratory tissue fits the aspect: d Moon joins within 03'.) It could have been so many other, more desirable things. Slightly wider, d Venus ssq. r Saturn 0°16'.

Switching to secondary progressions, we only have the long-term effect of progressed Saturn having not moved much; but it had zoomed in, closer and closer her her Moon-Mars, her whole life. At death it was 17°46' Leo, within 0°02' of opposite natal Moon, 0°05' of square natal Mars. The natal pattern was becoming more vulnerable the longer she lived.

Switching to transits, we find marks of infection (for noon on her final day) - again, hitting the same planets that were most obviously implicated in the natal:

t Neptune sqq. r Saturn 0°28'
t Mars ssq. r Mars 0°28'
-- t Mars sqq. r Moon 0°31'
t Mercury ssq. r Uranus 0°58'

[Jim Eshelman]

She had a bad Sidereal Solar Return. We don't expect such things to be fatal in a 17-year-old in good health but - again - the same planets that were most obviously involved in the natal are strongest in the SSR:

Ecliptically:
12°41' Pis - s Saturn
16°11' Vir - s MC

23°50' Sco - r Neptune
24°04' Sco - s Asc
25°42' Tau - s Moon
26°33' Tau - s Mars

Mundanely:
26°54' 3H - s Saturn
27°54' 6H - s Moon
2°21' 7H - s Mars


Her SLR - often singled out as a health chart - wasn't so obviously involved, especially at first glance. Transiting Sun on IC exactly on IC, unafflicted (with a bit of Moon, bit of Jupiter) normally would be taken as a chart for strong vitality and unusually good health for a few weeks. As a minor factor, that Sun was a few degrees from conjunct natal Saturn near IC. Mostly, though, the SLR let us down this time.

But the final pinch was from the PSSR. (I'm calculating it in the estimated way, probably accurate angles to within 1°.) Her PSSR MC was 26° Scorpio - grabbing that SSR Moon-Mars conjunction - and Asc 17° Aquarius - exactly on the NATAL Moon-Mars square.

What a tragic way for the dice to randomly fall for this popular, athletic, energetic young woman!