RIP Barbara Walters

[Jim Eshelman]

Barbara Walters, one of the greatest Virgos of the last half century, has died today (age 93) in her Manhattan home.

Virgo-Taurus. Born at sunrise. Moon opposite Saturn with both closely aspect a partile conjunction of Mars and a stationary Mercury. She reinvented journalism as a basis of personal connection, could dismantle anyone she interviewed, and later started a new kind of phenomenon with The View.

She was born September 25, 1929, 6:50 AM EDT, Boston, MA (A).

Here is her needs ranking:
100 - Saturn Eris
99 - Sun
93 - Uranus
90 - Moon Venus Mercury
66 - Pluto
63 - Mars
45 - Jupiter
0 - Neptune

[Jim Eshelman]

For her death, transiting Eris was opposite her Mars (0°12') and Mercury (0°44'). Mercury (square Eris on the day of her death) squared the same planets. I find it at least curious (as we are learning about Eris) that a Mercury-Eris square occurred on the day a legendary news reporter died and fell atop her own Mercury-Mars.

There were no other transits of note.

Progressed Moon squared natal Venus. We can presume it had been a good month in significant ways, though I don't know what this had to do with her death if anything. The one progressed aspect that might be connected to her death is probably more connected to state of life: Progressed Saturn had been, for many years, within a degree of her natal Nadir. Of very great interest is that progressed Sun was 0°42' past her IC, which normally I would associate with greater vitality. Progressed Mercury at 28°10' Sagittarius is the same degree as transiting Mercury, square natal Mercury-Mars. Mostly, I have no idea what the secondary progressions are saying about her death. (There is the strange coincidence that transiting Mars conjoined progressed Jupiter while transiting Jupiter squared progressed Mars. I'm not too keen on transits to non-luminary progressions, but this one is interesting.)

Tertiary progressed Mercury squared natal Jupiter. This seems to tell us nothing useful.

Solar Arc Pluto 29°21' was hitting her Mercury-Mars, the same thing in the natal that everything else has been hitting. Because progressed Sun was on natal IC, directed Eris (opposite her Sun) was 0°17' from MC. This is interesting primarily because the progressed Sun to IC made no sense, while adding Eris (even without really understanding it) tells us there is another factor at play. None of this is satisfying either. (It doesn't help that we don't know what she died from. "Old age" is the obvious answer, and she had a history of disease that had been purportedly fixed. If the cause were Mercury-Mars related, such as a cerebral hemorrhage, that would make everything make sense.)

Time to move on to the techniques we trust most...

Walters' 9/26 final SSR had Saturn within 3° of Descendant, the strongest thing in the chart (and nearly the only thing). A partile Saturn-Uranus square was foreground. Outside the foreground, the SSER's best features were Jupiter opposite her Sun and Venus square her Moon; its worst feature was a Mars-Neptune square.

Her 12/8 SLR was complicated but upbeat. Transiting luminaries were closest to the angle except natal Jupiter 0°10' from Ascendant. This gave all sorts of good aspects such as a Moon-Jupiter paran to balance her natal Moon-Saturn opposition. But the SLR also had a 1° mundane Mars-Saturn square with Sun opposite Mars (partile) - Sun 1°27' and Mars 4°12' from angles. That makes it happy but severe.

Her 12/22 Demi-SLR was then not necessarily bad but can be labelled abrupt and terminal in some sense: Transiting Pluto was 1°56' from Descendant forming 1° mundane square with natal Uranus (0°54' from Midheaven).

[Jim Eshelman]

Two days before she died, she had a Kinetic Solar Return. I keep watching these just as a check on my view that they're worthless. This one is better than usual but still not clearly indicative of death as such. Mercury and Venus tightly wrap Ascendant (12' and 3' off the angle, respectively), with Pluto about 4° away. These (with various orbs) are atop natal Mercury - the Mercury-Mercury once again appearing - and more widely opposite natal Pluto. The parts that are crisp and clear are not about death, and the parts that might be about death or fuzzy and vague. I'm not impressed.

But this time the Kinetic Lunar isn't very impressive either. A little Uranus (and that isn't very close) is about all it claims. Ho hum.

Her December 14 Ennead put a Sun-Neptune square on angles (offset by Jupiter). Her natal Moon-Saturn opposition is along the meridian, touched by the Sun-Neptune. Moon squares Mars moderately. It's a good chart even without partile orbs all around. The December 24 10-Day solar (which was coincidentally her quarti-solar) has transiting Pluto 0°21' from WP-a.

I was curious whether the worst parts of the SSR somehow came into focus. Her December 17 Anlunar does bring the "worst thing in the chart" Mars-Neptune square to the angles by putting SSR Mars 1° from WP-a.

For the final run-up - the daily charts - the SNQ is at least interesting if indecipherable: It's Ascendant conjoins transiting Eris: Ascendant and Eris both oppose natal Mercury-Mars: all this squares transiting Mercury conjunct progressed Mercury. It's the mystery aspect of the whole series of charts, brought front and center. Read without Eris, we get three Mercuries with natal Mars probably closest to the angle (depending on time of day).

The PSSR brings the SSR's Saturn-Uranus square to the angles.

In the final analysis, the lunars were the best of the bunch as usual, with the Anlunar kicking up the solar a bit and the Ennead series putting in a decent showing.