J.R. Male, Sun and Mercury on IC.

[Lance]

J.R. (male)
March 8, 1971
12:53am
Xenia, OH

This is one of my friends. I don’t have my laptop at the moment (hence the lack of precision), but I know he has Sun and
Mercury strongly angular on his IC.

It should be no surprise that he identifies as a writer, and he has written several science fiction novels primarily that deal with time travel. He’s never really hit any great level of success with them.

And I just keep thinking that if the same two planets were on his MC, then maybe he would be more successful and be known for these things. And I just don’t really know what to tell him about those planets being on his IC instead. It wants to make it more personal and private, but I can’t really imagine a practical way to describe that to him. Like is he just supposed to be writing for himself? What does it mean to those things are on his IC?

[Jim Eshelman]

There is SO much going on in this chart - especially for a science fiction writer - that I almost don't know where to begin. But, cutting right to your primary question, I'll start here: While individual angles have individual characteristics at times, there is no more likely way to miss what's going on with angularity than to focus overly much on individual angles. Start with the bigger picture.

Yes, people with Sun on IC or Mercury on IC have a greater need for privacy; but so does a Cancer Moon (who takes to an audience well usually, but really wants to be able to escape to privacy). More likely, the individual angle refers to other things, such as a family or legacy focus, or a stronger need for personal sovereignty. Or maybe he's into real estate speculation, given that rising Jupiter-Neptune. He probably has a more solid center of gravity than most people as strongly Neptunian. Little details like that.

Turning back to writing: While Sun-Mercury aspects show the ego identified with Mercury themes (e.g., equating one's words and thoughts with who one is), it doesn't necessarily make for a writer. One thinks first about business instincts and that someone is effectively self-expressive and particularly apt at handling business details. Mercury is also EXACTLY angular, so Mercury needs are very strong.

For the kind of writing he's doing though - creative rather than business documents - the chart overflows with imagery, imagination, science-based adventure, and more. The topic on which he writes, of course, is reflected in the Aquarius Sun . Also, read the standard Moon in Cancer interpretation, which shows someone often rich in imagery and many other similar traits plus the arts with a fantasy focus. (Mystery writing is even more characteristic.)

Mercury and Neptune are the most angular planets, with Sun and Jupiter almost as strong. The Sun-Mercury conjunction is in close mundane square to the rising Neptune. Mercury, Venus, and Neptune are the strongest planets, with Sun and Jupiter nearly as strong (these all from angularities and hard luminary aspects). - I could probably go on a while longer.
 

He’s never really hit any great level of success with them.

Do you mean financially successful? (Is this what he does full time, or much of the time?) On the Jupiter-Saturn balance, he has clear, strong Jupiter and essentially no Saturn, so I'd expect him to be lucky getting money but not particularly good at keeping it (especially since most Aquarians tend not to care much one way or the other about the matter).

The other money planet is Mars, and his has no particular emphasis. I think he just isn't competitive. There might be a "doesn't push too much" impracticality in the rising (nearly stationary) Neptune partile square Sun. The middleground Mars-Pluto close square doesn't like to follow anyone else's rules.

But people LIKE him. He has a Cancer Moon 0°11' from opposite Venus (trine-sextile Jupiter). He has Sun-Mercury mundane square Jupiter-Neptune on angles. People like him.

[Lance]

You know, I mentioned that he was a sci-fi writer, but I failed to include that this is an incredibly spiritual and religious person, currently quite Roman Catholic. Even his science fiction is in the vein of C.S. Lewis, with Christian themes.

I was telling him about his Sun-Mercury conjunction on the most private/personal part of his chart. Well, long story short, he wanted to associate it with his prayer life. I had been brainstorming phrases like “private communication” and “personal communication,” and that’s where his mind quickly went.

So, I’m scratching my beard, thinking, well… Maybe so! Colored by angular Neptune?

Anyway, further update to come. Different subject.

[Lance]

Topic: J.R.’s t.Saturn-r.Neptune transit

Current residence: Mission, TX
SSR Location: Garland, TX (Dallas County)

He’s had a three-pass Saturn transit to natal Neptune going on this year, first partile starting the beginning of April, then doing it’s passes, leaving final partile a few days ago.

Two main thematic coincidences:

1. Serious undiagnosable health problems (gastric/eating), leading to financial expense (also Saturn-Jupiter going in in there) as well as a lot of anxiety about dying.

2. More recently, he reports that he has been waking up at 2am every morning, terrified that he is going to go to hell. If you knew this guy, his heart, his history, and his theological education… It’s absurd. It makes no sense.

I’m going to wait a week and ask him if that’s still going on. I hope it passes.

[Lance]

It’s more complicated than I imagined. This will take time for him to overcome. Profound sense of failure and guilt. I need more details about when all this started, but I didn’t want to dig too aggressively at that time.

[Jim Eshelman]

Saturn-Neptune can be a bitch

[Lance]

J.R. took his own life yesterday, Monday, February 26th, in Mission, Texas, after losing a fierce battle with his mental health.

He had been a very serious convert to Catholicism, and he was crippled by guilt and a sense of distance from God because of a previous attempt at taking his own life. This guilt deeply compounded his problem.

We were very close in the past but had drifted apart over the last couple decades with our different interests and locations. No need to worry about me, but you might say a prayer for his family.

[Jim Eshelman]

I'm so sorry to hear this.

Looking back at this thread, I see I talked to you about almost everything but this. I'll look at this more closely as time opens up later today.

[Lance]

Oh, please don’t worry about that. I have an extensive theological and psychological education. I spoke to him in depth about it, but it was truly a case of him tightly holding onto beliefs that caused him despair. He gave me no indication that he was worsening in recent days.

[Lance]

His brother and I thought he was improving. I do notice his most recent lunar return had Saturn on the Dsc, and that started Feb 21st. I think he must have just immediately gone down hill and stayed silent about it.

[Jim Eshelman]

...it was truly a case of him tightly holding onto beliefs that caused him despair.

This is a common phenomenon in human behavior: Taking refuge in the familiar, secure thing that is harming us and yet, by its familiarity, seems somehow more... comforting? safe?

I've often thought that Saturn transits feel malefic because Saturn encourages resistance and a stubborn all against change. In any transit - good, bad, indifferent - it is resistance to the transit's process that hurts, while choosing to embrace it moves life forward.

Neptune, similarly, is the healthy function that sorts an operational reality out of all available data and then holds fast to that reality bubble - that way that one has sorted out for the word to make sense - that reality womb - against any violation of its terms.

Mars, I suppose, completes the set because Mars is oppositional and takes a position that it defends against its enemies. In any case, pain comes from the unmoving reality when reality in fact, is moving.

Some people are born more vulnerable to irresolvable inner conflict (especially depending on environment). We all pass through periods when strong astrological forces surge at the same time, coming to a crescendo. What does it look like, though, when someone hits a tipping point like J.R. did? How do we anticipate these crisis points?

I guarantee, though don't always look like what you might expect. For example, J.R.'s last day wa marked by a transiting Sun-Mercury conjunction square his Jupiter. That's not the whole story, but it seems a definite part of yesterday's story.

[Jim Eshelman]

J.R. was born with Neptune exactly rising in partile mundane square to Sun on IC. There was far more to him than that, but that's one very loud piece. It's even a well-aspected Neptune, given a close-to-moderate conjunction to Jupiter. Mostly the chart would be singled out as a better-than-average (easier than average) horoscope with Jupiter rising, a strong Sun, and Moon in two powerful benefic aspects; but we should never underestimate the amount of mischief Neptune in us can set in motion.

J.R. never let go of that Neptune, either. When he moved to Mission, TX he picked a place where his MC was 8°56' Leo, only 0°12' from square his Neptune. Yes, he kept the angular Jupiter, so the environment would be expected to be better than average - with some real advantages. Holding onto these two planetary angularities, one might guess that Neptune and Jupiter themes were going to be the strongest in his life. (Increasingly over the last year, I've come to appreciate how natal angles relocated are the first layer of predictive astrology.)

Were there despair and suicide indicators in his natal chart? While no aspect or set of aspects outright means suicide, there are some more common than others. For example, his close Mars-Pluto square is common, seemingly meaning that someone takes every chance to run his life (or end it) on his own terms - someone not natively resistant to standing against society's rules. As an Aquarius, he was never quite part of the usual social fabric. He was perhaps too tender and felt things too strongly (though his exact Moon-Venus opposition is the least common natal aspect for suicide). And of course the exactly angular Sun-Neptune. - If I knew him deeper, I'd probably see more. It wasn't a high risk chart except for that persistently strong Neptune.


Starting with the longest-term factors, let's check his Solar Arc directions. His primary aspect was directed Moon square his Mars. (It hadn't yet reached conjunction with his Pluto.) This isn't suicidal per se (and solar arcs aren't usually "trigger" aspects - they're more setting things up.) In fact, it is directed Moon-Venus hitting his Mars together. One would expect strong matters of the flesh and passion fueling him, or (at worst, if other aspects tip the scales) frustrations of these things, relationship frictions, certainly an impulse to action and move. It would be a two-year window of feeling things powerfully and surging in emotional force. This isn't the pattern for the suicide or recent deepening of despair unless it was strong needs and desires that were severely balked or blocked. I think we move on to other methods.

Secondary progressions (another long-term trend) don't show anything either. If his deepening mental illness were (e.g.) a biochemical matter that reached some new threshold of severity, I'd expect that in the progressions (the natural unfolding of his pre-patterned genetic and social life-pattern), but there is nothing there. This matches the broader research that suicide is not shown in progressions unless those are triggered by transits - suicide doesn't usually show as being internally-sponsored or real acts-of-self in a vacuum, but, rather, a psychological interaction with the environment (transits).

So what of the transits? These had been rough in the recent past, and he wasn't entirely out of the woods yet, but - going just by transits themselves - the strongest pressures had backed off for a while. The one longest-term transit building was Pluto octile his Sun, which wasn't yet in orb but probably was building: If he'd lived another year he'd have had to undergo considerable self-dismantling and make way to leave his prior sense of identity behind and step forward in a newly, differently authentic way.

Uranus was still in orb of conjunct his Saturn. That can shake up stable conditions, but usually in a good (house-cleaning) way. The universe says, "You need change," the psyche says "Leave my settled stuff alone!" and a tug of war ensues. Not usually a big deal of a transit in terms of permanent consequences, but part of the pattern. - Saturn had left his Neptune, Jupiter, and local and natal angles, and not yet gotten to his Sun, Mercury, and IC - it was clearly backed off for a time.

If I were to go by the transits, I'd mostly observe that there was a pause at this point in his life before some very strong, reshaping things in the next year - things that would challenge him physically and psychologically while providing opportunities to reinvent himself significantly. My experience living and observing people leaves me certain his psyche knew about these things - felt the rhythms building - and he didn't want to go through that. On a day that Mercury and Sun conjoined squared his Jupiter, he gave himself a psychological break, a relief from it all.

PS - Transiting Jupiter was also in partile conjunction with progressed Sun. This is even more pointedly a relief, solving all problems aspect and I'm sure it was that for him, too. Transiting Mars also squared progressed Sun, providing the most common kind of trigger.

However, this still isn't a satisfactory explanation. It does show me a lot of where he was in the rhythms of the life-shifts we all experience, but doesn't show building psychological pressures up to a tipping point.

We are left, then, with his Sidereal solar and lunar returns.

[Jim Eshelman]

He was nearly at the end of his solar return year - ten days short of his birthday - and a few days after his last SLR.

His last SSR - nearly complete - had several planets angular but none of them super-closely. (Transiting planets were kinder than natal planets.) Given how wide these were, the strongest factors were Moon's aspects - to his natal Mars-Pluto. His natal "outlaw" tendencies (and their wider range of expressions in his psyche) were foremost for the year. We also have Uranus conjunct natal Saturn (discussed above) as the one foreground aspect.

The year was primed for existential challenges, abrupt "outlaw" and telling people to {bonk} off so he could life his own damn life, I suspect (and other natal Mars-Pluto characteristics).

If he had lived ten more days, he'd have had a vastly different chart: The upcoming SSR would have had a partile Moon-Jupiter conjunction (with SSR Moon 0°05' from an angle) plus his natal Moon-Venus opposition foreground (and, more widely, SSR Moon conjunct natal Venus). It would have been a very happy SSR with considerable psychological relief. Something in him needed to never get to that next birthday.

With an emotionally and socially confrontational SSR, he hit a definitely confrontational, existential, and probably emotionally hard SLR - Neptune (as it was at his birth) staring him in the face. It's easiest to see from the mundoscope of the SLR (but I'll put longitudes in parentheses after). Ascendant is 29°35' Leo.

29°46' H12 - r Pluto (4°20' Virgo)
---------------------------------------------------
1°23' H7 - t Neptune (1°22' Pisces)
4°29' H4 - r Mars (3°07' Sag)

Neptune's transits to natal Mars-Pluto were the two foreground aspects (in addition to the Mars-Pluto square itself and the more widely angular natal Sun-Mercury). Natal Pluto was the most angular, natal Neptune next, and Neptune to Mars-Pluto transits defined it.

I wasn't going to bother with the Ennead series, but since he died exactly 10 days before his birthday I thought I'd look at the last 10-Day Solar of the year. I'm not impressed. It primarily had natal Uranus on IC. Interestingly, the full Ennead had natal Uranus exactly rising, but was more on-target with s Moon square natal Neptune. I wouldn't rely on these too strongly.

Finally, did the quotidians do anything to bring this to a peak? No, not really, (I'm assuming the birth time was closely accurate given its precision and the time of day, so shifting angles 2-3° to bring his Mars-Pluto to angles of all three quotidian systems seems extreme. Perhaps a decision was reached two or three days earlier?) I think the final trigger was the Mars transit square progressed Sun.

It would have been hard even for someone watching him closely astrologically to see exactly when this would happen, though that final SLR - with natal Pluto precisely angular, Neptune nearly as close and aspecting his natal Mars-Pluto - was the strongest warning signal within the current SSR.

I wish he could have made it to his next birthday: The new SSR could have tipped the next year's significant transits positively.

[Lance]

Starting with the longest-term factors, let's check his Solar Arc directions. His primary aspect was directed Moon square his Mars. (It hadn't yet reached conjunction with his Pluto.) This isn't suicidal per se (and solar arcs aren't usually "trigger" aspects - they're more setting things up.) In fact, it is directed Moon-Venus hitting his Mars together. One would expect strong matters of the flesh and passion fueling him, or (at worst, if other aspects tip the scales) frustrations of these things, relationship frictions, certainly an impulse to action and move. It would be a two-year window of feeling things powerfully and surging in emotional force. This isn't the pattern for the suicide or recent deepening of despair unless it was strong needs and desires that were severely balked or blocked. I think we move on to other methods.

Actually, this was one of the tragedies of his life. He was a hopeless romantic who desired marriage desperately, but he was so very spiritual in a sexually conservative way that it worked against him in relationships. Waiting until marriage is not what most grown women want.

He even entered the Jesuit novitiate, but after a time, he decided that God wanted him to get married, so he left. But he never got together with anyone. This was a constant source of painful longing for him.

[Jim Eshelman]

And this solar arc direction over the last year made this worse

The things we do to ourselves...

[SteveS]

Tragic Lance. I had to deal with a case similar to your situation. My best friend came to me wanting me to figure out a way to help his suicidal stepson, we both strongly suspected it was going to happen, just a matter of time. We did all we knew to do to prevent it/help, but then one day it happened. Tragedies are part of our lives at times.

[Veronica]

Hi Lance,

You all are in my thoughts and prayers.
1970/1971 gave us some tough but sensitive MF and I hope you celebrate his life and passing with vigor and fierce love. I'm sorry for your loss. I have struggled with suicidal thoughts and mental health unbalances myself for most of my life and it is a day by day thing for me. My best friend refused dialysis this year which was suicidal and it was/is hard to fathom at times, and the highs and lows of our bodies biochemical reaction to stress and loss and anger and everything can be almost impossible to regulate. I actually was trained this year at the University I work at in methods to help prevent suicide in our students, steps we as staff should take to help....I was choking back tears self identifying with the psychology and the instructor was amazed that I knew all the red flags to watch for allready.
Learning astrology from Jim gave me the tools I needed to know so that when sadness is upon me, or rage or fear....that if I 5ake the time to look at the transits I will see that like a cloud in the sky the ugliness will pass...and that I DO NOT HAVE TO ACT when a feeling or urge arises. I know this doesnt help your friend, but since it really has saved me from myself countless times I needed to say it outloud in case someone else may need to hear it.
Hugs

[Lance]

Thank you for your thoughts, everyone. Sincerely.