Birth: December 8, 1882, 4:09 AM LMT, Chicago, IL
Event (bomb): July 12, 1916, 2:06 PM PST, San Francisco, CA
Event (sentence commutation): November 28, 1918 [He was at San Quentin.]
Event (unconditional pardon): January 7, 1939 [He was at San Quentin.]
Bradley wrote:...a bomb concealed in a satchel exploded at the corner of Stuart and Market in San Francisco, interrupting a "Preparedness Day" parade. Ten persons were killed and forth were injured. Authorities quickly arrested iron moulder and labor organizer Thomas J. Mooney, along with his wife and three other union men, and slapped murder charges on the lot of them. Mrs. Mooney and one of the men were acquitted, while another man was released without a trial. Mooney's companion, Warren G. Billings, was sentenced to life imprisonment, but Mooney received the death penalty. However, thanks to the intercession of President Wilson... Mooney's sentence was commuted to life-imprisonment. For two decades thereafter, efforts by his friends, sympathizers, and the liberal movement generally, were made to free him, in the firm belief that he had been connect on perjured testimony. Finally, in fulfillment of a campaign promise, newly-elected governor Olson... pardoned Mooney unconditionally... Aged and maligned, Yom Mooney walked out of San Quentin into free air and the arms of his faithful wife.
Let's start with the natal: December 8, 1882, 4:09 AM LMT, Chicago, IL
He was a Scorpio-Libra. Even with the few facts we have, this is easily fitting. He was a labor organizer in a rough-and-tumble period. and, sure, could have been a radical troublemaker (but that doesn't mean he was).
Sun is partile conjunct Mars in Scorpio. Moon is opposed (partile) by Saturn, and more widely opposed by Neptune. Moon and Saturn are right along the Eastpoint-Westpoint axis. From these few details alone, we'd expect a rough life, one where he would thrive while struggling (and thrive in struggling).
(BTW, Sun-Venus-Mars are all mundanely on Antivertex, and Sun-Mars is there ecliptically.)
Besides the struggle, the scrappy fighter, there is the fact of having spent most of his life imprisoned, rightly or wrongly. (He was 33 when the bomb exploded, 57 when he left prison. He lived 3 years longer.) Classic (primarily Tropical) astrology relates this sort of thing to a 12th house theme, but we quickly see nothing in his 12th house and no easy relationship to push that event. Nor is there anything of Pisces in either zodiac. What we do have, though, and what I think shows this particular pattern in his life, is that angular Moon opposition to Saturn-Neptune.
BTW, relocating his chart to San Francisco adds nothing to the angles.
Let's look at the event for the bomb's detonation: July 12, 1916, 2:06 PM PST, San Francisco, CA
First, let's check his transits: The first thing to catch my attention is that the angles for the bomb explosion are nearly exactly his own natal angles. I have no idea what this means. I could make up that it means he was tightly connected to the moment somehow, but I don't see this happening in real events. I think, therefore, it means nothing.
The one transit of particular note is t Mars conjunct r Uranus (0°19'). This is obviously explosive. It could also, though, show the effect of being rapidly rounded up and charged with a capital crime by the police.Venus semi-squares his Saturn (and, barely, his Moon), certainly showing a bad day (and stirring issues of possible involvement by his wife and friends, who also were arrested).
I'm intrigued that the important 0°04' Sun-Saturn conjunction that day did not touch his chart (that we have seen so far). - Ah, but it did oppose his progressed Sun, both just within a 1° orb.
Bradley, of course, wrote about this case to show the SLR of the event. I agree with him that this chart seems to remove all doubt of guilt: Mars conjoins MC, partile conjunct his natal Uranus. His natal Mercury-Venus is rising (making that a Mercury-Venus-Uranus combination) which would seem to show the resourcefulness and technical ingenuity.
Bradley had plenty of other reasons for thinking this confirmed guilt, including the Sun-Saturn close conjunction in the 8th house. I'm not going to buy into the house symbolism - we don't need it - but a middleground Sun-Saturn conjunction isn't bad support. But the main thing is Mars on his Uranus at MC, with natal Mercury-Venus paran (co-angular with) them from Ascendant.
His SSR was... radical enough. (I say this as someone who has the same factors every year I live, and have not bombed anyone.) Pluto is exactly on IC. Add to this a Moon-Neptune opposition and a couple of wider Jupiters.
Anything about his commutation by President Wilson?
Event (sentence commutation): November 28, 1918 [He was at San Quentin.]
Well, one nice tip for his local angles: Venus transiting his local IC. This must have seemed like a nice gift.
Transits (using noon) include:
t Pluto -135- r Moon +08' [climax to mortality confrontation?]
-- t Sun -135- r Saturn -06'
t Pluto -45- r Saturn -52'
-- t Sun -45- r Moon +50'
t Venus -135- r Pluto
t Mercury -0- r Sun-Mars
Not bad, not thrilling. It's not entirely what I'd expect for having someone order that I not be killed.
It happened the day of his new SLR. (He probably learned of it late in the day, and the SLR would have occurred by then, though I consider it effective anyway.) I don't get a lot out of the chart. Moon is close to Descendant (2°), so perhaps - with his natal Moon-Saturn-Neptune across the horizon - this means he mostly felt "I'm going to be in this hellhole the rest of my life," rather than, "Hurrah, they aren't going to kill me!" And then (as seen above) this same Moon-Saturn was the subject of the key transits on the date.
Oh, an aside I'd missed. On the SLR date, transiting Jupiter crossed his local MC. OK, I'm happy now. (And I still think the main effect of the SLR was, "I'm spending my life in this hellhole.")
Finally, his unconditional pardon: January 7, 1939
Transits are pretty pathetic, so let's move onto the SLR, which was one of Bradley show-off charts - though not necessarily for the same reasons modern Siderealists would first pick.
He starts with the fact that there is a 0°00' Moon-Venus conjunction in the 12th house - in simple terms, great happiness and cause for celebration connected to imprisonment. He added rising Mercury for the formal written decree, and that the rising Sun is sextile Jupiter.
But... how would we look at it today? Are there things about the 1948 approach that we've shed and shouldn't have shed? Or are we good with what we've got?
In contemporary style, we can't miss the 0°00' Moon-Venus conjunction, though we have to admit it's quite background. Foremost, Mercury is within a degree of Ascendant and - one has to look for it - sesqui-square Pluto 0°23'. This was, indeed, a dramatic, life-altering signature!
Sun is barely foreground, and I wouldn't pay attention to the sextile to Jupiter, which makes it a much less celebratory chart than Bradley saw.
The rising Mercury conjoins natal Sun, Mars, and Venus. I'm not sure about the Mercury-Mars, but the other two (especially Venus) are quite appropriate. Can we learn something about mundane vs. ecliptical from the deployment? Here is a list of the planets, their zodiacal degrees, and the degrees with which they rose. First, the ecliptical:
18°17' Sco r Mercury
20°22' Sco r Venus 21°05' Sco SLR Ascendant
22°34' Sco SLR Mercury
23°09' Sco r Sun
23°53' Sco r Mars
Next, giving the planets by the degree where they rise, rather than their longitudes:
18°39' Sco r Mercury
20°11' Sco r Venus
20°38' Sco SLR Mercury 21°05' Sco SLR Ascendant
23°09' Sco r Sun
24°16' Sco r Mars
This is great! Notice that, when taken mundanely, transiting Mercury is exactly conjunct natal Venus - the best aspect of the set for an unconditional pardon! It is next closest to his Sun (the second best), and farthest from natal Mars (the one that almost doesn't make sense). This is an important example that gives us a rare chance to look at the difference in mundane vs. ecliptical behavior in the SLR!
What Bradley didn't examine was the Demi-SLR January 1. This doesn't startle with precise orbs, but it's message is utterly clear: Venus and Jupiter are foreground, and in close (2°
34') square. He's happy, he has cause for celebration, and his wife is waiting on him.
Natal Pluto is in the upper foreground. Venus opposes, and Jupiter squares, the Pluto, which is pretty obvious symbolism
Interestingly, Sun-Saturn began his incarceration, and the Demi-SLR for his release has a partile Sun-Saturn square - middleground like the first one. Either this refers to a non-forefront matter (e.g., his age and frailness, and how many years he lost), or we really shouldn't be paying attention to it. Except we do need to pay attention to it anyway, because it's on his local angles with in a degree. It's part of the symbolism of the event.
Also not covered in DAB's book is the new Solar Return that set up less than a month before the pardon. It has similar, but lesser, symbolism to the Demi-Lunar. Primarily, Jupiter squares MC < 2°. Oh, and for a dramatic life change, it has Pluto closely setting, < 2° (only evident in the mundoscope), and sesqui-square his natal Sun. - And, doubling the symbolism, once more natal Pluto is closely angular, squared by transiting Jupiter, the classic "gain from separation" aspect. (It might be meaningful that transiting Venus is almost partile conjunct natal Moon, though quite background. It's a borderline call.)
