Tag Archive for: #Carl Jung

Sagittarius-Kitab_al-Bulhan_---_zodiac_centaur_sagittarius(1)Julia Bonatti, my protagonist in the Zodiac Mysteries solves crimes using astrology.  And I hear from readers all the time – some love the subject of astrology and want to know more, while others aren’t particularly interested and are happy to skip those parts.  That’s fine with me.  It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.  Julia just happens to have an unusual occupation.  Hopefully, there are enough thrills and chills in her investigations that will keep readers turning the pages.

Mostly, people want to know how Julia figures things out and what she sees in a chart that alerts her to possible danger.  She can tell an awful lot about an individual from a chart and can make an educated guess about how that person approaches life.  Here’s an example that might help explain a few things:

This is a chart of a man born on July 26 at 7:29 p.m. in Kesswil, Switzerland.  I won’t mention the year, not yet.  What can we tell from the chart, without knowing the man’s name or his profession?

ChartHe’s a Leo with a Moon in Taurus and Aquarius rising.  All fixed signs – he’s proud, stubborn and not easily swayed.  There’s a heavy emphasis in his 6th house.  Mercury and Venus are conjunct on the cusp.  And the Sun and Uranus are also in the 6th.  The focus of his life will be his work (6th house).

He’s possibly involved in medicine.  But since Mercury and Venus are in Cancer, a sign ruled by the Moon, there’s an element of “feeling” and “emotion.”  The Moon/Pluto conjunction tells us he’s an intensely emotional individual.  In the 3rd house he’d probably be a writer of some sort.

Aquarius_zodiac_sign,_Jantar_Mantar,_Jaipur,_IndiaAquarius rising — he’s eccentric and marches to the beat of his own drum.  With Saturn on the Ascendant he would appear cold or clinical, but Uranus (the ruler of his Ascendant) is very close to his 7th house cusp.  He’d be radical and eccentric in his relationships.

Sagittarius is on the cusp of his 10th house (Midheaven), along with Mars in Sagittarius.  In his career, he would pay absolutely no attention to what his mentors or colleagues thought.  He’d be fearless and innovative.

Taurus_zodiac_sign,_Jantar_Mantar,_Jaipur,_IndiaNeptune is in square (90 degree) aspect to his Sun sign.  This would give him a mystical bent, but he could possibly misuse the Neptune energies and be vulnerable to addiction.  He might avoid that escape as long as he is dedicated to his work.

Can you guess whose chart this is?  I’ll give you a hint.  He was born in 1875.  He died in 1961 at the age of 86, a nice long life which he dedicated to developing analytical psychiatry (medicine and emotions).  The chart belongs to Carl Jung.  He was a prolific writer and a protégé of Sigmund Freud until he broke from his mentor to pursue his own path.  He was married with five children and maintained an open extra-marital relationship for many years, heedless of what society at the time thought.

CGJungHe was also an astrologer!  (Uranus)  He worked with dream states (Neptune) and observed recurring archetypes in his patients’ dreams.  He came to believe that the archetypal images in astrology represented experiences and emotions common to all people and theorized that humans share a collective unconscious.  He said, “Whatever is born or done at a particular moment of time, has the quality of this moment of time,” i.e., an astrological chart.

All Signs Point to MurderSo that’s how Julia does it.  How I do it is struggling to find a believable chart for my murderer or his victim.  Just in case any astrologers out there are paying attention!

This post first appeared at CMash Reads on August July 23, 2017.