James Holmes' (the "Joker") horoscope - and the Virgonian Moon of the 3 recent mass murderers!

                                                        (James Holmes at court)

If your astrological idea of a mass murderer is that of a "Martian" individual having a very tough Moon then you should rather revise that idea! James Homes, the 24 years old man that recently killed 12 persons in the Aurora Colorado movie theater apparently has a "placid" horoscope! Very appropriately, the (solar) sign of this so called "Joker" (the fictitious personality Holmes was identifying himself with) is Sagittarius! Sagittariuses are famous for being "good guys"! They are depicted as extroverted, exuberant, moral, well intentioned and ever forgiving to their fellow humans! Apparently, Holmes bears some of these characteristics. As a high school acquaintance of his stated: "Holmes was A SUPER NICE KID!" Well, that description perfectly fits a Sagittarian!

Could his Moon sign be then the culprit? Not really! Actually, neither his Moon nor his Sun sign are the "culprits" - on their own. Although we don't know the exact time of his birth, the "Joker's" Moon is most probably in the sign of Virgo! But Virgo is again considered as one of the less aggressive and belligerent signs of the zodiac! Some even describe it as an "angelic" sign! We are getting confused here! The two basic Holmes' signs are rather "innocent", "refined", frail, placid, moral! How comes then this man turned to be such a monstruous murderer?

In my opinion the "pivotal" configuration in Holmes' chart is the square aspect (90 degrees of distance) between his Sun and his Moon! No matter what time Holmes was born, his Sun is definitely forming a harsh square aspect to his Moon (or the reverse)! And the square aspect between the "Luminaries" (Sun and Moon) is considered one of the heaviest aspects in a chart - because it somehow blocks the energies that should be flawing unhindered in the individual and it causes a clash between the conscious and subconsious layers of him/herself! Under this aspect a sort of "rupture" may manifest within the invidual, a rupture between his core personality and his "psyche" (his inner "Universe" of feelings and states of mind)! And this might ultimately breed a profound sense of alienation in him! (Please note: this does not mean that if you have a square aspect between your Sun and Moon you are going to get "alienated" or become a mass murderer. It means instead that you have to work with yourself in order to transform this difficult aspect and convey such an "expenditure" into creative outlets! You might enormously enrich yourself then and perform miracles!)

Holmes' chart brought to my mind the chart of another mass murderer: the Norwegian's Anders Breivik who in 2011 killed - on a single raid - 77 people! They both have Moon in Virgo - forming a harsh aspect to Saturn! The Virgonian Moon is an earthy and realistic one - not particularly sentimental. And when this Moon forms a harsh aspect to Saturn it becomes even less sentimental - while the person becomes more cold-blooded, somehow loosing - in the most extreme cases - the very human trait of empathy!

The common Virgonian Moons of these two mass murderers contributed to another fundamental attribute of theirs: the high level of their technical expertise! Both Holmes and Breivik became - on their own - two skilled bomb technicians - and that's no easy task at all! Actually, Holmes's apartment was rigged with so many small bombs that his whole condominium could be blown apart!

The similarities between these two mass murderers do not end here: they both have a Mars - Pluto contact! In particular Holmes has a rather "deadly" conjunction between his Mars and Pluto, a conjunction that produces - unless given some creative outlet - TITANIC anger and aggressiveness in an individual's soul! Breivik has a Sun - Mars conjunction and that kind of aspect produces a lot of anger  too (and rebellion in Breivik's case, since both these planets are located in the unconventional sign of Aquarius).

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis  

P.S. 1) As I said before, if you have any of the here mentioned aspects and configurations it does not mean you will become an unstable person or a mass murderer. If we work with ourselves and maturily deal with our harsh configurations - finding positive outlets for them - then we might turn them to our advantage!

P.S. 2) A couple of weeks after the Aurora tragic event we got to know James Holmes' time of birth. It is 9:04 Pm.  He has a Leo Ascendant (you may see his chart below):

Thus James Holmes has a strong Sagittarius - Leo emphasis. This fact brought to my mind a controversial historical figure that had too a strong Sagittarius - Leo emphasis in his chart: Nero! Apparently, they both exhibited paranoid / megalomaniac traits! They even look alike:

                                                             James Holmes

                                                                     Nero

P.S. 3) This James Holmes article somehow turns into a study on mass murderers. Just two weeks after the Aurora theater tragic events another manic shooter, Wade Michael Page, entered a Sikh temple in Milwaukee and  started shooting indiscriminately the people around him killing 6.

Apparently, Michael Page is joining the "Virgo Moon" club! If he was really born on November 11th (on the veteran's day), 1971 he has then a Virgo Moon - most probably in a square aspect to his Saturn! Actually Page (apart from belonging to an ultra "fixed" sign like Scorpio) has a "mega" T-square - formed between his Moon, Saturn, Mars and Neptune.

As I explained above, the other two recent mass murderers James Holmes and Andres Breivik have their Moon in Virgo too! How comes the placid and "angelic" sign of Virgo is so prominent in the charts of the three recent mass murderers? Maybe because Virgo is "too placid"! Remember we are talking about a "young maiden" here, about a little girl! A young girl has not yet gone through the "full maturity process". It is full of insecurities and it somehow stands on a fragile and unstable soil (no wonder Virgo is a mutable sign).

Virgoneans are in general  ultra-sensitive to the other peoples' criticism. We are dealing here with a "feminine", sensitive, discreet sign that in critical issues prefers to remain deadly implicit rather than become explicit about them! Thus, ultimately a Virgo Moon absorbs any kind of "negativity" stemming out of its environment in a rather "passive way", without RE-ACTING the very moment it receives the negativity (as most people do - and that's quite healthy if properly done)! This means that in the long run the anger in a Virgonean Moon person builds up! And if s/he doesn't "dissipate" this constant anger in a rather healthy manner (usually through hard work and in general by serving his/her fellow humans) the person might reach a point where a morbid layer of "meaniness" forms in his/her soul. And if this is combined with other "volatile" elements in his/her chart (like Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto harsh aspects) then a very explosive mix will be produced!

Breivik's, Holmes' and Page's Virgo Moons are all forming harsh aspects to their Saturns! All the three recent mass murderers having the very same Moon configuration, well that's quite rare!!

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis