A school tragedy: the Newtown mass shooting and the astrology of Adam Lanza

                                         (apparently this is a childhood photo of Adam Lanza)

Although I live many thousands of miles away I am shattered by the Newtown tragedy! 20 little angels dead is more than the mind and the heart can bear...

Let's see the astrology of the young gunman Adam Lanza. He was born on April 22, 1992. He was a Taurus with Moon in Capricorn. There is another famous man having a Taurus Sun and a Capricorn Moon like Lanza: Adolph Hitler! This does not mean of course that if you - or someone you love - have this combination you will become a mass murderer (millions of people around the world have this very combination and they don't go that berserk). But is says something about the nature of Adam Lanza.

It says that he somehow lacked empathy, that he could not easily "feel" the feelings of the people around him (according to the astrological theory, the Moon in Capricorn is in "detriment", in "exile") and that he could not easily express his own feelings! Another important element in his chart is the Taurus Sun. I am always telling my students that there is a lot of anger in a Taurean person. And this because this is a "feminine" sign, a very "introverted" one that tends to keep his feelings, emotions and states of mind hidden in him, avoiding in general to express and exteriorize them. Thus a Taurus might harbor in him/her a lot of negative energy, resentment etc.- for long time periods. Until s/he suddenly "snaps" (with no apparent reason) and s/he then becomes a raging bull in a china shop... The Taurean "anger" is kept deep within the person and by the healthier individuals is mostly "sublimed" (i.e. within the context of their professional activity) and generally controlled - making thus the Taurean person appear calm and placid outside, as its ruler Venus demands.

Venus is a major player in the way we relate to the "others", to the people around us. This celestial seductress is ever seeking to smoothly connect us with the "ones out there". And in Adam Lanza's case Venus is even more important, as it is the ruler of his Sun sign. The fact is though that his Venus was in Aries, in a sign that is not easily promoting the "smooth", "uniting" kind of energies but rather the impulsive, "dividing" and stirring ones. And what is more amazing, his Venus was receiving a partile (perfect) square aspect by the planets Uranus and Neptune - who in their turn are forming a partile (perfect) conjunction in his chart! Both Uranus and Neptune are harboring collective energies and when properly located in our chart they bestow upon us a deep sense of "community" with the people around us. They provide us then a "smooth merging" capacity necessary to befriend the people around us and "merge" with them - in a group environment etc. But in Lanza's case Uranus and Neptune were utterly discordant to his Venus. Thus, he had a major difficulty in smoothly connecting and "uniting" with the people around him. Each time he was about to meet "other people" he was experiencing a turmoil inside him, as extreme psychic energies were torrentially unleashed in his soul! His very "individuality" was somehow threatened by the "other people".

In astrology death is related to Pluto (and in greek mythology the other name of Pluto was "Hades" - the god of underworld). Currently we don't know Adam Lanza's time of birth (thus we don't know the specific sign of his Ascendant, of his MC etc.). Working  with what we have in our disposition, we see no Pluto emphasis in his natal chart (apart from the fact that Pluto is in the sign it rules). (Not very) surprisingly though there is a so called "transiting" Pluto (the one moving in our sky right now) perfectly conjuncting - most probably - his natal Moon in Capricorn (depending on the exact time he was born). At the very same time, Adam Lanza's progressed Sun was - during the last months - in the 22th degree of Taurus PERFECTLY opposing his natal Pluto!

You can see above transiting Pluto conjuncting Lanza's natal Moon (both in green cycles) and his progressed Sun perfectly opposing his natal Pluto (both in red cycles). What this over-emphasis of Pluto actually means is that Adam Lanza was currently going through a very extreme period of his life! Probably he had slept into depression and diven into a profound existential crisis. Everything around him seemed meaningless. The feelings of negativitiy and resentment - for which we talked about before - had disproportionally grown in him. He was probably feeling that nobody loved him, that everybody hated him instead! He should have sought some psychiatric help (when one receives such strong "Plutonian energies" s/he might be radically transformed if therapeutically treated). But apparently he didn't...As a raging bull he chose the other dark and evil Plutonian path: the one of insane tragedy....

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis