Deciphering astrologically "the most beautiful suicide" mystery!

The above photo has profoundly impacted millions of people. It shows a young and apparently beautiful woman, a few minutes after she committed suicide falling over the top of the Empire State Building! It is somehow an eerie image. The woman seems placidly and peacefully sleeping, not dead at all! But the violently crashed car under her - that somehow has taken her body shape - attests otherwise!

I saw this picture just recently (my friend Theo Phalieros sent it to me in an e-mail) - although it is out there for more than 50 years...And being an Astrologer the first questions that came to my mind were: what kind of natal chart Evelyn McHale (her name) had? What kind of transits she were receiving to commit such a deperate act? If I only knew her birth data! But how? She was not a celebrity - although she somehow became one after her death! Fortunately, there is nowadays a "Genie in a bottle" that is called "the internet"! Thanks to it I found a lot of info on Evelyn McHale (there are even a couple of facebook pages created in her memory).

Evelyn McHale was born on September 20th, 1923 in Berkeley California (we don't know her time of birth but given the adverse conditions that's probably too much to ask). She was a Virgo (her solar sign) with Moon in Aquarius! My first thought was: Oh! she must have had a lot of Scorpio and Pluto in her chart. But that's not the case, as you may see in her natal chart (conventionally set for midday) below:

She wasn't much of a Scorpio (she had just Jupiter in Scorpio) nor she had any major aspects between her "Lights" and Pluto. She was rather a low profile, discrete Virgo. Of course - since we don't know her time of birth - she might have had i.e. a strong Eighth House emphasis (if her Ascendant were Aquarius - Pisces then a planetary stellium would "fall" in her Eighth House. Although something like that is very plausible, apparently we have no way to ascertain it). In any case, not only she had an "electrical" and anti-comformistic Aquarian Moon but a very rebellious and disruptive Mars - Uranus aspect too!

The "beautiful suicide" took place on May 1st, 1947. So, let's see in a bi-wheel the major transits Evelyn was receiving on that fatal day (the inner wheel is Evelyn's natal chart and the outer wheel the planetary transits of her "long jump"day):

Well, the aforementioned "Pluto factor" is triumphantly entering the scene here, since transiting Pluto is (probably tightly) aspecting her Moon in Aquarius (by an opposition aspect). Transiting Saturn as well is beginning to aspect her Moon - not to mention transiting Uranus her Sun! And that's heavy because the Moon represents our soul, our feelings, our mood! On the other hand Pluto and Saturn are considered the toughest, the "darkest" and most "malignant" planets in Astrology. We begin to understand now that Evelyn was going through a very tough, extreme, depressive and "dark" period of her life in the period she killed herself!

But that's not all! Evelyn was engaged to Barry Rhodes and they were about to get married. By sheer serendipity I found out her fiance's date of birth too! The day before she committed suicide they celebrated together his 24th birthday! So, apparently he was born on April 30, 1923! You may see his chart below (of course no time of birth is provided).

It strikes us right away the fact that both his Sun and Moon are forming ultra-discordant square aspects to Evelyn's Aquarian Moon! Barry might have been a great guy otherwise but definitely Evelyn was not feeling happy with him! She was probably perceiving him as a too single - minded, possessive and oppressive person, as someone who was taking away her liberty. Although a Virgo woman and a Taurus man traditionally go well together, in their case her Moon (in the beginning of Aquarius) was tremendously clashing with his respective "Lights" in Taurus and Scorpio. Meaning that their relation was often getting into a very awkward ground, making her utterly unhappy! And him as a young man was not perceiving this so much as she was! And ultimately (as a Virgo) she took the blame of it!

They were about to get married in June 1947. But with her Aquarian Moon - and with her Virgonian "I cannot split from him now, people will criticize me bitterly!" attitude -  she chose to perform the tragically liberating act of jumping to her death!

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis