The long shadow of Epstein
This week I listened to a great lecture by Richard Fidler at Scottish Astrology about death charts. His thesis was that, just as the birth chart show life potential, the death chart shows the life lived, a ‘cosmic obituary’. It was a fascinating talk and certainly, the examples he gave, Princess Diana and others, showed symbolism which mirrored their life.
Politics today, again, is full of the long shadow of a dead man. Currently, the UK PM, is facing calls for his resignation because he appointed Mandelson as US ambassador, despite being a friend of Epstein, among other things.
So, what of the death chart of Epstein? His body was found at 06.30 on August 10th 2019, in prison in New York in cardiac arrest, and was pronounced dead at 06.39. A private autopsy ruled he had died two hours before that so a time of between 04.38-06.39 is likely.
What does the astrology say?
This is the 4.38am chart, the time the independent coroner thought death had occurred. It feels radical to me, with a mute Mercury (in Cancer) on the Ascendant, Mercury ruling the 12th house of secret enemies. Mercury also rules the 3rd house of neighbours, and if he was killed, it would have been by a neighbour, as he was in prison. Mercury is the psychopomp, who carries messages from the underworld to the human world. His lawyer met him the day before and said he was in good spirits, so suicide seems unlikely. There are many inconsistencies surrounding his death which you can read here. Others have said the non-working cameras, the non-checking warders is common in US prisons, so a conspiracy is not certain. We shall probably never know.
But does the death chart show his life? Mercury rules spies. Epstein is considered to be an Israeli asset, perhaps also with some connection to Russia. Mercury as ruler of the 12th house of self undoing, shows his own part in his downfall. Mercury mute in Cancer may also show secrets, for sure he had those. The 12th house, incarceration, this was his second stint in prison, both on sex trafficking charges.
What I like about this chart is all the planets in Fire signs. Ascendant, Venus, Sun and Mars in Leo, showing a life lived large, among the wealthy. Notice the Sun rules the 2nd house of money, referencing the luxury and the power money brings. These are trine the Moon in Sagittarius separating from a conjunction of Jupiter, in the 5th house of pleasure and children (grim). They are trine the MC making a Grand Trine in Fire. Fire Grand Trines are powerful, selfish, sometimes insufferable attention whores or extraordinarily brave and inspired, creative people. Certainly, all that fire will bring attention to and easily cultivate the wealthy and powerful and be trusted by them. Leo is the salesman par excellence. The details of who he had dealings with is a who’s who of powerful men. All very Leo.
Where is the depravity to be found? I would look to the 8th house, and here we find Lilith, female rage. I think this represents the survivors, they did (in some cases) bring him down, or did they? Certainly, they have kept the issue alive all these years, despite the best attempts of the powers that be to bury it. Also, it is alleged that some survivors were murdered to silence them, another 8th house theme.
Also, notice the Sun in Leo, ruling the Ascendant (and Venus) are quincunx Saturn ruler of the 7th and 8th. A quincunx is a ‘blind aspect’, the planets cannot see one another. This might be him secretly gathering information on his associates’ sexual debauchery (Venus in the 1st and Saturn ruling the 7th house) or not seeing his death coming (Saturn ruling the 8th house).
Saturn in Capricorn rules the 8th house, together with Uranus in Taurus in the 10th. One of the accusations against Epstein’s inner circle is that of cannibalism, which makes sense to me. Rape seems too mundane to cause all the Trumpian maneuvers to avoid publication of the Epstein files (that Mercury again, words on paper, probably videos of abuse and torture), ditto trafficking. Cannibalism though, may be too much, too horrific, too damaging to be revealed. Who ate their own children? Kronos, or Saturn the Lord of Time. Why is Saturn in the 6th house? Perhaps because the victims were employees, those girls brought out to New York by ‘modelling agencies’.
Saturn also rules the 7th house of colleagues and open enemies. So the depravity involved staff and friends. I would also put blackmail in the 8th house, which presumably was the reason for all this, together with the love of other people’s money. Mandelson fell into this particular honey trap, his greed and dodgy money dealings caused his previous two sackings.
Notice, Mercury separating from the opposition of Saturn, if he were killed, the hit would have been ordered days before. Mercury could also represent the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ as ruler of the 12th, the despair that comes in the long watches of the night which might explain suicide.
Of course, we do not have the exact time, the chart for finding the body at 06.30 shows a few changes.
This chart works well too. Lilith, the open enemies (survivors) conjunct the 7th house. A stellium in the 5th house of children, including Pluto, the rapist. But we lose the Mercury and here the 12th is ruled by the Moon in Sagittarius, which is less likely as a symbol and the 8th is ruled by Jupiter in Sagittarius, again not an obvious match.
I think the second chart represents finding the body and all the publicity and speculation that followed, (Venus, Sun Ascendant and Mars in Leo) and continues. Leo is a fixed sign, which shows how this story just won’t go away. Seven years after his death, he still shines a light (Sun) on powerful men like Trump, Mandelson, ex-royal Andrew and doubtless many, many other powerful men. Arguably, the distractions Trump enacts, like the current war, and the hold the Israelis and Putin have on him can all be traced back to this one man and his sordid life.
to support your local indie bookshop you can buy from here
Elisabeth Brooke 