Repeating the chart from Part 1 in use now as we move into Part 2:

I also debated about calling the semisextile between 9th house Saturn and 10th house Pluto an aspect. To be sure, most of the time I’d balk and vehemently resist calling this a semisextile with its 4°22′ orb. But the midpoint of this pair falls at 29 Sagittarius 38, a mere 29 minutes of orb to the perfected Midheaven (MC) conjunction, not to mention its antiscion at 29 Sagittarius 53 in 15 minutes of orb to the natal position! The antiscion adds oomph and creates a highly sensitive point we can’t ignore.

The opposition to the antiscion, the midpoint and the MC is, of course, the IC–the 4th house cusp. And as if that’s not enough, take note that the Saturn-Pluto semisextile forms a Resonant Blooming Undecaquartisextile (UQSXT) to the 4th house cusp, the IC with the same amount of orb, of course, that we’ve seen in the aspects to the MC! We could call the IC the third point in this aspect, I suppose, and then simply say it was a Blooming UQSXT; but I’ll admit I’m still wrapping my head around that idea. While I’ve used it at times in this way, it has made far more sense to me to recognize the “resonance” present in the aspect rather than making a set conclusion that the angle would be consistently employed.

That semisextile between Saturn and Pluto, in fact, offers us a glimpse into where he was looking to make his mark. I don’t believe this was as much an effort to generate fear–despite the act itself–as it was to garner awe, respect and approval through that energy along the Prime Meridian of the chart, the MC/IC. Let me show you by taking you first to the quadrants, dominances and emphasis to bring you full circle back to the Saturn-Pluto semisextile.

The chart shows an Eastern below-the-horizon dominance, pointing to very private pursuits propelled by one’s own initiative and drive. The first quadrant emphasis as well gives me additional reason to believe Mateen alone worked on his plan for this act of violence. The chart angles, however, urge us to consider what can best be called “points of initiation.” In the natural chart, we also see Aries on the Ascendant and recognize this as a starting point–alpha–where we begin at Self, the head, the body. It’s an energetic point that I’ve often described as potentially selfish in the sense of not considering others.

This wasn’t an act in which the killer actually thought of the feelings of those whom he was killing much less of their loved ones. He declared this an act of allegiance to many sources in the terrorist world although those whom he named in addition to giving his allegiance to ISIS/ISIL/Daish weren’t members of this organization. In fact, one belonged to an offshoot of Al Qaeda. The act appears to be one directed to gaining approval from a number of sources beyond his immediate familiar scope.

One might question why he drove two hours to Orlando from his home in Fort Pierce. Whether or not there was a similar club where he was, Orlando apparently had a highly popular nightclub where the LGBTQ community was known to frequent. He had apparently seen two gay men expressing affection at some point in front of his three-year-old son, and he had considered this an insult. (For those who don’t know, the child was the product of his second marriage. His first wife, now in Colorado, had divorced him after her parents rescued her from what had, within the first four months of marriage, become an abusive marriage.)

Another Resonant Blooming UQSXT develops from the semisextile between Chiron at 25 Pisces 09 and Uranus at 23 Aries 37 to the 7th house resonant point at 9 Libra 23. Here, we see the evolution of what may have been his attempt to martyr himself not for any particular organization as one might consider, but for himself in an effort to make himself a “dead hero” before his son’s eyes. While I’ve placed “dead hero” in quotes here, it’s important to note that authorities today had learned Mateen had attempted to buy body armor but was declined. His movement in the wee hours of Sunday morning imply then that he was prepared to lose his life with the idea of martyrdom in mind.

Now here, I’m going to step back a bit from my usual focus to add in one more Blooming UQSXT (not a resonant one). It’s stepping back because I normally don’t consider the Vertex or Transpluto in the formation of aspects. But this one is kind of slapping me in the face with additional considerations thanks to Lynn Koiner and her observations of Transpluto. Not that I have ignored the Vertex in a chart before. I just don’t usually work with it in the same way while I do consider it a highly sensitive point. For me, this is the point about destiny, fate–as I said, a highly sensitive point.

So when I saw the 29-minute partile semisextile between Transpluto and the Vertex (My nod to several members of the KISS Facebook group for my decision to place Transpluto in the chart. It was done for observation and curiosity.), I decided I had to consider this one since the semisextile midpoint falls in a 24-minute partile conjunction to Jupiter which is already conjunct the North Node. The South Node of the chart therefore decisively forms the UQSXT pattern again!

Lynn writes, “Transpluto represents the process of experiencing the critical, perfectionist environment, then looking for approval from others or others to make us complete, then eventually moving towards the real Process of Wholeness and Integration B by which we become who we really are.”

I considered this unique pattern and Lynn’s words. The evolution of the LGBTQ community into the mainstream mindset of general acceptance, at least for some, has been likely to have been a struggle. Depending on the era in which one has been raised, even on the community in which one was raised, making that leap from what one was originally taught to more open and accepting mindsets could have been a challenge for people like Mateen.

And so it makes sense that this Vertex-Transpluto semisextile to the South Node Blooming UQSXT could be a significant point based on mainstream thinking. While we can accept individually, the question is whether all can accept–all, collectively, that is. Saturn squares the Nodes in the chart as well as squaring Jupiter and obviously triggers the Mutable Grand Cross. But it’s even more than that. After all, Saturn is in the 9th house in this chart, pointing to some lessons being challenging to learn or the old saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Could America’s mainstream fully embrace the LGBTQ community? The chart implies in Grand Cross form that no one is actually taking that to the bank just yet. But we’re far from where we were a few decades ago. How  new is collective acceptance of the LGBTQ community? While we’d like to be able to say collective acceptance of the LGBTQ community is now commonplace in the United States, we have a long way to go still.

While we see this as a contemporary experience that’s been under our belts for some time now, tennis great Arthur Ashe, in a video made just two days before his death on February 6, 1993, revealed his having known he had AIDS since September 1988. Ashe died of AIDS-related pneumonia on February 6, 1993, less than three months after Mateen’s sixth birthday.

Arthur Ashe’s having revealed this forced the world to understand that one didn’t have to be gay to contract AIDS. By 1992, he had formed a foundation to raise funds to eradicate AIDS, and to inform the public about what he was calling “this pandemic.”

Perhaps Seddique Mateen, the shooter’s father, hadn’t learned this lesson yet from what the following particularly disturbing quote from the Washington Post indicates.

“God himself will punish those involved in homosexuality. This is not for the servants’ of God.”

1993. That’s not even 30 years ago. Different cultures may also struggle to accept. A CNN discussion yesterday, however, pointedly wondered whether the shooter had struggled with his own sexuality that could have been related to this massacre as well. Obviously the question is whether Mateen went on his previous visits to Pulse, a known gay club where he’d apparently been seen by some before this past weekend, or he was going to “scope out” the best angles for his attack. Apparently he had also been on a gay dating app at least once before. He’d also been going to Pulse at least twice a month for the last three years, some survivors recalled.

From where I’m sitting then, given the situation, one may be left wondering as I am whether the radicalization of Mateen was almost a fated kind of thing in his effort to integrate his Islamic teachings perhaps with his own father’s words which he could have interwoven in his own mind. Could this have been a step away from childhood? Perhaps. He was only a toddler when Ashe made the announcement during the shooter’s toddler years. I haven’t seen a single reference to the Mujahideen except in Wikipedia.

The shooter’s chart is untimed since we don’t know his time of birth and can’t even be 100% certain of the borough in which he was born. Therefore, we’re missing all of the angles including his Ascendant although we can hone in on the strong possibility of his Full Moon birth in the midst of a nearly certain transiting Fixed T-square with Mars in Aquarius at the arm. Four bodies including his Sun, Pluto and both his Venus and Mercury in retrograde (Rx) indicate the likelihood of his being very private. His Scorpio stellium offered a very private and even reserved Venus Retrograde (Rx) conjunction to Pluto, Mercury Rx, and the Sun. But reserve most definitely wasn’t a sign of lacking intensity, quite apparent in the wee hours of the 12th.

Part 1
Part 3

©2016 Michelle Young