Tonight, as I was working on the largest of the next articles, another story caught my eye and I had to address it. I had covered teen suicide in the indigenous peoples–from the Pine Ridge, South Dakota reservation where I lived for my 16th summer to various areas of Canada and the First Nations there. Teen suicide is epidemic today, no matter where we look at the statistics. According to the National Post, “the annual suicide rate in the surrounding Keewatin Yatthe Regional Health Authority averages 43.4 suicide deaths per 100,000 people—more than triple the provincial average.”

The remote community of La Loche, Saskatchewan, Canada is no different. The Associated Press (AP) described the area vividly: “Located deep in Canada’s northern boreal forest, 600 kilometres north of Saskatoon, this town of about 3,000 is particularly isolated and authorities had to send in police reinforcements and dispatch a medical helicopter to airlift some victims to a hospital.” They’ve been battling suicide at epidemic rates too–just like many other places in North America and around the world. It’s hard to fathom any tragedy taking place in a lovely, still relatively untouched area like this.

Tonight, however, La Loche was in the news again with a different kind of tragedy, the result of “a boy with a gun”–either a student or a former student who had opened fire inside the local high school. Some people were wounded, but four or five are dead. Now normally, I know the number of deaths with the number stated as “at least.” But the way the news came out was a bit odd:

Apparently four are confirmed dead, but “five are dead,” from what I was able to determine from what I heard of a news conference where Royal Canadian Police Superintendent Maureen Levy spoke. “At this time I can confirm four individuals are deceased. I can not release the identity of the victims as the investigation is ongoing,” she said.

Whether it’s actually four or five remains to be seen, of course–and the fact is a simple one: Several people are dead at the hand of “a boy with a gun.” However many there are, it’s too many. One of the dead was 23-year-old Marie Janvier, a school teacher and the daughter of the community’s acting mayor.
At the home of the shooter, two of his siblings were shot. “After he shot his two brothers, he walked back to school and he shot … a teacher and a girl. They’re both dead. Four of them died,” said a family friend. The grandfather apparently lived with the family and had gone shopping, leaving the two brothers at home.

Since the closest time of the shooting is mentioned in the news as “shortly before 1 pm,” but the arrest was made at 1:47 pm, I decided to go with the latter for a quick look at the chart for this incident Prime Minister (PM) Justin Trudeau called “every parent’s worst nightmare.”
Of course we can’t really tell what this boy might have wanted to communicate yet, but there’s a Gemini rising with 8th house Mercury Retrograde making a still tight conjunction to Pluto in opposition to the Moon by the time he was arrested–roughly about two and a half hours after the Moon had been in a perfected opposition to Mercury. At 11:17 am, the Moon was in the 4th house on the 5th house cusp, and the Mercury-Pluto conjunction was still within orb of the 11th house cusp.

It must have been an emotionally upsetting morning (this is not intended as an “oh duh, you think?!?!” statement) for everyone at that point, and it gives me pause to wonder whether the boy who had been shooting might have perhaps been rejected by a girl. Keep in mind as well that the Moon opposition to Mercury and Pluto was also forming a 9-minute partile square to Uranus on the 12th house cusp. I can’t help but suspect that if he hadn’t been caught when he was, the boy might have been yet another “casualty” of the events that followed.

The events, of course, were out in the open where everyone knew what was happening; but remember as well that with Jupiter’s presence in the 5th house, making a 3-minute partile conjunction to the North Node and still forming the undecaquartisextile (UQSXT) to 11th house Neptune, it’s quite likely he was making a passionate statement about his pain. Whether or not a different picture could have been painted will probably come out along the way as the investigation continues.

But the Jupiter-North Node conjunction was also ruling that 7th house Venus, and I suspect that will be very much among the details. With the Sun in the 9th in Uranus-ruled Aquarius, the timing was perfect to be sure he didn’t just make matters worse.

Mind you, the Sun and Moon had formed a 12-minute partile UQSXT at the time he was arrested, and I’m struck by the amount of compassion and love that moved through the community. It seemed to me that no one spoke of hatred for the boy who caused all of the mourning–something we can all perhaps learn in caring for each other and even in wondering what would motivate a situation like that which took place.

The Moon and Venus were also forming an UQSXT (3°17), but here’s where it really gets interesting:  The Sun/Venus midpoint sat at 15 Capricorn 29, making a partile conjunction to that Mercury-Pluto conjunction while Venus’ antiscion at 1 Capricorn 16 sits in a  57-minute partile semisextile to the Sun, forming a Blooming UQSXT to the Moon in its simultaneous opposition to the 8th house Capricorn duo.

Among the variety of news reports I read, one stated that Canada’s gun laws are stricter than those in the United States although there had been a period during the Tory administration in which the country saw a national registry of rifles and shotguns. PM “Trudeau said his Liberal government would have to reflect on Canada’s current gun laws in the coming weeks and months in light of what happened.” (AP)

That about says it all until I’m back with more. As I said at the beginning, I was working on the next article when this came in. Meanwhile…

Namaste, I love you,
Michelle

©2016 Michelle Young