James Holmes is the alleged shooter in the July 20, Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting spree that has left at least 12 dead, and 71 injured, and is now on trial for their murders.
The moviegoers were at a screening of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Night Rises.”
Holmes birth date is being reported by news outlets as December 13, 1987, born in San Diego, California. He is a 21 degree Sagittarius, with five out of ten planets in that sign. Individuals born with many planets in the sign of Sagittarius often crave freedom, and do not always appreciate boundaries or tradition as much as others.
His Saturn, Sun, Uranus and Mercury are all in a stellium in Sagittarius. Individuals with multiple planets in Sagittarius often feel the need to express their individuality, even in the face of going against mainstream thought. These individuals can be brilliant, and erratic, mentally changeable and unstable with Mercury a part of the stellium. The combination of these planets shows that great discipline is needed in the development of ideas. These people often find themselves at odds with the viewpoints of others, and frequently suffer disappointment, and frustration as the result. With Saturn-Uranus they often feel the need to destroy boundaries, or do not believe that boundaries apply to them. (Jarad Loughner, 22, the shooter in the rampage at a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona that left 6 dead and critically injured Representative Gabrielle Gifford’s of Arizona in 2011 has a similar configuration involving Uranus-Saturn.)
Individuals with Sun-Saturn configurations often assume great responsibilities in life. Holmes graduated from college with highest honors in Neurosciences, and had done undergraduate work. These individuals however, often feel isolated and can become loners. They frequently have unhappy childhoods and there can be issues involving the father, and a lack of confidence or connectiveness with others. He had the potential of being brilliant and eventually successful, but the pull of the darker energy in his chart became dominant.
There are many configurations that show mental disorders in a natal chart. The planets involved always include Mercury, which rules the mind, and malefic configurations to the Sun or Moon. He has several of these.
His moon likely lies in the sign Virgo. His birth time is unpublished, but giving him a birth time of 12 noon, his moon would be around 24 degrees of Virgo, and his moon squares his five planets in Sagittarius. Virgo can be the most critical of signs and this would make him critical of himself and others, as well as experiencing an overly critical childhood where he did not feel connected or understood. Sun square moon individuals often feel misunderstood. Moon/Mercury-Uranus individuals often suffer from psychological disorders and can be changeable and unstable.
Perhaps the most telling transit in Holmes birth chart is Mars conjunct Pluto in Scorpio lying in his 12th house of the subconscious mind. Individuals with this transit are highly sexual and have a deep need and desire to control others, and Scorpio is the natural ruler of the eighth house of death and sex. It can be a malefic influence if it is not balanced out by other transits in the chart or the individual has no guidance to help him deal with this energy in early life. This can be a very destructive pattern, and in the case of Holmes, it is sextile to Neptune-which can indicate death. He thought about sex often in terms of his own personal gratification and news agencies reported finding his profile on sex sites.
Mars in Scorpio conjunct Pluto would create a deep, smoldering inner rage. To overcome a transit like this would require the individual to seek the higher side of Scorpio energy, which is deeply spiritual or mystical. It would not have been an easy path. With this powerful transit in his twelfth house he would likely not discuss his inner rage with others, but it would be a driving force in his life.
I have never seen a chart of a mass murderer that did not have some type of Mars-Pluto connection. On the day of the shooting Mars was squaring Pluto in the sky, as well as opposing Uranus in what is called a T-square. The combination of Mars, Pluto and Uranus is indicative of guns, explosive situations and death. It’s as though Holmes became the agent of destruction predicted by the stars.
Most of his planets fall in the lower left quadrant of his chart, which means his inner focus was on himself rather than the other world or other people. He probably spent a great deal of time alone growing up and could have been somewhat neglected in terms of social development. The aloneness he felt contributed to the inner rage.
Holmes transits at the time of massacre and motivation
The most prominent transit in Holmes chart at the time of the shooting was the Uranus/ Pluto square which was aspecting his Neptune in Capricorn at 7 degrees in a T-square. In other words Uranus was squaring his natal Neptune (a square is a 90 degree angle considered difficult) which is a transit of confusion and lack of clarity, and transiting Pluto was squaring his Neptune as well. Pluto-Neptune transits deal with obsessive issues, and Pluto would call for a regeneration of his subconscious mind. Both planets were aspecting his Neptune at the same time. The energy of this aspect alone would be overwhelming.
Mars, at 9 degrees of Libra was the final factor that drove him to the point of madness as it opposed Uranus and squared Pluto setting off the energy of the explosive Uranus-Pluto square of 2012 which fell on his natal Neptune. In other words, all of this hit his natal Neptune, at once. Neptune is the planet of illusion, confusion, and lack of clarity. Neptune can become the agent of our own self undoing if the individual is not stable enough to deal with the confused energy when it occurs.
Uranus-Neptune is confusion and depressing transit. Pluto/Neptune creates obsessive energy, and to overcome the confusion the individual must attempt to regenerate the subconscious mind. He was in an obsessive frame of mind for a long period of time.
This transit is occurring in all young people of his age at this time. Most 24 year olds get out of school today to discover the job market is nothing like they thought it would be and the rug has been pulled out from under them. Rather than realizing this was part of a generational occurrence and success would not come fast or easy, he turned to his Mars/Pluto in Scorpio-need to control and manipulate energy, and took his frustration, confusion and anger out on a packed movie theatre.
The transit occurred in his second house of money and earned income which shows this as the major problem. Mars in Libra was ‘setting off’ the T-square at 9 degrees of Libra which shows his anger to explosive levels and losing sight of personal behavior that he could later regret, he gave in to the Mars-Pluto energy he was born with and killed at least 12 innocent people.
There are transits in his chart indicative of being totally self absorbed, paranoid and unable to see any situation other than his own inability to move forward in his chosen career. He was filled with rage and his goal was to make ‘society’ pay for what he believed was inequity.
The July full moon occurred in his second house of money, which placed a focus on income. It opposed his eighth house which rules corporate money as well as death. The new moon on July 19 fell in his eighth house of death. This occurred one day before the massacre. His plans were set; his fate was sealed, along with those unlucky individuals who were in the theatre. (originally published November, 2012)
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