Never can I fully express the sadness and horror felt as I watched the TV news shouting out the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968--another one gone leaving America once again an assassination nation oppressed by unnamed murderers and political fanatics...the chaos creators.
One of my Gather friends, Andrew, has captured the times and feelings better than I ever could in his A Poem on the Anniversary of Dr. King's Birth which inspires me to publish the chart of Rev. King's assassination with his natal planets added by hand on the chart of April 4, 1968, 6:01 pm CST, Memphis, TN.
With my usual chickenscratch, you see I've run out of space around the outside of the chart, so I've listed King's natal placements coded in green.
Pink marks the Eclipse Series (6North) in which this murder took place, with asteroid, Icarus (assassination; flying too high; risk-taking) nearby and tr Chiron (the Wounded Healer/Christ archetype) at Aries Point (AP) of fame and prominence. Rev. King had become too prominent, too loved, and too listened to for the men in charge.
6N Series: relationship to authority/father figures and the need to take control; another's illness/unreliability brings commitments and responsibilities (Brady's Predictive Astrology.) 6N last manifested April 19, 2004 and was the PE Series of the 2004 US presidential election. Um-hmm.
(Note: any reference made here to 'MLK' or 'King' is for the sake of blogging brevity and implies no disrespect for Reverend King for I have none.)
With America's natal Sun at MC, this mayhem was carried out on behalf of America's goals and objectives, pathetic and cruel as it was, and the US n Jupiter and Venus are piled up at the top of the chart as well. Cancer is a very self-protecting sign, as you know, and there was much at stake in 1968 - for war profiteering must go on, as we see ad nauseum.
The chart shows the Moon 2Can08 being oppressed by the cruel Saturn/Pluto midpoint. Saturn/Pluto together = reactionaries; violent people; criminals and with Cupido conj Moon we have a vivid picture of the violence against Rev. King, his wife (Moon), and the American people (Moon in a national or event chart.)
And btw: the Pentagon's natal Mars (sniper/sharpshooter?) is conj the Moon, Saturn/Pluto, and Cupido. In a national chart, Mars represents the military, police, activists, etc.
Saturn/Pluto = Moon: cold feelings; renunciation; a tragic destiny.
Asteroid, Cupido = The Family; crime syndicates; corporatism. Pluto/Chiron (plutocracy) 25gem34 in 9th house of philosophy along with the Mercury/Pluto midpoint = powerful persuasion...King's ability to sway the People. His speeches had become very inconvenient to the empire.
Sun 15Ari16, signifying Dr. King on the level of 'leader' is being inhibited by controlling Saturn (authority) which repressed his self-expression in the worst way possible--his death.
Sun may also represent the president of the nation repressing King's authority (Saturn)--it works in both directions as does everything in life and thus, in Astrology as it describes life.
Violent instigator, Mars (male, appr age 25--35) is conj tr Vertex (VX), a point of destined encounter. On this day in 1968, tr Mars/VX conjuncted Rev. King's natal Chiron 5Tau25 at the moment of his murder, with asteroid Arachne (network, including spying networks; web; entanglements) there as well.
Did US intell agencies hire criminals to perpetrate this unholy act against a preacher of the Word? (Anti-vertex in Scorpio.) Did the president or his Party have a satanic claw in it? The Sabian Symbol for the DESC degree, "11Ari" = "The president of the country"...I'm just sayin'...
Opposite the Saturn/Pluto midpoint is asteroid, Atlantis, one of the significators for America, keywords: abuse of power; feeling doomed.
Most people are aware now--if they weren't at the time--that King's plans to unite protestors for civil rights with protestors against the Vietnam War was a huge worry for the US government esp since the Civil Rights Act had been passed and Rev. King was more free to voice his longtime convictions against the war.
For then--as NOW--a wrong-acting government has everything to fear from such large numbers of the People, whom they supposedly represent, and in whose name they supposedly act. Rev. King represented a father figure who could--and would--unite the People for the common good and for right-acting that should be inspired from a higher plane than the Oval Office.
Rising at 6:01 pm CST in Memphis was the spiritual midpoint of Jupiter (the preacher) and Neptune (spirituality), a midpoint combo which has both positive and negative connotations...a mixture of both depending on motivations:
Pos: the grand spirit; idealism; religion; ESP; benevolence; humanitarianism; visualization; dreamers ("I have a dream," and "the mountaintop" speech of April 3); ability to shape things; mysticism; art, music.
Neg: speculators; wastrels and spendthrifts; hypocrites; ideals vs reality; gain without effort; scandals; losses; political conflicts.
Jup/Neptune = ASC: a visionary; speculaton; sharing great hopes with others; living in an unreal world; living in a world lighted by personal imagination and an emotionally rationalized agenda.
This is an important part of the chart--the ASC is the WHAT? Point and so it equals the assassination itself--Dr. King's death. "An emotionally rationalized agenda" seems to me to be a must if you travel in the circles that assassinate well-loved leaders of the nation you're determined to control and persuade to accept your selfish ends.
As I type that statement, I'm reading the midpoint picture created by tr Uranus/Pluto (fresh from their mid-60s Conjunction which caused so many of my generation to take to the streets...the Uranus/Pluto duo = overturning the status quo; new perspectives; attainment of great goals through great effort; upsets and tension; revolution; collapse of the old order, building the new; the process of transformation)..and it's pointing to America's natal Neptune...
Uran/Pluto = Neptune: falsehoods, lies; fraud; the desire to harm others secretly; delving into supernatural realms; sympathy; unfulfilled wishes; fatigue.
This picture among generational (slower-moving) planets would have been a background influence of the day (not only on April 4, 1968) and would've affected many dimensions of life...and is one of the reasons I referred to America's 'wrong-acting' above.
Please click to enlarge the chart for a few more of my notes, for being fatigued myself, I shall close with the *Images for the Sun Aries/Moon Cancer blend for April 4, 1968, 6:01 pm CST:
The Salvation Army...A lightening storm at sea gives way to a peaceful, radiant dawn.
