Spiritual Company Newsletter: Seung-Hui Cho

By Steffan Vanel • Astrologer • Tarot Reader • Author of: The Astrological Karma of the USA

May, 2007

Dear Friends and Clients,

Here is the Astrological analysis of the birthchart ofSeung-Hui Cho, the perpetrator of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I didn’t want to send this out earlier with all of the sensational media attention. And yet, knowing that the question on everyone’s mind was, what would make somebody do such a thing? And knowing that Astrology would inevitably provide useful insight and perhaps answers to that question, I pursued this project. As Astrologer/Author, Richard Tarnas once wrote – Anyone who is doing psychological therapy who isn’t using Astrology is like someone trying to explore a dark cave while holding a powerful flashlight in their hands, but they don’t turn it on.

Before I begin, I wish to state a few things. First the question, Does Seung-Hui Cho’s chart show that he was destined to do what he did? My answer is no. I believe in destiny and free will. I can look at someone’s Astrology chart and see certain lessons and experiences which are destined to happen. But the way that you react to those experiences is subject to your own free will. And the way in which you react affects and alters the fabric and pattern of your destiny. Additionally, an Astrology chart will show a pattern of energies and lessons. It does not show the level of consciousness of the individual. Someone of a higher level of consciousness will play out the exact same pattern totally differently than someone at a lower level of consciousness.

I was able to find a birthdate for Cho but not a birthtime. I have, however, done my own calculation, coming up with 12:28 PM. Most of what I have to say would not be altered by a different birthtime.

Cho was a Capricorn, who thought he was a Taurus, and pretended he was a Capricorn and in his childhood was a Cancer. In a manner of speaking. These are the positions of his Sun, Ascendant, Midheaven and Moon. This is what Hilarion says about having Capricorn on the Midheaven: this sign appears commonly at the M.C. (Medium Coeli or Midheaven) conciding with either Aries or Taurus rising. It tends to cause a projection of the more serious and cautious traits of Capricorn into the outer pictue. Others will see the individual as practical and hard-working, with little time for play. But play is precisely the right prescription for these individuals, particularly those with Taurus rising (which Cho had). In such cases the preponderance of earth on the angles weighs down the spirit and must be counteracted with light, ehjoyable activity undertaken for pleasure alone. So, by itself, this would challenge Cho’s ability to –lighten up. – Especially as he also has his Sun in Capricorn.

Cho had his Sun not only in Capricorn but also in the 10th (Capricorn related) House of work, career, role in the world. But there is a lot of planetary tension on his 10th House Capricorn sun. Someone who is Capricorn is someone who has, in previous lives, accomplished a lot in material terms, which always gives them, in this life, a lot of ambition to make something of themselves in the eyes of the world. It also gives them a lot of self-reliance, the ability to rely on themselves. But that is where they tend to put their faith. Hilarion says that it is harder than for the average person for Capricorn individuals to surrender, and allow themselves to be vulnerable to what they cannot touch. Vulnerability can be a dirty word for a Capricorn. This would indicate why Cho would not fear afterlife consequences for his actions and fuel his rants against established religion. But there is much more concerning this Capricorn sun. In the Capricornian 10th House it shows someone who expects to be successful and perhaps famous, because of previous lives of accomplishment. If difficultly aspected, which Cho’s is, one may be limited in manifesting the career role they yearn for, because of a tendency to identify themselves with what they do rather than who they are. This, Hilarion says, is one of the most deplorable tendencies of our society.

Additionally Capricorns are also admirably able to endure suffering. Much better than I would ever care to be. They will endure and bear suffering much longer than they need to, often to avoid publicly exposing their vulnerability. This is why Cho couldn’t seek help for his suffering and couldn’t even share it with his family.

Cho’s 10th House Capricorn Sun is opposite to his Moon in Cancer. Cancer is ruled by the Moon therefore it is very strongly placed in Cancer. The ideal for a Cancer Moon person is the family seated around the fireplace with the winter storm howling outside. If the Moon in Cancer is afflicted, which his is, by the opposition to the Capricorn sun, then the actual childhood fell rather short of that ideal.

Personally, I think Cho’s family, immigrants living in a foreign culture, had a cozy, nurturing Cancerian emotional bond among themselves. But they kept to themselves, not much interaction with the neighbors. Cho’s parents to this day don’t speak much English. Asians are known for wanting their children to be materially successful, which would tie in to Cho’s innate 10th House Capricorn qualities and aspirations. But to do that he would have to go out into the world of American education and enterprise, definitely outside of the security of his cozy Korean family Cancer Moon nest.

When he was in elementary school Cho was already known for his shyness and was ridiculed in class when asked to speak, coming out with such a low voice the kids thought he couldn’t speak English and told him to go back to China. An ambitious Capricorn with a 10th House identification with role in the world would take such ridicule pretty hard. It was ridicule which his Cancer Moon family could not help him with. They were relatively totally separate arenas of experience for him, although his sister noted that Cho always wanted to fit in.

But there’s more. Cho has three things in his chart that indicate he had, in previous lives, over emphasized the physical side of love, where love was made to serve passion rather than passion being the servant of love. These factors would be Mars in Scorpio, Venus in the Scorpio-related 8th House, and Saturn in Scorpio.

Mars in Scorpio afflicted, which his is, requires one to experience a karmic separation from someone with whom one has had strong sexual ties. Saturn in Scorpio will often force the individual to endure long periods of very limited sexual expression. His Mars in Scorpio is conjunct Pluto in Scorpio which is very intense. Pluto in Scorpio is generational but it covers the years when AIDS entered our global experience, where sex could kill you.

Author/Astrologer Liz Greene once said in a class that Pluto/Mars aspects show up a high percentage of times in the charts of rapists and rape victims.

The Pluto/Mars conjunction in Cho’s chart is in the Sixth, Virgo-related, House of work, service, activity in the world, especially in relation to logical mental applications. And this conjunction, in the early degrees of Scorpio, is actually square to his late degree Capricorn sun. The Pluto/Mars in the Sixth of daily life would make him a moody loner in the Plutonian underworld, frustrated with his inability to be the shining, famous, successful 10th House Capricorn sun, a role he resentfully saw being played out by rich kids with their fancy cars and gold jewelry.

Cho was not likely to have had much successful opportunity for sexual experiences, despite a very intense sexuality of his own. This suppressed energy would lead him to go into his literary expressions of pornographic sex and violence, take surreptitious photos of girls legs in class, stalk females he was attracted to, and one day, kill the object of his unfulfilled desire in her dorm room.

Cho had a lot of Sagittarian energy in his chart, Uranus, Venus, Jupiter, Neptune all in Sagittarius, Jupiter and Neptune also in the Sagittarian Ninth House. Sagittarius energy can energize faith, belief system, and a sense of moral righteousness. The shadow side of Sagittarius is fanaticism. When Pluto just dipped into Sagittarius for one month, before going back into Scorpio and returning later to stay in Sagittarius, was in April of 1995 when the federal building in Oklahoma City was blown up.

Oklahoma City was in April, as was Waco, Texas, and the Columbine shootings. Why April? I think it has to do with Aries energy, a fire sign ruled by Mars, the God of War. Hilarion says that someone with the Sun in Aries is someone who risked their own life in a past life to come to the rescue of another individual. As a reward for this courageous act they are given, in this life, an additional energy, physically, mentally or emotionally. Their challenge is to be able to express this energy is such a way that is does not harm others or themselves.

Aries energy is tense with, and thus shocking to the potentially caring and nurturing Cancer Sun of the U.S. But the U.S. has, as I have mentioned in the past, a Neptune/Mars square in its birthchart, manifesting, among other things, in our delusional relation to violence and our cinematic obsession with portraying it. This Neptune/Mars square in Virgo and Gemini was in tension (opposite and square) the Sagittarian self-righteousness of Cho.

Hilarion has said that Astrologers should take greater note of transits of the Sun in Astrology, the strength this effect being based on the fact that the Sun is such a huge body in our system. Hence the April/Aries explosions when the Sun is there.

In the two year period leading up to Cho’s own explosion Saturn was tensing/squaring his Scorpio planets, leading him to feel, no doubt, very sexually frustrated. Pluto, which rules Scorpio, had been going back and forth over his Jupiter in Sagittarius in the Sagittarian Ninth House of belief system, which lead him to look for deep, hidden, underworld ways to prepare and ultimately vent his righteous indignation. On April 16, 2007 the Sun in Aries was square to his Sun in Capricorn in the Capricorn 10th House, and it was at this time that he chose to use the Aries fiery will energy to force himself into a place of fame and success in the only way he saw feasible to him, hence his video/manifesto sent to NBC news.

Time had been ticking. Cho was a senior. He was going to have to face the real word soon, either a job or acceptance into a graduate program. Either way he would have had to face his insecurities around putting himself forward in the eyes of the world. It seems like he couldn’t face those insecurities and nobody was able to reach out and help him with them.

Cases like this frustrate me because of the feeling that if I could have done a reading for Cho, sharing what I’ve shared here and more, I could have helped him to see and understand himself and thus help him make different and better decisions in dealing with the tensions in his life. I felt the same when I was writing my book about Princess Diana.

Sadly, I can sense that the positive aspects between his Sagittarian, 9th house planets of moral righteousness, and his Scorpio planets in the 6th, Virgo-related house of mental activity in daily service was what lead him to be an English major. I think he had hopes of using, in some creative way, the English language to share his views, understandings, and frustrations. I think in the end he feared their lack of acceptance and success and could only spin deeper into a darker, frustrated underworld where he saw only one way out.

I can only hope that, wherever he is now, that Seung-Hui Cho has help to see and understand himself and can ultimately forgive himself and can ask forgiveness from all those whom he has harmed.

And I pray the same for all of us wherever we may have the impulse to strike out against others in thought, word or deed because of our own frustrations and insecurities.

Blessings,
Steffan Vanel

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