Hello everyone,

I want to share a bit about my newest astrological passion, Death Charts. I’ve been doing them for clients since 2015 as a result of losing my identical twin, Lou Ann in 2005 to cancer. During my long descent into grief one of the things that helped me find a deep level of acceptance of her loss was studying her death chart. It brought me insights into why I lost her at that time in my life, and what my soul’s journey was to be without her. Over these last seven years after working with many more people I’ve learned more about loss, reading death charts, and how to use them to help people who are suffering a loss.

Last week I met with a client I’ll call Joe, who had lost his wife of 35 years. Before we met I prepared the charts and noticed that the death chart had Libra rising, the most relationship oriented of all signs, with Juno, the “marriage” asteroid on the Ascendant, the point of last breath. Otherwise all of the planets were grouped together on the opposite side of the chart. This made me think that the man I was about to read for was all alone in the death of his wife.

Standing opposite point of the last breath was the Sun, an indication of the central figure in this session, his wife. The Sun was conjunct Chiron, the wounded healer archetype, in the section of the chart, the sixth house, symbolizing health. Also, the Sun’s ruling planet, Mars was conjunct Saturn and square Uranus. Both of these together indicated a long and very debilitating illness, brought to a sudden and unexpected end.

His question to me at the beginning of our session was what could I see about what happened, and why did it happen now. As I discussed seeing him all alone, and the length and seriousness of his wife’s illness I could see his demeanor change. He started to breathe more deeply and the lines on his forehead and around his mouth softened.

When I asked him what happened, the story Joe told me was a sad one. Ten years earlier his wife’s best friend was in need of a kidney, and being a perfect match, she donated. Due to complications during the surgery she nearly died. She recovered, but suffered brain damage and over the next decade, in spite of medical help, went on to lose her capacity to work, all her friends, and family relationships, except for Joe who continued to care for her. The symbolism in the Death chart affirmed his experience of being all alone. Her death came suddenly one day while he was out getting groceries.

To answer his question about why he lost her last year, I looked at the eclipses and transits happening in his chart at the time of his wife’s death. Eclipses will often indicate a destined event, which will activate a person to more actively pursue their soul’s path in life. In Joe’s case the eclipse was on his Chiron, the wounded healer archetype. This event would suggest that this loss would propel Joe to deal with all of his wounds from the past. The other main planetary activity was from the planet Uranus, who I call the “great awakener”. Uranus was prominent for me when my twin died, and has taught me much about being an individual (as opposed to half of a pair) and helped revealed my authentic work path, working with death charts. For Joe, in the year after his wife’s death, he had found a wonderful therapist and gotten involved in a Buddhist meditation community, the first being a positive response to Chiron, and the second corresponding to one of the primary lessons of Uranus which is to live in the present moment; also a primary tenant of Buddhism.

Although Joe was still actively grieving the loss of his wife, he had found two things in his life, both of which were highly supported by the heavens, that were helping him heal.

At the end of our time together Joe said to me, “I’ve been to a lot of astrologers who gave me a lot of information coming from their intellect, but I feel like you’ve helped me, coming from your soul.”

***********************************

Do you know someone who is grieving? If they are searching for meaning and deeper understanding to help them deal with their loss, please put them in touch with me.