Astrology Explored

September 25, 2008
First, an explanation of the title of this piece, for the people who think this astrologer is excessively morbid. As a young mother, facing the censure of certain childless family members for my unconventional parenting skills, my Aquarian reply was invariably, “They ain’t dead yet.”, which shocked those family members into silence. It became a bit of a family joke with my children and me. Well, they all grew up just fine, but I suspect when I do become a grandmother, (not for sometime yet) I am sure I will hear the same thing when I have something to say about how those children are raised. As we will see below, Criss Angel’s shocking style of illusionism has people on the edge of their seats, wondering if he’ll kill himself with his stunts. But for Criss, it’s all a cosmic joke, of sorts.

Criss Angel regularly shocks his audience with his bold and sweeping illusions. His Season Four finale has his viewers wondering if he is dead and the internet is buzzing with this rumor. The stunt went like this:

Criss later meets up with pro-wrestler Kurt Angle and is handcuffed inside a car that’s filled with explosives and racing downhill toward a cliff. Apparently there was fire and smoke and even Sully thought “it felt like I just watched my brother kill himself.” “I was standing only 20 feet away and I thought for sure the stunt went wrong.

Angle says of the stunt:

“It blew my mind, my nerves were shot. I thought it was a stunt that definitely went wrong. I saw him chained, I saw him in the car and saw him go over (the edge). I thought ‘Oh my god, this is a tragedy, something went wrong’.”

But according to Entertainment and Showbiz, Criss is “just fine”.

Angel says of The Carwreck Vanish:

“Illusion is what you see. Magic is what you feel.”
“It’s time to start thinking outside the box and let the art of magic live on in real life.”
“I hope to be engaging my audiences by having them ask themselves… What is real and what is illusion?”
“That is truly the magic of emotion.”

In others words “Gotcha!”

Angel’s signature style includes bold and sweeping stunts and illusions which include:

walking on water, levitating above the Luxor Hotel (in the light of 62 lightbulbs that can be seen from space), floating between two buildings, causing a Lamborghini to disappear, surviving in an exploding C4 Crate, cutting himself in half in full view of an audience and getting run over by a steamroller while lying stomach down on a bed of glass.

However fantastic his illusions appear he is not a believer in the paranormal or the supernatural:

Starting in October 2007 he appeared as a judge on Phenomenon, with Uri Geller and in a CNN interview about the show he told Larry King “no one has the ability, that I’m aware of, to do anything supernatural, psychic, talk to the dead. And that was what I said I was going to do with Phenomenon. If somebody goes on that show and claims to have supernatural psychic ability, I’m going to bust [him] live and on television.”

And in August of 2007 he supposedly debunked all astrology and tarot card readings in one fell swoop. You can read and see the details here.

So what drives Criss to apparently more and more dangerous illusions? What makes him want to grab hold of the emotions of his audience and make them gasp? What makes him a “Mindfreak”

Born Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos on December 19, 1967, Angel has the planet of his ego drives, the Sun and the planet of his thinking processes, Mercury in the flamboyant and expensive zodiac sign of Sagittarius. Sagittarians are known for their love of the spotlight, large things, including large dogs and horses, and an pressing need to discover “truth”. Because the sunrise chart shows the planet of emotions, the moon in the sign of Cancer and because we do not have a birth time, we do not know for certain what this placement is. However, considering his love of showmanship, it is easy to image that his moon is in the dramatic sign of Leo. What we do know is that his Sun is in challenge aspect to both quixotic Chiron in the zodiac sign of Pisces and Saturn in Aries and in challenge aspect to the planet of the unpredictable Uranus and the planet of transformation Pluto. Here is the driving core of his personality. Saturn in Aries fears rash, impulsive acts, yet are drawn them like moths to a flame. This is confirmed by his Chiron sitting next to Saturn. Chiron is the deep wound that is difficult to heal, and here in Pisces, indicates a personality that is at once is on a quest for deep spiritual values, but distrusts them just the same. Pisces in tarot and astrological symbolism is associated with the mystic, the magician. In practicing his art, he is facing what he fears. This Saturn, Chiron mix opposes his Uranus and Pluto indicating a deep driving need to face dangerous and sometimes unpredictable situations. Also, his Venus in Scorpio in challenge aspect with Mars in Aquarius gives him a driving need for intense experiences. With Uranus and Pluto in the careful and pragmatic sign of Virgo, he does so in a studied and controlled fashion. Is he ever really in danger? Yes. Does he think he is? No. But the Sagittarian in him wants to live life on the edge anyway, so he will keep on performing increasingly more dangerous stunts all the while thinking he has things in control, living for those moments when his heart races in his chest as he beats death by seconds.

What he has going for him is his Sun in Sagittarius. These folks are incredibly lucky, almost as if they have two or three angels on their shoulders keeping them from harm. But will his luck run out? At the end of April 2009, early May 2009 transiting Uranus will sit on top his natal Uranus, and Mars, the planet of rash actions and troubles will sit on his Saturn. Whatever he plans on at this time, he will not escape unscathed, so maybe he should lay low. But considering Criss Angel’s personality, I doubt he will.

If you have a question you would like this astrologer answer on these pages, send it to starrynightastro@aol.com along with your birthday, birth place and birth time.