Astrology Explored

September 10, 2008

On May 11, 2008 the predominantly black Bethel Missionary Baptist Church of Wappingers Falls, near Poughkeepsie, New York suffered the loss of their partially completed church building through fire which has been under construction since the fall of 2007. Between 400 and 500 people are members of this church.

You can look at the video here for this story.

Monica, from Astrology Mundo, using flattery, persuaded me to look at this event, asking if the fire was arson and if it was racially motivated.

From the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church website, I was able to secure the date of the incorporation of the church, but not date of the groundbreaking for the new church. Apparently the church was in the planning stages for two years and faced significant hurdles in getting zoning board approval to build the new church.

Gregory Nunn, chairman of the Building Finance Committee, said millions of dollars were raised for the new building, which was to measure more than 17,000 square feet. In 2006, the expansion was projected to cost an estimated $9 million.

The incorporation chart of the Bethel Missionary Baptist church has the Sun in pragmatic Virgo, the moon in protective Cancer and the ascendant in either Scorpio or Sagittarius depending on when the papers of incorporation were signed. While this time isn’t certain, what is certain is that natal Saturn, the planet of limitations, sits squarely on the moon of event chart for the fire. That Saturn activates the moon of the event chart which is afflicted with an unfortunate tension aspect to the planet of wounds, Chiron. Chiron sits with the North Node of the moon and Neptune.

Is it arson? Yes. Mars in Leo in the event chart inconjunct Pluto denotes the crime with the intent to destroy.

Is it racially motivated?

No, the intent was not to destroy the people, it was to destroy the building itself. Inconjuncts are often involved in crimes. See that the Pluto of the event is in Capricorn, the sign ruled by Saturn. The natal Saturn of the incorporation of the church sits firmly and squarely on the moon sign of event.

What was the motivation?

Since this is an ongoing investigation it would be inappropriate for me to speculate too much on motivation. But if you look to the ascendant of the event chart, you see the Sun conjuct Venus in challenge aspect to the collection of Neptune, North Node and Chiron and also the event moon. The motivation was not idealogy, but monetary.

There are a lot of questions left to be resolved about this crime. However, due to the Mars inconjunct Pluto, I would say that this is one perpetrator that will not be caught, at least not for this crime. It may be the police are looking in the wrong direction to find the resolution to this crime. We can only be thankful that no one was hurt.

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.