[Preliminary notes for those not acquainted with astrology:
1. The 12th House is concerned psychic debris, energies that are unavailable to the native because they are somehow obscure or secret. It's often called the "House of Self-Undoing" and can signify hidden enemies as well as mental illness, confusion, compulsion, delirium. In a positive side it can denote psychic abilities, "secret helpers," latent abilities, spiritual enlightenment or occult practice.
2. The 8th House is also complex. It has to do with the property of others, death, debt, the problems of others, inheritance, grants, loans, institutional funding. In a positive light it can denote sex, healing or helping others, and power through collaboration. Both 8th and 12th House matters have the potential to spiral out of control or metastasize if not watched closely (such as debts or compulsions are apt to do).
3. Every astrological sign has a planet that rules it. For example Venus rules Libra (Relationships and Harmony) and Taurus (Sensual pleasure and Stability). The signs opposite to these are said to be her Detriment: Aries (Self assertion) and Scorpio (Transmutation through destruction). Venus is Exalted in Pisces (Spiritual/Emotional Abandon) and therefore has her Fall in the opposite sign, Virgo (precision, perfectionism). When a planet is in a sign where it is ill dignified, it will not function well. Its location in a dark house such as the 8th or 12th will also impede its function. There are always mitigating factors but they require effort.
4. Every year a certain house in a natal chart is "profected" at the Solar Return (birthday). This means that the house's implications will want to manifest that year. Any planets in that house will be of of emphasis. And the planet that is ruler of whatever astrological sign corresponds to that house is said to be the "Time Lord." Step one is to look at the profected house, its planets if it contains any, and its lord ("ruler") in the natal chart. This is often more than enough. But it can be taken further by observing the current transits planets are making to the profected house and the highlighted planets. Especially those related to the Time Lord and its position in the natal chart. Retrogrades or other irregular phenomena are to be watched closely if they involve profected material.
5.An aspect to the moon is usually required for an astrological signification to take form: "the moon door.' Because the moon moves so quickly, very specific timing for events to take place is possible.
6. "Aspects" planets form to each other are important. Namely conjunctions - where they are at the same degree of the zodiac, or oppositions - where they are opposite one another (ie. one is at 12 o'clock and the other is at 6 o' clock). Squares are 90 degree angles that create tension (such as 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock).]
ANNUAL PROFECTIONS
THE MURDER OF SHARON TATE
Profected House: 1 (The self, identity, or persona. First house profections usually involve an evolution of the identity.)
Time Lord:
-Venus [love, art, beauty] (26 Virgo), in Fall in the 12th House
-Conjoined Jupiter [expansion, abundance] in Detriment and Neptune [dissolution, the etehreal]
Profected Planet:
Mars [drive, aggression] (24 Libra), in Detriment but strong by house position
-Ruling the 7th (the native's partner) and 2nd (the natives property) Houses
-In very tight square with Moon conjoined Pluto in Cancer
[1]
(a)Transits to Time Lord:
Pluto conjunction 23 Virgo; South Node Conjunction 23 Virgo (both slow-moving, and Pluto had already conjoined Venus the prior year, not immediately relevant.)
Mars in 8 Sagittarius forming whole sign square with Time Lord Venus (and 12th house Jupiter, and Neptune.)
(b)Transits to Profected Planet:
Venus forms a whole sign square with natal Mars and Ascendant with ingress to Cancer 4 days before
*The Moon conjoins Transit Venus, “opening the moon door” the night of the murder.
[2]
(a)Transits of transit Time Lord to Natal Chart:
-The Venus Square to Mars fits into concern-levels 1 and level 2 simultaneously.
(b)Transiting Profected Planet:
The Mars square to natal Venus also fits into both categories. Mars has been in Sagittarius squaring Natal Venus for 5 months. But it did not play an identifiable part in the drama during its retrograde because Mercury was Time Lord during Polanski’s 12th House Profection, and Mercury is not afflicted by Mars. No planet in the 12th house is afflicted by either malefic. But when the sun moved into Leo, ten day’s before Polanski’s 36th birthday, the profecttion shifted to the first house emphasizing only Mars and Venus.
The transit planets squared their respective natal counterparts simultaneously, both activated by profection, PLUS a conjunction of the moon with the Time Lord, the drama unfolded. The parallel Venus/Pluto copresences in both the natal and transit charts could also be considered relevant, but that would be a Level 3 Concern.
RAPE CHARGES
Profected House: 8 (Taurus)
[Other people's property or will, unpaid debts, sex, inheritances, a summation of how these matters may have metastasized due to lack of attention]
Same Time Lord (Venus rules Taurus)
No Profected Planets
[1]
(a)Transits to Time Lord:
Both the Sun and Mercury were in Polanski’s 6th House, opposing natal Venus and the rest of the 12th House the night of the alleged rape and the charges pressed against him. [Note: When the sun opposes a natal planet it exposes it and sheds light upon it, when Mercury opposes a natal planet it reports it. These can be very good events, but obviously not if they are revealing dark secrets of a very active and ill-dignified 12th House]
The moon was at roughly 3 Sagittarius so it was in square Venus and in the 12th.
(b) Transits to the 8th House:
Jupiter was on Algol [A very destructive Fixed Star, the Eye of Medusa] in Polanski’s Solar Return Chart for this profection. After a brief egress into Gemini that year it retrograded back into Taurus and was moving direct at 25 Taurus on the night in question. It’s interesting to note that neither the alleged rape nor the murder of Tate occurred in Polanski’s own home. Both events took place on the property of others; both involved secrecy and psychological confusion resonant with Venus’ rulership of the 8th and placement in the 12th.
[2]
(a) Transit Venus was just making her station at her retrograde point of 24 degrees Aries. This degree is in precise opposition to the Polanski’s Natal Mars. (This could probably be elevated to a level 1 concern.)
[3]
(a) Venus was on the South Node and in whole sign opposition to transit Pluto.
--
It’s difficult to ignore the presence of Pluto, both natal and transit, even though in transit it was still one degree away from conjoining Venus when it stationed retrograde in December 1968. Its underworld implications are so prevalent in the Tate murder, though they also correspond to the significations of the 12th House. Cults like The Family fit easily into the 12th – but especially this one: the religious devotion (Jupiter ill dignified), female subjugation (Venus ill dignified), and drug-induced delirium (Neptune in a dark house) demanded by Manson. Also the murderers’ blunder intended to kill the owner of the house Terry Melcher, who had disgruntled Manson, resulting in the killings of Tate and her companions who were, in effect, random victims unknown to the perpetrators. This can be linked also to a malefic in detriment – sloppy and ill-equipped, ruled by a planet in even worse accidental and essential dignity, but nonetheless brutal.
Pluto did conjoin Polanski’s natal Jupiter (in adherence to Venus) the winter of 1968. Six months after the release of “Rosemary’s Baby,” his first English language film which firmly initiated him into the exclusive echelons of the Hollywood elite and releasing the vast wealth and fame that Pluto can sometimes connote. “Rosemary’s Baby” itself deals with high-class secret societies/cults, drug-induced rape, and female subjugation through forced-motherhood in the interest of social prestige (Pluto [transgressions of power] conjoined Moon [Maternity] in the 10th House [Career Prestige].)
The classic Plutonian themes of rape and transgression resurface in 1977. And the messiness and delirium of the perpetrator (Quaaludes etc.) again reflect the Mars/Venus dynamics in this chart. While the Mars' rulership over the 7th House of partnership also concentrated in both scenarios.
II. ZODIACAL RELEASING
Roman Polanski’s Lot of Fortune is in the 12th house. The environment of his early life biographically seems to have little resonance with his Natal Mercury, Polanski’s only peregrine planet and the ruler of this period, but more convenient to the connotations of the 12th. He grew up in Polish ghettos for Jews during the German occupation until both of his parents were taken to concentration camps, his mother to Auschwitz where she was killed. She died during his 10th House Annual Profection. The prominence of the natal Moon speaks to this tragedy, as does the Moon’s maltreatment by Mars and Pluto – violence against women being a consistent component of Polanski’s biography as well as his oeuvre.
He was raised by various foster families and witnessed a great deal of torture and violence until he was reunited with his father in 1944. He found solace in an obsession with film resonant with Fortune’s proximity to Neptune and copresence with Jupiter and Venus.
In 1950 he had a Level 2 Loosening of the Bond from Fortune, activating his Pisces 6th House (angular to fortune) and Jupiter when he was 17 – activating Pisces also as the Profected House that year. He began to develop his acting skills in radio. This coincided with a Level 3 Loosening of the Bond from Spirit, activating his Tenth House once again. At the time, he was releasing from Spirit in Sagittarius so the influence of Jupiter was very prominent.
In 1960 when Polanski was 26/27, he began his release from Spirit in Capricorn, a phase that would continue until 1986 during which he made his most important work and endured the most intense life drama. This coincided with two distinct Releases from Fortune:
1961-1976 SCORPIO (cadent), 2nd House, Mars Ruled
1976-1987 SAGITTARIUS (angular/peak), 3rd House, Jupiter Ruled
Compellingly, he had a Loosening of the bond from Spirit in Cancer in between the two Fortune Phases – July 1977, in the middle of his legal and psychiatric processes that would eventually drive him into self-exile in Paris 5 months later.
But the first 8 years of his Capricorn-Spirit and Sagittarius-Fortune years were pretty exquisite. Particularly during Annual Profections:
1962- 29, 6th House Pisces – Directs Oscar Nominated “Knife in the Water” (Polish)
1965- 32 9th House Gemini – Directs “Repulsion” (French, feat. Catherine Deneuve)
1966 – 33, 10th House Cancer “Fearless Vampire Killers” (English, where he met co-star Sharon Tate)
1967 – 34, 11th House Leo – Marries Tate and shoots “Rosemary’s Baby”
1968 – 35 , 12th House Virgo – Earns Hollywood acclaim and is initiated to extreme realms of elite debauchery and underworld circles with close ties to the Manson Cult.
1969 – 36, 1st House Libra – The Murder of Sharon Tate inaugurating the Solar Return. [Fortune L1 Scorpio (Mars); Fortune L2 Aries (Mars; 7th House); Fortune L3 Leo (Sun)
[Spirit L1 Capricorn (Saturn); L2 Cancer (Moon); L3 Cancer (Moon)
Despite the remarkable dignity of Polanski’s 10th House Moon, its stimulation by any timing technique comes up very badly. His 10th House profection during which he met Tate obviously ended badly for both – but the marriage was pretty much a torture chamber for Tate. Annual Profections ruled by Venus also come up dark, as does Mars generally – both out of sect and in poor essential dignity.
Despite Jupiter’s poor essential and accidental dignity, it seems to come in for the win as a Time Lord – saying a great deal for sect benefic status free from malefic affliction. Saturn and the Sun tend to yield favorable results for Polanski as Time Lords – making this nativity an excellent example of the favorability of sect as well as an example of extremes of dignity, with Mercury being the only peregrine planet.
However, it’s pretty much uncontested that Polanski’s best films were made during his Scorpio Fortune period. Ruled by an angular but poorly dignified Mars on Spica, with a partile sextile to the Sun in domicile and a strong maltreatment of a powerful Moon. The ensuing Sagittarius “peak” period from Sagittarius marks a transition back to films with a flavor that is decidedly more French and less Hollywood. His personal life was much less chaotic while in self-exile, and he continued to enjoy critical success with more artistic license.