The Passing of Julian Bond

I woke this morning to the new that the civil rights leader Julian Bond had died yesterday and it occurred to me to look at his natal chart to see if this event had been foreshadowed in the stars of his birth. Fortunately, we have a reliable record of his birth with data from his birth certificate: 14 Jan 1940, 12:30 pm CST, Nashville, TN, Rodden rating AA.  Here is the birth chart.

Julian Bond natal chart

The houses related to the death of the native are the 8th of death and the 4th of final endings and the grave.  The 8th is ruled by Jupiter and the 4th by the Sun, with Pluto closely conjunct the 4th cusp.  Since he died at age 75, I wondered whether Pluto on the 4th cusp would have reached the ASC by primary direction at age 75.

Using the Janus 4.3 program, I calculated his primary directions for 2015 (Placidus semi-arc without latitude, both the Ptolemy and Naibod keys):

Direct primary directions for 2015, Placidus semi-arc, without latitude, Ptolemy and Naibod rates.

One can see from the above table that during 2015, by direct primary direction the 4th cusp (endings) comes to the ASC and natal Pluto also comes to the ASC. These directions are within orb at the time of his demise.

We can also look at this Solar Return for the year for further indications. Here is his natal chart with the 2015 SR superimposed:

Most notable is that the ASC of the solar return lies on the natal 4th cusp of endings and very closely conjoins natal Pluto. In addition, SR Jupiter (ruler of his natal 8th of death) lies in the 4th of endings and squares the natal ASC and natal Uranus.

If we swap charts and place his natal planets around his 2015 SR chart, we get:

Here we see natal Pluto on the SR ASC.  In addition, natal ASC-ruler Venus closely conjoins the 8th cusp (Placidus) of the SR chart.

If we superimpose his natal chart around the lunar return in effect on August 15, 2015, we see the following:

In the above chart, his natal Pluto/MC opposition lies exactly on the cusp of the 8th house of death of the lunar return chart.