Chart Comparisons for Abe Lincoln, J. W. Booth, and fatal shot

by Milky Way Maid

I did not know if a chart comparison would be successful when I started this little project, but I was intrigued enough to give it a go.

I had no birth times for the two principals – Abe Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth – so I used noon for both. I did find a time for the fatal shot inflicted on the late President; a source said it occurred at 10:13 pm on the night of April 14, 1865. The President lingered for some nine hours before he finally breathed his last.

This composite chart has Abe Lincoln in the center ring, Booth in the middle ring, and the fatal shot in the outer ring representing the transits. I should maybe have put the assassination in the center, since it is the only one to be specific as to time; you are free to construct such a chart on your own software and see what that yields. I will tell you that the assassination chart yields an ascendant of 9 degrees, 21' Sagittarius (with the Moon rising at 9 degrees, 12' of Sag), and the MC is at 26 degrees, 14' Virgo.

The way these charts interlock is at first glance far too complex to treat fully in one article. There are many planets in a narrow slice from 7 to 14 degrees of the signs, another group at 29 or 00 degrees of signs (which is a harmonic of the first group), and some more at 22 to 27 degrees of the signs.
Let's start by listing the planets at 7 to 14 degrees of the signs.
In Pres. Lincoln's chart: Mercury at 10 Pisces, Pluto at 13 Pisces.
In Mr. Booth's chart: Neptune at 10 Aquarius, Uranus at 12 Pisces, North Node at 12 Aries, and Jupiter at 8 Virgo. Mr. Booth has Jupiter, the planet of the actor, inconjunct Neptune in Capricorn and opposite Uranus in Pisces.
In the transit chart of the assassination: Neptune at 8 Aries, Pluto at 12 Taurus, Mercury at 14 Taurus, Mars at 8 Cancer, Moon at 9 Sag.

Listing planets at 29 to 01 of the signs yields this list: Lincoln's Moon at 29 Capricorn, Booth's retrograde Mercury at 29 Taurus and his Moon at 1 degree Sag; the transit chart has the North Node at 00 degrees Scorpio and Jupiter at 29 degrees Sag.

Planets at 22 to 27 degrees of the signs include:

Lincoln's Sun at 23 degrees Aquarius, Jupiter at 22 degrees Pisces, and Mars at 25 degrees Libra.

Booth's Saturn retrograde at 26 degrees Scorpio.

The assassination has the Sun at 25 degrees Aries, Venus at 25 degrees Taurus, Uranus at 26 degrees Gemini, Saturn retrograde at 27 degrees Libra. In other words, transiting Saturn is on Lincoln's Mars.

I think it is pretty impressive that there are so many points in the charts that do intermesh the way they do. One could hardly find two unrelated people with that many points of contact, or points that are in such close aspect. It is very complex. I did not even get into trying to run progressed charts for either man.

There was a Total Solar Eclipse on April 25, 1865, but that comes too late to directly affect the circumstances of Washington, DC leading up to the tragic events at Ford's Theatre. Thankfully, NASA gives moon phases for 1801 to 1900 online. There was a partial lunar eclipse April 11, 1865 at 4:28 am.

To get Eastern Standard Time, subtract five hours from the Universal Time given on the NASA site. So that would make it 11:28 pm on April 10.

OK, now see the lunar eclipse chart for April 10, 1865. True node and Koch houses, as I have for all my other charts on this article.

Wow, this ties in really well with the charts of the principals in the drama. Ascendant is almost 22 degrees Sag, MC is at 12 degrees Libra. There's that 12 degrees again! OK, let's go around and list the planet positions before doing anything else. Sun at 21 Aries. Moon is opposite at 21 Libra, with Saturn close by at 27 Libra. North Node at 00 Scorpio – those three points are in the tenth house. Jupiter in the first house at 29 Sag. Neptune almost to the IC, at 8 degrees Aries in the third house. Sun at 21 degrees Aries, as we said, in the fourth house. Fifth house holds Mercury at 10 of Taurus, Pluto at 12 of Taurus and Venus at 25 of Taurus. In the seventh house we find Uranus at 26 degrees Gemini and Mars at 5 degrees Cancer.

Let's take that MC at 12 degrees Libra--- This time it is inconjunct Lincoln's Mercury-Pluto in Pisces, inconjunct Booth's Uranus in Pisces, opposite Booth's North Node in Aries, inconjunct transiting Mercury-Pluto in Taurus.

Looking at the chart in another way, we ask ourselves “Where were these people when the events unfolded?” At a theatre, where Pres. Lincoln had taken his wife to see a play. What is in the house that rules the stage, the fifth house? There we find Mercury and Pluto, representing the fatal bullet. They would have done well to avoid fifth-house places, given the ominous looks of that sector of the chart.

Where would he have been safe? Look where Jupiter is, in this case in the first house – the first house represents – among other things – where one normally is, in this case at the White House. He would probably have been safe if he had stayed in the White House. He probably would have been safe if he had taken a long trip, say to New York or Boston, since the ninth house is empty. Staying at home would probably have been a good option, too, with the Sun occupying the fourth house. Too bad the Lincolns did not just schedule another séance or something. Too bad they did not have cable or Hulu back then.

This article cannot be exhaustive treatment of the two principals in the historical drama, but I hope that you might be intrigued enough to print out your own charts and play with this a bit. If your software will not go back to the 1800s, you might give things a whirl at the free chart service offered by Astrodienst dot com online.