French village – De Sade to Pelicot

The unthinkable crimes of Dominique Pelicot against his wife being paraded in a French courtroom take on an added frisson of revulsion with the knowledge that the village of Mazan where it took place contains a chateaux that once belonged to the Marquis De Sade’s family. Pelicot is charged with drugging his wife for a decade, inviting strangers – more than 80 local men – to enter the family home and rape her while he filmed them. The police have identified and detained 50 of the men whose images appeared on his hard drive, while another 30 suspects remain at large.

   The Marquis de Sade, 2 June 1740 5pm Paris, France, was a French writer, political activist best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography. A series of sex scandals led to his detention in various prisons and insane asylums for most of his adult life. His major works combine graphic descriptions of sex acts, rape, torture, murder, and child abuse with discourses on religion, politics, sexuality, and philosophy. The word sadism derives from his fictional characters who take pleasure in inflicting pain on others.

 De Sade had an 8^th house Sun, Jupiter, Chiron in Gemini which would give him a manic need to promote his beliefs and opinions, both on religious (Jupiter) and sexual (8^th house) topics. His Uranus conjunct his South Node in Capricorn is probably also significant, allying him with views which ran counter to society’s mores with his defiance pulling him away from his road to fulfilment in living out his Cancer North Node.

  His Mars in Aries was square Saturn Venus in Cancer – Mars Saturn can given an inclination towards cruelty and Venus in hard aspect to Mars can be insensitive in relationships. His Virgo Moon is in an Earth Grand Trine to Uranus and South Node trine Mercury in Taurus accentuating his interest in physicality in life. It is not an especially brutal chart and there is some controversy about whether he actually lived out his sadism in the kind of graphic detail that brought his writings to fame.

  At the moment on De Sade’s chart the Solar Arc North Node has been rattling up the Mars square Saturn since these crimes came to light. At the moment De Sade’s Solar Arc Chiron Jupiter in late Pisces is catching the transiting Neptune conjunction and Scheat.

 Dominique Pelicot’s birth data has only started to appear on the net so should be treated with caution. 27 November 1952 Quincy sous Senart, France, if accurate makes him a Sun Sagittarius sextile Mars in obstinate Aquarius. He also has Saturn Neptune in Libra square Uranus possibly tied into an Aries Moon – with Uranus opposition his Venus and Chiron. Creative, imaginative, neurotic, can-be-autocratic, fanatical. His pleasure-seeking 9^th harmonic is ruthless with afflicted Moon links. His doubly unpleasant 18^th harmonic is also notably stressed.

 The chart crossovers are interesting. Pelicot’s Venus is conjunct De Sade’s South Node exactly and his Uranus which may be significant – attracted to De Sade’s primitive tendencies. Even more intriguing is Pelicot’s Pluto conjunct De Sade’s Midheaven and his Jupiter in De Sade’s 7^th conjunct his Descendant – trying to outdo De Sade or take control in similar ways? 

  Pelicot’s relationship chart with his ghostly forbear (no relation) has a fated yod of a composite Mercury sextile North Node inconjunct Pluto Chiron – with that stressed Pluto Chiron being swamped by tr Neptune conjunct at the moment.

  A horrific (in the extreme) spider’s web of fated connections.