Charley Ross was the first American child kidnap victim held for ransom to receive widespread media coverage in 1874. He was never seen again after he disappeared aged 4 with two men and his prosperous-looking but debt-ridden family went to the police.
What is intriguing, looking over after high-profile kidnap victims, though it may be just coincidence, is the recurring presence of Taurus. Charley Ross born 4 May 1870 had a Sun Pluto conjunction in mid Taurus with Mars and Jupiter also in Taurus.
Charles Lindbergh 111, born 22 June 1930, who was kidnapped when he was two and found dead later, had his Mars in mid Taurus with the Moon also in the same sign and his North Node.
Madeleine McCann, born 12 May 2003 who disappeared as a four year old and has never been found, has her Sun and Mercury in Taurus as well as her North Node.
Two other headlined victims Marion Parker, 11 October 1915, and Bobby Greenlease, 3 February 1947, had multiple midpoints in Taurus.
No idea why Taurus should recur. Charley Ross was kidnapped with tr Neptune was just dipping a toe into Taurus at zero degrees with the tr North Node also in Taurus. When Madeleine McCann disappeared tr Sun Mercury were in mid Taurus.
Three of the five had natal or transiting Sun Saturn hard aspects or Sun Pluto, or both.
Not much conclusive to be drawn except the oddly recurring patterns.
Well, Taurus evokes Ceres, which of course is now considered a dwarf planet. (I know of an astrologer who’s made a pretty good case that Ceres should become the ruler of Taurus). And then Taurus opposing Pluto-ruled Scorpio on the zodiac wheel. In light of that, it makes sense to me that these kidnappings would be mythically delineated as “Persephone stories.”
All of them have Mars in a Fixed sign.
I think you are really stretching a point here. It is possible to try too hard to find patterns in life and to make assertions bordering on the ridiculous out of a natural human wish to find meaning to life. The fear that life is a random, chaotic and often cruel series of events is at the heart of faith in unproven and unproveable ideologies. It takes guts and maturity to accept the chaos and stop seeing ‘destiny’ everywhere. Grow up people : we’re strong enough not to need fake reassurance.
Jane, I might be half inclined to agree with you at a general level. But your contemptuous tone rather ignores the inconvenient fact that such a cluster of Taurus does occur in this narrow instance.
The first thing I thought of was ‘bullion’ (bull-lion) reading this, where does that word come from? For many years I have never looked at the fixed stars but bingo! they have many things to say in these cases…… on way to my daughter’s birthday but got hooked and have to put it up as I think you’re onto something…..
There are three fixed stars in Taurus (Sharatan at 3 deg, Hamal at 7 deg and the famous Algol at 26.. In Charley’s chart his node at 6 Taurus would conjunct both those fixed stars which are associated with violence, brutality and cruelty. His natal Mars a few degrees further on is conjunct Algol…and he had transit Node directly on Sharatan.
Madeleine had tr Node at 23 Pisces and transit Sun conjunct her retrograde Mercury, tr Moon conjunct the south Node exactly opposite her North.
Marion Parker had Moon at 27 Scorpio, same degree as Maddy, square Neptune natally…both girls had Moon Libra and Taur/Scorp suns…Marion’s Mercury at 6 Scorp would also be conjunct both Sharatan and Hamal. Two girls with a Libra Moon and two boys named Charles, what are the odds…..?
I’m shocked about all this, having never considered the fixed stars for decades…..really worth a deep look everyone if you have the time……riveting even. Thanks Marjorie.
Two American kidnap victims — Jaycee Dugard, kidnapped for 18 years, was a Taurus. Amanda Berry, one of teens captured by Ariel Castro and held 10 years, was also a Taurus. They had amazing toughness and survival skills.
What gives with Taurus? Most odd.
The closest I can get is the idea of the victim as commodity, as someone who will be valuable and can be used as exchange for money.
All awful and tragic cases of course, but the killing of Marion Parker was particularly upsetting and depraved.
One other thing that occurred to me was the link between the constellation of Taurus and the abduction and rape of Europa by Zeus in the form of a white bull. According to the myth, Zeus was enamoured of Europa (the etymology of her name – (εὐρυ—”wide” or “broad” + ωψ—”eye(s)” or “face”) implies that Europa was a goddess represented by the cow (with a wide face), similar to the Egyptian Hathor) took the form of a bull and mingled among Europa’s father’s herd. When Europa garlanded the bull with flowers and climbed upon its back, the bull rushed headlong into the sea where he carried the young girl to Crete. Just a thought.
I was thinking about the rape of Persephone abduction myth which is connected to Pluto and transformation. As its polar opposite, Scorpio knows how to needle/[ersuade/bully/outlast Taurus into change.