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This is a story about a historical Dutch female criminal, Goeie Mie, her birth
chart and the progressions and transits for the day of her arrest. I hope this
story will contribute to your knowledge of astrology!
Goeie Mie's name was officially: Maria Catharina van der Linden -
Swanenburg and they called her: Goeie Mie (Good Mee) because she was
very helpful in the neighbourhood and family. She was born in 1839 and died
in 1915, in prison...She was convicted because she poisoned a lot of people.
They are certain of at least 16 deathly cases (they found arsenic in the death
bodies later). She was a serial killer! She was trusted and she took
advantage of it. The idea was to get the insurance money. 15 December
1883 was the day of her arrest.
ABOUT GOEIE MIE
Goeie Mie was a 'serial'. Not only did she kill, there were also people who
could not walk anymore due to the poisoning. She killed her own parents,
her sister and many members of her family in law. Most of them died after
having insured their lives for the sum of 50 Dutch guilders. As these people
were poor, the doctors did not care much about the deaths and signed the
papers without looking at the victims. And the insurance company never
asked questions. She did it with arsenic - in coffee, milk or soup, which she
bought in the drugstore as one of the ingredients of 'operment', a product
against lice. The operment was not mixed carefully so that she could easily
separate arsenic from the rest of the operment. She was arrested on the
15th of December 1883 after having killed a sister, a brother in law and a
cousin...a bit too much. One of the family members finally had second
thoughts AND a doctor came to have a look, at last.
Goeie Mie was married. Before her marriage at age 29 she already gave birth
to 3 children. Only one became older than 3. In her marriage she had 6
children. Four of them died. (In those days many children died young).
When she was about 40 years old she started poisoning her neighbours. She
was know for being very helpful and had many friends. In those days nobody
noticed that there were many cases of death and illness in her
neighbourhood (it was not uncommon). She advised everybody to insure
their lives and even contributed the 7,5 cents a week that the insurances
cost. She did not do anything with the money, she just kept it until it was
taken from her when she was put in prison. Her solicitor pleaded that she
was not mentally sane and she herself never said sorry and only asked for a
merciful punishment. She got hard labour for life instead and lived 32 years in
prison. Her husband divorced her and she never saw her 3 living children or
family again. There is no picture of her but she was described as a middle
aged normal sized woman with very black hair and a round face.
ASTROLOGICAL INDICATIONS
Fifty percent of her planets are retrogading. These 5 retrograding planets include her ruler 1, the
ascendant ruler. I point at Mars<> Pluto (MR: Mars and Pluto in mutual
reception). And I mention the narrow aspects between:
Mercury and
Saturn,
Mars and Uranus and
Venus and Pluto.
I think that having a lot of narrow
aspects indicates a lot of intense events in life. That is because when there is a transit the
translation of light involves a lot of planets at the same time.
Her reputation of 'helper in need' is seen in Neptune (helping, voluntary jobs)
conjunct the MC and Uranus (humanity!) ruling the MC. These planets are in
mutual reception. We can read this as sudden (Uranus) lost (Neptune) of a
reputation (MC). Mars squares the MC and Mars is connected to Aries Point.
So there is a Martial aspect about her 'imago'....and Mars is connected to
Pluto and rules by Pluto.
WHY MURDER? WHY JAIL? WHY 'GOOD'? ETC.
1. We already saw that the prominent Mars in Scorpio on Aries Point and his dispositor, the prominent oriental
Pluto are in mutual reception. And they make a T square with Neptune (could be
read as secret abuse of power or poison used with force).
2. The midpoints Mars/Saturn and Mars/Pluto (in combination: violent death)
are involved with Sun, Moon, Uranus and NNode. Uranus is conjunct the
Node (she shocked the community of the city of Leiden and her family, what
was left of it:).
3. Saturn is in a wide sesquisquare (135d) with Pluto: hard confrontations!
4.The strong Venus in Libra is opposing to Pluto. That aspect (IMO) makes
desires intense, finances challenging and power or control most wanted. And
Venus is conjunct Jupiter! This is a combination for success and a lot of
money that she had (for a while). She also was a beloved woman before
they found out about her. That is why she was called 'Goeie': a good person.
5. An easy one: Sun in conflict with both Uranus and Pluto is a sign for
sudden changes in life, such as arrests.
6. The Northern Node is connected to Uranus AND to the midpoints
Mars/Saturn - 112.5 d - and Mars/Pluto - 45d - (violent death in a
community).
7. Last but not least:
Mercury ruler 1 is completely afflicted and retrograde (and quintile the
ascendant and one of the afflictions is with Saturn). Her lawyer pleaded
mental disability and maybe she was not completely sane, who knows.
Ruler 1, Mercury, strong in Virgo, is retrograding and square to Saturn (orb
<1 degree) and that might be an indication for limitations, restrictions etc.
concerning 8th house matters!
Mercury ruler 1 is also sesquisquare (135d) Pluto, natural ruler of the 8th
house. So we see Mercury connected to Saturn and Pluto: a strategic mind,
thinking hard about problems. This is a combination I often find in the charts
of politicians. In this chart they are involved with matters of life and death,
insurances (!!!! very much 8th house).
DAY OF HER ARREST (I take only narrow aspects)
1. The Sun sign is changing. That indicates changing your lifestyle (orb 4
minutes = less than a month, I think the final - overdone - murder)
2. The 75d aspect between T Pluto and natal Uranus (arrest)
3. Transit Saturn inconjunct Progressed Mercury (bad message, saying
goodbye)
4. The Moon is about to enter the 12th house (start of a period behind the
screens)
5. Transit Saturn opposed to Saturn (disadvantage of mistakes)
6. VERY TELLING! Transit Saturn in a perfect Inconjunction with
progressed ruler 1 Mercury! (Limitations again!) That shows the event could
not be nice:) and it is confirming the natal position of ruler 1!
7. Transit Pluto inconjunct the progressed Sun: a challenge or a
problem forcing you to make unwanted changes
8. In her solar return chart the MC is in the 8th degree of Libra and that
is conjunct her natal Moon: changes!
9. In her solar return chart Saturn is on the descendant: departure,
divorce.
10. T Pluto sesquisquare (135d) (135d) primary Saturn in a narrow
orb.
There are 3 indications for changes, 4 times we see restrictions (Saturn) and
3 times problems (Pluto): so that day there was a very (Pluto) hard (Saturn)
change.
CONCLUSION
This is the chart of a restricted and limited person. We can see that by ruler 1
retrogading AND afflicted by Saturn. She has intense desires (Venus and
Pluto) and a strategic mind (Mercury-Saturn-Pluto). She also has a
reputation of an idealistic person (Neptune on MC) and looks younger than
she is (no grey hair at all at age 44 and given her circumstances: Gemini
ascendant). She used to be loved (Venus conjunct Jupiter) and she was
creative (a lot of quintiles). She uses force if needed (Mars and Pluto in MR
and Mars in Scorpio). And she was not exactly in the circumstances to NOT
use force.
She was poor all of her life, lost most of her children, had an alcoholic father
(Neptune on the MC?) and often she did not have a home because her
parents did not pay the rent and were kicked out of the house. She had a
very rough and hard life and she had Moon in Libra, Venus in Libra conjunct
Jupiter on the midpoint Ascendant/MC: she must have longed for a pleasant
family environment and a well decorated house and maybe was saving for
old age (they are all 3 in the 4th house of old age). And then you see what
happened to her: hard labour! Saturn is in the 6th and squaring her ruler 1.
More over: Saturn is semi square Jupiter and therefore also on the
Ascendant/MC midpoint.
MY IDEA...
I think this chart is illustrative for the fact that historical period, class, gender
and social environment are most important. Had she lived in today’s
conditions and had she been given opportunities...she might have been
working in politics, taking care of the soft issues (health and care or
supporting poor nations). Although she would still have found many
restrictions in her life keeping her away from pleasure, perhaps. She never
had pleasures at all now. But many women of her class and time had such
lives and did not start killing their families for money.
So it is the mixture of character (a desire for comfort and joy), experiences
(awful background, children dying, a trauma perhaps) circumstances
(poverty, opportunity for buying arsenic and no control after death) and time
(bad situation, many people dying) that made her do it and that allowed her
to do it.
Marga Bervoets
Astromarkt
June 2007
PS, now that her chart is being studied (by me) Chiron is exactly conjunct her natal MC.
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