Edward Gein is a famous psycho killer. More than his killings, his outrageous fascination with cemeteries, corpses and his shocking use of bodies, skulls and skin has to be confirmed by each and every planet in his birth chart. One, two or three "factors" won't do justice to the magnitude of injustice that he inflicted to the dead.
Technical constraints for Jyotish
In this article, I don't wish to do story telling with astrological reasons like many do when they know about the life of the native. I am not going to draw any conclusion based on such calculations that are highly time sensitive and require 1-2 minutes of accuracy in birth time e.g. Sashtiamsa which is 60th division of a sign popularly called D60. Rising sashtiamsa changes every 2 minutes so I am not going to use it here. I have also not used the rising navamsa i.e. the rising degree falling at which ninth part of the ascendant sign but I am free to use the navamsa (D9), dreshkan (D3) or sashtiamsa (D60) placement of planets because those do not change so fast, Moon being fastest changes one navamsa roughly every 6 hours, for example. Many new Jyotish evangelists in their slavery to a specific brand of Indian astrology might say we could do BTR (Birth Time Rectification). My reply to them is, pls do and enlighten all. I don't do BTR without prashna that reaches me either directly from the native or indirectly through only one intermediary on native's behalf who communicates to me. I have used equal house and equal sidereal signs method of dividing signs and houses in the zodiac, which is the common practice in Jyotish. Lastly, I have not used day light savings considering the timezone history of Ed Gein's place of birth.
Ed Gein's Moon - mind and mother
All indicators of mother are dominated almost exclusively by Saturn, north node Rahu and Mars. 4th house from ascendant, 4th house from Moon and Moon herself is aspected by Saturn. His Saturn is dispositor of Ketu, a planet of extremes thereby Saturn's aspect carry Ketu's extremism wrapped under Saturnine dogma to Moon. His Moon is debilitated in parivartan yoga (sign exchange) with debilitated Mars in Cancer. This exchange between debilitated Mars and Moon, when not aspected by Jupiter steals the maternal softness from native's mother and makes her emotionally highly combative filled with distrust and bitterness for people. This is worsened by retrograde Saturn and Rahu's aspects on Moon. Remember Rahu aspects Moon when it's placed in Moon's sign Cancer and hence it's influence on Moon is extraordinary.
It's widely known that Rahu's direct influence on Moon makes one "see" beyond the physical and builds vivid imagination. It connects the mind to subtle frequencies that most people can't feel in objective reality. This could be creatively positive or depressingly negative for Moon depending upon which other planet(s) aspects or influences Moon. What do we expect Saturn's aspect on Moon to do here? It's easy to see which way his Moon's imagination swings which is to the limited, dogmatic and negative side.
While we must keep in mind his Mars and Rahu both occupy Moon's sign Cancer, we must also notice that Sun squares Moon which in Jyotish is considered 75% strong aspect called tripad drushti. The luminaries at sqaure from each other is always more conducive to connect conscious mind to the subtle energies e.g. we see this during eclipses.
As Moon represents individual character of one's mother, all the above highlight her mother's nature. His 4th house lord Sun is in own sign Leo, making 4th house and Sun both strong. That means - his mother lived in a state of self righteousness, made own rules and ensured they were complied with. His mother with all her above characteristics and vulnerabilities played a very important role all his life.
The above might have manifested in many ways in her life including the troubles from Ed's alcoholic and abusive father, the 9th lord Saturn. It's obvious that the unhappy dynamics between his mother and father set the psychological tone from early childhood right on his 4/10 axis.
Mother's influence in childhood and later
A modified version of this emotional make-up of his mother gets transferred to the native's psyche because Moon is mother as well own emotional mind. It's common sense that it's always the mother (or someone playing her care taking role) who plays key role in shaping the emotional makeup during formation years. It's no coincidence therefore that 4th house and Moon are associated with thought, feeling and inner psyche.
When there's no planet on either side of Moon, it's an emotional isolation combination called Kemadruma yoga. He indeed felt completely isolated and abandoned after his mother's death and that never changed all his life. Rahu's trinal aspect on Moon made Ed Gein obsessive about his view of the world. Remember, Rahu and Mars are placed in 3rd house of dare, free will and arm/hand. Obviously, 3rd and 11th houses of right and left hand respectively are critical houses for anything physically performed by hand and own will including possibly violence.
At this point, it's appropriate to mention about a specific Jyotish yoga that is about jad-buddhi i.e. unintelligent, slow and narrow mind. I am not a big fan of varbatim application of yogas because it's a naive and superficial exercise without proper context. Now that we have built a rock solid foundation, let's see what Jyotish classic Jataka Parijat chap 6 verse 4 says:
If Saturn, Sun and Moon, all three planets are in quadrant houses, then the native suffers with jad-buddhi i.e. mental affliction.
We have already dissected the reasons of the same in above paragraphs hence this yoga perfectly applies in the chart. His mind was fixated, stuck, inflexible, narrow and hence unintelligent in thinking which is what the word jad-buddhi means.
Taking this logically forward, Mercury is the planet of cognitive intelligence and power of reasoning so it's always useful to see the 5th house from Mercury to see what drives one's intelligence. His severely afflicted Moon is placed at 5th from Mercury and that pretty much seals the deal in confirming what/who drove his intelligence.
Critical 3/9 axis
The nodes Rahu-Ketu in 3/9 axis of will and belief system with Mars in 3rd house make it potentially fanatic and fatalistic. Let me explain. When we say "belief system", it's not just religious belief or atheism. Whatever is most prominent and prevailing belief of the native, be it religious, economic or social or interpersonal idea - everything is influenced by the planet(s) aspecting or placed in 9th house. Will and determination (3rd house) and strong belief (9th house) complement each other. The old adage "Fortune favours the brave" is another representation of the same fact about human behaviour as bravery (3rd house) complements fortune (9th house).
Ed fanatically BELIEVED in his mother's religious, moral and social teaching who seemed to believe devils exist everywhere. Women, according to his mother's belief were instruments of devil who used alcohol, seduction etc to have their way. This is the backdrop of his belief system. Does it show he would have ACTED upon it? There are many fanatic people in social media but they mostly don't act upon it beyond firing a few digital cannons. How about Ed Gein? What made him act? Once we understand this, we will look into some of his specific actions including the shocking "dark" side.
A closer look at Ed Gein's actions
In worldly life none, I repeat no one acts without Moon's approval. Thoughts generate feelings which propel our mind to take action. That is the reason Moon is so important to see worldly matters in Indian astrology. Life, as experienced in mind and heart is shown by Moon. Ed Gein's Moon is in 7th house. This placement of Moon reinforces all the details we studied about 3/9 axis because it falls on the same axis from Moon as it does from ascendant. Now, his 9th house belief system powered his emotional strength and will (3rd from Moon) to take action.
His life experiences configured the dare, obsession and violence of Rahu+Mars to his belief system as it is 9th house from Moon. His Mercury i.e. sense of reason is completely under control of Rahu+Mars and aid their energies. Now you have a man ready to dare and act violently on his concocted and dogmatic belief. No wonder his functional mother i.e. 4th lord Sun and significator Moon reinforced her teachings through his life experiences.
As we can clearly see, his crimes were not remotely related to crime of passion. He had much higher moral justification to his actions which he thought were about fighting the devil.
The Mer-Mars-Rahu conjunction is extremely powerful given the fact it's in 3rd house of will, fearlessness and dare wherein Mercury the intelligence is hemmed between two strong malefics Mars and Rahu thereby completely behaving like them, being highly impressionable planet. This, coupled with the fact that eight out of his nine core planets in jyotish have gone to the nakshatras of Mercury, Rahu and Ketu start amplifying the fatalistic vibrations in the chart. More on nakshtras later in this article.
Before we proceed further, it's important to make a passing reference to another fact - Out of his 9 planets and ascendant degree, only Saturn is in the Hora (half sign i.e. 15 degree) of Moon rest all 8 planets and rising degree are in Sun's Hora. To those unaware of the meaning of Hora, when we divide a sign in two halves, the first half in even signs are in Sun's hora and second half goes to Moon's hora. It's vice-versa in even signs. All the planets except Saturn are in Sun's hora means they are configured more to Sun's "urga" or harsh energy than calmness of Moon's.
Mercury, the significator of skin is afflicted by Mars and Rahu who are placed in nakshatra of Mercury, Ashlesha. Mars and Rahu are in Jeev navamsa (out of Dhatu-mool-jeev trio loosely meaning inorganic-organic-living) within their respective dreshkan (decante) further strengthening the HUMAN SKIN signification of Mercury in his chart. Ed Gein told the investigators that he skinned his victims to make his dress, furniture, utensils and decorate his mother's bed to get into the skin of his (dead) mother.
Moral authority of 2/8 axis and the dead
Let's focus on 2/8 axis a bit. 11th house is the house of death for people in public (being 8th from 4th house, which is about our connections with general public). 4th house from 11th is 2nd house which is where in earthy plane the "dead" live i.e. graveyard. That's why 2/8 axis reflects graveyards. Jupiter is significator of belief and dharma i.e. value system. Jupiter is lord of 8th house and 11th houses being placed in 2nd house gets associated with 2/8 axis, as it aspects own 8th house as well as 9th lord Saturn. Jupiter's placement in dual sign Gemini is ideal for "junction" energies, the crossovers between two opposites including physical and non physical or right and wrong. Debilitation of Jupiter in navamsa (D9) in the sign Capricorn seriously dent his motivation to be fair to mankind (and womankind) at large.
It's placement in Ardra nakshatra makes Jupiter the perfect moral judge to punish like Ardra nakshatra's presiding lord Rudra deemed fit. It also served to vent out his anger much like Rudra's violent expression. Strong and inflexible Saturn is placed at 9th from Jupiter, always a flashpoint to see one's wisdom, benevolence, compassion and value system. Not to forget Saturn is his 9th lord anyway. So Saturn at 9th from Jupiter reinforced his inflexible, dogmatic, cold blooded "value system". We already saw how his Saturn influences all factors of 4th house emotions and feelings which are 4th from ascendant, 4th from Moon as well as Moon herself. Do the words isolated, lonely, depressed resonate with every aspect of his psyche better? I bet.
On one hand his retro Saturn's prominence in chart kept on squeezing him to isolation with increasing sense of being unfairly treated by the world, on the other hand 8th lord Jupiter inspired him to take extraordinary action to act against the wrong doers.
Cruelly Creative
Let's not ignore his debilitated Venus in creative 5th house in the creative Chitra nakshatra that made him use the corpse skin for musical instruments, upholstery for his furniture or lamp shades which is ironically "creative" but his instruments were not paintbrush or pen but metals, devices, sharp objects that he held in his 3rd house hand with Rahu+Mars placed there. He was a handyman by profession so it came in handy for him.
His Sun in 4th house in Magha nakshatra that relates to dead ancestors and the "throne", are we any surprised that he converted his mother's room as a shrine for his dead mother? He designed his own "throne" i.e. chair with the skin of the dead. He was doing all this in his home, the 4th house. He was doing this to "connect" with his dead mother in 4th house. The apparent dark side of Moon is where the energies of ancestors live. Magha nakshatra that's related to all of these, where his 4th lord Sun is placed in 4th house connects his soul (Sun) with his mother's.
Staying with the "dark" side of Gein's chart, where's the underground perspective of cemetery showing? I read that he dug up the cemeteries in the city neighbourhood. The Ashlesha nakshatra where his deadly Mars+Mer+Rahu is placed is another hidden, sharp and dark energy whose presiding lord Naga rules the underworld of serpents, chemicals and venom. Rahu deals with the "invisible" and imperceptible whereas Mercury is changeover/crossover planet, in this case, between above and below the surface, Mars offcource supports sharp objects and is also significator of land and all this is happening in 3rd house of city neighbourhood. In fact Rahu reinforces this "invisible" and "beyond life" signification even in Sagittarius navamsa which maps to 8th house sign called nidhanamsa i.e. navamsa of "death". His grasping power of "healing" concepts and human anatomy was believed to be extraordinary and his Ashlesha nakshatra placement of these three planets complemented this aspect also, but the core was Saturn which we will look into next.
His Saturn is retrograde. In Jyotish text, retro malefics (Mars and Saturn) are taken to be potentially highly malefic even if lord of a benefic house. Retrograde Saturn can create dramatic changes in life which could be great for career/money but they always bring some personal suffering or separation. Saturn is his 9th lord and death of his father triggered the turn of his life events which had Saturnine signature all around.
Retro Saturn, placed in 10th house of karma in this birth is configured with Shatabhisha nakshatra whose presiding lord is Varuna, the lord of night, dark energy, hidden, mystic "healing". His ghastly inclination to act in the domain of human anatomy came from his belief system but the "skills" came from Saturn's placement in Shatabhisha nakshatra. A popular name for Shatabhisha nakshatra is "100 healers" so his Saturn made him perform the karma of Doctor Death, literally.
No discussion on nakshatras is complete without Moon's nakshatra because that is the most important nakshatra as they have a special connection with Moon. Moon is placed in Jyeshtha nakshatra whose presiding lord is Indra who is protector of good forces from demons and hence the natives with Moon in this nakshatra one way or the other wear the hat of "protector" in some sense.
He operated from the sense of acting against the devil and demons which is where his journey to psycho killer started from. This is another energy that's very secretive as natives of this nakshatra have their eyes or awareness everywhere. It's very well suited nakshatra for acting in the sly.
If we divide the 12 houses in visible and invisible halves, we can see that his Rahu+Mars+Mer yoga is in 3rd house of darkest hour of the night, an ideal time to dig cemeteries one would imagine. His Moon is in 7th house which is around dusk, the changeover between day and night. I am assuming he mostly worked on his "creative" pursuits meaning doing the upsholstery of furnitures etc at late night hours till midnight or in the morning till pre-lunch time because his Venus is placed on 5/11 axis.
I have seen Sun-Saturn opposition on 4/10 axis invariably shows a strong abnormality in early life that permanently shapes one's psychology that keeps resonating it's public impact being two critical quadrant houses. Needless to say, father's nature plays a catalyst here. Pablo Picasso's sidereal chart also has this Sun - Saturn opposition on 4/10 axis, for which I did a separate article few years ago. In Ed Gein's chart, these two planets connected with "dark energies" and made the bone and bone structures in form of human skulls manifest in physical form in his karma.
A word about brother
His elder brother Henry, is believed to have been opposing their mother's weird and negative teachings and it's widely assumed that Ed killed his brother in the woods. Looking at his vedic chart, first of all it looks likely that basic nature of his brother and mother were not compatible and they were at loggerheads with each other as Moon the mother and Jupiter, the elder brother are at 6/8 from each other.
Elder sibling is seen from 11th house and it's significator (called karaka) is Jupiter who happens to be lord of 11th house in Ed Gein's chart. The death of elder sibling is seen by 8th from 11th house i.e. 6th house, whose lord Venus aspects his 11th house. But for Taurus ascendant charts, Venus represents self as well as 6th house. So his role in brother's death can't be ruled out as Venus aspects his 11th house. Taking closer look, his Mars from 3rd house aspects 6th house, which signifies elder brother's longevity. Mars influenced Rahu aspects his 11th house of elder sibling. Both Rahu+Mars in 3rd house bring his will and hands in focus in the context of brother's life and longevity which confirms his role. Similar combinations are present in historical Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's sidereal chart who killed all his siblings for the throne.
Sudden death of brother is further highlighted by South node Ketu's placement at 8th from significator (and 11th lord) Jupiter. Not only Ketu is placed at 8th from Jupiter but it is also at 64th navamsa therefrom which is highly fatalistic placement for any malefic planet. This house, 8th from Jupiter has aspect from Mars as well. Fiery Mars touches all indicators of elder sibling's death ie 8th from 11th house and 8th from Jupiter strongly suggesting involvement of fire in brother's death. Let's keep in mind Ketu amplifies the fire element of Mars at 8th from Jupiter. This confirms violent and sudden death of his brother Henry.
Women victims
Both the female planets i.e. Moon and Venus are in their signs of debilitation. and not aspected by any benefic. Gein's Moon we have already discussed but his debilitated Venus is 3rd from Mars in 5th house of passion not an ideal placement considering his negative and potentially forceful passion for women.
Moon's debilitation has another complication which relates to a classical aphorism that says, if there's a debilitated planet in a house (moon in 7th) and the sign lord of that house (Mars) is also debilitated, then the said house (7th house) suffers a lot. His sexuality was suppressed as a result of serious affliction of all indicators of 7th house further deteriorated by aspects by Saturn and Mars influenced Rahu. As a result, he consumed porn but didn't have any real woman in life. His awkward sexuality must have played a vital role in his actions on women and their corpses.
In fact the woman for whose murder he was convicted owned a bar, a place where alcohol was served. Such places and women, according to his mother's teachings were devil's workshop.
Overview of time period of main events
Ed lost his father in Sun's dasha in 1940 and mother in debilitated Moon's dasha in 1945. His Moon dasha operated from 1943 to 1953 - the most dramatic period of his life - from brother's death in 1944 to mother's in 1945, thereafter his complete isolation, his killings and digging of cemeteries, etc. all happened in that period because Moon's sign Cancer is host to that deadly combination of Mars+Rahu+Mer in 3rd house, Moon being placed in Mercury's Jyeshtha nakshatra and sign exchange with Mars, thereby configuring Moon with this deadly trio in predictive domain. 4th lord Sun is also placed in Moon's navamsa sign (D9) hence his mind was ready for dramatic actions.
What followed Moon's dasha post 1953 was Mars dasha for next 7 years. I assume he did more killings and violence in first half of Mars dasha because other than Moon, there's no planet in Mars's signs in rashi or navamsa (D9) so Mars in 3rd house had a free run in it's dasha and Ed decided to take matters in own hands, literally. He was arrested in Mars dasha eventually in 1957, as Mars is lord of 12th house of prison and conjuct Rahu, the significator of prison, both placed in Ashlesha nakshatra of being away from public view.
In conclusion, there is a well known yoga called panch mahapurusha yoga (a planetary combination for great success and achievements in life) in the chart in the form of Sasha yoga that applies when Saturn occupies any quadrant house in it's sign of exaltation or own sign. Saturn is also a functional benefic for his Taurus ascendant chart being lord of 9th and 10th houses. A Taurus ascendant native with this panch mahapurusha (Sasha) yoga was meant to achieve something. I leave it to the wisdom of readers to decide whether we can call his well known status as psycho killer and cemetery robber any achievement that made him so famous or infamous as The Butcher of Plainfield.
Author : Partho Banerjee
