Funeral Chart of Angela Addeo

I buried my mother this past Saturday morning, and while it is a transformational time tinged with sadness, it has also been one of extraordinary spiritual fulfillment. I truly feel blessed to have had an opportunity to help her transition in a loving, caring, and tender way. She died with great dignity, and it was exceptionally good for my soul to be a major part of the process. It was an honor to know my mom, in all her many faces; good, bad, and indifferent, although there was not much indifference in her. I feel deeply that a contract with her has been fulfilled.  

Though there was much love in her, she was an extremely infuriating woman who often did things the hard way and in true Aries fashion tended to attack life with fierce determination which was sometimes good and sometimes not so good. Like all of us, her strengths were also her weaknesses. She was abundantly yang in energy being an Aries, with a Gemini Moon, Libra rising with Venus in Aries and Saturn in Aquarius. Her yin planets were Mars, Jupiter and Neptune in Virgo and a debilitated Mercury in Pisces square a Gemini Moon that caused lots of confusion and mental sloppiness but was also in mutual reception with Jupiter, so she often had a unique way of forming opinions and making herself understood. She possessed some particularly good intuitions.
 
Mars in Virgo, ruling the Aries planets, had a way of going on the attack in an extremely critical and controlling way. She possessed a blind rage that bordered on obsessive compulsive behavior, but it also helped her to be a woman of tremendous service to others. She would fight tirelessly and do anything for those she loved. She loved to work and was an exceptional baker.  There were many extremes to her personality and yet at the end what remains is the love. Angela was a mass of contradictions, as are most of us, but it was a life well lived and she truly did her best even when missing the mark on many occasions.   

I will write a longer article about the astrology of her death in the coming months where I will chronicle the recent past starting with her Solar Return on April 1, 2023 and ending with her death on September 15, 2023. I will examine her end of life through an astrological lens using techniques such as transits, progressions, solar return, lunar returns, annual profections, death charts and some other esoteric techniques.  In the meantime, this shorter analysis of the funeral chart I hope will enlighten students, professionals, and layperson alike about astrology. Important life challenges are educational and with astrology we have the blessing of placing an event in space and time and interpreting its deeper for esoteric meaning.  

My mom was born on April 1, 1933 at 7:01 pm in NYC. The Funeral Mass chart of my mother. 9/23/2023, 10:00 am, Katonah, NY. I use both whole sign houses and equal houses. I adhere to ancient rulerships, not modern ones, which means that important as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are, they do not rule signs and houses. An event chart should be very descriptive of the event taking place so let us examine it to see what it reveals:  

Scorpio Rises: The rising sign describes the event. A death sign ascending and this is the chart of a funeral mass. It does not get more literal than that! The ruler, Mars is placed in the 12th house. You can interpret that as the fight for life is over. This is a house that is caught between two worlds, straddling heaven, and earth - the physical and the spiritual as her body makes that monumental struggle to return to the cosmic womb. Ceres rising which also describes the event as having to do with a mother figure, caretaker, and nurturer.  

The Sun is on the world axis at zero degrees Libra in the 11th/12th houses. My Mom had Libra rising. The 11th house represents her friends. She had an enormous number of friends and many, many people came out to show their respect and love and give love back to her. I discussed the 12th house nature above but with the Sun here there is an extinguishing of light as she seeks to return to the eternal creator. Libra is the sign of balance and harmony and something about her reputation is being equalized as the Sun rules the 10th. I would like to think her spirit has finally found some equilibrium and the opposition to Neptune colors the situation with sacrifice and surrender as she evaporates from her earthly goals.
 
The ruler of the Libra Sun is Venus in Leo in mutual reception and tightly conjunct Juno and the MC. My mother had a very public image and reputation as a wife, partner, great beauty, generous with her time and money and a woman who enjoyed a good party! She was an extremely dramatic woman which is why I have such a fascination with Joan Crawford and all those feisty, gritty independent women of Hollywood's golden age. My mother was like a movie star! She also held a great deal of rage within her as would be symbolic of Venus conjunct Juno. Much of her reputation rested on all these Venus/Juno - colored by Leo attributes and playing the role of scorned and embittered wife. A big part of her reputation rested on a particularly brutal divorce with my father. The more rageful aspects of that mythology was extremely evident.  

She did things in a big, dramatic way and this was a big dramatic farewell – the celebration of a much beloved matriarch.  There was a huge repast after the funeral and party-like celebration. Jupiter in Taurus overcomes Venus, is squared and disposited by it. This all contributes and adds to the love, value, money and largesse of the entire affair. Venus square Uranus was the unexpected last-minute cancellation of a few dear loved ones who suddenly were unable to attend. The eulogies and homily celebrated my mother's reputation as an independent woman that lived in her own, unique way.  

Mercury dignified in Virgo well past its retrograde and in the 11th house marks the rituals, rules, and public protocol as well as the social nature of the occasion attended by many friends. 

The Moon is in Capricorn in the third where she rejoices. Since Luna finds her joy here the symbology is incredibly beautiful to me as she is an old, wise woman (Capricorn) that has stood the test of time. At the time of burial, the Moon is in the house of the Goddess. She is co-present with Pluto, so this is a mature woman of great power. It is disposited by Saturn in Pisces in the 4th which marks the end of her time. Saturn is the limits, in the last sign of the zodiac, the end of pain and suffering and in the 4th house of the womb to the tomb. You can also read Saturn in the 5th house which would bring in the subject of her children and all the sacrifices they made to end the pain and suffering of their mother. My mother had four sons and many grandchildren that were constantly in attendance to her end-of-life needs for the last three years and especially the last four months. They played a large role in her life and the funeral service. 

Also noteworthy about the Mercury and Venus placements is that both have just finished their long recent retrogrades which occurred at the height of my mother's illness. They are now direct in motion and soon to conclude their second shadow phase bringing closure to this final chapter.  

The earth grand trine between travel planets Mercury and Jupiter with the Moon represents an easily facilitated last journey of the body from its earthly vessel (the moon) to its final destination.  
 
Lastly there is a very tight trine aspect between Chiron and Venus, Juno and the MC. I would like to read that as a healing energy.  Chiron also opposes Mars and conjuncts the North Node which is lovely as her destiny has been met in terms of healing chronic wounds. The Venus/Sun mutual reception translates her life and image back to the creator.  

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