Real Life Horror Shows

The Astrology of serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy

by Jeff Jawer

Challenging astrological patterns are common in the charts of murderers. Serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy had more than their share of planetary pathologies.

The twisted minds that produce horrible crimes can only be partially explained by astrology. There are mysteries of the human spirit that even this ancient art cannot fully fathom. Still, in the spooky spirit of Halloween, let’s see what the birth charts of two real life horror shows have to say. Please note that the challenging patterns that reflect their behavior do not have such dire consequences in the charts of the vast majority of people. These men, for whatever reasons, took the darkest roads possible. Thankfully, almost none of us will ever travel similar paths.

Jeffrey Dahmer, whose gruesome crimes included the murder and mutilation of at least 15 young men, was born on May 21, 1960 at 4:34 pm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was a Gemini with the Sun in the 8th House of Sex and Death -- two interests which were, unfortunately, closely linked in his life. His desires may have been twisted by potent Pluto’s 90-degree square to his Sun, an angle of tension and mistrust. His need to control others, a common theme of serial killers, was absolute. Once entering his lair, almost no one escaped alive.

For a less twisted soul, Pluto square the Sun in the 8th House could be a great healer, an agent of transformation who restores life rather than taking it away. Dahmer’s Moon, the planet of emotion, formed a close square to restraining Saturn, perhaps deadening his feelings to the horrors he inflicted on others. His Venus, the planet of relationships, was square unconventional Uranus, reinforcing his sense of being split off from others.

Ted Bundy was very different from Jeffrey Dahmer. He was a socially skilled college graduate whose victims were women, often college coeds. Bundy was born on November 24, 1946 at 10:35 pm in Burlington, Vermont with his Sun in fiery Sagittarius. The key to his pathological behavior appears to be the conjunction of potentially violent Mars with his Moon and Lunar South Node, all in Sagittarius. Uranus, the planet of estrangement, was opposite these three, reflecting his unstable childhood and violent streak. Venus in Scorpio was square Pluto, which often complicates relationships with an inbuilt sense of unworthiness. A close square between philosophical Jupiter and underworld ruling Pluto is another symbol of destruction in his chart.

Fortunately, the challenging patterns in these charts rarely produce these extreme pathologies. Even the most wounded among us usually finds elements of grace that lighten the extreme darkness of these individuals. For every murderer with a difficult Mars we can find millions of men and women who apply the warrior’s energies in constructive ways. Most of us have choices in how we respond to the complex circumstances of our lives and the shadows of our birth charts. These men, perhaps, lost the part of their humanity that made such choices possible.