Christine Chubbuck is, sadly, most known for committing suicide on live television. A local news station in Sarasota, Florida, where she worked for years reporting on human interest stories, was the scene of her dramatic finale. I’m fascinated by her for several reasons.

First off: full disclosure. Often times astrologers are told not to share anything too personal, as it might discredit their ability to remain objective in analysis. I think we cannot embark on any area of research without first having some kind of personal history. We research what we feel compelled to understand. That’s what makes us who we are.

I’ve lost quite a few friends to suicide throughout my life. I’m drawn to deep and intense people, as they are drawn to me. I’ll explain the astrological reasoning for that later.

I vaguely knew of Christine Chubbuck for many years. Her story is one of those stories that is mentioned casually but is rarely fleshed out due to the sensitive content. I think it’s important to talk about her and her struggle – particularly from an astrological perspective.

I watched the film “Christine” a few months ago, starring Rebecca Hall – an actress I really like. That must have been a really difficult role to play. I first heard of the film maybe a year ago but hadn’t worked up the courage to watch it. It’s captivating, by the way, albeit deeply sad.

Growing up in Ohio, Chubbuck attended an all girls high school in Shaker Heights. It was there that she formed “The Dateless Wonder Club” with a few other girls who never had dates on Saturday night.

Chubbuck was physically beautiful, but had a hard time socially. She attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio for one year, majoring in theater arts, before eventually earning a degree in Broadcasting from Boston University.

Astrologically, Chubbuck had quite a few challenging aspects. Born August 24, 1944 at 5:15 am in Cleveland, Ohio, Chubbuck had a Virgo stellium involving the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Lilith and Chiron. The Sun in Virgo at 1 degree remained in her 1st house, while the rest of the Virgo planets hovered around 16-27 degrees in her 2nd house.

As Virgo is one of the 4 mutable signs (along with Pisces, Gemini and Sagittarius), feeling heightened sensitivity to one’s environment is an obstacle course both emotionally and physically. Having that much Virgo in her chart gave her exceptional focus and a strong work ethic, but her soul was crying out for stability.

Stelliums that dominate one particular house force us to look at the opposite house in the chart. In this case, the house opposing the 2nd house is the 8th house.

The 8th house is the darkest, most intense of all the houses. Ruled by Scorpio, it represents where we have to dig the deepest; where we want to merge with others; where we share resources as well as sexual intensity, secrets and mysteries. Her natal 8th house is empty, which might explain why she was so fixated on her lack of dating and romance.

Chubbuck couldn’t seem to find intimacy in her life. She was driven in her career and in many ways threw herself into it, though even that was a source of frustration. She struggled with friendships too, but romantic intimacy eluded her entirely. She was a virgin for all of her 29 years of life.

With Chiron in her 2nd house, her deep wounding came from a lack of self-worth. The 2nd house is ruled by Taurus, so everything that is a physical, material and tangible representation of life is represented here. Feeling physically unworthy of love or feeling that love is conditional is where Chiron does its wounding in the 2nd house.

We also have to consider that the entire stretch of Pluto in Virgo from the late 1950’s until a few years before her death in the early 1970s must have been incredibly challenging, as it imploded nearly every one of her personal planets, as well as Chiron. This began during her critical teenage years. Also challenging was Uranus transiting Virgo and conjunct Pluto from 1965-68. I shudder at the amount of pressure she must have felt.

Her natal moon in Scorpio squared her Pluto in Leo by 8 degrees, which is a wide square, yet that further intensified the Scorpio energy she was already dealing with in the 8th house. With her moon in the 3rd house, ruling communication and siblings, and her Pluto in the 12th house, ruling the Piscean world of dreams, self-sacrifice, hidden illnesses and psychic sensitivity, we can see how she may have been deeply attuned to suffering.

She used to volunteer at Sarasota Memorial Hospital doing puppet shows for children with learning disabilities. She handmade these puppets and found a kind of childlike escapism that soothed her as she entertained the kids. Her ascendant, or rising sign, was in Leo at 12 degrees, which signifies someone who enjoys being on stage, or having a kind of regal demeanor.

Saturn square Neptune in a 5 degree orb is probably one of the more crucial aspects in regards to her relating to children. Saturn-Neptune hard aspects in the natal chart (conjunction, square and opposition) usually reveal a personality who has deeply sensitive issues with authority. Sometimes, it borders on extreme stress and paranoia.

Chubbuck really struggled with her boss at the local news network in Sarasota. He was very critical of her ideas and wasn’t interested in her advancement, as hard as she worked and as fervently as she pushed. She also had her South Node at 27 Capricorn, exactly trining her Mars.

With the SN in Capricorn in the 6th house, she was all about career and achievement, since the South Node reveals what we accomplished in a previous life, and the 6th house rules work and service. With her North Node then in Cancer in the 12th, she was asked in this life to understand the meaning of deep, nurturing relationships from the Piscean realm of dreams, imagination and a desire for spiritual oneness.

Neptune was technically in her 3rd house at 2 degrees Libra, which is fairly close to her Virgo stellium. Neptune creates haze and confusion in whatever house it touches, and the 3rd house was a big part of her job as a news reporter. Mars at 27 Virgo was the closest to Neptune within 5 degrees, which counts as a conjunction – further heightening her Mars energy.

Saturn at 7 degrees Cancer was in her 11th house of friendship and socializing, which put yet another strain on her ability to make close relationships. An 11th house Saturn can make someone drawn to finding friends who are serious, or to feel serious about friendships. An 11th house Saturn often points to having many acquaintances or being known in your community but struggling with trust issues in close relationships. Uranus was also in her 11th house, signifying instability in her friendships.

I could explain other aspects of her natal chart, but I’m now going to look now at the chart of her death. First, however, I’m going to look at how transiting Neptune was aspecting her chart in the last 4 years of her life.

In 1970, Chubbuck attempted suicide for the first time with a drug overdose. Neptune had ingressed into Sagittarius and was exactly squaring her Sun in Virgo at that time. If you’ve read my post about Neptune or have experienced this yourself, then you may understand how painful difficult Neptune transits can be.

Neptune in hard aspect, especially with the Sun, Moon or Ascendant, can make you feel like you have no reason to exist. Deeper than an existential crisis – it feels like the lines that demarcate your physical identity are literally evaporating. I experienced Neptune squaring my sun in 2002. One of the more painful years of my life. I felt…not like I wanted to die, but that I shouldn’t be alive. Confusion around identity is especially prominent with hard aspects between Neptune and the Sun.

Chubbuck rode it out for the next four years, but as she was finishing up her Saturn Return, the pressure was still too unbearable. She had her right ovary removed the year before her death and was told if she didn’t get pregnant in the next two years, she might never be able to conceive. A crush she had on a coworker didn’t pan out and her feelings of worthlessness overwhelmed her.

On July 15, 1974, Chubbuck shot herself in the head live on the local Sarasota news.

The Sun was at 22 degrees of Cancer, Moon around 23 degrees of Taurus, Mercury at 4 degrees Cancer, Venus at 22 Gemini, Mars at 22 Leo, Jupiter at 17 Pisces, Saturn at 10 Cancer, Uranus at 23 Libra, Neptune at 7 Sag, Pluto at 4 Libra, North Node at 18 Sagittarius, Lilith at 7 Aquarius and Chiron at 24 Aries.

Just the chart of that day alone had a lot of difficult aspects. The Sun was tightly squaring Uranus, encouraging erratic behavior; the Moon was tightly squaring Mars, creating tension between emotion and action; Mercury was exactly square Pluto, encouraging dramatic communication; Venus was squaring the North Node by 4 degrees, stressing love against life path; Jupiter was tightly squaring the North Node, exaggerating the rift between the present and one’s desire; Saturn was conjunct Mercury, making communication feel heavy; Saturn was widely square Pluto and Uranus was tightly opposing Chiron, driving home how serious, erratic and painful life can be.

I was looking up world events that happened on July 15, 1974, and the nation of Cyprus had a pretty significant piece of history. The Cypriot National Guard, who were led by the Greek Junta, overthrew the President of the Cypriot Republic, Archbishop Makarios III. There was a coup d’etat puppet government formed under Nikos Sampson. A battle ensued. 450 dead. 5 days later, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus.

Nixon was still President of the United States, but Gerald Ford was sworn in about a month later. The Time Magazine issued on that day discussed the Watergate Scandal, the death of Argentinian President Juan Domingo Peron, the foolish mistakes of the CIA, how Turkey had resumed planting Opium to the dismay of the U.S. and the creeping coup happening in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Chubbuck’s natal chart had transiting Jupiter tightly square her natal Venus, transiting Pluto conjunct her natal Neptune and square her natal Saturn, transiting Venus exactly square her natal Mercury and transiting Mercury conjunct her natal Saturn. Pluto on Neptune and Saturn is charged and unsettling. It erupts a kind of pressure from both the physical structure of the body and the formlessness of the subconscious mind.

I said I would elaborate on why I have experienced a lot of friends committing suicide in my 44 years of life. I was born with the North Node in Scorpio conjunct my Midheaven and Uranus, opposing my natal Sun, Jupiter and South Node in Taurus. Chubbuck also had her natal moon in Scorpio exactly opposed her Midheaven in Taurus. Taurus and Scorpio exist as opposites on the generative axis: Taurus representing life entering the early phase of existence through the mouth and throat, Scorpio completing the cycle with the sex organs, blood and colon.

Taurus and Scorpio illuminate the physical cycle of life and death on planet Earth. Those with significant Taurus or Scorpio placements in their natal charts (or heavy Pluto aspects), as well as dominant 2nd and 8th houses, often experience more death and/or darkness than any other sign pairing in the zodiac. This isn’t to say that no-one without significant Taurus-Scorpio/2nd-8th house/Pluto placements experiences darkness, but it’s not quite as accessible or intense.

The Pluto in Scorpio generation are a good example of this. Millennials (born between roughly 1983-1995) were born during the most intense Pluto transit possible. If Pluto rules Scorpio, just imagine. They bond, feel and hurt that much more intensely than other generations.

The gift of these placements is to teach the world to embrace the full spectrum of life. Rather than hide from our shadow selves, we are supposed to acknowledge our shadows and even embrace them. This is how we fully experience what it means to be human. Christine didn’t know how to incorporate her darkness into her whole being without feeling torn apart, but she did ultimately teach us about the depths of physical pain.  Had she found a way to see her pain as a gift she could transmute into something valuable, she might have been one of the greatest news reporters of the 20th century.

I hope I haven’t depressed anyone reading this. My intention is to go deep, as I have since childhood. Even when I make people uncomfortable. This post is meant to illuminate how death, or an attraction to death and darkness, is something we should talk about. Darkness can be demystified if we are able to reveal it as part of our journey. It’s why I’m drawn to astrology. Trying to understand personality, fate, joy, tragedy, passion and pain is what drives me.