The astrology of Andreas Lubitz, suicide co-pilot

Recent news reports reveal that the copilot in the recent crash of a Germanwings airliner had locked the pilot out of the cockpit and steered the plane into a mountain, killing himself and 149 other people, leaving the rest of humanity mystified.  Those who knew him described him as friendly, polite, quiet – something we often hear in these situations.

A look at the astrological chart of an individual can often provide an explanation for why someone behaves in a certain way.  It should never be taken as an excuse.  There are plenty of people with the same planetary configurations that this gentleman had who would never have flown a plane full of passengers into the Alps.  I present this analysis in order to educate about the workings of the planets – not to excuse the actions of the copilot.

Andreas Lubitz (born December 18, 1987, time and place unknown) has several difficult and painful combinations of planets in his chart.  Born with the Sun in Sagittarius, typically a freedom-loving expansive personality, his Sun was flanked by Saturn (restriction) and Uranus (rebellion) and opposed by Chiron (wounding and healing).  The stressful opposition (180 degree aspect) of Chiron to the Saturn/Sun/Uranus combination shows an individual who has come into this life with a predisposition towards emotional sensitivity and probably with a great deal of psychological wounding.

Strong Chiron contacts such as this often result in depression because one must go THROUGH the wounds in order to heal and ultimately become free of the emotional pain.  Some personality types are better suited to the kind of introspection and psychological work required to heal Chironic wounds.  Sagittarius does not care for that kind of emotional work and often responds by running away from it.

The Sagittarius stellium forms an exact square aspect to the North and South Node in the chart, the points that reveal our soul’s passage from past (South Node) to future (North Node), and a Grand Cross is formed when Chiron is included.  This suggests that in Lubitz’s evolutionary journey this was a pivotal lifetime to resolve major issues from the past.

However, the Scorpio stellium in the chart embraces one’s wounds with a mad passion and in an ideal situation will fearlessly dive into the psychological wasteland in order to dredge up these old wounds so that they can be revealed and ultimately healed.  His Moon was in Scorpio, revealing his passionate nature, and the Moon was aligned with both Mars and Pluto, the traditional (Mars) and modern (Pluto) rulers of Scorpio.  Mars/Pluto people often carry a great deal of anger and sometimes rage that can be difficult to express when it is hidden behind the Sagittarius veneer.  The Black Moon Lilith, a point that is associated with rage and relationship issues, is locked in a square to his Mars/Pluto and we will probably see a great deal of drama in his relationship history.

When you combine the deep grief of the Chiron alignments with the rage of Mars/Pluto, it is not hard to see where the impetus for such an act of brutal fury could arise.  Ideally someone with this kind of rage and anxious depression would seek help, and in fact we know that Lubitz did seek help. However, he disregarded the advice of psychiatrists to stay out of work despite a written excuse, and hid his illness from employers.  I suspected that this act of vengeance was planned and deliberate and news reports this morning revealed that he had told his girlfriend that he was planning “a heinous act that will be remembered forever.”

At the time of the crash the planet Saturn, which has been stationary for about a month, had been sitting right on Mars in the progressed chart.  This is a transit that can be enormously frustrating as Mars seeks action and Saturn puts the brakes on.  At the same time transiting Jupiter comes along bringing confidence and a tendency towards expansive acts, setting off the Mars/Pluto conjunction and triggering a firestorm of anger and rage.

As I said earlier, planetary configurations are NEVER an excuse for actions that destroy or harm others in any way.  Each of us always has a choice to take positive actions to improve our own lives and the lives of others.  But the astrological chart can provide insight into the inner workings of the mind that is otherwise unavailable.