Roger Ebert – An Astro-obituary

(CHICAGO) — Roger Ebert, the most famous and most popular film reviewer of his time who became the first journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for movie criticism and, on his long-running TV program, wielded the nation’s most influential thumb, died Thursday. He was 70.Ebert, who had been a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, died early Thursday afternoon at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, his office said. He had announced on his blog Wednesday that he was undergoing radiation treatment after a recurrence of cancer.

Roger Ebert (born 18 Jun 1942; Urbana;Il) had a natal Gemini-Virgo square (Sun – Neptune).  CEO Carter [1] writing about this square said it “produces discontent, due to frustration of the higher Element Air by the lower Earth, and this may manifest as someone hard to please and given to bitter feelings and remarks (a critic?). The square generates high mental activity and intelligence of no mean order”.

Here is a more direct reference to Virgo as a critic.

“Virgo is the critic of the zodiac. It’s because of that discerning eye, that Mercurial analysis, that earthy, practical logic”.

http://bit.ly/nT6ddX

With Neptune aspecting his Sun, it is not difficult to see Ebert’s connection to movies. Neptune being the master of illusion and illumination has been associated with  movies and the performing arts – music, dance and drama  all of which depend on the use of illusion to create works that move us as a collective at the depths of emotion and feeling.

The directed Neptune[4sa40] -Sun[4vi21]  square  forms a T with his radix Saturn (5ge14). That this combination is associated with cancer can be seen from the reference below.

Saturn/Neptune/Pisces combinations create situations of chronic conditions and long term illnesses, usually in the respiratory systems, especially in the lungs, such as bronchitis, tuberculosis, lung cancer, asthma, etc.  These become acute when aspecting one of the personal points in the horoscope - Sun, Moon, Mercury, ASC, MC. http://bear-star.com/article%20-%20Saturn-Neptune.htm

But why did the death occur now? The primary factor that is triggering Ebert’s mutable 4 degree Neptune-Sun-Saturn directed T-square is the upcoming  24 May lunar eclipse at 4sa08.  Eclipses are known to be connected with the death of eminent personalities. It is also known that they become active at least three months prior to their actual occurrence. Therefore, a secondary factor  came as  a  trigger from  the last quarter moon [LQ] on 2 April. Notice that the horizon axis [4sa-ge] of the LQ moon is plum on Ebert’s T-square with Neptune [4pi] strongly aspecting! 

The chart of the eclipse at Chicago has one of the luminaries – the Sun -  in the 5^th house. Amongst other things, this house is associated with movies and theatres and by implication people connected with them. The second luminary – the Moon – is in  the 11^th house, a house that we associate with counsellors and advisers. Finally, Neptune  square the eclipse axis leaves little doubt that it could refer to someone from the movie world.  So wouldn’t  a film critic fit the bill?

[1] Essays on the Foundations of Astrology; C.E.O. Carter (p. 82-83)

Note:

Mr . Ebert was teased for years about his weight, but the jokes stopped abruptly when he lost portions of his jaw and the ability to speak, eat and drink after cancer surgeries in 2006. When post-surgical complications related to thyroid cancer left him unable to speak from 2006 on, he gained a sizable following online.

The stars in the sector between 26 to 27 Gemini (Ebert’s Sun 26ge48)  are as  follows:

At 26ge44 there is lambda Columbae in the Dove’s neck and at 26ge40 is omicron Aurigae in the Charioteer’s neck.  His radix Venus [19ta14]  and upcoming eclipse [19ta30] of 10 May 2013 is conjunct kappa Ceti [17ta30] in the Sea Monster’s jaw. In 2006 transit Pluto [26sa] was opposite his radix Sun [26ge]  - a transit well known for creating serious life threatening  health issues.