Astrology & Places: The Winchester Mystery House in astrogeography
An opposition of the Sun with Uranus both square to Saturn: the paranoia arising if people do not follow the path of their own karmic liberation (represented by Uranus) deciding for financial security instead. The astrogeographic positions of the Winchester House: how to evade being traced by one`s own forces of spiritual development, the conversion of a spiritual path into the habitual use of practical magic, living in hell, the topic of ghosts in astrogeography, the refusal to heal the land and the origin of the negativity of the fire-arms producing industries in individual destiny.
The infamous Winchester Mystery House and the topic of ghosts in astrogeography. The house was built by Sarah Winchester the widow of William Winchester the manufacturer of the Winchester Rifle. According to some of the records Sarah Winchester bought the property following the advice of a psychic medium to continuously built a house for herself and the spirits of those killed by the Winchester Rifles from which her enormous wealth and income was derived. Construction work on the house was continuously carried out day and night for nearly fourty years. Mrs. Winchester is reported to have been talking to her dead husband and other spirits every night receiving their orders about how to continue the construction of the house.
For an astrological consideration of this story I want to examine the natal planetary constellations in Sara Winchester`s birth chart in relation to the astrogeographical constellation of the place.
“The Winchester Mystery House located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, California was the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. Located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. The mansion is renowned for its size, its architectural curiosities, and its lack of any master building plan. Ever since construction commenced in 1884, the property and mansion was claimed, including by Winchester herself, to be haunted by the ghosts of those killed with Winchester rifles. Under Winchester’s day-to-day guidance, its “from-the-ground-up” construction proceeded around the clock, by some accounts, without interruption, until her death on September 5, 1922, at which time work immediately ceased. Tabloids from the time claimed that some point after her husband’s death a Boston medium told her, while supposedly channeling her late husband, that she should leave her home in New Haven and travel West, where she must continuously build a home for herself and the spirits of people who had fallen victim to Winchester rifles. Winchester left New Haven and headed for California. In 1884 she purchased an unfinished farmhouse in the Santa Clara Valley and began building her mansion. Carpenters were hired and worked on the house day and night until it became a seven story mansion. She did not use an architect and added on to the building in a haphazard fashion, so the home contains numerous oddities such as doors and stairs that go nowhere, windows overlooking other rooms and stairs with odd-sizedrisers.” (from the wiki article)
Astrogeographical Position
Astrogeographical position of the Wichester House eastat for morphogenetic field level 3 which describes how the estate is embedded in the town of San Jose: the construction site of the Winchester Mystery House is located in the combination of the two autumn signs Scorpio and Sagittarius which both relate to the mental sphere.
Highly alert, defensive Scorpio the sign of trauma, pains, demons, fears, death, the underworld, bunkers, visualization imaging, projections is the indicator for the function of the Winchester house as a fortress built to protect Sarah Winchester against the spirits that she was haunted by.
Sagittarius the sign of style, design, ornamentation, travelling, searching for new experiences and aims and of escaping from being trapped in luxury is the indicator for the idea to permanently keep the construction work on a house going. For the aspect of Sagittarius in relation to continuously built houses and objects compare the “Palais Ideal”, Dr. Evermor’s “Forevertron”, Leonard Knight`s “Salvation Mountain”, William Ricketts Sanctuary.
Ferdinand Cheval spent 40 years of his life building his “Palais idéal” in Hauterives, France. As a postman he used to deliver the mail with his bicycle, collecting stones every day on countryside roads which he used for the construction of his unique house. Palais Ideal is located in the combination of fire sign Sagittarius the sign of hunting and finding and the most important indicator for focussing on style and design with earth sign Virgo the sign of protection of nature, parks and saving money. In the case of the Palais Ideal the sign combination is valid for morphogenetic field level 4 which describes the atmosphere of the building itself. The reflex to be examined here which is highly symptomatic of the sign of Sagitarius is the continuous decoration and ornamentation down to the smallest detail (until the arrow hits the target).
Sarah Winchester`s Sun – Uranus opposition can be compared to the Sun – Saturn opposition in Ferdinand Cheval`s chart.
Scorpio and Sagittarius in Relation to Ghosts
As the sign of the underworld Scorpio anyway is a natural resonator for burial places, graveyards or places that relate to death. And in it´s role as the sign of mental memories, trauma, death and revenge Scorpio is one of the 2 or 3 most plausible astrological indicators for ghosts. One reason why is because it stands for the impressions of traumatic experiences on our memory, This means that the remaining memories of such experiences could haunt places on or near earth even after the death of the people involved. In the psychological understanding of geomancy experiences that people have at places fill the memory of a place so that all memories positive or negative can be felt (perceived) at places for hundreds or thousands of years. Therefore the ideal of the healing of the land also includes the mental and emotional confrontation of karmic issues (or ghosts) at places in order to leave the information of the will to solve such issues at a place. This topic is really important in regard of Mrs Winchester´s liefelong plan and technique to confront the ghosts but with the plan to trick them. Instead of giving up her income from weapon production to heal her own memories along with the the land she decided to defend herself against the karmic memories and the attacks of such ghosts or spirits by building her fortress. For alternative concepts of dealing with such karmic issues the example of Alfred Nobel could be examined.
As the sign of travelling, searching for new perspectives and making up for lost opportunities in the past Sagittarius is no particularly positive astrogeographical indicator for the location of graveyards. As a fire sign it can be hghly positive for cremation grounds, but due to its impatience it does not stand for resting peacefully at places. In the natural hierarchy of the 12 zodiac signs Sagittarius is the sign that follows after Scorpio the sign of death. In the course of the yearly cycle of the Sun Sagittarius marks the darkest month of the year relating the sign to the cleansing fires and the purgatory. For this feature of Sagittarius ompare my text about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Sagittarius.
Scorpio and Sagittarius in relation to guns
The astrogeographical position of the Winchester House in Scorpio and Sagittarius indicates an intense relation of the place to the topics of guns as both signs are 2 of the 3 most important indicators for weapons. The third sign would be Aries the sign of warfare and fighting.
As the most important astrological indicator of mechanical engineering, metalworking, welding, and steel production Scorpio is a highly probable indicator for the topics of a gun factory and gun production.
Sagittarius the sign of the archer too has an intense relationship to the topics of guns as it is the sign of aiming, shooting and hunting.
Sara Winchester and the question whose ghosts she was busy dealing with
According to the Lois Rodden data bank Sarah Winchester was born on 9 September 1840 at New Haven CT.
on 9 September 1840, New Haven CT, USA calculated for sunrise and equal house system, data source
A sunrise birth chart puts the Sun into the position of the Ascendant thus showing the relationship of the planets to the Sun. It is useful for interpretation in case the exact birth moment is unknown.
Saturn in Sagittarius and Jupiter as the ruler of Saturn´s position in Scorpio the sign of the realms of the dead represent the resonators of the astrogeographical positions of the Winchester Mystery House in Sarah Winchester`s birth chart.
Birth constellations: the Sun has an extremely tense aspect through it`s opposition with Uranus the planet of self-finding, liberation and emancipation. This aspect is known for the tendency to expect threats, oppositions, questionings and accidental events that question personal, subjective emotionality and self-centered perception. It can be seen as a major aspect of paranoia and fear which is further stimulated through the Sun`s position in Virgo the sign of self-protection with the reflex for self-orientation through reacting onto dangers. The square of Saturn to both planets the Sun and Uranus indicates another intense potential for expecting limitations of one`s own decisions and free will from the outside. The astrogeographical coordinate of the Winchester Mystery House in Sagittarius describes for Mrs. Winchester´s plan to deal with the threat and confrontation of Uranus the planet of self-finding, reconnection with the spiritual plane and leaving the past behind by settling on Saturn which meant on the position of the half-sum between the Sun and Uranus in her birth chart.
In karmic as well as in psychology astrology all planets in a person´s natal chart represent immanent aspects of that person. From the point of view of the Sun which stands for the person itself planets in opposition or in square tend to be projected onto the outside world.
The resonance of the constellations in Oliver Winchester`s birth chart
Oliver Winchester was the largest stockholder of the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company which produced the Smith and Wesson revolvers and later bought the Smith & Wesson Revolver Company. The combination of the Sun, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune in Sagittarius and Uranus in SDcorpio reflects the intense resonance between the constellations in his birth chart and the astrogeographical topics of the Winchester Mystery House.
