Third Aphorism: Mars the Decimator

3. Mars cum fuerit dominus ascendentis in decimo praebet nato dignitatem atque potestatem quibus cum iniuria & crudelitate utetur & sic vere plus infortunium quam fortunium dicitur. [1494 edition]

"If Mars is the lord of the Ascendant (and is) in the tenth (house), it furnishes the native with dignity and power, which he manifests along with injury and cruelty, and this is truly described as more of a misfortune than an advantage."

This aphorism has its basis in the old Hellenistic doctrine of Decimation (epidekateia). A planet is said to be decimated by any planet posited in the 10th house away from it (counting clockwise around the Zodiac). This is because a planet in that position is configured by sinister square to the reference planet. Any square aspect is destructive, but the sinister square (a 90º aspect cast counterclockwise from the right) is especially so.  If you picture yourself standing at the center of a circular chart, the two planets will be at right angles to each other, with the planet on the right decimating the one on the left.

Our aphorism is concerned with a special case of this, where Mars is both the lord of the Ascendant and Mars itself decimates the Ascendant from the 10th house. For Mars to be lord of the Ascendant simply means that one of the two signs ruled by Mars (Aries and Scorpio) must be the rising sign. Using whole-sign houses, there are only two possible configurations that meet these conditions: if Aries is rising, then Mars must be in Capricorn (the sign of its exaltation); if Scorpio is rising, then Mars must be in Cancer (the sign of its depression). Obviously, Mars will be lord of the ascendant one-sixth of the time. However, configurations where Mars is also in the 10th house occur only one-seventy-second of the time. 

If we examine the Inception Chart for Beltrano's Parlour, we discover that although Aries is the rising sign (making Mars lord of the ascendant), Mars itself is in Gemini (the 3rd house), so this chart does not fulfill the conditions of the third aphorism.

At 9:17 AM on Friday, 28 February 1997, after taking phenobarbitol to calm their nerves, Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr. and Emil Matasareanu staged a spectacular takeover robbery of the Bank of America at 6600 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood. They left the building at 9:38 AM with over $300,000 in cash. In the course of the ensuing gun-battle, Phillips and Matasareanu, wielding fully-automatic rifles loaded with armor-piercing ammunition, discharged an estimated 1300 rounds.  The police were completely outgunned and actually had to obtain assault rifles from a nearby gun dealer.  Since Phillips and Matasareanu were wearing full body-armor, the police were unable to stop them. As Matasareanu slowly drove their white Chevy sedan down Archwood Street with all four tires punctured, Phillips walked alongside, engaging the police with an AK-47. The incident eventually ended in the deaths of both Phillips and Matasareanu, but only after 300 Los Angeles police officers had responded to a city-wide alert. Eleven police officers and five civilians were wounded during the hour-long standoff.

Emil Matasareanu was born 19 July 1966 in Rumania. I can find no record of his birth-time, but was intrigued by the possibility that the present aphorism might apply to his chart.  I find that Mars was in Cancer on 19 July 1966.  If we assume that Matasareanu was born with Aries rising (between about 10:30 and 11:30 p.m.), that would place Mars in the 4th house (the subterraneous angle); if he was born in the early afternoon (between about 1:10 and 3:40 p.m.) with Scorpio rising, Mars would have been in the 9th house.  So there's no way Matasareanu's natal chart could have matched the conditions of our aphorism. In fact, Matasareanu surrendered and died in police custody (this may be because his chart has Mars in Cancer, the sign of its depressio). After Matasareanu was incapacitated and disarmed, the police allowed him to bleed to death (he had been shot 29 times). This occasioned a lawsuit on behalf of his children, which ended in a hung jury; the lawsuit was later dropped after the city threatened a counter-suit for "malicious prosecution." But at least Matasareanu died cursing and reviling his captors.

I also examined the horoscope of his colleague, Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr. (born 20 September 1970, Denver). I find that if Phillips was born between about 7:00 and 8:15 in the evening, Aries was rising but Mars (in Virgo) would have been in the 6th house.  If he was born in the morning (between about 9:30 and noon), Scorpio was rising, but with Mars in the 11th house.  I should note, however, that if Placidean houses are used instead of "whole-sign houses," Mars occupied the 10th house (with Scorpio rising) from about 9:50 to 11:50 a.m. on the day of Phillips' birth.  If such was the case, then Phillips' chart does indeed fulfill the conditions of the third aphorism. Although Phillips was four years younger than Matasareanu, he clearly dominated the relationship. "You cannot imagine how manipulative my brother was," Phillips' half-brother later explained. "He tried to break your mind down and then build it up again so that you would become one of his crew." [Paul H. Robinson, Would You Convict? Seventeen Cases that Challenged the Law (New York: New York University Press, 1999), 10.] Unlike Matasareanu, Phillips fought to the end. After an injury to his hand rendered him incapable of reloading his AK-47, Phillips shot himself with a 9mm pistol, as a police bullet simultaneously severed his spine. It is interesting to note that Phillips was killed at 9:53 a.m. (though this has no particular astrological relevance).  It is very interesting to note, also, that the entire incident unfolded during the planetary hour of Saturn (9:14 through 10:11 AM). Had Phillips and Matasareanu waited until the hour of Mars (11:08 through 12:06) to enter the bank, the outcome might have been quite different.

If it were my task to rectify Phillips' chart, I would posit that he was born between 9:50 and 11:50 a.m.  Requiescat in pace! BELTRANO