A struggling Sun: The baby-killing nurse Lucy Letby
The trial and conviction of the British nurse Lucy Letby for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another six has shocked the world. Why would someone who was trained to take care of the most vulnerable of babies have gone down this dark path? Can her birth chart shed any light?
Lucy Letby's birth chart
According to online sources, Letby was born on January 4, 1990 in Hereford, England, but her birth time is unknown. That's why a noon chart is shown below:
No matter exactly when she was born on that day, her Sun in Capricorn is sandwiched between Neptune and Saturn. Together with Uranus and Mercury, that forms a 5-planet stellium in Capricorn. That stellium is opposed by Chiron in Cancer, with Chiron, Neptune, the Sun and Saturn all in soft aspects with Pluto in Scorpio! In astrology, this aspect pattern is called a 'wedge', i.e. the tension between planets in opposition finds an outlet in a planet that’s in soft aspects with them all.
What does this complex planetary configuration mean??
Decoding complex configuration
To start with, the Sun sandwiched between Neptune and Saturn is never easy because Neptune and Saturn are by nature, polar opposites! Neptune dissolves boundaries and makes things hazy and foggy, but Saturn builds boundaries and holds onto them! When these two are conjunct, it creates a very volatile situation because they battle with each other constantly. With the personal Sun sitting in-between, it's like being caught in a crossfire between two giants!
In any birth chart, the Sun needs to shine, no matter how hard the struggle. In Letby's case, her Sun is in Capricorn, so to shine is to 'achieve' and to gain mastery. This very often means climbing the social and career ladder, to be at the top of her game.
However, with the Sun being pulled and pushed from one side to the other by the warring Saturn and Neptune, it's difficult to hold its ground, to shine and be recognised. On one hand, the Sun suffers the brunt of Saturn's demands and heavy scrutiny, while on the other, the Sun also feels drowning and undeserving in the unreal, infinite ocean of Neptune.
To top it all, the Sun is also opposed by Chiron in Cancer, meaning 'wounds caused by the loss of family and loved ones' would also make the Sun in Capricorn feel 'rejected and ashamed' (despite the best efforts might have been made).
How she dealt with it?
Before her crimes were exposed, Lucy Letby had written a note in which she said: 'I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them.' This is very revealing regarding her motive. She obviously suffered from a strong sense of inadequacy and yet in her twisted way of thinking, she somehow equated that with killing her helpless patients. Her reasoning was like 'if I can’t take care of them, I'll just kill them to take control of the situation – so that I can avoid facing my own inadequacy when they die'. It's poor self-image and a huge dose of self-deception combined (Saturn + Sun + Neptune), finding an outlet in the destructive and murderous Pluto in Scorpio, in its worst manifestation!!!
Sometimes beginners in astrology think 'soft aspects' are 'good' and 'hard aspects' are 'bad'. Letby's wedge is a very good example to refute that: Soft aspects just mean the energies FLOW effortlessly and whether that’s 'good' or 'bad' depends on what the person intends to do.
In Letby's case, it means she just dealt with the tension generated by Neptune, the Sun and Saturn vs Chiron by slipping into the 'killer mode' (Pluto in Scorpio) all too easily!
Transits for 1st known killing
So under what circumstances did she put that twisted way of thinking into action? Below shows the transits to her noon chart when she killed her first victim:
The first known killing happened on June 8, 2015, not long after her night shift at the hospital had started. Notice that transiting Pluto was hovering over her natal Sun-Chiron opposition, suggesting she sought to regain self-belief and reject the sense of shame by killing another life and manipulating other people into believing it was a natural death! Moreover, if she were born around noon, Pluto would be squaring her Moon in Aries too (and the Moon is at the apex of a T-square with the Capricorn stellium and Chiron)!
Other important transits were going on as well: Transiting Jupiter was conjunct her South Node in Leo and squaring her Pluto, implying an over-inflated sense of the ego (which she stubbornly clung onto probably because she used to be a person of note in a past life) and unleashing the darkest impulse in her.
Last but not least, transiting Mars in Gemini was also moving towards an exact sextile with transiting Uranus in Aries! It suggests 'angry, impulsive thoughts' put into 'crazy, outrageous action'! As we don't have Letby's birth time to get a full picture of her chart, it's very likely that Mars and Uranus were actually closely aspecting an important part of her chart (like her angles? Or the Moon? If anyone's interested in rectifying her chart, this would be a clue).
An alternative scenario
I'm not writing this article to 'excuse' or 'rationalise' her inexcusable and irrational behaviour. It does NOT mean anyone with a similar planetary configuration like Letby's would do what she's done. I think if she'd sought professional help to deal with her feelings of inadequacy, she could've turned out very differently.
I see the birth chart as representing a person's potential, with a whole range of manifestations possible, from the most destructive to the most constructive. Given what we know of Letby's chart (without her birth time), what would be a more constructive manifestation of her potential?
Art and design would be a very good platform, especially something like sculpture, architecture, installation art, etc, for her Capricorn stellium. She could incorporate feelings of hurt and abandonment (Chiron in Cancer) into her work, producing some very probing and dark pieces (Pluto).
Lucy Letby is a very disturbing case, but I do think looking into her chart is astrologically educational. By re-imagining how she could’ve dealt with the tough placements in her chart more constructively, I hope this could inspire others who are similarly struggling to find a ray of light too.
Interested in learning more about your chart and potential? Check out my online chart-reading services or private classes!
Belinda has got over 10 years of chart-reading experience and holds four university degrees, including Psychology and Counselling. Before becoming a professional astrologer in Hong Kong, she was doing a highly stable and well-paid job. She switched careers because astrology had simply changed her life… Read on
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