From The Independent in 2010
Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said yesterday.
Speaking at The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival, Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian, said he found that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap Forward in 1958, in an effort to catch up with the economy of the Western world, he was responsible for overseeing "one of the worst catastrophes the world has ever known".
Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine, compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million.
Mr Dikötter is the only author to have delved into the Chinese archives since they were reopened four years ago. He argued that this devastating period of history – which has until now remained hidden – has international resonance. "It ranks alongside the gulags and the Holocaust as one of the three greatest events of the 20th century.... It was like [the Cambodian communist dictator] Pol Pot's genocide multiplied 20 times over," he said.
From Astrodienst
Chinese political leader, author and poet who served as the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party, which he helped to establish in 1921. In the more than 80 monographs on his life, Mao has been both deified and demystified.
He married four times and was noted for having an unsatisfiable desire for sex as well as for absolute power, and the two were linked. As his holdings and position dropped politically, he suffered from impotence, and when he took the offensive, his sexual prowess increased. Despite his Populist pretensions, Mao lived like a traditional emperor with all the material comforts.
He died on 9/9/1976, Peking, China.
Wikipedia's page on him is HERE.
Fantasy Tweeting: some of the Abominables ~~
Mao Zedong's natal chart with data from Astrodienst. It has only a "C" rating = caution. I think the caution warning applies mainly to the ascending degree/sign.
Born 26 December 1893 in Siangtan, China at 7:30 AM.
With a view to discovering whether there's any common denominator among "Abominables" I'm going to look only for likely astro-potential for what I'll call "abominality".
There are three oppositions: Mercury opposite Pluto/Neptune; Mars opposite Jupiter; Venus opposite Moon. That means four of the most personal planets are involved in opposition aspects. Some also form part of a Grand Square configuration, in concert with square aspects linking Uranus/Moon/Jupiter/Venus. While these aspects and the configuration are not uncommon and almost always do NOT produce an abominable character, they do perhaps provide the basis for morphing in that direction. I haven't mentioned the signs involved to keep things clearer.
This Yod (Finger of Fate) with Pluto at its apex could be significant. It is formed by a sextile linking a traditionally inclined Capricorn Sun to a rebellious Uranus in passionate Scorpio, those two then meet via two quincunx aspects to Pluto (darkness, death) (+Neptune?) in Gemini. There's a chain of sextiles too (some a wee bit loose) from Pluto to Moon, to Saturn, to Mercury, to Venus. With so much death and destruction involved in "abominality" I'd expect to see Pluto well-integrated, and here it is!
During the period of "The Great Leap Forward" (See here) between 1958 and 1962 Neptune and Pluto were transiting in fairly close sextile to one another in Scorpio and Virgo respectively. Mao had these two planets conjoined in Gemini in his natal chart, and forming part of the integrated pattern described above. I'm not sure whether the fact that the two planets conjoined at his birth and linked by sextile in transit during the time of some of his most monstrous decisions is in any way significant, but worth making a note of anyway.
Fixed Stars - I'm never sure how much credence to give to the interpretations of these, but let's have a look. All interpretations From HERE
Mao Zedong had Jupiter at 22.09 Taurus. At the time of his birth that dread Fixed Star, Algol , was at around 24 degrees and some minutes. Algol: Primitive female sexuality; strangulation, beheading, danger to throat and neck, murder, violence, mass catastrophe, the "Evil One", the Demon Star; passionate; intense; hysterical. Very Unfortunate; (character of) Saturn/ Jupiter.
I haven't researched exact positions of the rest of the Fixed Stars mentioned as at the time of his birth, but they'd have been in very slightly earlier positions than stated.
Current position of Capulus 24.12 Taurus; his Jupiter, again, was at 22.09.
Capulus: Primitive male sexual energy; penetrating; ruthless; adventurous; dishonesty; mass effects, esp. meteorological. Unfortunate; Mars/ Mercury.
Aldebaran now at 9.47 Gemini - his Pluto at 9.21 Gemini, his Neptune at 11.33.
A Royal Star. The archangel Michael, the Watcher of the East. Eloquence, high honours, integrity, popularity, courage, war mongering, agitation. Unfortunate; Mars
Spica now at 23.50 Libra his Saturn at 23.52 Libra
Wealth, fame, honour, glamour, the "Fortunate One". Very Fortunate; Venus/ Mars
Polis now at 3.13 Capricorn. His Sun at 4.30 Capricorn - Martial desires, high ambitions, domination, keen perception, success.. Very Fortunate; Jupiter/ Mars
His Venus at 20.11 Aquarius. Castra: 20°12 Aquarius: Destructiveness, uncontrollable temper, malevolence. Unfortunate; Saturn/ Jupiter.
Some very unfortunate, some fortunate. Interesting though.
It could prove easier to decide what to look for (if anything) after seeing a couple more charts of Abominables during coming weeks. In the meantime, working somewhat in the dark, any additional points by commenters will be appreciated.
