Lizzie Borden (July 19, 1862 – June 1, 1927)

I’d like to thank Ellie Adams and Brandy Burrow for their insightful (and inciteful) Forensic Astrology YouTube video.

There’s a kind of vacant look in this portrait of Lizzie Borden from 1889. That is not meant to impugn her reputation, but it does make me wonder what’s going on behind those eyes. Was murder on her mind?

This time of birth is considered good. Unfortunately, my computer program had a different time (with a ‘conflicting info’ warning). I’m going with the online astrology websites timing, instead. There are a number of inconjuncts, of which only two format into a Yod, with one part of that Yod time-defined.

Sun Inconjunct Midheaven

This aspect can mean some tension with one of your parents, although it is not likely to be serious or destructive. In fact it may play a very positive role later on by forcing you to confront certain issues that you would otherwise have ignored. However, while you are young, you may resent this parent quite a bit. Do not take this too seriously, unless some other area of your chart indicates a more negative relationship.

Moon Inconjunct Ascendant

This aspect ties together in you a Moon sign and a rising sign that are very different. This indicates that the image you project to other people does not reveal very much about your real feelings. When you are upset, you surprise people by showing a totally different side of your personality.

Mercury Inconjunct Ascendant (one half Yod)

This aspect can be a sign of nervousness, so it will help to keep every part of your life in order, because change and confusion will make you feel even more nervous and scattered. Some persons with this aspect want to have everything organized and are upset by disorder because they intuitively understand that disorder is bad for them. Even if you are not aware of this, it is true for you too.

Mercury Inconjunct Mars (other half Yod)

You often find it difficult to separate yourself from what you believe. You fight very hard for your ideas, even when you suspect you are wrong. You must learn that you are not your ideas, that you have them but are not them. If you do not learn this, it will be difficult even to have a friendly talk with friends, because you are always trying to make a point, defend your opinion or prove someone else wrong. This also makes you irritable and touchy, so that others prefer not to be around you. Of course, you should not give in about something you seriously believe in, but it is unlikely that you would make that mistake.

Venus Inconjunct Midheaven

You have a strong need to be loved and to love others as well, but this may create some problems in your life. You are afraid that if you appear to others as you really are, they won’t accept you. This problem can be corrected only by the most careful upbringing, such that your parents correct your behavior in ways that help you feel self-confident rather than undeserving and unworthy.

Mars Inconjunct Saturn

This can be a difficult aspect because it signifies a conflict between your sense of responsibility and your desire to fulfill your own needs and do what you want. This leads to a struggle within you that may keep you from acting decisively. Instead of deciding what you will do, you feel caught between these two forces, wondering whether you have the right to do what you want. You may feel that others are trying to frustrate you, but it is only your own indecisiveness that is causing the trouble. Sometimes this conflict makes you very irritable and resentful about nothing in particular. Then, when someone happens to act in a way that is obviously annoying, you focus all your built-up anger on that person.

(There’s a broad series of hints in these aspects that let us know that any violent reaction she had was spontaneous and unpremeditated.)

The Axe Murders of Her Parents (August 4, 1892)

The case was memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme, sung to the tune of the then-popular song “Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay.”

Lizzie Borden took an axe
and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
she gave her father forty-one.

Folklore says that the rhyme was made up by an anonymous writer as a tune to sell newspapers. Others attribute it to the ubiquitous, but anonymous, “Mother Goose”.

In reality, Lizzie’s stepmother suffered eighteen or 19 blows; her father suffered eleven blows.

The rhyme has a less well-known second verse:

Andrew Borden now is dead,
Lizzie hit him on the head.
Up in heaven he will sing,
on the gallows she will swing.

Folk Rhyme (from Wikipedia)

There are two inconjuncts, neither of which are dependent on a correct time of day.

Venus Inconjunct Mars

You must learn to control your emotions to some extent, so that your feelings do not prevent you from getting along with others. It is difficult to react to someone without emotions, for you tend to either love or hate people quite intensely. Your feelings are often mixed, even toward your friends. One moment you love your friend, and the next moment you hate him or her. Any little problems can set off your anger against someone, but you usually cool off quickly also. Your close relationships will be a bit stormier than most, but this should not be a serious problem in later life. In fact you probably prefer stormy relationships, because it means that you are really involved with the other person.

Jupiter Inconjunct Saturn

This aspect may signify great restlessness and unease, so that it is difficult for you to achieve a state of balance or feel calm and at ease. Often you have contradictory impulses; you want to plunge ahead into some relatively risky activity, but you are held back by feelings of caution or inhabitation. It is often difficult to decode whether you want to act on your own or in a situation that is very structured and regulated. If you situation is too structured, you will feel closed in and repressed; you will want to break free and go off by yourself and do things your way. But when you get that freedom, you feel rather lost and at loose ends, and you find it difficult to set your own pace.

There’s only one double transit that absolutely connects this event to Lizzie:

Neptune/Pluto Conjunct Uranus @ 10° Gemini (a fortunate* degree).

*Lizzie and her sister, Emma, inherited their father’s fortune after his untimely death.

Forensic science in those days was lacking. Borden was acquitted. Was that the right verdict?

In my humble opinion, she suddenly lost her temper and killed them both.