Crimes of Passion

By Britanie Leclair

Passion

Human beings are no strangers to passion, the innate, emotional desire that attracts us to someone or something. Oftentimes, passion can be a motivator that leads us to follow our dreams and achieve success. However, when expressed in a maladaptive manner, this primal human emotion can quickly be perverted into something more akin to a dangerous obsession and/or infatuation. Crimes of passion are a common example of this perversion.

By definition, a crime of passion is a crime that is committed without forethought or premeditation (“in the heat of the moment”) and in response to an emotional provocation. This is a controversial topic, as crimes of passion generally receive lesser legal punishments than premeditated murders. While this article will not be considering the legal, political, and social implications of crimes of passion, it will be examining the topic through the paradigms of psychology and astrology, in hopes of preliminarily shedding light on the subject.

In the psychological realm, passion falls under motivation theory, with the dualistic model of passion defining passion as “the intense motivation for activities that people love, value, and invest much time and energy in.” However, academia also makes the distinction between healthy, harmonious passion and “obsessive passion” - the latter which produces intense love and commitment but also threatens one’s self-control.

Passion, astrologically

Astrologically, passion has, at times, been assigned to either Mars and Pluto (alongside Scorpio and the 8th house). However, astrology fails to make a distinction between the different types of passion recognized by the field of psychology. In examining the literary definitions of passion, one encounters three differing interpretations:

1. Strong and barely controllable emotion
2. Intense sexual love
3. Intense desire or enthusiasm for something

Now, in examining these three descriptions, it would seem that one could easily assign varying planetary rulers to each of these definitions. For instance, strong emotion could be situated in the lunar realm, while intense sexual love would likely be more aptly suited to the fields of Mars and Pluto. Intense desire and enthusiasm, on the other hand, seem to incorporate elements of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter respectively.

Sample

It should be noted that no crime is black and white - and while it’s difficult to determine whether an action was premeditated or whether a person had the opportunity to “cool off” before the crime, the cases utilized in this analysis are ubiquitously described by the media and public as crimes of passion and are generally categorized in this manner.

The following perpetrators have been examined in this preliminary analysis:

Also note that these are simple observations - a preliminary exploration of the astrology if you will. A much larger sample size and statistical analysis would be needed to determine the significance of any patterns for certain.

Lunar Aspects

In examining crimes of passion, most would agree that obsessive passion (rather than harmonious passion) is the factor at play. However, for a crime to be committed, there also needs to be action. One could, therefore, ask themselves, “Is there anything notable in the charts belonging to perpetrators of crimes of passion that stands out in regard to emotions, obsessive passion and/or action?

Now, when we examine the charts of these perpetrators, a few notable patterns emerge.

Astrologically, when one considers obsessive passion, the qualities of Pluto tend to come to mind. Indeed, Pluto’s house placement in the natal chart does tend to point to the areas of our obsessions. However, passion has an emotional quality to it as well. When Pluto is in aspect to the moon, the emotional and nurturing qualities of the native are melded with Plutonian energy - the negative expressions of which are often described as intense and vengeful.

Unsurprisingly, the large majority of the perpetrators examined displayed a major Moon-Pluto aspect (or a strong Lunar-Plutonian energy) in their natal chart. Nowak, Thaw, Cecillon, and Pistorius all have Moon-Pluto contacts. Caillaux and Thaw are Scorpio Moons (Caillaux’s also a Scorpio Rising), and O.J. Simpson has Moon in the 8th house. Brynn Hartman and Amy Fisher are the only individuals without this contact/energy.

However, Brynn Hartman and Amy Fisher do display a second notable lunar contact that is also prominent in this group of perpetrators. That is, a Moon-Uranus aspect. Interestingly, Fisher, Nowak Hartman, Simpson, and Thaw all carry this planetary contact. Caillaux and Cecillon, while not having this aspect, also display strong Uranian qualities in general. Caillaux’s natal Uranus makes major aspects to four of her natal planets, while Cecillon’s chart shows that he has Uranus conjunct Sun and Mercury in the 1st house.

In the context of crimes of passion, these aspects seem to make sense.

Pluto’s realm is that of intensity, the taboo, and all that is transformative. According to astrologer Sue Tompkins, Pluto is often connected to situations that cannot be undone. When Pluto combines with the Moon, it denotes an individual whose instinctual emotional pattern is to respond with passion and intensity. These natives often have a strong need for emotional intimacy but, at their lowest expression, may be drawn into domestic crises where emotional blackmail can be used as a weapon of defense or a tool to get what they want. Their sensitivity to betrayal is strong, and perceived personal slights can often engender a type of black-and-white thinking that quickly shifts between love and hate.

Uranus energy is also associated with similar lightning-quick changes. When it makes contact with the Moon in a natal chart, the emotional nature of the native can seem unpredictable and quickly changing, like an engine where the driver is alternating between the brakes and the gas. Indeed, while these people are greatly sensitive, they are said to experience their feelings in short, sharp shocks.

Moon-Uranus individuals naturally crave space and freedom. However, because their experience of giving and receiving nurturing (Moon) is inconsistent (Uranus), they can sometimes end up feeling rebuffed or ignored when they attain this emotional freedom they so desperately crave. In a genre of bizarre self-fulfilling prophecy, these natives can, upon feeling any hint of rejection or ambivalence, quickly turn cold and detached, ultimately solidifying the experience of emotional isolation that they’re consciously attempting to avoid.

With hard aspects in particular, there can be a difficulty bringing balance between this need for emotional nurturing and the desire for emotional freedom and independence. As a result, these individuals may rebel (Uranus) in situations where they feel like their emotional (Moon) state is at risk.

A crime of passion is defined both by its emotional intensity and its spur of the moment nature. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Moon-Pluto and Moon-Uranus aspects show up in the charts of these perpetrators. Moon-Pluto natives are likely spurred by intense emotions and perceived betrayals, while Moon-Uranus individuals’ fast-changing emotions lead them to rebel at any sign of their emotional nature being compromised.

But there may be something else at play.

Moon-Pluto and Moon-Uranus natives do share another quality aside from emotional changeability: the innate fear of abandonment. Of course, this fear may not be expressed in the same way (one would have to properly analyze the signs and houses involved in the contact), but this perpetual worry, subconscious or not, can be understood as underlying many of their natural emotional responses.

Because the Moon is associated with the mother and the nurturing one received as a child, astrologically, this fear of abandonment may be explained by early childhood experiences.

Regarding Moon-Uranus natives, Sue Tompkins notes:

“The Moon-Uranus experience of giving and receiving mothering, security, and emotional holding is nearly always an inconsistent one. The repercussions of this can be that the individual, feeling rejected and cut off in the past perhaps, continually expects to be rebuffed."

The Moon-Pluto native has similar fears regarding abandonment. Astrologer Judy Hall states that these natives are simply born attuned to this frequency, likely due to past life experiences.

In her book Hades Moon: Pluto in Aspect to the Moon, Hall also describes the maternal bondage that is often experienced by natives with a Moon-Pluto contact. Generally, this bondage is experienced in one of two ways: either through a suffocating relationship with the nurturing figure or through abandonment and rejection early in life. Either way, however, the mother can be subconsciously perceived as a threat, which ultimately associates the native’s’ idea of love with feelings of danger and/or abandonment.

There is not one scenario where one can say, without a doubt, that an individual would be provoked into taking such maladjusted and criminal actions as those displayed in crimes of passion. However, the characteristics denoted by these lunar aspects do seem to make sense intuitively. A perceived rejection or betrayal that would seem minor to most individuals can provoke a primal, life-or-death reaction to natives boasting a Moon-Pluto aspect. Likewise, this same perceived rejection or betrayal may spur a sharp, shock of emotion in the Moon-Uranus individual, causing them to rebel towards this disturbance of their emotional state, quickly shifting to a detached and cold state of being in what was otherwise a close and personal attachment.

Martian Aspects

As mentioned, strong, shifting emotions are not the only characteristic of a crime of passion. A crime, by its nature, generally requires some type of action - action, being the realm of Mars. When examining the charts of these perpetrators, there are few Mars aspects that stand out.

The most common aspect among these perpetrators is a Mars-Saturn aspect, exhibited by the majority (6/8) of the individuals examined: Caillaux, Fisher, Nowak, Simpson, Thaw, and Cecillon. While Saturn can often temper the fieriness of Mars, traditionally the connection of these two malefic planets has long been associated with violence. While this is not always the case, these individuals are often attracted to situations where their strength will be tested - sometimes, as Tompkins notes, to the native’s breaking point. These testing situations are not necessarily physical but can relate to emotional or mental testing as well.

Regardless, however, those with Mars-Saturn contacts often struggle to balance these incompatible forces, ie. assertion (Mars) versus control (Saturn), and impulse (Mars) versus discipline (Saturn). Many of the natives with this contact struggle with showing assertion or anger without taking things to excess. Tompkins even goes so far as to state that these natives may experience a strong rage when their will is thwarted.

Once again, this aspect doesn’t seem totally surprising when considered in the context of crimes of passion. It’s clear that murder isn’t the best way to deal with rejection or betrayal. However, when faced with an emotionally-loaded or unpleasant situation, it’s easy to understand how an individual with this placement, could take their self-assertion or anger to the extreme - sometimes, unfortunately (as displayed by these crimes), even to the extremes of violence and death.

The second most common Mars aspect exhibited by these perpetrators was, surprisingly, a Mars-Neptune contact. While Mars-Neptune energy can be associated with the idealized male archetype, it is also associated with fighting (Mars) for one’s ideals (Neptune). These individuals will gladly go to war to defend their idealized fantasies and principals. Unfortunately, they often don’t anticipate resistance to their actions, which can sometimes lead to incarceration or other types of punishments.

Neptune’s energy is much like that of a gas, expanding and decimating boundaries. For this reason, those with Mars-Neptune aspects, especially the hard aspects, can display a diffuse type of anger that seems to spread onto situations and people without restriction. Unlike Mars-Saturn natives, there is rarely a specific target for the Mars-Neptune’s native anger once it begins to broil. Oftentimes, there can also be a tendency to victimize ones self, with the native becoming (or at least believing that they have become) the unjust target of the aggression of others.

Incorporating Psychological Theories

Upon completing this astrological analysis, it seemed somewhat surprising that Mars-Neptune would have such a heavy presence amongst perpetrators of crimes of passion. While a diffuse type of anger may make sense in this context, I believe that the real connection here lies in the Mars-Neptune native’s willingness to fight for their ideals - for better or for worse.

While very little work has been done to examine crimes of passion in the realm of psychology, psychologists and other academics have been examining stalking (and those who partake in it) much more closely in recent years. Stalking is often studied in combination with obsessive passion and obsessive relational intrusion (ORI), the latter defined as repeated unwanted behaviors towards a partner that invade his or her personal privacy and cause fear for his or her safety.

Interestingly, in psychological studies, obsessive passion and ORI seem to be mediated by an individual’s fear of abandonment, ie. those with a greater fear of abandonment are more likely to experience the obsessive passion and to partake in ORI in their relationships. The fact that obsessive passion and fear of abandonment can mediate these relational intrusions seems to be supported by the fact that many of the perpetrators of crimes of passion displayed aspects that point to the potential for obsession and a strong fear of abandonment (Moon-Pluto, Moon-Uranus). While stalking and a crime of passion are clearly different crimes, ORI may potentially tie them together.

In another study, the authors described the various psychological theories that have been proposed to explain stalking. Routine activity theory is the first theory described and seems to relate mainly to victims of stalking rather than the perpetrators. Attachment theory has also been used to explain this behavior, with psychologists noting that a significant number of stalkers have an insecure-preoccupied attachment style.

In the same article, the authors propose a third possible explanation called “the linking and obsessive rumination theory.” This theory states that stalkers cognitively connect a low-order goal with a higher-order goal. For instance, they may link having a spouse (low-order goal) with having a good, happy life (high-order goal). Therefore, when the relationship collapses, it is not only affecting the relationship status (low-order goal) but also preventing the individual from achieving their high-order goal (a happy life). The researchers propose that stalkers then engage in obsessive rumination on the subject then until the thoughts either go away or the individual’s goal is achieved.

While a crime of passion would likely not incorporate rumination, it’s very possible that the subconscious linking of low-order and high-order goals may play a role in their perpetration - a role which is potentially being demonstrated by the “fight for your ideals” of the Mars-Neptune contact.

Conclusion

Crimes of passion are an example of obsessive passion that alters one’s sense of self-control. In examining the natal charts of perpetrators of these crimes, the majority demonstrate Moon-Pluto and Moon-Uranus aspects (or energy), which relate to intense emotions, black-and-white thinking, emotional instability, and a fear of abandonment. These perpetrators also largely exhibit major Mars-Saturn and Mars-Neptune aspects, pointing to a difficulty in appropriately asserting one’s self and showing anger and/or a diffuse type of anger that can be unleashed when fighting for one’s ideals.

Recent psychological studies state that a strong fear of abandonment (seen astrologically in the chart of these perpetrators) mediate an individual’s level of obsessive passion and obsessive relational intrusions (ORI), and the cognitive “linking and obsessive rumination theory” may serve to explain Mars-Neptune’s role in the chart of these perpetrators. Lastly, it should be noted that these observations form only a preliminary exploration; a larger sample size and statistical analysis is required to determine the significance of these findings.

Published in: Timelords Magazine, Feb. 2022.

Author:
Britanie Leclair is a writer and astrologer hailing from Northern, Ontario, Canada. With a background in psychology and anthropology, Britanie has pursued post-graduate studies in cultural astrology and astronomy under Nick Campion and Bernadette Brady and has completed the Hellenistic astrology certification under Chris Brennan. As a former columnist for the Career Astrologer and speaker at the Canadian Astrology Conference, when she is not busy interpreting the stars, she can be found obsessively researching murders, playing video games, or secretly rapping in her basement. She can be reached at britanie.leclair@gmail.com.

Images:
Tree - Public Domain, from Timelords Magazine
Heels - Image by Espressolia from Pixabay

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