I don't want to die

An Astrological Look at The Life of Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy

Trigger Warning: this post mentions sensitive topics, such as death, murder, sexual perversion, abuse, and violence.

It was February 15, 1978, at around 1:00 a.m. in Pensacola, Florida. The Volkswagen Bug had no headlights and was being operated with an expired tag. Officer David Lee approached the vehicle with caution; little did he know that he was about to apprehend one of the most notorious serial killers in history. After being initially compliant the driver struggled and attempted to escape during the arrest. Having escaped from a Colorado prison in late 1977 by crawling through a hole in the ceiling of his jail cell, he had been on the run ever since. He had traveled across several states using stolen cars, buses, and flights. He eventually made his way to Florida, where he committed further murders. But on this night, everything changed as there was no escape.

Ted Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell on November 24, 1946, in Burlington, Vermont. Right out of the gates there were deep family secrets and confusion in his home life. In order to control the narrative of what had really occurred, he was raised believing his mother, Eleanor Louise Cowell, was his sister, and his grandparents were his parents due to the social stigma of illegitimacy at the time. The truth was purposedly buried.

According to multiple accounts, Ted discovered as a teenager, around age 14, when a cousin cruelly showed him his birth certificate, that he was an illegitimate child, revealing the "Father" field was marked as "Unknown." The twisted and manipulative web he had been raised in and suddenly wrapped him up in a wave of resentment and humiliation, which reportedly affected him profoundly. His mom was not his sister, and his grandparents were not his parents. This story has caused psychologists and biographers to suggest that the secrecy around his birth and family dynamics may have triggered deep emotional conflicts, including displaced aggression and resentment toward women.

"I don't want to die. I'm not going to kid you. I deserve certainly the most extreme punishment society has... I think society deserves to be protected from me and others like me.

~Ted Bundy

One of the most disturbing elements of the Ted Bundy story is the extreme perversion he possessed and the manner in which that played out during his heinous reign of murder that lasted from 1974 through 1978. Bundy himself confessed to 30 murders across several states. His most common method of luring his victim into his control was to frequently use charm, pretending to be injured or in distress—such as feigning a limp or wearing a cast—to gain sympathy, especially from young women in public places. Then, according to The College of Southern Idaho Pressbooks, "once a victim was close enough, he would forcibly subdue her, often assaulting and strangling her to death, sometimes using a metal rod or other weapons."

This is where the depravity of Bundy is infamous. He didn't stop there. In an article titled "Was Ted Bundy A Necrophile? Inside His Last Disturbing Confession" we learn that he not only sexually assaulted and raped his victims but also engaged in necrophilia, sexually violating their corpses after their deaths. Bundy decapitated some victims and kept their heads as trophies, and he often mutilated and positioned the bodies post-mortem in grotesque ways.

Here is Ted Bundy's birth chart:

When first looking at Bundy's chart, as an astrologer, my eyes are immediately drawn his fourth house of family and one's emotional foundation in life. Bundy had five planets in his fourth house at birth, Venus Rx, Mercury Rx, the Sun, Mars, and the Moon. And in the world of astrology, if there is a planet placed within 5 degrees of a house cusp, astrologers generally will consider its energies active in two houses. In this case, Jupiter was in this position and as such we could say he had six planets in his fourth house. Additionally, when viewing it in this manner, there are also two stelliums present. A stellium in astrology is when three or more planets cluster together in the same zodiac sign or astrological house in a natal chart. Essentially this constitutes an intensified energy in that sign or house, often dominating the personality traits or life areas associated with that placement.

The signs that these planets were domiciled in at his birth are Scorpio and Sagittarius. It is important to remember that all of the zodiacal archetypes represented by twelve signs possess a range of energies; reflecting the natural light and darkness we experience in the natural world. The focus when exploring them in Ted Bundy's life will emphasize the darker elements due to the fact that we know actual events in his life and their nature.

With both Scorpio and Sagittarius sharing space in the fourth house it's safe to assume that like two planets in conjunction, these archetypal energies must find a way to blend in this realm. When thinking of the family secrets concerning who his mother was and rather tumultuous environment of Bundy's youth, we see the heavy hand of Scorpio present. Several biographies state that his family life included mental health struggles on his grandmother's side and a violent-tempered grandfather. When Bundy was about three, his mother moved with him to Washington state, where his mother married Johnnie Bundy, who adopted Ted. Ted had a tense and fractious relationship with his stepfather, feeling a strong jealousy (a Scorpio attribute) and later disdain towards him.

Here is where we see the more troublesome and darker manifestations of Scorpio and Sagittarius emerge in Bundy's childhood. Scorpio's archetype is correlated with the deep, dark, and intense elements of the human experience. Wrapped up in the spectrum of its energies exists things like secrecy, destruction, manipulation, obsession, and all things hidden. Further, it correlates with cruelty, death and matters connected to the dead, resentment, sexuality all of its various forms, and slaughter. There is more but I suspect you the reader are making important connections at this point.

With the inclusion or blending of Sagittarius in this same house, we can extract similar, darker manifestations of its archetypes to fill in the picture more fully. Sagittarius is a buoyant and expansive energy which often overdoes things. In its potential abstractions we often find fanatical ideologies, a search for something to worship, which often reaches extreme and zealous levels.

Focusing more closely on the planetary placements in Bundy's fourth house, let's start with his Sagittarius Sun. A notable aspect of Bundy's natal Sun is its involvement in a dispositorship loop that remains constant for all the planets within the stelliums in this fourth house. His Sagittarius Sun is disposed by a Scorpio Jupiter, which is disposed by a Leo Pluto, eventually looping back to his Sagittarius Sun. His Scorpio Mercury is disposed by his Leo Pluto, which in turn is disposed by his Sagittarius Sun, disposed by Scorpio Jupiter, and loops back to Pluto and the Sun. His Scorpio Venus is disposed by a Leo Pluto, then by his Sagittarius Sun, which circles back through the same rulership loop of Jupiter, Pluto, and back to the Sun. This cycle repeats for Jupiter and Mars as well.

For those who might not be familiar with concept of dispositors in astrology, briefly, it is the relationship between a planet and the ruler of the sign that planet is in. In simple terms, the sign ruler “hosts” any planet placed in that sign and colors how that planet expresses itself. What a loop is indicative of is psychologically, these loops indicate a self-contained, intense internal dynamic where the energies of the planets involved are tightly bound and reinforce each other continuously. This can manifest as a strong fixation on the themes and qualities represented by the planets and signs in the loop, creating a psychologically significant focal point or core identity structure. The loop can bring both strength and rigidity, leading to persistent psychological patterns, deep inner conflicts, or repeated life themes tied to the loop’s planetary energies

This profoundly affected me, as it highlights the extreme nature with which Bundy, embodying the darker aspects of the Scorpio and Sagittarian archetypes, appeared trapped in a fixed and continuous pattern. It closely resembles the concept of a loop.

The loop touches three very significant areas in his chart, the third house, where Jupiter is in Scorpio, which encompasses the mind, the fourth house, where Venus and Mercury are also in Scorpio, and the Sun, Mars, and Moon are in Sagittarius, which encompasses the emotions, and the twelfth house, where we find two malefic planets, Pluto and Saturn, that are in the place of clandestine activities.

It is also noteworthy that Saturn, Pluto, Venus, and Mercury were all retrograde at Bundy's birth. This further creates a possibility of things being highly internally driven, introspective, and for it to be hard to capture proper perspectives. Without a doubt, Bundy's perspectives lacked in a devastating way.

Before exploring the remarkable asteroids that illuminate Bundy's diabolical actions, let's first consider the conjunction of Mercury and Venus in Scorpio on his chart. This alignment reveals the workings of his mind and his way of expressing love, which clash in a notably aggressive manner. This interpretation aligns with known facts that correspond to the specific traits of these planets residing in Scorpio. While other interpretations are possible, this one accurately reflects the events observed in his life.

Clearly, it was the darker Scorpio energies that took hold in Bundy's mind and his love language. Those clearly were sexual depravity, manipulation, obsession, control, death, deception, and resentment.

There are several asteroids that exist in astrological interpretation that represent nefarious and violent activity. When placing for instance the asteroids: Kilia, Sly, Agrius, Delbruck, and Wacker in the chart we derive deeper insight into the energies that Bundy was feeding. These are not commonly discussed asteroids, but they reveal very important information. Here is a brief description of the meaning of each of these:

Kilia - killer, murder (prominent in the charts of serial killers)

Sly - cunning and deceitful; con artist; trickster; mischief; clever and crafty; scheming; distrust.

Agrius - wild savage. In Greek Mythology, Agrius was turned into a bird (vulture) who circled the sky with a thirst for blood.

Delbruck - pathological liars

Wacker - perversion; sexually inappropriate: punishment; and shows in the charts of murderers.

Beginning with Kilia, Sly, and Agrius we find an ominous placement in the fifth house, the house where we find among other topics, sexual intrigue, physical and mental joy, and risk taking. Much has been written about this aspect of Bundy's murders, but with the placement Kilia (murderer) in the house of sex, we witness the chilling accuracy of astrology. According to Online Scientific Research, Bundy targeted mainly young women who often resembled a college girlfriend who had rejected him, suggesting personal and sexual motivations linked to revenge and fixation. He used charm and deception to lure victims, then physically overpowered, sexually assaulted, and ultimately murdered them. His crimes involved extreme violence including strangulation, bludgeoning, mutilation, and post-mortem sexual violation (necrophilia).

The asteroid Sly, was also present here speaking to Bundy's clever and crafty approach to luring young women, like feigning injury. And once, again the placement is remarkable in the natal house where we express our creative abilities. This tragically happened to be those of a con-artist. And finally, Agrius speaks to the savage and blood thirsty manner Bundy carried his maniacal rages out.

Next, we discover the asteroid Delbruck situated in his third house, which governs the mind, communication, and all cognitive aspects. This placement seems particularly fitting for an asteroid associated with pathological liars. Notably, it forms a trine with his Uranus in Gemini, located in his house of public image. This alignment highlights how this dualistic and unpredictable individual, embodying the cleverness and duality of Gemini in his public persona, could effortlessly (a trine) lie without hesitation.

Finally, we find the asteroid Wacker in the house of clandestine activities, the twelfth house. Also, present in this same house we find the two malefic planets, Pluto and Saturn that are similarly associated with these themes. All in the astrological house where we escape and have addiction, however dark those addictions may be. This like the placements of the other asteroids mentioned, is grisly and macabre. Wacker, as referenced above deals with perversion and most poignantly, aligning with his extreme affinity for necrophilia. As a qualifier to this delineation, I was able to only gather one reference to Wacker being associated with these topics unlike multiple sources speaking to the other asteroids cited above.

With lesser-known asteroids like those referenced in this summary, astrologers derive meanings through mythological backgrounds, namesakes, or observing patterns in individual charts, rather than from widely accepted standard references.

From the resource Britannica we learn, Ted Bundy died on January 24, 1989, at Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida. He was executed by electrocution in the electric chair at 7:16 a.m. that day after being convicted and sentenced to death for three murders in Florida. Bundy's execution marked the end of a notorious career as one of the most infamous American serial killers.

Bizarrely, Bundy's last words were: "I'd like you to give my love to my family and friends."