Astrology of the NYU Library Suicide

On November 3rd at 4:30 AM the body of 20-year old student Andrew Williamson-Noble was found in the Bobst Library of New York University.  He had leapt to his death from the tenth floor of the library.  Andrew told friends he had been experiencing “depressing thoughts,” but what could have motivated him to take this final and irreversible step?

Chart for NYU Student SuicideVenus is rising in Libra:  Andrew was attractive, charming and personable and he was well-liked on campus.  But a strong Libran facade will want to suppress ugly feelings.  And the sign Libra is the detriment of Mars:  he would have had trouble venting his anger outwardly and would have struggled with difficult emotions.  Venus also rules the eighth house of death, which had preoccupied him enough to leave a suicide note before taking his fatal plunge.

The beautiful Venus gives more clues to Andrew’s despondency:  it is the exaltation sign of Saturn, in the twelfth house of self-undoing.  Saturn forms a challenge aspect to Pluto:  Andrew had become obsessed with his own death and actually looked forward to it.   His mental state was degenerating:  Mercury approaches combustion to the Sun.  Both these planets are entering the second house of self-esteem, which was a weakeness for Andrew.

The Venus rising is just separating from a trine to fifth-house Neptune and an inconjunct to sixth-house Uranus.  Andrew may have recently had a romantic fantasy which led to sudden disappointment.

Like many Librans, Andrew struggled in his relationships with others.  Although he had been admired by friends, he admitted to deep feelings of loneliness.  The ruler of his fifth house of pleasure and romance was Saturn, occupying the dark twelfth house of suffering and self-undoing.  Mars, ruler of seventh of relationships, challenges Mercury/Sun in Andrew’s first house of self.

Unable to cope with the sense of isolation he felt from ohers, and being unable (in his own mind) to manage his relationships, Andrew’s fascination turned to self-destruction.  In order to make his fatal jump from the library’s tenth floor, he had to scale a large partition which had been placed there after two other students had committed suicide in the same way.  Only in death was Andrew finally able to express his darker side.

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