Faced with such a crime, the methodical murder of his wife and four children, one can only wonder about the personality of Xavier de Ligonnès.
It is therefore tempting for the astrologer to look in the natal chart for the astrological factors likely to explain how a man can get to this point.
Attention is immediately drawn to the Pisces Ascendant (March decan), and the first word that comes to mind is "flight." Indeed, the last sign of the zodiac symbolizes the intermediate space between the supernatural, the unknowable, and the earthly reality to which everyone is subjected. It is known that the Pisces Ascendant favors the escape from reality by any means, including self-delusion, sometimes lying or stealing.
In the same way, one may be tempted to recreate within oneself an ideal and limitless world, and to adhere to it while maintaining a more or less distended relationship with reality according to one's psychic capacities. In this case, it seems that the subject sought to make the "American dream" a reality by transposing to the United States the professional and family life he had in France. His biography indicates that it was after the failure of his establishment across the Atlantic that his drift was amplified: he settled into lies about his professional activities and began to borrow more and more large sums of money from his relatives.
The ruler of the Ascendant, Neptune, is located in Scorpio and in the 8th house, hence an affinity with the world below, that of the impulses buried in the depths of the unconscious, hence a strong sexuality, the taste for power and money, a tendency to destroy or destroy oneself, as well as the cult of secrecy. This tendency is all the more marked as there is a redundancy between the meanings of Scorpio and the 8th house. We can deduce from this an ability to let oneself slip into the world of the forbidden, of the destruction of reality or of what comes to remind us of it (Neptune in the semi-square of the Midheaven), as well as the concern to maintain this secret drift.
Neptune is in aspect of Venus, Pisces, and the 12th house, which often shows the flight into fusional love and the failure that follows (semi-square Venus to Saturn). He is also in aspect of Mars in Cancer and in the 4th house, moreover square the Moon. Mars, ruler of the 8th house by Scorpio, shows that the force of action is as if locked up (Mars falling in Cancer) and that it can be expressed aggressively towards the family (4th house) and the woman (square the Moon in the 7th house). We also notice that Venus and Mars are in exact trine, but we know that our character is also a seducer (he had an affair with a mistress from whom he borrowed a large sum of money).
The presence of the Ascendant in Pisces, Neptune in Scorpio and Mars in Cancer, i.e. in the three water signs, indicates a personality marked by dreams, fantasies and illusions. There is a form of immaturity here, a tendency to fabricate to mask one's difficulties in constructing oneself in reality, and above all a psychic fragility linked to Pisces.
The other major component of the chart contrasts sharply with the first: four stars occupy the sign of Capricorn, namely Jupiter and Saturn framing the Sun, plus Mercury in exact conjunction with Saturn.
We are in fact in an entirely different context from the previous one, that of structure, responsibility, tangible reality and the law. These values are further accentuated by the fact that Saturn is at its domicile and therefore rules the cluster. Moreover, the conjunction of Mercury with Saturn implies a rigorous logic, a distant relationship with those around him (some of his relatives describe him as cold and brittle). And to complete the whole, these four stars are in aspect of sextile to the Ascendant.
How have these values, even juxtaposed with the first set of "water", prevented our subject from building his life other than on lies and illusions? This is because all of these configurations in Capricorn have flaws.
The middle of the sky in Sagittarius, the signifier of the career, is ruled by Jupiter. However, the latter is in Capricorn, a sign of his fall, and moreover conjunct Saturn. If in mythology Jupiter, son of Saturn, managed to dethrone his father and became in turn the father of gods and men, it is not the same here because Jupiter is directly subject to the authority of Saturn by virtue of his conjunction with the latter and his fall into Capricorn, of which Saturn is the master. We know from the media that Xavier de Ligonnès had a strong admiration for his father, which suggests that he never managed to free himself from his authority. He therefore sought to pretend, to create a reassuring image of a family man and a business leader without this concealing any tangible reality. It should also be noted that the planetary cluster in Capricorn is located in the 11th house, the house of projects and not of social achievement. However, the testimonies report many unsuccessful professional projects, particularly in the commercial sector.
We then discover that Xavier de Ligonnès, in accordance with the symbolism of Capricorn, is in reality a lonely man. Despite his mask of sociability, he locked himself into a logic of failure both in terms of his professional career and his "American dream". However, these considerations alone cannot explain how he was able to decide in all lucidity to eliminate his family and organize his escape, how one goes from a weakness of structure associated with a failure complex to the annihilation of one's family.
The key is given to us by the Black Moon, Lilith, who mythology says "was born to harm little children". Designated as a demon, Lilith was reputed to enter homes to kill newborns. Adam's first wife, she flees from the earthly Paradise to then unite herself with Satan. Some legends even claim that she agreed to kill her demonic offspring to redeem herself. In astropsychology, the Black Moon symbolizes the flaw that can plunge the being into nothingness, it designates the ultimate transgression, unspeakable suffering as much as the quest for the absolute.
In Xavier de Ligonnès' chart, Lilith is in Cancer (the family) and in the 5th house (children), and it is in this area that he has taken action, with the help of Mars in Cancer and in the 4th house. Moreover, Lilith sends oppositions to all the stars located in Capricorn: opposition to the Sun reflects the quest for an inaccessible absolute and self-denial, opposition to Jupiter the impossibility of social success, opposition to Saturn the rejection of the Law. In other words, it represents the fault in the structure and leads to its collapse.
The synthesis of this analysis leads us to think that we are dealing with a split personality, to use psychoanalytic language. This cleavage highlights two facets, the fragile and elusive one corresponding to the Pisces Ascendant and Neptune in Scorpio, and the cold and determined one to the cluster in Capricorn. However, it is Lilith who makes the connection and signs the criminal act.
According to the authorities, the incident occurred between 3 and 6 April 2011. The transits of April 3 show an exact conjunction of Mars, Lilith and Uranus on the 2nd degree of Aries, as well as oppositions of the Sun, Moon and Jupiter in Aries to Saturn in Libra, which actualize the Sun-Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of birth.
One last question: where was the fugitive able to take refuge? In the natal chart, the 9th house in Sagittarius (the foreigner) is ruled by Jupiter in Capricorn in the 11th house. In the solar revolution (set for Nantes), the Sun and Mars are in the 9th house in Capricorn, which is superimposed on the natal 11th house, and the 11th house receives Jupiter and Uranus, among others. One could deduce that Xavier de Ligonnès is at a friend's house in England...