On Saturday the 28th of July 2007 while flying solo in a helicopter, Philip connected with overhead electrical cables and crashed. Resident farmers were on the scene apparently within minutes but there was no trace of him.

I had met him through my involvement in adventure racing, an outdoor multi-disciplined sport, in which he was undoubtedly one of the best athletes in South Africa. Over the years I got to know him and I was always in awe of his physical prowess and his sheer capacity to devour life.

The thought of all his dynamic energy being extinguished in this crash was in a sense tragic yet extremely fitting. If Philip was dead, he had died while engaged in a task that gave him joy and a sense of accomplishment. He had worked in Iraq for many years to accumulate enough money to fund the acquisition of his helicopter licence.

If anyone had been able to survive this crash, he would. Philip was completely at ease in the bush and had very little fear when it came to accepting the challenges that nature offered. There were many stories told in the adventuring racing community of his bravery and daredevil attitude.

His girl friend, friends and family were distraught and although I had little or no contact with them and had not seen Philip for a few years, I decided to set a horary chart, asking the question, "Is he dead?" Refer to Chart 1

Chart 1 : Is he dead?

My only intention in doing so was that should he not be found, I could possibly offer the family some closure at a later stage if they so desired as not knowing would be torment.

Chart 1: "Is he Dead?"

• The significator of the Quesited is Lord 11, my friend, Jupiter at 10 Sag 00' Retrograde in the 11th.
• Radical Lord 8, death, is Mercury at 20 Cancer 41' in the 6th.
• Turned Lord 8, death, is the Moon at 14 Aquarius 53' in the 1st.
• Jupiter separates from a sextile aspect to the Moon and from opposition to the Antiscion of Mercury which is at 9 Gemini 19'.
• The opposition by Antiscion won't "kill" on its own, but with the Moon aspect it is a strong supporting testimony that yes, he is dead.
• Jupiter in the 11th shows that he is at "home". We know this is impossible so it must mean something else.
• Jupiter in station is not moving anywhere, and in the 11th, at home could possibly mean that he is close to the helicopter.
• However, I had my judgement on the question posed. Philip was dead.

A few days later I had coffee with a close friend who had been in communication with the family and was aware of the details of the search and rescue that had been implemented. People from far and wide had joined in the search but to no avail. It was so sad to read the correspondence that was being sent from Philip's girl friend and family. I communicated to my friend to whom I was chatting, that I had set a horary chart and that Philip was dead. He then asked me to set a chart to see if we could locate the body, which I did.

Chart 2: "Where is his body?"

Chart 2 : Where is his body?

• Significator of the Querent is once again Lord 11, my friend. Lord 11 is Mars in 29 Taurus 33'.
• Taking cognisance of the area where the crash had occurred, Mars in Taurus in the 5th could signify an area close to where children are found like a school, playground or a soccer field, houses of gambling/ taverns and being a farm area possibly a shebeen, near a place where beasts of burden are housed, pastures or feeding grounds or where bushes have been lately grubbed up and wherein wheat and corn is sowed. (Christian Astrology, William Lilly).
• Taurus, being an earth sign, could signify that he was on or near the earth and being a fixed sign that he was going nowhere, the same as Jupiter in its station in Chart 1.
• I also judged that the applying conjunction between the Moon and Lord 11 meant that he was possibly somewhere wet and trapped (fixed sign) in the water (Moon) at the bottom of the river near the earth (Taurus).
• However as the element of earth and the 5th house location appeared strong to me, I suggested to my friend that they should possibly broaden the search to include the surrounding area while staying in close (relevant) proximity to the crash site.

Judging and Timing the recovery using Chart 2:

• Although we could use the Moon, as the ruler of lost objects, especially animate ones, as co-significator of the Quesited, I did not do this as it is best to adhere to the main Significator where possible.
• In this instance I looked at the applying conjunction of the Moon to Lord 11 as a method of timing the recovery of the body. This applying aspect also confirmed that the body would be found, as it is futile timing recovery if no recovery is to occur.
• The strongest testimony of recovery is an applying aspect between the Querent, Lord 1 and the Quesited, the missing object or person. In this situation that would have been near impossible. The Moon is Lord 7 which signifies "others" which was perfectly correct as many people were involved in the search and the body was found by police divers.
• The Moon would form an exact conjunction to Mars at 29 Taurus 53'. She would thus have to move 7 degrees to reach this perfection.
• The sign of Taurus signifies the longest unit of time (fixed), and the 5th house being succedent, a medium unit of time. One needs to remember that volition can make anything fast or slow.
• I judged slow plus medium to equal a medium unit of time and allocated these units accordingly - hours, days, weeks. There were too many people involved in the search for it to take months or years to find the body and if we used these units of time, especially years, by then it would have begun decomposing making recovery virtually impossible.
• I therefore judged that the body would be found in seven days, so by the 13th of August when the Moon, a Luminary, shone her light by perfection on Lord 11.
• And so it proved. The body was recovered in the water close to the crash site in the early hours of the morning on Monday the 13th of August.

I did not see the surrounding area and have no idea if any of the 5th house factors were immediately present and therefore of importance in my judgement, and where the body had been trapped up until its discovery, remains unknown to me.

The outcome of this was bitter sweet for me. I am deeply humbled by this ancient art and by the fact that I am fallible. I wish that I had been able to pinpoint the exact spot where Philip's body was trapped as I would possibly have been able to alleviate some of the misery of those two weeks for his loved ones. But astrology doesn't work that way and as mere mortals we do not have the power of the gods vested in us. We cannot demand more from ourselves than what we are ready to give and this ancient craft demands humility, patience and an open mind. As William Lilly says, we will always remain students of astrology.

Philip, I wish you well on the journey you have just begun, the world is a less vibrant place without you.