Mistaken Identity - Whitney Cerak / Laura Van Ryn

On April 26, 2006 on a highway near Auburn, Indiana a Van and a Truck collided. Five people were killed; others seriously hurt. The coroner declared Whitney Cerak, 19, dead. Laura Van Ryn, 22, was taken to the hospital where she lay in a coma for almost a month before her family realized that this girl wasn't Laura, she was a girl from the other vehicle, Whitney Cerak. On May 29, a nurse asked her to write down her name and she wrote "Whitney Cerak." Would anything in the birthcharts indicate such a bizarre mix-up of identities? I don't have the birth towns or times for the girls so I used the towns in Michigan where they lived.

Whitney Cerak b. April 29, 1987 (used Gaylord, MI for place)

Laura Van Ryn b. February 13, 1984 (used Caledonia, MI for place)
passed away on April 26, 2006.


Almost 19, Whitney Cerak would have recently had a Nodal Return and I was hoping to find that this would figure prominently in this bizarre event since it seems so fated. I also figured that Aries should be prominent in her chart. If I had her birthtime I would expect something really wild going on in her First House of Identity but figured that perhaps its sign equivalent, Aries, might be prominent. I was really shocked to find that not only was she having a Nodal Return but her North Node is in Aries conjunct Venus and Jupiter! This stellium is squared by Neptune (confusion, illusion) in Capricorn. Although I never could have predicted the event the chart is certainly set-up for something like Mistaken Identity. Aries rules the face and both girls suffered so much damage to their faces that they were unrecognizable.

In addition she has Sun exactly opposite Pluto natally. This outright declares power struggles, in this case with the Coroner (who could have predicted that?). At the time of the crash Saturn was squaring this opposition compounding the idea of crisis tenfold. Pluto also inconjuncts Whitney's Venus (to the degree) bringing together self-identity as a female in some sort of crisis or deeply transformative way. On the day of the crash, Mars, ruler of Aries and also prominent in car crashes, was squaring her Venus-NN-Jupiter stellium and opposing her Neptune. Jupiter was just past conjunction with Pluto so obviously giving her great luck in crisis. Jupiter and Pluto together sort of create an Inspector Clousseau type of character, one who gets into big ordeals and always manages to walk away either through dumb luck, optimism, or a hardy constitution.

Whitney was going through multiple other transits which would explain something intense and violent like a car crash (t.Pluto conjunct n. Uranus in Sagittarius, just past n. Saturn opposite Mars-Chiron in Gemini - transportation) and also great good fortune arising from a crisis (t. Jupiter c. n. Pluto inconjunct n. Venus). She was the one who survived after all. Her chart shape is a locomotor chart bounded by Mars and Pluto showing that she has strong willpower but needs to be careful around large machinery or violent people. She may have to work through rage issues due to a changed hormonal system caused by the crash.

Her Moon is either in Taurus or Gemini. The noontime chart shows 28 Taurus Moon. If her birthtime were close to this placement, her progressed Sun would be close to conjunct her natal Moon (but that's probably not the case). In addition, she celebrated her 19th Birthday in the Hospital in a coma surrounded by somebody else's family while her own family attended her funeral. Her Solar Return chart has a new Moon in Taurus as well as a Grand Square.

Laura Van Ryn's chart shows that Jupiter was conjunct a Mars-Saturn conjunction in Scorpio. This conjunction is prominent because it is otherwise unaspected. Mars-Saturn is a difficult combination which I've actually heard described as "driving with the breaks on." Without connection to the other planets in the chart there would be nowhere for the expansive energy of Jupiter to flow to.

In addition, Mars was opposing her natal Neptune-Jupiter conjunction and trining her natal Pluto in Scorpio. Saturn was squaring her Pluto. The Mars aspects could account for being in a car crash but she was going through a couple of very nice trines and sextiles at the time of her death. Perhaps this made it easier for her to slip away. Pluto was within 4 degrees of conjunction with her Neptune and possibly opposite her natal Moon. Her chart is a bucket shape with Moon either in Gemini or Cancer as the Handle through which a lot of her energy would have flowed. If Mars had been conjunct this Moon at the time of the crash perhaps this was too much for her system.