Up Up And Away

Only in America. I tried to avoid talking about the Lucky 7/7/07 phenomena, but alas, Lucky Jupiter in Sagg brings all the weirdest stories out from under the floorboards. Here's the best use of the day that I have found so far:

So, on Saturday, a guy up in Oregon named Kent Couch tied a bunch of balloons to his lawn chair, hung 4 plastic bags for ballast, loaded up snacks and some mechanical instruments and let go of the grounding cord. He floated for 9 hours while his wife, friends, kids and household chihauhua followed in the car 13,000 feet below. Headed for Idaho, he almost made it landing 193 miles away just west of the state border somewhere.

Kent Couch's 9 hour flight
July 7, 2007 6:06am Bend, OR

The Sun was just rising over the Ascendant in Cancer and trining Uranus in Pisces. (One could say that Cancer is the Couch Potato sign. How great that Kent's last name is Couch!) Uranus rules Space Flight and it was in the 9th house of long distance travel at Launch Time. Thumbs up. The Midheaven was at 1 Aries and squaring an opposition of Mercury Retrograde to Pluto Retrograde; a t-square on the Aries Point. The Moon was also in Aries in the 10th House. Aries Point and 10th House Moon, two great indicators for publicity. Mercury Retrograde doesn't seem to affect space flight.

This was Couch's 2d flight. The first one was back in September.

Turns out that Flying in Lawnchairs has a loyal following; there's even a Website devoted to it. The First Guy to do it has become an Urban Myth. Of course he was an Aries, what else?

Back in 1982 Larry Walters became the GrandDaddy of the Lawnchair Balloon riders. He rose up from his girlfriend's backyard in Los Angeles, pack of beer on his lap and a bee-bee gun under his arm. He floated around for 6 hours until he dropped down in Long Beach. Meanwhile an Airline Pilot from United and one from Delta both reported that there was a guy floating around up at 16,000 feet (3 miles) in a Lawn Chair.

Larry Walters
b. April 19, 1949 (no mention of what cloud he was born on)

Larry's Sun and Mars conjunct North Node in Aries. Daredevil. They were in a stellium with Venus and Mercury in Taurus and squared his Jupiter (Air Travel) in Aquarius (Space Flight) and trined his Saturn in Leo (Flashy). Sun-NN sextiled his Uranus at 2 Sagittarius. What can I say? The Man was born to fly, he was the stuff from which Myth is made. (In 1982 His progressed Sun had just changed signs and was at 2 Gemini opposite transiting Uranus at 2 Sagittarius.)

Anyway, if you want to become an Urban Legend, which Astrological Transit are you going to hook into? The Eclipses, baby! Take on those Saros Series! Larry chose July 2, 1982 for his Adventure. The Sun was conjunct the North Node in Cancer that day with the Moon moving into opposition in Capricorn. There was a Total Lunar Eclipse on July 5-6, 1982 which was sandwiched between two Partial Solar Eclipses on Jun 21 and Jul. 20. This guy had no planets in Water and I somehow figure this plays a part in his wildness. T.Mars and Saturn were at 16 Libra squaring the t.Sun and Moon. They were also conjunct his natal Neptune in Libra, so I imagine he actually was probably quite frightened, exhilarated, but scared out of his farking mind. Apparently, he was floating around out of control for a great deal of the time. The Chair broke it's rope and took off suddenly at Launch and shot up into the sky. He lost his glasses. Then Walters dropped his bee-bee gun while shooting at the balloons in order to let himself down.

Larry Walters went on to pay a fine for Violation of Air Traffic Safety Rules and to make History. Sadly, he shot himself in the heart at Age 44 and is now buried at Forest Lawn. (Uranus and Neptune were conjunct at 18 Capricorn squaring his natal Neptune at 18 Libra very close to the spot where the Eclipse Moon was during his Lawn Chair Ride. His Moon in the Noontime chart is at the end of Capricorn so maybe was affected)