Man Trapped in an Elevator

Here's a link to a video of a man, Nicholas White, who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. White was taking a cigarette break from his job at BusinessWeek on a Friday night. When he got into the elevator to go back up to his office the elevator jammed. No one answered his calls, buzzings and yells for help until almost two days later on Sunday afternoon. The Security Cameras filmed him but the Guards apparently never watched the Monitors. The New Yorker has published an article and the video here: http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2008/04/21/080421_elevators.

The date given for the beginning of White's fiasco is Oct. 15, 1999, McGraw Hill Building, New York, NY. Turns out this is a great chart to look at for signs of claustrophobia.

The video says that White went for a cigarette break at 11pm. I don't know what time he tried to return to his desk. At 11 pm Cancer was Rising. So, the Moon was ruling at this point. The Moon here was in its Fall in Capricorn where it remained for the entire 41 hours that White was trapped. At this point it was in the 6th house conjunct Mars in Sagittarius. Sounds like a good Cigarette break indicator as well an emotionally agitating moment. Talk about pulling an all-nighter during the workaholic Capricorn Moon.

Rex Bills says that Elevators are ruled by Uranus, Mercury, and the 3d House.

The 3d House of Elevators for the 11 pm chart contained Venus in Virgo which was in a Grand Earth Trine with the Moon in Capricorn and Jupiter in Taurus. Earth Signs can indicate either being stable or being stuck. Venus in Virgo (sign of Work) is also squaring a conjunction of Pluto and Chiron in Sagittarius. Am not sure what that means except that Virgo is the sign indicating one's job and Sagittarius rules Publishers. Venus-Pluto and Chiron together in difficult aspect could show an extremely emotionally charged scene about which one can do nothing.

There was at this point an "almost Fixed Grand Square" with Mercury in Scorpio opposite Saturn in Taurus squared by the Nodes in Leo/Aquarius with Uranus conjunct the South Node in Aquarius. Interesting that in this group, Mercury is the only planet here that isn't Retrograde. Usually Mercury Rx gets the blame for this type of problem. Uranus is in its own sign.

There's a heavy Fixed Sign emphasis of the Outer Planets on this date. Jupiter and Saturn are in Taurus and Uranus and Neptune are in Aquarius. Fixed Signs might indicate "Being Stuck" as they are stubborn and sometimes known for their "tenacity". Planets with a Grand Square emphasise this. This Grand Square was also in the Fixed Houses at 11 pm and would have hit the Angles about 2 hours later. Uranus was strongest because it was in its own sign. Unfortunately it was also conjunct the South Node and Retrograde.

When White was released 41 hours later (I came up with Oct. 17, 1999 at 4 pm), 30 Aquarius was rising, so the Uranus-South Node conjunction and the rest of the "almost Grand Square" had just passed above the Horizon. The Moon was still in Capricorn but was in conjunction with Neptune over the 12th house cusp of Prisons. Rex Bills says rulership for claustropohia is Uranus and Neptune. Both these planets were in Aquarius (ruler of elevators) in the 12th house of Prisons as White was released.

What's interesting here is that 8 Guards should have found White and didn't notice him. Jupiter was at 1 Taurus opposing the Libra Sun (wide orb). As Taurus rules Values, I guess an interpretation for this aspect here could be low self value through the neglect of others. The articles say that White was 34 years old at the time so was maybe born around 1965, the time of the huge outer planet t-square between Uranus, Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, the Nodes and Chiron.