(DISCLAIMER: Many people have vilified George Zimmerman as an example of someone who lets racial bias dictate his actions. Others defend him as a protector of his community. I can read a birth chart, but I can’t read minds, so my only concern here is to point out the astrological reasons that George Zimmerman has a penchant for shooting and/or threatening to shoot people. Make of this what you will.)

One of the most important things an astrologer does is practice what’s called “natal astrology”: the art and science of reading someone’s personality from the conditions at the time of that person’s birth. On the one hand, psychologists may still argue about what a “personality” is exactly and how to measure it, but on the other hand, we all know what “friendly” or “introverted” or “cranky” are when we see them. None of us should be victims of those traits — we all have some control over our actions — but we should be aware of our inherent personality traits and how they may work for us or against us.

Having said that: George Zimmerman is an angry guy who probably shouldn’t have a gun.

If we want to see how tempermental a person is, or see their potential for violence, we look to the Mars placement. George Zimmerman has Mars in Virgo, which is not any more or less inherently violent than any other Mars Sign. It’s the individual details in the chart that make the difference, and (even without knowing Zimmerman’s time of birth), there are distinct warning signs.

George Zimmerman has Jupiter conjunct Uranus in Sagittarius. Jupiter is strongly placed there, in the Sign that it rules. Uranus has a fondness for taking quick unpredictable actions, and for breaking an impasse in Gordian Knot style by simply hacking through obstructions. Put together, they can indicate a person who is a rebellious genius, an original thinker, a free spirit… or someone who has difficulty controlling their drives and impulses.

In his birth chart, George Zimmerman has Mars in Virgo square his Jupiter-Uranus conjunction. Regardless of the person or circumstances, this is a difficult combination. Handled well, an aspect between Mars and Jupiter-Uranus can make someone athletic, or determined to reach their goals. When the square aspect is involved though, it makes regulating the impulses (and specifically, the temper) much more difficult. Everyone may at times feel sudden angry urges, but someone with a lot of squares to their Mars is likely to have more trouble controlling them… or is more likely to give in to them, depending on one’s perspective.

Having the potential for violence is one thing… but when might those potentials manifest themselves? For this, we look to the current transits — where the planets are now relative to the birth chart, and the effects they might have.

First of all, all three incidents… killing Trayvon, the alleged threatening of the wife, and the most recent incident with the girlfriend… happened while transiting Neptune was within two degrees or less of opposing George’s natal Mars. Neptune is a slow planet, so its transit can take a long time. They aren’t the trigger for sudden occurances in and of themselves, but they lay the groundwork for specific events. Transiting Neptune opposite natal Mars is a time when a person needs to be more cautious about where and how they invest their drives… or in this case, how and where they express their frustrations. Any potential for violent action would have been more likely to manifest in the last year or so because of this Neptune transit. Further: transiting Pluto was trine that Mars of his. Trines are usually considered to be “good” aspects… they make energy flow more easily. Obviously though, what one uses those energies for has to count for something.

What really seems to have set George off in all three incidents are transits to his Secondary Progressed (SP) Mars. Secondary Progressions are like a second set of transits — they delineate how a person changes over time internally, as opposed to the influences from outside that may activate their personal potentials. For the Trayvon shooting, transiting Mars was sextile the SP Mars… again, a “positive” transit that put its energies into a bad investment. The incident with Zimmerman’s wife took place when the transiting Sun was conjunct SP Mars — lighting it up, so to speak. For the latest matter with the girlfriend, transiting Mars was conjunct SP Mars, amplifying the Mars functions.

So: we’ve seen that George Zimmerman was born with more than the average potential for violent action, and that under the right circumstances we see that potential can be activated. In the long-standing argument America has with itself about guns, some argue that “gun don’t kill people, people kill people.” Others say that “people with guns are more likely to kill people.” Perhaps both sides of the debate can agree on at least one thing — George Zimmerman should not have guns.