Shooting at Brown University

By Sue Kientz

Another American school shooting has tragically happened, this time at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on December 13, 2025. At approximately 4:05 p.m.(1) during an economics class review, a masked perpetrator in dark clothes entered the room and shot at 11 students, killing two and injuring nine. As of this writing, no suspect is in custody.

With the shooter eluding police, the reason for his or her act is unknown, including why they would choose Brown University for this depravity. They could have been purposely targeted someone at the school, but even if there was a motive to find a certain person or persons, astrology can show why a certain location became the scene for this disturbing act, if the place is distinctive enough to have a history and therefore a “founding” date. Just like a person who wants information about their past or future, offers their birthdate to have an astrologer cast their personal chart, institutions like a business, charitable organization, or university have their own foundational chart that is drawn for the first day they open their doors or commence activities.

Brown University’s history provides an exact date for when it was founded, September 15, 1764, making it one of the oldest colleges in the United States. The resulting chart shows Brown to be especially prestigious and engaged in education, with its Sun or central focus for being (23 Virgo), in “good relations” with surrounding planets that represent higher aims and pursuit of goals. For example, its Sun is trine (120 degrees, a fortunate position) to Saturn (21 Taurus), representing the desire to build something, create something lasting and helpful for future generations. The Sun is also sextile (60 degrees, supporting) dwarf planet Haumea (21 Scorpio), which brings sweeping change, something a college education aims to do for prospective students. The Sun forms another trine with dwarf planet Máni (24 Capricorn) which, when found in charts, indicates a love or desire to research, learn, and solve hard problems. Lastly, Brown University’s Sun is square (90 degrees, challenging one to work and strive) Eris (25 Sagittarius), a dwarf planet as big as Pluto that symbolizes dealing with other people and all that entails, as one cannot live life solely expecting one’s own ambitions to succeed. One has to balance one’s desires (Pluto, the individual will to power) to accommodate other people’s needs and wants (Eris, the community), which many learn to do when one leaves home and goes to college and meets all sorts of people.

Mercury in birth or founding charts represents the mind and thinking of the person or collective involved, and Brown U’s Mercury (18 Libra) is opposite (180 degrees, illuminating, partnering) Uranus (20 Aries), the latter planet representative of advanced education and abstract knowledge. Brown’s Mercury is sextile Venus (15 Leo), promising helpful relationships and, later, a more lucrative career perhaps, if one indeed graduates. Mercury is square Jupiter (16 Cancer), suggesting many post-college opportunities (Jupiter) that choosing might be difficult (but welcome), and square Máni, suggesting that learning itself might become a job, a profession, or lifelong pursuit, after one’s stint at Brown.

Certainly Brown has the reputation for delivering such an expansion of their students’ lives, learning, and perspective as the above describes, but with this recent incident having occurred, there is understandable fear and worry that this will change how students, faculty, and staff feel about their great university. But astrology can answer this concern as well and provide a view into this moment the Brown University community has reached. A centuries-old technique called “secondary progression” uses the planetary pattern that unfolded in the days after Brown’s founding and interprets that pattern as if days represent years. So from that day in 1764, we move ahead 261 days to represent the 264 years to this terrible incident and interpret the resulting pattern. This reveals the secondary progressed Sun (13 Gemini) square p. dwarf planet Sedna (13 Pisces), a body that has an exceptionally long orbit of 11,400 years and symbolizes a great challenge requiring extraordinary patience and fortitude.(3) Already we see this challenge in the University personnel and law enforcement involved in the murder investigation, frustrated by their present failure to apprehend a viable suspect. But the challenge of Sedna’s influence is further apparent when one hears the interviews of the students and others in Providence, who fear the impact of this tragedy will negatively affect their lives. This is emphasized as p. Venus (12 Gemini) is also square p. Sedna, suggesting that social life could be curtailed, especially due to the suspect still being at large, but even after that person is taken into custody, there might be second thoughts about the safely of the streets or walking alone. The p. Moon and p. dwarf planet Ixion (both at 16 Sagittarius) oppose the p. Sun, which could signal strained emotions (Moon) and fear of encountering someone who does not play by others’ rules (Ixion). Note that the p. Moon is already moving away from the “full moon” stress point opposite the p. Sun in the coming months. The effect of p. Ixion on the university’s p. Sun could in fact assist community healing by an eventual acceptance of the risks we all take wherever we live. We must all keep our eyes open wherever we are, and trust that we have the skills to read situations, size up others, and act appropriately and spontaneously in every situation. There is no guarantee of perfect safety anywhere, whether we live in Providence or New York City or the smallest village on the tallest mountain.

The university community and city of Providence, RI, will recover in time, by helping one another. The only faster remedy lies above the level of universities and cities, where the stroke of a pen could again be mightier than the weapons that have replaced the sword.

Title Image credit: Component images described by the author to ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com/), then images arranged and text added by author via PhotoShop

Notes and References

1. Carruth, S., and E. Salam, “Officials release new video of person of interest in Brown shooting,” MS NOW, 16 December 2025, https://www.ms.now/news/authorities-turn-to-public-for-help-finding-brown-shooter
2. Brown University, founded 15 September 1764, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_University
3. Kientz, S., “Treasure from the Depths,” the Sedna chapter from More Plutos that appeared in The Mountain Astrologer, Feb./March 2015 issue, pp 63-70; https://moreplutos.com/articles/Sedna-SueKientz_MtAstrol-Feb-Mar2015.pdf  

For keywords and example personalities of the new dwarf planets, see “Dwarf Planet Basics,” 6 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/dwarf-planet-basics/

For more details about the angles or relationships between planets, see Lynne Hyde’s “Astrology Basics,” 12 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/astrology-basics/