Famed Primatologist Jane Goodall Dies

By Alex Miller

On 1 October 2025, British scientist Jane Goodall passed while on a lecture tour in California; she was 91.  Goodall became the leading researcher into the behavior of our primate cousins the chimpanzees, essentially through sheer grit and determination.  Always fascinated by animals, Goodall felt drawn to Africa, where after accepting an invitation from a friend to visit her farm in Kenya, she made a spontaneous phone call to noted paleontologist Louis Leakey, merely hoping to discuss animals.  Leakey was looking for a researcher to observe chimpanzees, theorizing their habits might provide clues to early hominid behaviors, and was impressed by her enthusiasm, hiring her as a secretary but giving her a grounding in field work.

Leakey then posted the 26-year-old Goodall, who had never attended college, to Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park, where she spent the majority of the next quarter century, observing local chimpanzee colonies and popularizing them to audiences around the globe.  Her groundbreaking work uncovered some surprising facts, such as chimps making and using simple tools, developing distinct personalities, displaying emotions, eating meat (they were thought to be vegetarian), and conducting years-long wars between troops.  This understanding became pivotal in the growing environmentalist and animal rights movements of the 1960s.

Born 3 April 1934, Jane Goodall has an eponymous asteroid named for her, which opposes (180 degrees) her Sun/Mars pairing (13 & 15 Aries) and is exactly conjunct Jupiter (18 Libra), also conjoined asteroid Scientia (9 Libra), named for the Roman word for “knowledge” (and the root of our word “science”).  Mars gave her the will, determination and drive to pursue her passion for science, despite the early lack of education, as well as the energy to endure decades of life in the wild, ultimately resulting in her leadership (also Mars) in her chosen field.

Jupiter rules higher education, and despite the challenging beginnings, Goodall, sponsored by Leakey, went on to obtain a PhD at Cambridge University, only the eighth person allowed to pursue that honor without first obtaining an undergraduate degree.  Jupiter also brings fame and celebrity, which Goodall had in spades after several cover stories in “National Geographic” in the 1960s, detailing her findings.  In 1977 she established the education-based Jane Goodall Institute to continue her work, which has mushroomed into some 10,000 chapters globally, in more than 100 countries, another nod to the “higher learning” focus of her Sun opposed Jupiter.

The importance of Goodall’s primate research in Tanzania is foreshadowed by an Angular placement (1) of the Moon (3 Sagittarius, on the 6 Sagittarius Ascendant) opposed asteroids Tanzi and Prime (at 3 and 10 Gemini).  This reflects her desire to observe habitual behaviors (Moon) of primates (asteroid Prime, for “primate”) living in the natural wilds (also Moon) of Tanzania (asteroid Tanzi, closest to Tanzania), which therefore became her own home (also Moon) for many years.  To gain their trust, Goodall spent years quietly and unobtrusively inserting herself into chimpanzee society, until she became effectively invisible to them, allowing them to behave naturally, as portrayed by Neptune (10 Virgo), governing invisibility, which forms a T-Square (2) with the lunar opposition. 

When Jane Goodall passed on 1 October 2025, asteroid Janegoodall (4 Cancer) squared (90 degrees) the Sun (spotlighting her one final time), itself exactly conjunct asteroid Africa (both 8 Libra), representing the continent where she spent most of her life.  Her mortality is signaled by a T-Square formed with asteroid Scientia (4 Capricorn) conjoined asteroid Rip (10 Capricorn), which acts as a death indicator in the form of the acronym RIP, “Rest In Peace,” a common tombstone inscription.  Together these describe the death (Rip) of an African-based (Africa) scientist (Scientia) named Jane Goodall.  Natal Rip (3 Aquarius) had been activated by an exact conjunction of transit Pluto, known as the modern lord of death, at its retrograde station (3) the previous May, and in April, a Solar Eclipse (9 Aries) conjoined her natal Sun, also squaring Rip.

A conjunction of Jupiter (22 Cancer) with asteroid Prime (17 Cancer) closely aligned with natal Pluto (22 Cancer), and formed a T-Square with asteroid Goodall (27 Libra, named for a worker at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, no relation) conjunct Mercury (21 Libra, indicating a newsworthy event) and asteroids Jan and Jana (26 & 28 Aries, closest to “Jane,” for which there is no exact match).  Natal Goodall (16 Virgo) had been activated by the Lunar Eclipse of 7 September (15 Pisces) in opposition, setting the stage for her demise.

Jane Goodall’s seminal work with chimpanzees was powerfully formative in developing our modern understanding of just how similar we are to “lesser” primates.  Her legacy endures.

Notes:  (1) The “Angles” are the cardinal directional points, where celestial bodies rise (Ascendant) and set (descendant) at the horizon, or achieve highest (Midheaven, or MC) or lowest elevations (Nadir, or IC). Placement here signifies enhanced importance in character or biography.

(2) A T-Square is a dynamic pattern composed of two or more planets in opposition (180 degrees), each squared (90 degrees) a third.  It represents stress and conflict, with the fulcrum point (at the square) offering a possibility of resolution.

(3) Stations are periods when, from our perspective on Earth, a planet appears to slow its movement, come to a standstill, and reverse course.  This is an optical illusion created by the triangulation between the sun, Earth, and any third celestial body; astrologically, it represents a focusing of the energies associated with that point, and often coincides with major life events or a radical recalibration of how that point has functioned previously.

Sources: reporting from MSNBC, biography from Wikipedia, chart data from serennu.com

Title Image Credit:  drawn by ChatGPT