Zachary ‘Zak’ Bagans: So Spooky

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 A detail from the painting 'The Shade of Samuel Invoked by Saul' (1857)

 by Dmitrij Martynov (1826-1889)

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Everybody needs ‘down’ time. So as I turned from the ‘must do’s of life somewhere back early in the 2012 May-June Venus retrograde, I did what we do…I rolled through television channels, seeing if something would penetrate the thickness of a rather tired brain.

Then I ran across something...a show which had three grown men exploring some very dark somewhere using only the tiny LCD screens of their night-vision video cameras as a means of finding their way.

That's different.

The thought of going through some building that way struck me. On one hand, it’s sort of the ultimate in taking a step in the dark – an expressing of faith in your own ability to be safe. It's also an interesting…perhaps even illuminating (yes, I said that) use for applied technology.

As usual, the script writer in my mind clicked on...:

Ancient Explorer: In my day, we used a compass and raw wits.

Modern Explorer: We use LCD, GPS and electronic measurements.

Or something like that. Trust me, it wasn't a big-budget effort. Like I said - I was tired.

Anyway, it became clear almost immediately that these guys were being caught in the (filmic) act of trying to connect with ghosts either in ‘tape loop’ (energy imprint) form or real time. Their aim seemed to be documentation (as opposed to helping trapped spirits move on) and the intelligent responses, the electronic signatures, it all immediately struck me as rather lovely stuff.

The show’s name: "Ghost Adventures"

Personally, I find the idea that people think we simply die and vanish odd – so I’m not arguing with ghost hunters. If E=mc2’d and we’re all energy, the ‘animation’ of the mass of flesh which all too soon crumbles into elemental dust when we die…that energy must go somewhere.

Here’s the law: energy is never lost. It may change forms, but it’s never lost. This isn’t some fanciful concept, it’s one of those real-live science things.

Anyway…I’ve known one true parapsychologist in my life. And just as obviously, I have my own orientation to energy and 'things unseen.' As for those who say “where ARE they?” (referring to ghosts) I suggest M-theory...you'll find it on the shelf (digital or otherwise) at about half-past string theory.

M-theory is the only thing which accounts for everything we don't quite have a 'place' for...starting with ghosts, and perhaps ending with the ethereal realm of Angelic Beings.

Such theories also (by the by) account for the compounding of metaphysical effects we pondered a couple of days ago in the blog on Pluto's newest moon (LINK). 

But I digress.

So there I am watching these three guys doing their investigation...and I’m intrigued. Intrigued enough that over the next few weeks I manage to catch several other  episodes, one of which causes me to cry (don’t ask) and one of which amuses me - highly.

I think it's safe to say that it was somewhere between Zak Bagans turning to the camera when somewhere very high off the ground to confess a loathing of heights (which I share)...and then when he takes it into his head (no comment) to confront his fears by picking up a snake that the human side of this parapsychological exotica got to me.

Not that Zak was so successful with said snake. As shown, he quickly became so overcome with fear that he drops the snake and goes leaping and shrieking across the hillside, sounding for all the world like a pre-teen girl while reminding me of a springbok trying to avoid getting eaten by a lion.

Gotta love a man who will allow himself to be filmed doing that, y’know? Since he's one of the Producers on the show, he would (more than likely) have the power to get the scene cut. But he didn't. As a 2nd generation Hollywood studio brat, I know the 'face saving' side of image molding. I also know the manipulation of the image.

It's all fine.

Well, except for the picking up snakes off western US hillsides part. That, I don't think a hugely good idea. True, in this case the crew may have vetted this snake. They may have even spoken to its agent to make sure it wouldn’t bite. For all I know (and I'm a girl who can recite many a movie union contract rule) it’s just possible that in this day and age snakes get hazard pay for biting stars.

But still...

Wherever that left me, I shortly thereafter did what astrologers do: I Googled Ghost Adventures and very quickly came up with three birth dates and three birth places (one for each guy, not three for one guy. That truly would have been spooky!).

As an astrologer, I of course prefer to have time of birth included as part of my entrée, but taking data snack in hand I retreated to my comfy world of astrology software (which come to think of it also requires and LCD screeen) and typed the data in.

The first chart I took a close look at was that of Zak Bagans. Here's the simplified version of that chart:

 Zachary 'Zak' Bagans - April 5, 1977 - Washington, DC

(Chart erected in Aries Wheel format due to no birth time.
No Moon is shown for the same reason. though unless
the birth time is prior to 39 minutes after midnight, this
nativity will have a Scorpio Moon.)

Truthfully, my first 'Ghost Adventures' astro-fact involves the idea that the entire team is born under the sign of Aries. And that doesn't strike me as being out of line. Aries is the sign of existing and conscious recognition of same. So for a trio of Aries people to be documenting the existence of ghosts seems apt. These guys are spending their lives looking for signs of life beyond life. And the manner in which they look for it is through looking to connect (as they often point out) through intelligent communication - the very sign of existence as consciousness-in-action.

How very Aries.

The last chart called up in my program was that I began to ponder - Zak Bagans'. And before I continue, let's be straight here: I know very little about him. But I had heard the show's introduction a couple of times by the time I did all this chart-casting.

Episodes of Ghost Adventures begin with the Voice-of-Zak declaring in a tone forthright, declarative and maybe a wee bit confessional (...again, how very Aries...) the following:

“My name is Zak Bagans. I never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one."

"So I set out on a quest to capture what I once saw onto video. With no big camera crews following us around, I am joined only by my fellow investigator Nick Groff and our equipment tech Aaron Goodwin. The three of us will travel to some of the most highly active paranormal locations, where we will spend an entire night being locked down from dusk until dawn"

"Raw...extreme...these are our Ghost Adventures.” 

...and when I saw Zak Bagans' chart, even without a proper time of birth that little phrase ‘I never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one’ jumped right off the screen. 

Astrologically, the image was perfect: sitting at 15 Aries, Zak's natal Sun (life) is conjunct Eris (discord) at 13 Aries.

Remember my saying that I was going to look around for some charts which highlighted Eris? I couldn't have asked for a better example. And considering several inquiries about Eris (that’s what you get when you’re the warm body doing the research) it’s apparent that the metaphysical Eris as ‘discord’ (from the Roman name for the goddess: Discordia) doesn’t yet make sense to most folks. We tend to think in terms of 'destruction' and Eris isn't about destruction. Eris isn’t even about not taking the trash out or leaving your socks on the floor.

Eris isn't about anything you do. Eris isn't even about anything done to you. Eris is about how you experience something which occurs.

And if the byword for Eris is 'discord,' that tells us that Eris represents some thing or some feeling...or both...which evokes a sense of discord.

Like ghosts, maybe?

I guess if you're Zak Bagans, yes.

 The idea of ghosts has been part of virtually every culture

throughout human kind. Philosophically, this would be a

reflection of the idea that as soon as we 'own' the idea we exist,

we wonder what 'non-existence' is - and what becomes of

a life as rich and consciously vibrant as that of a human is,

whether filled with joy or horror. The above is part of a

three-panel painting from around 1850 called 'The Ghosts of

 Togo and His Wife' by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Yet I doubt it's all that direct and linear-simple. Very little about life is...very little about astrology - a lens through which we can better understand life (or the afterlife, depending) - is that simple.

Dwarf Planet Eris inhabits the far flung regions of our solar system beyond Neptune, the last “official” planet. This entire region is known rather generously as the Kuiper Belt (with fringe districts being known as the Oort Cloud) …with anything which cycles in this arena often simply referred to as a KBO (Kuiper Belt Object).

 Planet Neptune

photo credit: NASA-JPL

This KBO 'group-simplification' is useful in astrology simply because all KBOs, no matter their subset (of which there are several) …all seem to be about situations, circumstances and interactions which, in provoking us, get us past our inhibitions, our lack of knowledge, our denials – or simply some lack of experience. The tornado which sweeps through and destroys your quiet, peaceful neighborhood, the experience of that is often signaled by a KBO (either as a transiting object or a natal KBO in your chart being transited by major planet, node or eclipse).

The tornado is not the 'thing.' The 'thing' is what you experience because of or through being exposed to the tornado.

In Zak Bagan's chart, because we see Eris positioned rather tightly conjunct to the Sun, we know a couple of things. He is 'made' (as it were) to provoke. He can do it through what he 'does' (the standard Aries "I do" method) and with Sun/Eris he could be highly provocative, provoking or simply combative. This would be Zak embodying Sun/Eris, Zak being someone who "is" Eris and thus causes discord.

He could also experience Sun/Eris as something which 'disrupts' his physical (Aries) life. One hopes this doesn't happen, but it's another way this confluence could work.

Then again, there's the active/passive 'life as response to Eris' expression - which seems to be more of Zak's style. In this bailiwick we would have Zak 'being' the person which has resulted from his own experiences in life...hence the 'I never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one.’ 

How would we know that Zak would be one of these things and not the other? The whole of how this works could only be delineated through knowing his birth time. But apart from that, the chart does give us one major commentary. Aries (the sign of his Sun/Aries) is ruled by Mars. And Zak's natal Mars is in Pisces. Specifically, in the second or emotional decanate of Pisces (degrees 10-19).

As a sign, Pisces is about experiencing our feelings. Where we see Pisces in any chart, we know that there is a certain level of caution which comes from an inner knowing of how powerful emotionality can be. That Pisces is known as a sign of addicts and prisons is all about that very sort of 'inability to cope' with the reality of life, of disappointment, of mortality.

Given that, unless Zak Bagans was something like a surgeon or some such, it's hard to think that an Aries Sun/Eris ruled by a Pisces Mars would be overly aggressive. Does he have his moments? Abso-pozzo-lutely! But an out-and-out aggressor? Probably not.

This is, however, a combination which does leave some space open for questions of 'toxicity,' be that emotional or physical. Anything from a swelled head and out-of-touch case of emotional narcissism to drug or alcohol dependence through to issues arising from chemical or biological exposure or being on either end of love addictions would fit this particular bill.

So Zak Bagans gets born with this chart. And through his life he experiences this and that form of Sun/Eris - of that, we may be sure even without a detailed life history.
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Sun/Eris in this chart is like a depth charge with an automatic reset mechanism.

Obviously without time of birth and exactly knowledge of when Zak met the ghost, we can’t know what that ‘trip wire’ was. But that he’s gone on to investigate ghosts – which of themselves are startling and sort of ‘unsettling’ things? That's very Aries Eris/Sun. That he has been forced and through his work introduces others to things which cause them to reorient themselves to the  apparent stability of our dimensional time/space existence?

That's seriously Sun/Eris. That is Zak Bagans acting as the very embodiment of his Aries Sun/Eris. He's making a life (Sun) out of something which by its very nature is emotionally provocative (Eris).

 

An orbital diagram of the solar system including Eris

(diagram credit: JPL Small Body Data Base) 

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But how would we know that he would do it through creating a TV series?

Again, the real peach-pit in the works here is that we don't have his time of birth. But even at that, Zak Bagan's natal chart has one very pronounced figure which should really give us a clue.

That figure? Pluto in Libra with Pluto positioned as to be very much in opposition with Zak's Sun/Eris, forming something of a conduit - an energy tunnel, if you will.

(Hmmm....isn't that what he ends up doing a lot of the time? Wandering around in dark tunnels looking for energy readings seems to be one of Zak's hobbies.)

In short, the television show is a Zak Bagans harnessing his Pluto in Libra.

Pluto is (among other things) a generational marker. As Pluto movies through the signs, a greater society unprompted by astrologers seems to follow right along, clicking off generational nicknames: Pluto in Leo - the Baby Boomers; Pluto in Virgo - the Yuppies; Pluto in Libra - Gen X.

A Libra Pluto is the signature of Gen X. To paint this tribe in the broadest of all brush strokes, Gen X is a generation very into trends. Gen X creates them, Gen X loves believing in them, and Gen X subscribes to the idea of trends as a righteously good thing.

Gen X likes to share. And this is not so mysterious if we consider Libra as the sign of 'the other' or where the "me-I" of life meets up with reactions.

Pluto is an obsessive, driving energy. There is a drive in every generation which in Gen X focuses on that other and what that other thinks...or thinks about...or thinks of 'me.' Gen X is the generation of the celebrity monogram. Sure, tabloids existed long before Gen X arrived, but this is the generation which made the paparazzi rich. (Okay, richer.) With Libra being an airy and theoretical sign, Pluto’s notorious quality of magnetism drew this generation took the Pluto in Virgo (Yuppie) materialism one step further, bringing us the ‘everyman as star’ (reality TV) while escalating show and tell from 'what you have' (an earthy, Virgo concept) into who you are, what you look like, and who your friends are.

With Pluto in Libra, it's the idea of the thing which is attractive. This is the generation which wants to be able to say it even if the truth is they don't really like it!

Yet there’s a trick with all Pluto placements: the real lesson, the road to Plutonic fulfillment lies in the opposition. So the 'easy' thing is to obsess about the other and being in relationship to the other and blah, blah, blah. But the power of Pluto in Libra comes from the polarity sign.

Which is...?

Aries.

What this means is that the object of Pluto in Libra is to a.) know who you are, b.) know what you believe in and are capable of and c.) using that to connect to others.

Yes, this is why Gen X got so wildly into appearances, including plastic surgery. This is why Gen X members were the first to get wholly into branding.

(Not cowboys-and-cows branding, the other kind of branding - that where one's name becomes a public symbol or 'nameplate' icon...)

 Manao Tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch)

by Paul Gauguin (1892)

I’ll guess that with a 15 Aries Sun (13 Aries Eris) so decidedly in opposition to a natal 12 Libra Pluto, Zak Bagans is a man who understands being polarized and being in connection to others. It's a passion. It's intriguing - in both directions. And yet...how to utilize it?

That, so often becomes the Pluto question. Difficulties arise and we often tend to think 'it's not me, it's them' - Pluto does tend to cause us to project.

Ultimately the lesson is ours. Always ours. It's about needed grow and how after a time, anything can become a bit rote. Then we have to change, we have to mix it up and hopefully in that process, become renewed in our Pluto purpose...lest Plutonic energy come back to haunt us...in Zak Bagans' case, perhaps literally.

That means that in the choosing of what we want to be involved in, we heed our Pluto and choose carefully, lest we end up cutting ourselves short, boxing ourselves in and causing the energy of growth to creating a sense of life lost...a dead end.

As for Eris..it's likely that prior to getting spooked into  paranormal work (of which Ghost Adventures is may well only be one format) Zak was a touch restless and prone to feeling the sort of motivation which sometimes manifests as rebelliousness, sometimes as moments of irascibility.

Yet with an Aries Venus right behind the Aries Sun/Eris duo, though this combination lends itself to some degree of "bottom line expressiveness" (without all the corners getting nicely rounded and rubber-bumpered) the Sun/Venus part of it lends the sort of sweetness which generally spells redemption. Though it can also surface as that special sort of evasive charm which works in the moment but often leads to second-guessing, voluntary or prompted.

In point of fact, any planet in close conjunction to the Sun gives an 'unconscious' sort of quality. So until Zak Bagans found ways to appeal and connect to others through harnessing his own humanness and vulnerability, that Venus-Sun-Eris would have made for a few iffy incidents. And yes, throughout life he is likely to stub his feelings on those of others. But that's just Sun/Venus in Eris.

And let's face it...there are no perfect charts. Or perfect lives.

Plus there is the good part of it all...even when Zak Bagans does rub stumble over his best intentions (and don't we all at times?), he gets a lesson - a Sun-Eris lesson. And thus, through internal Sun-Eris prompting, he grows. Learns. Matures.

That's just the way it works. Our charts each have markers which shows how each of us learns. Zak Bagans just does his learning - greatly - through the being or receiving of Eris-type energetics.

So...bottom line? The bottom line here - at least to this astrologer's thinking is that the ghost did Zak Bagans a substantially huge (dare we say transcendental?) service.

I guess he should hope that ghost doesn't have a billing service. (What does a good haunting cost these days, anyway?)

Oh yes - and a note for those who've heard all reality TV shows are scripted and therefore bunk. I'm not touching that with a ten-foot digital pole, except to say that even IF the entire show was fluff, if it rattles people's mental bones and provokes thought about life beyond the norm and status quo, that's Sun/Eris.

Thinking this all through, I turned to one of the ever-present books clustered atop my desk – a well-thumbed copy of Dane Rudhyar’s An Astrological Mandala (Vintage Books, copyright 1973). You've heard me talk about Sabian Symbols and this is one of a dozen books on same. The Sabian Symbols for each of the zodiac's 360 degrees are exactly the same in every book. What makes this book particularly interesting for me however, is that Rudhyar has commented on same.

So...being the cat which gets killed periodically for curiosity, I opened the book and looked up the degree of Zak’s Sun...and yes, I realize that if he was born in the last tick-tocks before midnight of the next day his Sun would be at 16, not 15 Aries.

But when you read this...well, let's just say I would be hugely surprised if his Sun is at 16 Aries. Why? Allow me to type most of what Dane Rudhyar writes about 15 Aries out - I suspect you'll see what I mean.

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Image: NATURE SPIRITS ARE SEEN AT WORK IN THE LIGHT OF SUNSET

Keynote: Attunement to the potency of invisible forces of nature.

Text: In the light of personal fulfillment (symbol of sunset and wisdom) man may be able to establish a life-giving contact with natural forces. These are active any time growth processes take place, but man’s individualized mind is usually too focused on working for consciously set goals to be able to realize concretely the presence of invisible (or “occult”) forces in operation. These forces constitute a specific realm of any planetary life. They are inherent in all “biospheres,” on whatever planet. They are non-individualized and un-free energies forming in the substratum of all life processes – thus of the process of integration at the level of the planet-as-a-whole, i.e., the planet as an organism with its automatic systems of growth, maintenance and organic multiplication.

In this planetary organism those nature forces act as guiding and balancing-harmonizing factors...(sic)...(and) It is when this energy becomes less dominant – thus symbolically at sunset – or when the body energy is weakened by illness, fasting or sensory deprivation, that it becomes easier to perceive these “nature spirits” and to give them forms that symbolize the character of their activities. (sic) When this Sabian symbol reaches into the consciousness of a man seeking meaning, it should be seen as an invitation to open his mind to the possibility of approaching life in a holistic and non-rational, intuitive manner.

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When I read that, suddenly the image of three men walking through pitch black darkness using only tiny LCD screens as guidance made total sense - at least for Zak Bagans. ‘…when the body energy is weakened by sensory deprivation…it becomes easier to perceive these “nature spirits.”’

It also meant that Zak Bagans' nativity is a 15 Aries chart, not a 16 Aries chart. 

Moreover, this is the moment which prompted me to write this blog. It's the very sort of moment which makes astrology so interesting, useful and illuminating. In harnessing his own willingness to walk through darkness proverbial and literal, Zak Bagans has harnessed his Pluto. He's connected that which provoked his life (Eris) to the questions and questing of millions of other people, enhancing both giver and the those given to. That's how Gen X triumphs - and why so many members of this generation find their greatest strength (in the public/worldly sense) lies in something which has an entrepreneurial flair.

As for Zak Begans, he's found not just a way to connect to the living, but also a way to connect to the spirits of those who, though dead, still cry out. He gives them the voice of Eris provocation and a moment in which they, from their unfathomable nearness, can remind us of what - in the end - are KBO consequences which are just as real in our lives as in theirs. 

As 'tis said in the world of metaphysics: Use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.

In reaching Beyond and reaching out, Zak has also put himself on a path to understanding how his own fulfillment works. How a status quo isn't necessarily his bliss. In the spirits of Nature, he finds his Self. He learns more about the nature of Self and existing. And in that process, he provides us all with insights.

And yes, he serves to provoke us. Whether you find yourself wondering why you haven't taken it upon yourself to do something as meaningful to you...whether you're drawn to ask how life and our lives work...or why what we do with our lives - and even how we do it counts?

If Zak Bagans makes you think. If his life makes him think, it's all good and valid. It's all Sun-Eris-Pluto.

Speaking of which, without reciting here the whole of the Sabian Symbol for his 12 Libra Pluto, let me just say that the (universal) Sabian for 12 Libra is 'MINERS ARE SURFACING FROM A DEEP COAL MINE'...with the keynote being 'The need to carry on at ever deeper levels the quest for knowledge which keeps burning the fires of the collective mind of a society.'

Need we say more? Mind you, this is about Zak himself, and this is about all those he encounters, including those he will never know, and those whose lives (or existences) will be changed because of what he does...or even what he doesn't do. This Sun/Eris opposition Pluto is a powerful configuration, one far better consciously used for good purpose than not.

Of course there are thousands of people born on the same day as Zak Bagans. Will they have his chart? No. they won't, because not one of them was born in the exact like moment and same location. That's why Zak is who he is...and why your chart speaks to who you are.

Charts repeat only once every 25,920 years even if all you're looking at are the most 'standard' of standard astrological symbols: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Add in modern dwarf planets like Eris, Sedna, Haumea, Ixion and a couple of dozen core asteroids, comets and fixed stars and charts will only repeat once every 250 million years.

Zak is who Zak is. His team partners are who they are. You are who you are. We all have an opportunity to learn who we are and to find ways to tap into our hidden potentials. Life often leads us from theme to theme to theme...and when we stop to think about it, they all 'do' the same thing. The success we have with each thing and each type of interaction, that's what's supposed to tell us how to hone our act, our aim, our plans.

I’d still like to have Zak’s birth time. In fact, I’d like birth times for his partners Aaron and Nick, too. Why? Because they’re a team. Why they're a team interests me. All partners and relationships of any sort have a functional connection in time/space, and understanding the nature of time/space in manifestation is what I do...rather like the Ghost Adventures team looks to connect with ghosts.

There are also some questions I'd love to ask about their equipment. For instance, mel meters are sensitive to certain frequencies. What frequencies are those? We live in a universe of energy and frequencies - all of which translates into numbers.

And since Zak Bagans refers to himself not just as a ghost hunter but a demon hunter...so does that mean mel meters register both? If so, would they also register the presence of Angels? And if not, why not - and what would?

Getting back to what they do versus what I do, there do seem to be differences. (Repetition of Disclaimer: I don't know much about Ghost Adventures as a project or the aims of its stars.). So what their ultimate aims are, they are. They seem to be focused on collecting and documenting that ghosts and spirits exist, which is markedly different from what I do: in my work as an astrologer (apart from all else I do) I use astrology to decipher patterns of time space - to make sense of human life, culture, politics and commerce.

That data, those patterns, that information, I pass along to you, to clients, to others. Beyond that it's all also part of my wanting to know more about time/space...particularly the 'time' part of time/space.

Time is a particular fascination of mine. And to me, metaphysics, especially where it interfaces with hard science...well, just call it reverse engineering. Through what the thing is, we discover how it works. Through how it works, we discover how it comes to exist.

On a metaphysical level, of course.

Having been an astrologer now for quite a while, I realize I may never get any of the data particulars. So my questions may forever remain unanswered. But meanwhile, I can thank the team all for their work - and for having inspired me to see this piece of Dane Rudhyar writing in a totally new way.

For me, it's truly meaningful - a lasting bit of insight which answers some questions while prompting others.

(That's my favorite sort of information. Here's hoping it's yours, too.)

As for Zak Bagans...wherever you are Zak, muchos thanks. Just watch the snake thing, okay?