Alex's Asteroid Astrology

At 3:30 PM EDT on the afternoon of 12 June 2024, 86-year-old Anthony “Tony Cakes” Conigliaro walked into the crossing at 92^nd Street and Dahlgren Place in Brooklyn, NY, against a “Do Not Walk” sign.  He never made it across.  At least, parts of him did, but Tony Cakes was struck by a local Department of Transportation truck turning the corner, crushed and decapitated, with his severed head lying several yards away from his crumpled body.

Tony Cakes had lived a chequered life, at one time a soldier and loan shark for the Genovese crime family, one of the infamous Five Families that ran the mafia in the New York region.  Arrested in 1999 for “criminal usury” and again in 2006 for grand larceny, Tony Cakes eventually pled out to a charge of racketeering conspiracy and served a 13-month sentence for his crimes.  After his release, Tony turned over a new leaf and made a respectable life for himself as a wholesale baked goods purveyor, also owning an Italian ice and gelato stand in Little Italy.  It was then Conigliaro acquired the nickname Tony Cakes, also known as Tony the Dessert Man.  From that point on, everyone who knew him saw a genial, gentle soul, always ready to help others.

But Fate and Karma have a long reach.  As one police source put it, “He spent his life looking over his shoulder, but forgot to look both ways before crossing the street.”

Intimations of Tony’s life path and its end abound in the birth chart, and are reflected also in his passing.  Born 11 May 1938 (no time available), Antonio “Anthony” Conigliaro sports a 20 Taurus Sun conjoined by Uranus at 14 Taurus, as well as asteroids Judith 664 and Osiris 1923 at 16 and 19 Taurus.  Judith is an asteroid associated with beheadings, named for the Biblical heroine who, to save her village from destruction by Assyrian general Holofernes, seduced him and then cut off his head during his post-coital lethargy.  Osiris is named for the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, and Uranus can signal accidents.  So, from birth, Tony Cakes seems likely to die (Osiris) in an accident (Uranus) that leaves him headless (Judith).

Remarkably, at his death, the Sun/Judith conjunction repeats, with an exact alignment at 22 Gemini, also exactly with Venus (ruling the sweets and confections he pedaled late in life).  Even more remarkably, this triple conjunction exactly conjoins Tony’s natal asteroid Carr 3837, a phonetic match for “car,” representing the vehicle that beheaded him.  But more of that later.

To return to the birth chart, there are several other indicators of beheading, including asteroids Orpheus 3361 (named for the mythic musician torn to pieces by the maenads, whose severed head floated downstream, still singing); Medusa 149 (named for the Gorgon decapitated by Perseus); Salome 562 (named for the stepdaughter of King Herod who requested the head of John the Baptist as payment for her dance); and Baptistini 298 (for the said John the Baptist).

Orpheus also shows prominently in the chart; at 29 Capricorn, Orpheus is stationary, turning retrograde three days after Tony’s birth (and opposing Pluto, modern lord of death, at 28 Cancer, suggesting a death by beheading).  Stationary points exert a greater-than-typical influence on character or biography, and Tony Cakes had quite a few of them, including asteroid Medusa, which at 22 Virgo turned direct 5 days prior to his birth (note also that Medusa is exactly squared Carr, the device that fulfilled stationary Medusa’s promise of decapitation). 

Medusa isn’t alone in that region.  She’s accompanied by asteroid Brooks 2773, for Brooklyn, the place Tony lived and died; at 28 Virgo, Brooks turned direct May 16^th.  Also here, asteroid Lachesis 120 at 26 Virgo, named for the mythic Greek Fate who determines the span of life; Lachesis turned direct May 6^th.  Asteroid Genua 485 is closest to Genoa, with the Genovese crime family’s name meaning “resident of Genoa;” Genua turned direct at 21 Virgo on May 5^th.  Asteroids Nemesis 128 at 18 Virgo and Anubis 1912 at 14 Virgo round out the tally of stationary points.  Nemesis refers to ruin or destruction, often self-created (like crossing the street against the light), and turned direct May 9^th; Anubis is named for the Egyptian deity ruling funerary rites, and turned direct May 4^th. 

Also in this cluster is Neptune at 18 Virgo, which rules conspiracy, the crime to which Tony pleaded guilty; and imprisonment, referencing his subsequent incarceration.  This astounding grouping displays Tony Cake’s place of residence (Brooks), his affiliations with the Genovese family (Genua) and the conspiracy with them for which he did time (Neptune), his death (Lachesis, Anubis) by beheading (Medusa), and his own role in his undoing (Nemesis).

And what of the remaining decapitation significators?  Asteroid Salome at 9 Pisces lies on the fulcrum of a T-Square with Mars (violent death) at 12 Gemini opposed asteroid Toni 924 (for Tony) at 9 Sagittarius.  Asteroid Baptistina at 13 Aries is also part of another stand-out triple conjunction, exact with Saturn (ancient lord of death) and asteroid Dahlgren 6945, the name of the street where he literally lost his head.  Just down the celestial pike is asteroid Street 16017 at 17 Aries, which also conjoins asteroid Requiem 2254 at 23 Aries, named for the funeral mass for the dead, denoting a possible death (Saturn, Requiem) in the street (Street; on its hinter side, Requiem also conjoins Mercury at 26 Aries, reinforcing the sense that traffic could play a deadly role in his life).  Truly, there seems no escape valve for this multiplicity of karmic cranial cutting-off presentiments.  (Saturn also rules career, and at 13 Aries, is trine to asteroid Baker 2549 at 9 Leo, a nod to Tony Cakes’ second act as a baked goods entrepreneur.)

Tony Cakes had a strong streak of rashness in his makeup, as seen by asteroid Icarus 1566 at 19 Aquarius, closely squared the Sun, in a T-Square with asteroid Rip 7711 at 25 Scorpio, with Rip a stand-in for the acronym RIP, “Rest In Peace,” an indication that a rash act could lead to his death.  Additional indicators of his connections to the Genovese family and the work he did for them appear as asteroid Genoveva 680 at 26 Aquarius (closest to Genovese) and asteroid Sharkov 4074 (closest to shark, for loan shark) at 19 Aquarius, both also squared the Sun, making them self-defining in some sense.

We’ve already noted Medusa’s exact square to Carr at 22 Gemini; conjoined this is asteroid Antonia 272 at 16 Gemini, a feminine equivalent of his first name, bringing the issue home very personally.  Antonia/Carr is also semisquare asteroid Atropos 273 at 4 Taurus, named for the Fate who severs the thread of life at death, another indicator that a vehicle of some sort would play a key role in Tony’s demise.  Reinforcing this is an exact pairing of Pluto, modern lord of death, with asteroid Ford 13842, at 28 Cancer.  The truck which struck and killed Tony was a Ford F550.  I mean, talk about granular!  Not only do we see vehicles linked generally with death, but the cosmos obliges with the actual make of truck responsible!  Also here is asteroid Karma 3811 at 29 Cancer, another indicator that this was a fated end.  (Incidentally, Pluto, which also rules criminal behaviors, exactly squares asteroid Maffei 18426 at 28 Aries, closest to “mafia.”)

So much for Anthony Conigliaro’s life, and the Fate that awaited him.  Let’s turn now to his death, and how that Fate was fulfilled.

The 3:30 PM EDT time yields an Ascendant of 23 Libra, with a 23 Aries Descendant, matching exactly Tony’s natal asteroid Requiem, and making this a moment fraught with potential death.  The Horizontal Axis forms a T-Square with asteroid Salome at 17 Cancer, one of our “decapitation” markers, and a loose Grand Cross with asteroid Toni at 15 Capricorn.  Asteroid Medusa at 3 Leo (beheading again) conjoins the MC at 28 Cancer, which is the exact degree of Tony’s natal Pluto/Ford conjunction, while the IC at 28 Capricorn conjoins his natal stationary asteroid Orpheus at 29 Cap (also beheading).

Medusa also forms the String of a Grand Trine Kite pattern, opposing Pluto (death) at 1 Aquarius with asteroids Osiris (death) and Icarus (rash, reckless acts), both at 4 Aquarius.  The remaining points of the Grand Trine are Jupiter at 4 Gemini (fame, for good or ill) with asteroids Lachesis and Karma (fated death) at 6 and 8 Gemini; and asteroid Dahlgren (the street where the accident occurred) at 4 Libra.

We’ve already noted the astounding synchronicity of the exact Sun/Judith pairing atop Tony’s natal Carr when a vehicle impact cost him his head, but the story continues, with Sun/Judith caught up in another Grand Cross, opposing asteroid Brooks (Brooklyn) at 23 Sagittarius, squaring Saturn (death) at 19 Pisces and Neptune at 29 Pisces (confusion, invisibility – the driver didn’t see him, he didn’t see the truck), and asteroid Ford at 26 Virgo.

Asteroid Antonia, closest to Antonio/Anthony, appears at station from 17 Aquarius, indicating a major turning point (in this case from life to death), and turned retrograde that very day.  Antonia forms a T-Square with asteroids Requiem and Carr at 7 and 13 Taurus on the fulcrum, as well as an Orpheus/Uranus conjunction at 21 and 14 Taurus, opposed asteroids Street and Nemesis at 8 and 13 Leo.  Again we’re seeing a pivotal moment for Anthony Conigliaro (Antonia stationing) involving a fatal (Requiem) traffic (Street/Carr) accident (Uranus), resulting in a self-created destruction (Nemesis) via decapitation (Orpheus).  Asteroid Rip at 23 Scorpio makes this a loose Grand Cross, and note that Tony Cakes was undergoing a “Rip Return” at the time of his death, with natal Rip at 25 Scorpio.

The Moon at 6 Virgo opposes Damocles 5335 at 5 Pisces, that doom hanging unseen overhead, no more than appropriate here, with the “invisible” truck.  Damocles conjoins natal asteroid Salome at 9 Pisces, and the transit polarity forms a T-Square with natal asteroid Toni at 9 Sagittarius.  A Grand Cross emerges with transit Jupiter, Lachesis and Karma at 4, 6 and 8 Gemini.

Lastly, asteroid Baptistina exactly conjoins asteroid Atropos at 2 Cancer, squaring that Dahlgren placement at 4 Libra, yielding a death (Atropos) by beheading (Baptistina) at Dahlgren Place (Dahlgren).

Another astounding example of how natal potential and real-time events conflate to produce celestial perfection in a terrestrial setting.

[Author’s Note: Special thanks to reader Alberto Forero, who brought this story to my attention. Alberto also covers events with an astrological lens on his X feed.]