club Q cover

The Colorado Springs Drag Show Shooting

Just before midnight on Saturday, 19 November 2022, a man clad in body armor with an AR-15-style long rifle entered Club Q, an LGBTQ+ watering hole in a strip mall on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, Colorado, which was hosting a drag show that evening.  He began shooting into the crowd, but was tackled two minutes later by two patrons and subdued until police arrived.  In those two minutes, he had killed five and wounded 18 others.

The suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder and committing a hate crime.  Aldrich was born Nicholas Brink, but petitioned the court as a minor for the name change at age 16, to avoid association with his criminal father.  Lawyers stated in court filings at his arraignment that he identifies as nonbinary, and should be addressed with the pronouns “they/them.”

The victims included two bartenders at Club Q, Derrick Rump, 38, and Daniel Aston, 28, a transgender man who also entertained there.  Another transgender person was killed in the attack, Kelly Loving, who had celebrated her 40th birthday just days before.  Ironically, two other victims of this gay hate crime were themselves straight – Ashley Paugh, 35, and Raymond Green Vance, 22.  Vance was the boyfriend of the daughter of the man who initially brought down the shooter, Richard Fierro; the Fierros were there to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

club Q shooter
Shooting suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich, seen here with his mother, whose house the threatened to bomb the year before; asteroid Andersen exactly conjoins asteroid Ganymed, a gay marker, and asteroid Apophis, symbol of pure evil, squared asteroid Atropos, named for the Fate who severs the thread of life at death

The shooting began at 11:59 PM MST, a minute before the first 911 call was placed.  The chart shows asteroid Sappho at 28 Aquarius rising on the 4 Virgo Ascendant, opposing Damocles at 28 Aquarius setting on the 4 Pisces Descendant.  Sappho, named for an ancient Greek lesbian poet, is a marker for LGBTQ issues generally, while Damocles represents the looming threat, a disaster about to descend at any moment. 

On the 0 Gemini Midheaven is asteroid Drago, for “drag”, at 3 Gemini, and this opposes a cluster of points on the 0 Sagittarius IC:  the Sun at 27 Scorpio, lying at the fulcrum of a T-Square crafted from the Sappho/Damocles polarity, pulling its potential into focus; asteroid Richard at 1 Sagittarius, the first name of the hero patron who tackled the gunman; Mercury at 4 Sagittarius, connoting a newsworthy event; Venus at 5 Sagittarius, describing the entertainment venue (and in opposition to Drago, specifically a drag show); an exact conjunction of asteroids Lee and Gunn at 7 Sagittarius, tying Anderson Lee Aldrich directly to his weapon of choice; and asteroid Daniela at 8 Sagittarius, feminine form of victim Daniel Aston’s first name.

club Q fierro
Club patron Richard Fierro tackled and brought down the gunman less than two minutes after the shooting began; asteroid Richard is angular on the IC, conjoined the Sun, Mercury (news), Venus (entertainment venue), asteroid Lee (gunman’s middle name) and Gunn (for the weapon), opposed asteroid Drago (drag)

The shooter is seen again in various PNAs (Personal-Named Asteroids) which reflect both his birth and adopted names.  Asteroid Andersen (alternate spelling of Anderson) appears at 12 Libra, exactly conjunct asteroid Ganymed, another gay marker (named for Zeus’ cupbearer and boy-toy lover), in a cluster with asteroids Rip at 3 Libra (“Rest In Peace”), Nicky at 7 Libra (for birth name Nicholas), Apophis at 8 Libra (named for the ancient Egyptian personification of pure evil), Antinous at 9 Libra (yet another gay marker, named for Roman Emperor Hadrian’s lover), and the Moon at 10 Libra, the proximate trigger of the event. 

Asteroids Nichols and Nicole (two more variations of Nicholas) square this from 10 and 15 Capricorn respectively, while also conjoined asteroid Atropos at 17 Capricorn, named for the mythic Greek Fate who severs the thread of life at death.  Asteroid Niccolo (there is no Nicholas asteroid, but quite a few variants) at 13 Taurus conjoins Uranus at 16 Taurus, planetary ruler of shootings, and squares asteroid Lachesis (named for the Fate who determines the span of life) and Saturn (ancient lord of death) at 11 and 19 Aquarius.  Asteroid Nichol at 29 Capricorn conjoins Pluto, modern lord of death and planetary ruler of homicide as well as criminal acts, at 26 Capricorn.

club Q club
Club Q was the one place the local LGBTQ+ community felt safe and able to be themselves – no more; asteroid Sappho, named for an ancient lesbian poet, is rising on the Ascendant for the shooting, opposed by Damocles, the doom hanging unseen overhead, in a T-Square with the Sun

Also here is asteroid Kelly at 21 Capricorn, conjoined Pluto, and asteroid Loving at 25 Cancer, opposed it, for victim Kelly Loving.  Asteroid Daniel, for victim Daniel Aston, appears at 20 Sagittarius, opposed Mars at 22 Gemini, ruler of guns, attacks and violent death, in a T-Square with asteroid Osiris at 20 Virgo on the fulcrum, named for the Egyptian god of the dead, exactly squared Daniel.  Also on the fulcrum is asteroid Tantalus, a point noted for the commission of heinous acts, at 17 Virgo.

Ashley Paugh is represented by asteroid Ashley, which at 5 Scorpio exactly conjoins asteroid Anubis, named for the Egyptian deity governing funerary rites, and also conjunct Requiem at 6 Scorpio, named for the funeral mass for the dead, and asteroid Eros at 8 Scorpio, highlighting the gay vibe of the venue (Eros was the acknowledged patron of homosexual unions in Hellenistic Greece).  Asteroid Raymond, for victim Raymond Green Vance, ties to this from 29 Libra, from where it also squares Pluto.  Asteroid Green at 14 Aries squares Atropos and opposes the Libra stellium.

club Q victims
Photos of Kelly Loving (left to right), Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh, Raymond Green Vance and Daniel Aston stand above a memorial outside of Colorado Springs’ Club Q; each had PNAs representing them which interacted with death indicators that day

There is no Derrick asteroid, for victim Derrick Rump, but there are four Derek CNAs (Compound-Name Asteroids, with first and last name strung together as one word, capable of being separated and used for either name), and all four factor significantly into the day with connections to death indicators.  Asteroid Derekmuller at 21 Virgo conjoins Osiris and Tantalus; asteroid Dereknelson at 9 Cancer squares the Libra stellium including Rip, while asteroid Derekshannon at 1 Libra conjoins it, and asteroid Derekwoo at 5 Aries opposes. The last three also form a Grand Cross with TNO Ixion at 1 Capricorn, named for the first murderer in Greek myth.

As a veteran of far too many of these stories over the past 15 years, I can confirm that this level of connectivity is quite typical of such incidents.  Far from being unique or extraordinary, with 606 mass shootings in the US this year already, one might almost say it’s commonplace.

Alex Miller is a professional writer and astrologer, author of The Black Hole Book, detailing deep space points in astrological interpretation, and the forthcoming Heaven on Earth, a comprehensive study of asteroids, both mythic and personal. Alex is a frequent contributor to “The Mountain Astrologer”, “Daykeeper Journal”, and NCGR’s Journals and “Enews Commentary”; his work has also appeared in “Aspects” magazine, “Dell Horoscope”, “Planetwaves”, “Neptune Café” and “Sasstrology.” He is a past president of Philadelphia Astrological Society, and a former board member for the Philadelphia Chapter of NCGR.

2 comments, add yours.

Laurien

Thanks, Alex. You are right, these kinds of shootings are way too commonplace. Fierro is a true hero. In terms of motivation it seems bizarre that the shooter himself identifies as non-binary. May the victims rest in peace.

Emma Esperanza Acosta Vásquez

Lamentable estos sucesos.

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  1. By The Colorado Springs Drag Show Shooting - Inspire Drip on November 26, 2022 at 11:03 am

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