It may come as no surprise to some of you that it took a Missing Child case to drag me back to Living with Cards.

Little five year old A.J. Freund from Crystal Lake, Illinois has been dead for two weeks now and I’m still brooding over the disturbing facts surrounding his case. I didn’t know A.J. There was nothing I could have done to prevent his death. Still, the little guy got to me. Enough to make me draw up his Reported Missing and Last Seen charts last week and throw a few cards. I didn’t like what I saw but as I said, there was absolutely nothing I could have done about it. Andrew (A.J.) Freund was already dead by then, murdered by his parents. That’s what the charts and cards said. The police confirmed a day later via televised press conference.

 

The Facts

For those of you who are into facts, here’s the timeline:

1. June 2012: first family contact with the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services – more than a year before A.J. was born – when his mother was investigated for drug abuse and neglect of a foster child.
2. October 2013: two days after A.J. was born both he and his mother tested positive for opiates and benzodiazepines  causing DCFS to remove A.J. from the home for the first two years of his life.
3. After his return to the family, DCFS intervened multiple times, responding to reports of abuse and neglect of A.J. and his siblings. All of these investigations were “closed … due to lack of evidence.”
4. December 2018: four months before his disappearance and death, A.J. wound up in the Emergency Room with “cuts, welts and bruises” that were, at first, attributed to a snarl-up with the family dog. But an ER doctor who had examined A.J. told DCFS what the child had allegedly told him: “Maybe someone hit me with a belt. Maybe Mommy didn’t mean to hurt me.” Eventually, similar to previous investigations, the abuse allegation was deemed unfounded due to lack of evidence.
5. DCFS was called in again when A.J. allegedly went missing. According to Freund Sr.’s 911 call to police on Thursday, April 18, 2019, the last time he saw his son was the evening before, Wednesday, April 17th, “around 9:30” when the child went to bed.
6. After determining a kidnapping was unlikely, police attention turned to the parents. By Tuesday, April 23rd, public reports came out that canine units had hit on A.J.’s scent in the trunk of his parents’ car. By the next morning media outlets reported that multiple police vehicles had converged in Woodstock, IL, seven miles northwest of A.J.’s home. They removed a mattress and a shovel. They found the little boy’s body in a shallow grave, wrapped in plastic.
7. On April 24, 2019, both parents were arrested and charged with first degree murder and are being held in jail on $5 million bond. A.J.’s younger brother was placed in a relative’s care. Court documents allege that A.J.’s parents killed him by making him take long, cold showers and beating him. An autopsy determined A.J. died of blunt force trauma to his head. He had been struck multiple times. Date of death was determined to be on or about April 15, 2019, three days prior to the 911 call.

[Sources: WTTW Chicago, USA Today ]

It was just as hard for me to write out the timeline above as it probably was for you to read it. I had to step away from the keyboard and collect my thoughts. Now that I’ve had a moment to clear my head, I’ll go over some of the astrological highlights, followed by the cartomancy of this case:

Astrological Highlights

A.J. had already been missing for a few days when I decided to draw up the charts. I really didn’t want to go there. Just from the news that had already been released, I had a bad feeling, made even worse when I learned that canine units had picked up A.J.’s scent in the trunk of his parents’ car. With so many reports of abuse already public and made factually available, who needed an astrology chart or a card deck to figure out what had probably happened? Despite this, I felt compelled to cast the charts.

The first chart I cast was the Reported Missing to Police, for which I had an exact time due to the fact the 911 call was released to the public. A.J.’s father called the Crystal Lake, IL Police at 9:04 a.m. on Thursday, April 18, 2019 to report his son missing. He stated that he had last seen A.J. the night before, “around 9:30 when he went to bed.”

 

I am not going to go into microscopic detail regarding this chart, but I do want to point out a few things. For those of you who are not astrologically oriented I will highlight in red plain English observations. First, notice the degree on the ASCENDANT, 22 Gemini. This is the Kill or Be Killed degree according to Serbian astrologer Nikola Stojanovic (22° of any sign). I have seen this degree prominent in other cases involving death/ murder. [The Ascendant degree is associated with death/ murder.]

In a Reported Missing chart for children I usually assign the ruler of the 5th House to the child. This is because the 5th House rules children. In this chart, A.J. is symbolized by Mercury, the ruler of the 5th House of Children. A missing child (or person) can also be signified by the Moon. Here, the Moon is intercepted (hidden) in the 5th House of Children and quindecile (165°, an aspect of obsession/ compulsion) both the Sun (the event) and Mercury, the ruler of the 5th House of Children. [The Moon, which symbolizes the child, is “hidden” in the chart and thus the child may be “hidden” in reality since in astrology, “As above, so below.”]

Notice Mercury (A.J.) is conjunct Chiron, an asteroid symbolizing woundedness. In forensic astrology charts Chiron often is connected with death.

Further, Sun (the event) is conjunct Uranus (accidents) in the 11th House of Circumstances Beyond One’s Control. This gives me the sense some sort of “accident” happened. With the MARS/SATURN midpoint at 01° Aries smack conjunct Lord 5 the Child Mercury, I fear the “accident” involved a brutal attack. (MARS/SATURN is a cruel, heartless, brutal testimony in forensic astrology.)

The Arabic Part of Death at 19 Virgo is exactly opposite Black Moon Lilith 19 Pisces and parallel Chiron, two more strong death testimonies.

But it is the nodal axis and attending planets that disturb me the most: the Nodes are at 21 Cancer/Capricorn, with the South Node in Capricorn conjunct Saturn and Pluto. All three of these are death indicators — South Node, Saturn and Pluto. And this entire aspect pattern is exactly square A.J.’s natal Sun at 21° Libra. This is compelling evidence of death.

Usually, the Reported Missing chart will tell the tale. I also look at the Last Seen chart, if available, which should agree with and/or at least complement the Reported Missing chart. I’m not going to show that chart but would like to mention that the alleged Last Seen time of “around 9:30” p.m. when the child supposedly went to bed had me beyond suspicious that the father was fabricating a tale. 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 in Crystal Lake, Illinois gives an ASCENDANT of 20°31′ Scorpio — mere minutes past the malefic (evil) 19th degree of Scorpio. This degree is referred to as Serpentis, “the accursed degree of the cursed sign.” In over 20 years of examining astrology charts from a forensic perspective, I have never seen a positive ending when this degree is prominent.

 

The Lenormand Card Reading

After evaluating the testimonies given by the charts I decided to throw a few Lenormand cards. I was rattled enough to ask a compound question, which can be tricky to evaluate.

Exact question: “Where Is He? / What Happened?”

 

 

Card deck:  Mlle Lenormand Cartomancy Deck of 36 Cards

I have to admit Storks threw me off a bit. Generally a positive card, it couldn’t be here. Not with Coffin, Cross and Whip in the spread. I decided it referred to repeated abuse (Storks + Whip) since Storks can indicate repetitions and recurrences according to Anna K., a published Lenormand deck creator. The rest of the cards told me that abuse (Whip) in the home (House) led to death (Coffin, Cross).

Andy Boroveshengra, author of Thirty Six Cards: An Introduction to the Petit Lenormand, suggested that Storks + Coffin would indicate grief over a change or past error and Coffin + Cross would be a total loss as a consequence.

Andy’s interpretation really hit me hard and I appreciate that he took the time to offer his insight on my reading. Now, in retrospect and knowing the outcome, I can also see Storks as an indicator of a change of location, which actually is what happened. I think this was Lenormand’s answer to the “Where Is He?” portion of my question. Storks is connected to moving, moving house. The parents moved A.J. to another location after allegedly killing him within the premises. So the cards gave Storks + Coffin, change of location necessitated by death.

Concluding Thoughts

In the hope that perhaps in some small way I could help prevent even one tragedy similar to what happened two weeks ago in Crystal Lake, Illinois, I’d like to call your attention to one more astrological testimony I observed in the charts: little A.J. was born with the asteroid Dejanira partile conjunct (in the same degree) his natal Sun. Dejanira is an asteroid of victimhood and the Sun represents one’s very life. So what we have here is potential for a lifetime of victimization. While this particular conjunction does not and would not result in such a horrible outcome for everyone having the placement, it could be a serious indicator of abuse that perhaps should be investigated should it be noted in someone’s chart. I’ll go as far as to suggest that such investigation could be critical in helping save some other child’s life.

 

Blessings,

Mary Hawkins