When Blood Runs deep, the theme of siblings in the menendez brothers’ case
With my own Mercury in the watery sign of Scorpio in the fourth house of home and family, I love playing detective into stories relating to family patterns and secrets. The tragic story of the Menendez Brothers’ murder of their parents is a heavy one laden with sadness, pain and suffering but also healing and transformation.
In astrology, one of the key meanings of the third house is siblings. One expression for anyone with strong presence of planetary energies in the third house may find siblings to wield major influence in their lives. We can see this quite evidently in both Erik and Lyle Menendez’ charts.
First of all, Erik has three planets in the Scorpio sign in his third house involving siblings. Already there is a signature or symbolism of strong karmic ties of attachment with all the third house planets in the sign of Scorpio, the sign of relating to deep emotional bonds and attachment as well as deep shadow material of the psyche.
Erik has a rising sign in Virgo which makes his fourth house Mercury (ruler of Virgo sign) an important planet and it has a stressful aspect to Venus which rules his third house and is in the third house. The connection between his chart ruler Mercury with the ruler of third house Venus suggest that his life path is intricately connected with family (Mercury fourth house) and in this case a sibling (Venus Scorpio in the third house ruling the third house). Of course we can also interpret third house for its other meanings such as one’s early education/environment, communication, both of which certainly played an important role in his life as the early environment he grew up in was nothing short of Scorpionic - Scorpio has to do with secrets, sexuality, karmic ties etc.
Lyle’s third house ruler is Mercury and in his chart, Mercury is placed in the tenth house house of professional / career development and also very close to the midheaven (most top part of the chart) which is an important significator for a person’s professional direction or public image. Of course, this Mercury can mean other things, especially in context with other parts of the chart. Mercury in Capricorn suggests strong organisational abilities and leadership - Lyle heads the government in the correctional facility he currently is incarcerated at. He was also one of twenty-seven inmates to obtain a Bachelor’s degree while in prison as well as pioneered the Green Space Project, a project created to make prison a more beautiful place. We see here certainly there is no limit to how one can express one’s talent as he wields the Capricornian magic even in prison.
The brothers’ ability to find meaning and purpose while in prison is not the first time I’ve read about people living meaningful lives while being incarcerated. One of my Chinese Bazi Astrology book is written by a local Hong Kong mafia head who turned to Buddhism and became an avid Chinese Bazi astrologer while in prison! Sometimes the darkest places in life is where the brightest light can shine. In astrology, prison is associated with the twelfth house, which is the last house of the chart and therefore have implications of relinquishing and self-undoing, and that need to dissolve and let go before a new cycle or being can be birthed. It is the darkest place before light increases once again. Sometimes the journey in the dark can be long, treacherous and painful. People encounter these through major life changes involving health, relationships, financial upheavals and so forth. It brings hope to know that the cyclical nature of life always bring us back to light in most incidences.
On 13th May 2025, Erik and Lyle Menendez have been re-sentenced from life imprisonment without the possibility of parole to 50 years to life sentence, which suggests that they’re now eligible for parole – a big victory for them and their family! Interestingly, from an astrological transit perspective, I notice that many planets in Erik’s chart are changing houses. When major planets like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto move into new houses, they imply major shifts in gear in life. Life is like a novel with many chapters and when planets enter different houses these new chapter of life unfolds. Given Erik’s sun is early degrees of Sagittarius, his Sun will receive harmonious transit from Pluto’s transit through Aquarius, while Uranus forms an opposition in his tenth house, which can express as a shift in the way he interacts with the world as the tenth house is often how we are viewed by the world in the most visible way (which is often related to our profession). Interestingly, I notice that the coming Jupiter transit through Cancer will form a nice trine aspect to Erik’s Moon Jupiter in Scorpio which is associated withm his living situation (his Jupiter rules his 4th house can be where he lives) as well as his immediate surrounding given Moon Jupiter are in his third house, house of neighbourhood and neighbours. Interestingly, Lyle’s moon is at 22 degrees of Capricorn in his fourth house, which means it will also receive a nice sextile transit from Jupiter in Cancer at the same time Erik does. The timing is around October of this year so let’s see if there will be more positive news around their release then as the parole process apparently can take some time.
I’m keeping this blog to the theme of siblings for now and plan to create a part two later on other parts of their charts.
