On October 8, 1871 prior to 9:30 pm, a fire broke out in a cow barn at 137 DeKoven Street, Chicago, Illinois. This ignition was the start of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It was one of many fires that night that included the deadliest wildfire ever recorded, the Peshtigo Fire, that burned in Wisconsin and part of Michigan.
This particular event has never much interested me but when I am reminded of it I still sing a camp song about this event and it was the last line that inspired me to examine this event:
"Late last night, While we were all in bed Old lady Leery lit a lantern in her shed And when the cow kicked it over She winked her eye and said 'There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight. Fire, fire, fire!'"
The Fire Description
The fire broke out in a barn. Although the fire company quickly responded, the limitations of their communication system delayed their arrival at the correct address. Delays, limitations and restrictions are Saturn. In the event horoscope, the fire companies are the Capricorn Saturn. Once they arrived, the fire was already spreading. Its next stage burned industrial materials and property (6th is worksites) along the river and strengthened (Mars) and jumped (Sagittarius) across the river into the densely populated city. After it jumped the river, it destroyed the waterworks and disabled the fire companies. At about 2:30 am, October 9th, the bell on the courthouse fell ringing out. The fire then burned until the early morning of the next day when rain finally doused it.
The event chart has a Grand Fire Trine centered on 8° of each fire zodiac sign (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). This chart pattern persisted in tight orb for two days. This flow and spread of the fire was easy and uninterrupted. The Grand Trine was between 8° Leo Vesta, 8° Sagittarius Mars and 8° Aries Chiron. The sabian symbols for 8° Leo is “communist activist spreading his revolutionary ideals”, 8° Sagittarius is “within the depths of the Earth new elements are being formed” and 8° Aries is “a large woman’s hat with streamers blown by an east wind”. Need I say more? The purpose of the fire was to destroy the old to make way for new elements. The 29° Virgo Mercury, ruler of the ascendant, represents the fire. The purpose of this Mercury is to rebuild something new and not just replace what had been destroyed.
Who started the fire?
There are two interlocking sources of information about the beginning of the fire. These are contained in the astrological house of the 11th (groups, friends) and the 2nd (storehouses including barns). There is one direct aspect between the 11th and 2nd, the Aries Chiron in the 11th is trine the Leo Vesta in the 2nd.
Vesta, the sacred fire, is the ignition point of the fire but not the ignition point of the event. Due to knowing that it broke out in a barn, the time used was 9:15 pm which places Vesta in the 2nd house. This sheds light on what happened prior to the event. Someone in the barn, probably a member of the O’Leary family (Cancer, family, home), had an excess (Jupiter) of emotion (Cancer). This person indirectly started the fire.
Barns aren’t often places of excessive emotional outbursts. There has to be more to the story. The barn was actually ruled by a 12° Leo Moon in the 3rd house (neighborhood). The 12° Leo Moon gives us the sabian symbol “an evening party of adults on a lawn illuminated by fancy lanterns”. The Libra (money) Sun (players) in the 5th (playgrounds including gambling dens) also suggest gambling for money. There were people in the barn from the neighborhood and they were gambling when an O’Leary had an emotional outburst.
It was this party of adults that is described in the 11th. Since martial Aries is on the cusp this was a group of veterans from the Civil War. Chiron represents wounds and it is in Aries. This pictures a wounded Civil War veteran who, soon after the O’Leary had their emotional outburst, suddenly (Uranus) took the stage (0° Leo “a daughter of the American revolution”) probably to angrily (Aries) defend the past (0° Leo) and accidentally (Uranus) kicked or overturned one of the lanterns.
At this point, the fire ignited (Vesta) and immediately became the center of attention (Leo). The fire caused confused reaction (Aries Neptune) in the group (11th). In the 2nd (barn) on the cusp of the 3rd (neighborhood), the fire in the barn drew the attention of Daniel Sullivan who said he was sitting on the neighborhood sidewalk (3rd house) who saw the fire first and later fixed the time he had seen it at 9:20 to 9:25 pm. The astrological record shows that this group of men did not completely dissolve in the confusion since the group continues until the barn is destroyed (Taurus Pluto in the 11th). Many of the men at the scene likely were part of the group in the barn when the fire started. Sullivan likely knew exactly how the fire started.
The Conflagration
The fire burns through the neighborhood. The fire company arrives during this time and finds it already burning several buildings. The fire then arrives at the banks of the river. This is an area of industrial sites (6th house). The fire described by Leo Vesta in the barn has now become an expanding (Sagittarius) aggressive (Mars) fire in an industrial area (6th). It is at this point that it jumps the river. There it destroyed the city waterworks and ended the city fight against the fire. The fire then arrives again at the Aries Chiron in the 11th “hat with streamers blowing in an east wind”. Previously, the 11th was descriptive of a group but it is also social networks and ideas in the air. This night it was firebrands blowing in the air from disintegrating (Pisces) solidly built buildings (10th house). These firebrands in turn found quick purchase starting small fires (Vesta) in and around the storehouses, barns, and sheds (2nd house) generally less solidly built and more flammable where fire could then quickly spread to the surrounding neighborhood ordinaries and then to better constructed buildings like the houses, commercial buildings and back into industrial areas where the cycle would continue. This is the ease with which a Grand Trine works.
The Grand Fire Trine was very close in orb until 2:24 am on October 10th when the tight orbs separated. At this point, the firebrands were not as efficient at seeding new areas as before. The general chart of this time suggests the fire was burning houses and a graveyard or other 8th house place and this slowed the spread of the firebrands.
There is a mundane chart for the city of Chicago that shows the city with an 8° Leo Venus and an 8° Libra Uranus. This last placement of Libra Uranus would turn the Grand Fire Trine, creating a very stable fire, into a Fire Kite that would add movement without restriction. It was certainly possible to have a large, long fire without these placements as seen by the other 1871 fires that night but Chicago’s planetary placements would have added additional challenges for the residents.
On one last note, the ignition of the event seems to be related to anger over the Civil War. It would be easy to imagine it was a fight over gambling that started the fire but the sudden upset was related to war history. Old Chicago may well have been another casualty of the Civil War but it was to forge new elements and create the city anew. Fire is the struggle of initiation. Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, holds thresholds to be sacred. New worlds exist wherever Vesta is found.