“The Blair Witch Project” was a low budget surprise hit that launched the “found footage” genre of horror movies. Nowadays, this film is remembered as campy and cheesy, but for what it was at the time it was pretty groundbreaking and unique. It was also scary as hell because many who saw this film were unaware that what they were watching was fiction.

From an astrological perspective, this story is interesting because it provides a date for the beginning of the main plot. This means that we can construct a chart and analyze the astrological symbolism of the planets as they correlate to the story as well as the lead up to the final attack.

The Plot

The story begins on October 21, 1994 with a group of three researchers entering the forest with the hopes of documenting the fabled Blair Witch on film. Instead, this group is hunted down over a six-day period by the witch herself. The frightening manner with which the witch torments the group with increasing intensity is riveting. Because these attacks occurred at night, we can generalize the time frame as to when the final attack occurred. I am going to use 11:00 pm as the general time frame in which each encounter occurred every night. The chart below is for the first night in the forest.

General Dynamics

The Moon in Taurus is the chart ruler (Cancer Ascendant) and placed in the 11th house. This represents the group and they are in good spirits (Moon is exalted) and the focal point of the chart and story. Regarding witches, astrology has different significators that can be assigned to this characteristic. Some have associated the spirituality of the 12th house and the planet Neptune to witches. Others have associated the dark planet Pluto and the intense sign it rules, Scorpio. The second set of astrological dynamics offers immediate correlation because the main significator for the group (Moon in Taurus) is in tight opposition to Pluto which was embedded within the Scorpio stellium. This stellium is also placed in the 5th house and according to the myth, the Blair Witch is infamous for murdering children. The 5th represents children. The alignment of these dynamics to the story offers strong evidence of an 11 pm time frame for the nightly encounters.

This tells us that this Pluto was a major focus of the Moon and its conjunction with the oft-described “insane” Algol offers more color to the delineation. This group was searching for the Blair Witch and they were going to lose their minds in the process. Neptune’s placement in the 7th house of “others” further confirms the chart’s symbolic association with the witch. The Moon’s possible correlation to the group is also significant because of its swift movement. It allows us to track the its movement and correlate it to group’s condition as they progress through the story.

Story Progression Told Through the Moon

10/22/94 – The Moon moves in Gemini. This reflects the group’s desire to record footage and the square to Saturn is the initial encounter with the witch due to Saturn’s rulership of the 7th house.

10/23/94 – The Moon enters the 12th house. This was the first day where the group realized they were lost. This is significant because the 12th house represents things that are hidden behind the scenes. Here, the group’s entrance into this house correlates with an entrance into a void that they would not be able to escape. They had entered the realm of the witch and become lost to the world. Mercury is the dispositor of the Moon (and ruler of the 3rd on 10/23) so its retrograde and combust status reflects the group’s growing concern and focus with this problem. Also, it was on this date that the Sun had ingressed into Scorpio, joining the rest of the stellium. The witch was starting to make her presence known.

10/24/94 – The Moon was firmly in the middle of the 12th house and had ingressed into the sign of Cancer. Its trine aspect to the Sun manifested as a direct attack to the group’s tent while they slept, awakening them, and forcing them to hide out together in the forest all night.

10/25/94 – The Moon moves into opposition with Neptune and square to Mercury, the ruler of the 12th. The group’s sanity is starting to slip due to being lost and trapped. Uranus’ involvement injected some chaos and disruption because this aspect also correlated with the kidnapping of one of the members through the course of the night.

10/26/94 – The Moon has moved firmly into the 1st house and the remaining members realize they are in a crisis of survival. During the night, they hear the screams of the other member of their group who was kidnapped. This corresponds to the trine aspect to Pluto. Their deteriorating sanity is also represented by retrograde Mercury’s applying square to Neptune.

10/27/94 – The Moon arrives at a conjunction with Mars. This is significant because Mars is also forming a tight square to Venus. Venus is the ruler of the 11th house so it is another significator of the group. Mars’ involvement reflects aggressiveness and violence. The witch is going to make her move by letting them come to her (Moon’s movement to Mars). On this date, Neptune has also arrived at the Descendant at less than one degree and the ruler of the 12th (Mercury) is square Neptune by less than one degree as well. Finally, Venus’ rulership of the 4th house (homes) highlights her intentions: she will attack the remaining members in the derelict house where she killed all the other children in the past (Scorpio stellium in the 5th). Venus’ connection to the 4th via ruler ship and Neptune’s alignment with the Descendant offer strong confirmation for the 11:00 pm time frame estimate as to when the final attack occurred.

Final Thoughts

The accuracy of the alignment of the chart’s symbolism to the story – to the point of correlating the changes of the Moon with its progression – is quite stunning. Even more-so when we consider that this story did not actually occur. It is fictional. This means these concepts which were created out of the minds of writers and corresponded to real time movements of planetary bodies that did occur. In other words, this analysis provides more evidence (like horary methodologies) that astrological manifestation does not just apply to events in real time, but also to the thoughts and creativity that exist in our minds as well.

And in the final analysis, this massive conclusion is the ultimate message this chart offers. With Mercury’s retrograde status, its rulership of the 3rd and 12th houses, and its final square aspect to the Uranus – Neptune conjunction, it is clear that astrology (Uranus) is so encompassing (Neptune) that even our thoughts (Mercury) and creativity (5th house stellium) do not escape the influence of alignment with its dynamics.

Wrap your head (retrograde) around that.