Midheaven in Leo
Honours, fame, glamour, and high-ranking positions are your key-words. Your innate authority enables you to rapidly make your way through the higher spheres of power, arts, or business. If you do not achieve celebrity, you strive to rub shoulders with the upper crust and fit into high-society circles, for you believe that they must naturally acknowledge you. The following professions are most likely to suit you very well: corporate manager, actor of outstanding renown, film director, senior civil servant, ambassador, all positions in the gambling, amusement, or art industry, as well as first-class hotelier, jeweller and all occupations related to the luxury world, fireman, tamer, policeman/woman, or rider.
Planetary Positions and Aspects of Charles Sobhraj
Positions of Planets Sun 16°39' Aries Moon 22°49' Virgo Mercury 4°33' Taurus Venus 25°11' Pisces Mars 4°40' Cancer Jupiter 17°06' Я Leo Saturn 21°35' Gemini Uranus 6°03' Gemini Neptune 2°30' Я Libra Pluto 6°26' Я Leo Chiron 10°14' Я Virgo Ceres 3°55' Cancer Pallas 16°01' Taurus Juno 1°13' Aries Vesta 19°37' Gemini Node 4°06' Я Leo Lilith 2°29' Virgo Fortune 23°27' Gemini AS 29°37' Scorpio MC 29°17' Leo
Planets in Houses * Sun House 5 Moon House 10 Mercury House 6 Venus House 4 Mars House 8 Jupiter House 9 Saturn House 7 Uranus House 7 Neptune House 11 Pluto House 9 Chiron House 10 Ceres House 8 Pallas House 6 Juno House 5 Vesta House 7 Node House 9 Lilith House 10 Fortune House 7
* In keeping with the common practice, we consider that a planet posited within 1 degree of the next house belongs to that house. We allow an orb of 2 degrees for the ASC and the MC.
Positions of Houses House 1 29°37' Scorpio House 2 28°24' Sagittarius House 3 27°57' Capricorn House 4 29°17' Aquarius House 5 1°29' Aries House 6 2°01' Taurus House 7 29°37' Taurus House 8 28°24' Gemini House 9 27°57' Cancer House 10 29°17' Leo House 11 1°29' Libra House 12 2°01' Scorpio
List of Planetary Aspects Moon Conjunction Neptune Orb 9°40' Moon Opposite Venus Orb 2°21' Uranus Opposite AS Orb 6°25' Venus Opposite Neptune Orb 7°19' Moon Square Saturn Orb 1°14' Mercury Square Pluto Orb 1°52' Mars Square Neptune Orb 2°10' Venus Square Saturn Orb 3°35' Uranus Square MC Orb 6°46' Sun Trine Jupiter Orb 0°27' Uranus Trine Neptune Orb 3°33' Venus Trine AS Orb 4°26' Mercury Trine MC Orb 5°16' Pluto Trine AS Orb 6°49' Mercury Sextile Mars Orb 0°07' Uranus Sextile Pluto Orb 0°23' Neptune Sextile AS Orb 2°52' Neptune Sextile Pluto Orb 3°56' Jupiter Sextile Saturn Orb 4°28' Sun Sextile Saturn Orb 4°56' Mars Sextile MC Orb 5°23' Mercury Inconjunction Neptune Orb 2°03' Saturn SemiSquare Pluto Orb 0°08' Jupiter SemiSquare Neptune Orb 0°24' Moon SemiSquare Pluto Orb 1°22' Sun SesquiQuadrate AS Orb 2°01' Sun SesquiQuadrate MC Orb 2°21' Jupiter Quintile Uranus Orb 0°57' Venus Quintile Uranus Orb 1°07' Mars BiQuintile AS Orb 0°56' Mars SemiSextile Uranus Orb 1°22' Mercury SemiSextile Uranus Orb 1°29'
Biography of Charles Sobhraj (excerpt) Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj Hotchand Bhawnani (born 6 April 1944) is a French serial killer, fraudster, and thief, who preyed on Western tourists traveling the hippie trail of South Asia during the 1970s. He was known as "the Bikini Killer" due to the attire of several of his victims, as well as "the Splitting Killer" and "the Serpent", due to his snake-like ability to avoid detection by authorities". Sobhraj is currently imprisoned in Nepal. On 21 December of 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age. It is thought that Sobhraj murdered at least 20 tourists in South and Southeast Asia, including 14 in Thailand. He was convicted and jailed in India from 1976 to 1997. After his release, he retired, promoting his infamy in Paris. Sobhraj later returned to Nepal in 2003, where he was arrested, tried, and received a life sentence. Described as "handsome, charming and utterly without scruple", he used his looks and cunning to advance his criminal career and obtain celebrity status. He also enjoyed his infamy. Sobhraj has been the subject of four biographies, three documentaries, an Indian film titled Main Aur Charles, and the 2021 eight-part BBC/Netflix drama series The Serpent. Murders On the run, Sobhraj financed his lifestyle by posing as either a gem salesman or drug dealer to impress and befriend tourists, whom he defrauded. In India, Sobhraj met Marie-Andrée Leclerc from Lévis, Quebec, a tourist looking for adventure. Dominated by Sobhraj, Leclerc became his most devoted follower, turning a blind eye to his crimes and his philandering with local women. Sobhraj gathered followers by gaining their loyalty; a typical scam was to help his target out of difficult situations. In one case, he helped two former French policemen, Yannick and Jacques, recover missing passports that Sobhraj himself had actually stolen. In another scheme, Sobhraj provided shelter to a Frenchman, Dominique Renelleau, who appeared to be suffering from dysentery; Sobhraj had actually poisoned him. He was joined by a young Indian man, Ajay Chowdhury, a fellow criminal who became Sobhraj's second-in-command. Charles Sobhraj and Ajay Chowdhury committed their first known murders in 1975. Most of the victims had spent some time with the pair before their deaths and were, according to investigators, recruited by Sobhraj and Chowdhury to join them in their crimes. Sobhraj claimed that most of his murders were really accidental drug overdoses, but investigators state that the victims had threatened to expose Sobhraj, which was his motive for murder. The first victim was a young woman from Seattle, Teresa Knowlton (named Jennie Bollivar in the book Serpentine), who was found drowned in a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand, wearing a flowered bikini. It was months later that Knowlton's autopsy, as well as forensic evidence, proved that her drowning, originally believed to be a swimming accident, was murder. The next victim was a young nomadic Turkish Sephardic Jew, Vitali Hakim, whose burnt body was found on the road to the Pattaya resort, where Sobhraj and his growing clan were staying. Dutch students Henk Bintanja, 29, and his fiancée Cocky Hemker, 25, were invited to Thailand after meeting Sobhraj in Hong Kong. They, like many others, were poisoned by Sobhraj, who nursed them back to health in order to gain their obedience. As they recovered, Sobhraj was visited by his previous victim Hakim's French girlfriend, Charmayne Carrou, who had come to investigate her boyfriend's disappearance. Fearing exposure, Sobhraj and Chowdhury quickly hustled Bintanja and Hemker out. Their bodies were found strangled and burned on 16 December 1975. Soon after, Carrou was found drowned and wearing a similar-styled swimsuit to that of Sobhraj's earlier victim, Teresa Knowlton. Although the murders of the two women were not connected by investigators at the time, they would later earn Sobhraj the nickname "The Bikini Killer". On 18 December, the day the bodies of Bintanja and Hemker were identified, Sobhraj and Leclerc entered Nepal using the deceased couple's passports. They met in Nepal and, between 21 and 22 December, murdered Canadian Laurent Carrière, 26, and American Connie Jo Bronzich, 29; the two victims were incorrectly identified by some sources as Laddie DuParr and Annabella Tremont. Sobhraj and Leclerc returned to Thailand, using their latest victims' passports before their bodies could be identified. Upon his return to Thailand, Sobhraj discovered that his three French companions had started to suspect him of serial murder, having found documents belonging to the murder victims. Sobhraj's former companions then fled to Paris after notifying local authorities. Sobhraj's next destination was either Varanasi or Calcutta, where he murdered Israeli scholar Avoni Jacob to obtain Jacob's passport. Sobhraj used the passport to travel with Leclerc and Chowdhury first to Singapore, then to India, and, in March 1976, returning to Bangkok, despite knowing that the authorities there sought him. The clan were interrogated by Thai police in connection with the murders, but were released. Meanwhile, Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg and his then-wife Angela Kane were investigating the murders of Bintanja and Hemker. Knippenberg had some knowledge of, and had possibly even met, Sobhraj, although the latter's true identity was still unknown to the diplomat, who continued gathering evidence. With the help of Nadine and Remi Gires (Sobhraj's neighbours), Knippenberg built a case against him. He was eventually given police permission to search Sobhraj's apartment, a full month after the suspect had left the country. Knippenberg found evidence, including victims' documents and passports, as well as poisons and syringes. The criminal trio's next stop was Malaysia, where Chowdhury was sent to steal gems. Chowdhury was observed delivering the gems to Sobhraj. This was the last time he was ever seen; neither Chowdhury nor his remains were ever found. It is believed Sobhraj murdered his former accomplice before leaving Malaysia to continue his and Leclerc's roles as gem dealers in Geneva. A source later claimed to have sighted Chowdhury in West Germany, but the claim appeared unsubstantiated, so the search for Chowdhury continued. Back in Asia, Sobhraj started forming a new criminal group, starting with two Western women, Barbara Smith and Mary Ellen Eather, in Bombay. Sobhraj's next victim was a Frenchman, Jean-Luc Solomon who was poisoned during a robbery. The act was committed with intention of incapacitating Solomon, but it left him dead. In July 1976 in New Delhi, Sobhraj, joined by his three-woman criminal clan, tricked a tour group of French post-graduate students into accepting them as tour guides. Sobhraj drugged them by giving them poisoned pills, which he told them were anti-dysentery medicine. When the drugs took effect more quickly than Sobhraj had anticipated, the students began to fall unconscious. Three of the students, realising what Sobhraj had done, overpowered him and contacted the police, leading to his capture. During interrogation, Sobhraj's accomplices, Smith and Eather, buckled and confessed. Sobhraj was charged with the murder of Solomon and all four were sent to Tihar Jail in New Delhi. Prison time Smith and Eather attempted suicide in prison during the two years before their trial. Sobhraj, who had entered with precious gems concealed in his body and was experienced in bribing captors, was living comfortably in jail. He turned his trial into a spectacle, hiring and firing lawyers at will, bringing in his recently paroled brother André to assist, and eventually going on a hunger strike. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Leclerc was found guilty of drugging the French students, but was later paroled and returned to Canada when she developed ovarian cancer. She was still claiming her innocence and was reportedly still loyal to Sobhraj when she died at her home in April 1984. She was 38. Sobhraj's systematic bribery of prison guards at Tihar reached outrageous levels. He led a life of luxury inside the jail, with television and gourmet food, having befriended both guards and prisoners. He gave interviews to Western authors and journalists, such as Oz magazine's Richard Neville in 1977 and Alan Dawson in 1984. Neville was accompanied by his future wife, Julie Clarke, who has frequently written about the subject. Clarke has said that Sobhraj sold the rights to his life story to a Bangkok businessman, who sold them on to Random House. Because of Neville's hippie trail connections, Random House offered him a contract to go to Delhi to research the case, even though he and Clarke, both journalists in New York City, had no experience in crime reporting. They were out of their depth, having to deal with Sobhraj's 'creepy emissaries' who kept them under surveillance, and arranged for them to visit him in prison, where he described the murders in detail. Clarke was very relieved when they left Delhi. Although Sobhraj had freely talked to Neville and Clarke about his murders, he later denied everything he had told them, and pretended his actions were in retaliation against "Western imperialism" in Asia. Sobhraj's prison sentence in India was due to end before the 20-year Thai statute of limitations expired, ensuring his extradition and almost certain execution for murder in Thailand. So in March 1986, in his tenth year in prison, Sobhraj threw a big party for his guards and fellow inmates, drugged them with sleeping pills and walked out of the jail. Inspector Madhukar Zende of the Mumbai police apprehended Sobhraj in O'Coqueiro Restaurant in Goa; his prison term was extended by ten years, just as he had hoped. On 17 February 1997, 52-year-old Sobhraj was released with most warrants, evidence, and even witnesses against him long lost. Without any country to extradite him to, Indian authorities let him return to France. Celebrity and re-capture Sobhraj retired to a comfortable life in suburban Paris. He charged large sums of money for interviews and photographs. The rights to a movie based on his life were sold for over US$15 million. In 2003, Sobhraj returned to Nepal, one of the few countries where he could still be arrested and where he was still eagerly sought by authorities. According to The Himalayan Times, Sobhraj had returned to Kathmandu to set up a mineral water business. His return is thought to have been the result of his yearning for attention and overconfidence in his own intellect. On 1 September 2003, Sobhraj was spotted by a journalist for The Himalayan Times in a casino in Kathmandu. The journalist followed him for two weeks and wrote a news report in The Himalayan Times with photographs. The Nepalese police saw the report, raided the casino and arrested an unaware Sobhraj, who was still gambling there. The police reopened the double murder case from 1975. Sobhraj was later sentenced to life imprisonment by the Kathmandu district court on 20 August 2004 for the murders of Bronzich and Carrière. Most of the photocopy evidence used against him in this case had been gathered by Knippenberg, the Dutch diplomat, his then-wife Angela Kane and Interpol. Sobhraj appealed against the conviction, claiming he had been sentenced without trial. His lawyer announced that Chantal Compagnon, Sobhraj's wife in France, was filing a case before the European Court of Human Rights against the French government for refusing to provide him with any assistance. Post-2007 In late 2007, news media reported that Sobhraj's lawyer had appealed to then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy for intervention with Nepal. In 2008, Sobhraj announced his engagement to a Nepali woman, Nihita Biswas, who later participated in the reality show Bigg Boss. The authenticity of the couple's relationship was confirmed in an open letter from American conductor David Woodard to The Himalayan Times. On 7 July 2008, issuing a press release through his fiancée Biswas, Sobhraj claimed he was never convicted of murder by any court, and asked the media not to refer to him as a serial killer. It was claimed that Sobhraj married his fiancée on 9 October 2008 in jail during Bada Dashami, a Nepalese festival. The following day, Nepalese jail authorities dismissed the claim of his marriage. They said that Biswas and her family had been allowed to conduct a tika ceremony, along with the relatives of hundreds of other prisoners. They further claimed that it was not a wedding but part of the ongoing Dashain festival, when elders put the vermilion mark on the foreheads of those younger than them to signify their blessings. In July 2010, the Supreme Court of Nepal postponed the verdict on an appeal filed by Sobhraj against a district court's verdict sentencing him to life imprisonment for the murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. Sobhraj had appealed against the Kathmandu district court's verdict in 2006, calling it unfair. On 30 July 2010, the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence issued by the district court for the murder of Connie Jo Bronzich, plus another year and a Rs2,000 fine for entering Nepal illegally. The seizure of all Sobhraj's properties was also ordered by the court. Sobhraj's supposed wife Biswas and mother-in-law Shakuntala Thapa, a lawyer, expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict, with Thapa claiming that Sobhraj had been denied justice and that the "judiciary is corrupt". They were charged and sent to judicial custody for contempt of court because of these remarks. On 18 September 2014, Sobhraj was convicted in the Bhaktapur district court of the 1975 murder of Canadian tourist Laurent Carrière. In 2018, Sobhraj was in critical condition and had been operated on multiple times. He had received several open heart surgeries and was scheduled for more. As of April 2021, he remains in a Nepalese jail, aged 77 and in poor health. Personal life In 2010, he married his Indian-Nepali interpreter, Nihita Biswas, in prison. The daughter of his lawyer, she was 20 years old and 44 years his junior. One of his jailers told Paris Match in 2021: "It's a legend; there is no proof of their union". She told the media that his gaze and his eyes were mesmerizing and that his French charm had done everything; in 2017, she gave him blood to save him during an open heart operation. Portrayal Sobhraj has been the subject of three non-fiction books, Serpentine (1979) by Thomas Thompson, The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj (1980) by Richard Neville and Julie Clarke, and the section titled "The Bikini Murders" by Noel Barber in the Reader's Digest collection, Great Cases of Interpol (1982). Neville and Clarke's book was the basis for a 1989 made-for-TV film, Shadow of the Cobra. The 2015 Hindi film Main Aur Charles, directed by Prawaal Raman and Cyznoure Network, is reportedly based on Charles Sobhraj's escape from Tihar Jail in New Delhi. The film was initially produced by Pooja Bhatt, but due to disagreements during the shoot, Bhatt left the film. An eight-part BBC commissioned miniseries called The Serpent was broadcast in the UK in January 2021, starring Tahar Rahim as Sobhraj, before being streamed on Netflix in April 2021.present
Biography of Charles Sobhraj (excerpt)
Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj Hotchand Bhawnani (born 6 April 1944) is a French serial killer, fraudster, and thief, who preyed on Western tourists traveling the hippie trail of South Asia during the 1970s. He was known as "the Bikini Killer" due to the attire of several of his victims, as well as "the Splitting Killer" and "the Serpent", due to his snake-like ability to avoid detection by authorities". Sobhraj is currently imprisoned in Nepal. On 21 December of 2022, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release from prison because of his old age. It is thought that Sobhraj murdered at least 20 tourists in South and Southeast Asia, including 14 in Thailand. He was convicted and jailed in India from 1976 to 1997. After his release, he retired, promoting his infamy in Paris. Sobhraj later returned to Nepal in 2003, where he was arrested, tried, and received a life sentence. Described as "handsome, charming and utterly without scruple", he used his looks and cunning to advance his criminal career and obtain celebrity status. He also enjoyed his infamy. Sobhraj has been the subject of four biographies, three documentaries, an Indian film titled Main Aur Charles, and the 2021 eight-part BBC/Netflix drama series The Serpent. Murders On the run, Sobhraj financed his lifestyle by posing as either a gem salesman or drug dealer to impress and befriend tourists, whom he defrauded. In India, Sobhraj met Marie-Andrée Leclerc from Lévis, Quebec, a tourist looking for adventure. Dominated by Sobhraj, Leclerc became his most devoted follower, turning a blind eye to his crimes and his philandering with local women. Sobhraj gathered followers by gaining their loyalty; a typical scam was to help his target out of difficult situations. In one case, he helped two former French policemen, Yannick and Jacques, recover missing passports that Sobhraj himself had actually stolen. In another scheme, Sobhraj provided shelter to a Frenchman, Dominique Renelleau, who appeared to be suffering from dysentery; Sobhraj had actually poisoned him. He was joined by a young Indian man, Ajay Chowdhury, a fellow criminal who became Sobhraj's second-in-command. Charles Sobhraj and Ajay Chowdhury committed their first known murders in 1975. Most of the victims had spent some time with the pair before their deaths and were, according to investigators, recruited by Sobhraj and Chowdhury to join them in their crimes. Sobhraj claimed that most of his murders were really accidental drug overdoses, but investigators state that the victims had threatened to expose Sobhraj, which was his motive for murder. The first victim was a young woman from Seattle, Teresa Knowlton (named Jennie Bollivar in the book Serpentine), who was found drowned in a tidal pool in the Gulf of Thailand, wearing a flowered bikini. It was months later that Knowlton's autopsy, as well as forensic evidence, proved that her drowning, originally believed to be a swimming accident, was murder. The next victim was a young nomadic Turkish Sephardic Jew, Vitali Hakim, whose burnt body was found on the road to the Pattaya resort, where Sobhraj and his growing clan were staying. Dutch students Henk Bintanja, 29, and his fiancée Cocky Hemker, 25, were invited to Thailand after meeting Sobhraj in Hong Kong. They, like many others, were poisoned by Sobhraj, who nursed them back to health in order to gain their obedience. As they recovered, Sobhraj was visited by his previous victim Hakim's French girlfriend, Charmayne Carrou, who had come to investigate her boyfriend's disappearance. Fearing exposure, Sobhraj and Chowdhury quickly hustled Bintanja and Hemker out. Their bodies were found strangled and burned on 16 December 1975. Soon after, Carrou was found drowned and wearing a similar-styled swimsuit to that of Sobhraj's earlier victim, Teresa Knowlton. Although the murders of the two women were not connected by investigators at the time, they would later earn Sobhraj the nickname "The Bikini Killer". On 18 December, the day the bodies of Bintanja and Hemker were identified, Sobhraj and Leclerc entered Nepal using the deceased couple's passports. They met in Nepal and, between 21 and 22 December, murdered Canadian Laurent Carrière, 26, and American Connie Jo Bronzich, 29; the two victims were incorrectly identified by some sources as Laddie DuParr and Annabella Tremont. Sobhraj and Leclerc returned to Thailand, using their latest victims' passports before their bodies could be identified. Upon his return to Thailand, Sobhraj discovered that his three French companions had started to suspect him of serial murder, having found documents belonging to the murder victims. Sobhraj's former companions then fled to Paris after notifying local authorities. Sobhraj's next destination was either Varanasi or Calcutta, where he murdered Israeli scholar Avoni Jacob to obtain Jacob's passport. Sobhraj used the passport to travel with Leclerc and Chowdhury first to Singapore, then to India, and, in March 1976, returning to Bangkok, despite knowing that the authorities there sought him. The clan were interrogated by Thai police in connection with the murders, but were released. Meanwhile, Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg and his then-wife Angela Kane were investigating the murders of Bintanja and Hemker. Knippenberg had some knowledge of, and had possibly even met, Sobhraj, although the latter's true identity was still unknown to the diplomat, who continued gathering evidence. With the help of Nadine and Remi Gires (Sobhraj's neighbours), Knippenberg built a case against him. He was eventually given police permission to search Sobhraj's apartment, a full month after the suspect had left the country. Knippenberg found evidence, including victims' documents and passports, as well as poisons and syringes. The criminal trio's next stop was Malaysia, where Chowdhury was sent to steal gems. Chowdhury was observed delivering the gems to Sobhraj. This was the last time he was ever seen; neither Chowdhury nor his remains were ever found. It is believed Sobhraj murdered his former accomplice before leaving Malaysia to continue his and Leclerc's roles as gem dealers in Geneva. A source later claimed to have sighted Chowdhury in West Germany, but the claim appeared unsubstantiated, so the search for Chowdhury continued. Back in Asia, Sobhraj started forming a new criminal group, starting with two Western women, Barbara Smith and Mary Ellen Eather, in Bombay. Sobhraj's next victim was a Frenchman, Jean-Luc Solomon who was poisoned during a robbery. The act was committed with intention of incapacitating Solomon, but it left him dead. In July 1976 in New Delhi, Sobhraj, joined by his three-woman criminal clan, tricked a tour group of French post-graduate students into accepting them as tour guides. Sobhraj drugged them by giving them poisoned pills, which he told them were anti-dysentery medicine. When the drugs took effect more quickly than Sobhraj had anticipated, the students began to fall unconscious. Three of the students, realising what Sobhraj had done, overpowered him and contacted the police, leading to his capture. During interrogation, Sobhraj's accomplices, Smith and Eather, buckled and confessed. Sobhraj was charged with the murder of Solomon and all four were sent to Tihar Jail in New Delhi. Prison time Smith and Eather attempted suicide in prison during the two years before their trial. Sobhraj, who had entered with precious gems concealed in his body and was experienced in bribing captors, was living comfortably in jail. He turned his trial into a spectacle, hiring and firing lawyers at will, bringing in his recently paroled brother André to assist, and eventually going on a hunger strike. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Leclerc was found guilty of drugging the French students, but was later paroled and returned to Canada when she developed ovarian cancer. She was still claiming her innocence and was reportedly still loyal to Sobhraj when she died at her home in April 1984. She was 38. Sobhraj's systematic bribery of prison guards at Tihar reached outrageous levels. He led a life of luxury inside the jail, with television and gourmet food, having befriended both guards and prisoners. He gave interviews to Western authors and journalists, such as Oz magazine's Richard Neville in 1977 and Alan Dawson in 1984. Neville was accompanied by his future wife, Julie Clarke, who has frequently written about the subject. Clarke has said that Sobhraj sold the rights to his life story to a Bangkok businessman, who sold them on to Random House. Because of Neville's hippie trail connections, Random House offered him a contract to go to Delhi to research the case, even though he and Clarke, both journalists in New York City, had no experience in crime reporting. They were out of their depth, having to deal with Sobhraj's 'creepy emissaries' who kept them under surveillance, and arranged for them to visit him in prison, where he described the murders in detail. Clarke was very relieved when they left Delhi. Although Sobhraj had freely talked to Neville and Clarke about his murders, he later denied everything he had told them, and pretended his actions were in retaliation against "Western imperialism" in Asia. Sobhraj's prison sentence in India was due to end before the 20-year Thai statute of limitations expired, ensuring his extradition and almost certain execution for murder in Thailand. So in March 1986, in his tenth year in prison, Sobhraj threw a big party for his guards and fellow inmates, drugged them with sleeping pills and walked out of the jail. Inspector Madhukar Zende of the Mumbai police apprehended Sobhraj in O'Coqueiro Restaurant in Goa; his prison term was extended by ten years, just as he had hoped. On 17 February 1997, 52-year-old Sobhraj was released with most warrants, evidence, and even witnesses against him long lost. Without any country to extradite him to, Indian authorities let him return to France. Celebrity and re-capture Sobhraj retired to a comfortable life in suburban Paris. He charged large sums of money for interviews and photographs. The rights to a movie based on his life were sold for over US$15 million. In 2003, Sobhraj returned to Nepal, one of the few countries where he could still be arrested and where he was still eagerly sought by authorities. According to The Himalayan Times, Sobhraj had returned to Kathmandu to set up a mineral water business. His return is thought to have been the result of his yearning for attention and overconfidence in his own intellect. On 1 September 2003, Sobhraj was spotted by a journalist for The Himalayan Times in a casino in Kathmandu. The journalist followed him for two weeks and wrote a news report in The Himalayan Times with photographs. The Nepalese police saw the report, raided the casino and arrested an unaware Sobhraj, who was still gambling there. The police reopened the double murder case from 1975. Sobhraj was later sentenced to life imprisonment by the Kathmandu district court on 20 August 2004 for the murders of Bronzich and Carrière. Most of the photocopy evidence used against him in this case had been gathered by Knippenberg, the Dutch diplomat, his then-wife Angela Kane and Interpol. Sobhraj appealed against the conviction, claiming he had been sentenced without trial. His lawyer announced that Chantal Compagnon, Sobhraj's wife in France, was filing a case before the European Court of Human Rights against the French government for refusing to provide him with any assistance. Post-2007 In late 2007, news media reported that Sobhraj's lawyer had appealed to then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy for intervention with Nepal. In 2008, Sobhraj announced his engagement to a Nepali woman, Nihita Biswas, who later participated in the reality show Bigg Boss. The authenticity of the couple's relationship was confirmed in an open letter from American conductor David Woodard to The Himalayan Times. On 7 July 2008, issuing a press release through his fiancée Biswas, Sobhraj claimed he was never convicted of murder by any court, and asked the media not to refer to him as a serial killer. It was claimed that Sobhraj married his fiancée on 9 October 2008 in jail during Bada Dashami, a Nepalese festival. The following day, Nepalese jail authorities dismissed the claim of his marriage. They said that Biswas and her family had been allowed to conduct a tika ceremony, along with the relatives of hundreds of other prisoners. They further claimed that it was not a wedding but part of the ongoing Dashain festival, when elders put the vermilion mark on the foreheads of those younger than them to signify their blessings. In July 2010, the Supreme Court of Nepal postponed the verdict on an appeal filed by Sobhraj against a district court's verdict sentencing him to life imprisonment for the murder of American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. Sobhraj had appealed against the Kathmandu district court's verdict in 2006, calling it unfair. On 30 July 2010, the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence issued by the district court for the murder of Connie Jo Bronzich, plus another year and a Rs2,000 fine for entering Nepal illegally. The seizure of all Sobhraj's properties was also ordered by the court. Sobhraj's supposed wife Biswas and mother-in-law Shakuntala Thapa, a lawyer, expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict, with Thapa claiming that Sobhraj had been denied justice and that the "judiciary is corrupt". They were charged and sent to judicial custody for contempt of court because of these remarks. On 18 September 2014, Sobhraj was convicted in the Bhaktapur district court of the 1975 murder of Canadian tourist Laurent Carrière. In 2018, Sobhraj was in critical condition and had been operated on multiple times. He had received several open heart surgeries and was scheduled for more. As of April 2021, he remains in a Nepalese jail, aged 77 and in poor health. Personal life In 2010, he married his Indian-Nepali interpreter, Nihita Biswas, in prison. The daughter of his lawyer, she was 20 years old and 44 years his junior. One of his jailers told Paris Match in 2021: "It's a legend; there is no proof of their union". She told the media that his gaze and his eyes were mesmerizing and that his French charm had done everything; in 2017, she gave him blood to save him during an open heart operation. Portrayal Sobhraj has been the subject of three non-fiction books, Serpentine (1979) by Thomas Thompson, The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj (1980) by Richard Neville and Julie Clarke, and the section titled "The Bikini Murders" by Noel Barber in the Reader's Digest collection, Great Cases of Interpol (1982). Neville and Clarke's book was the basis for a 1989 made-for-TV film, Shadow of the Cobra. The 2015 Hindi film Main Aur Charles, directed by Prawaal Raman and Cyznoure Network, is reportedly based on Charles Sobhraj's escape from Tihar Jail in New Delhi. The film was initially produced by Pooja Bhatt, but due to disagreements during the shoot, Bhatt left the film. An eight-part BBC commissioned miniseries called The Serpent was broadcast in the UK in January 2021, starring Tahar Rahim as Sobhraj, before being streamed on Netflix in April 2021.present
Astrological Profile of Charles Sobhraj (Filtered Excerpt)
Disclaimer : these short excerpts of astrological charts are computer processed. They are, by no means, of a personal nature. This principle is valid for the 77 264 celebrities included in our database. These texts provide the meanings of planets, or combination of planets, in signs and in houses, as well as the interpretations of planetary dominants in line with modern Western astrology rules. Moreover, since Astrotheme is not a polemic website, no negative aspect which may damage the good reputation of a celebrity is posted here, unlike in the comprehensive astrological portrait.
Introduction
Astrological Portrait
Here are some character traits from Charles Sobhraj's birth chart. This description is far from being comprehensive but it can shed light on his/her personality, which is still interesting for professional astrologers or astrology lovers.
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Astrological Dominants of Charles Sobhraj
This section presents the main astrological dominants in Charles Sobhraj's birth chart. When the time of birth is unknown, four dominant factors are displayed: elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water), modalities or modes (Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable), dominant planets, and dominant signs.
If the birth time is known, three additional dominants are included: dominant houses, house accentuations (angular, succedent, cadent), and quadrant distribution, which offers insight into psychological orientation and behavioral tendencies.
These astrological dominants form a kind of background tone a first impression of temperament and chart structure. They provide useful context ahead of the more detailed interpretation based on planetary positions by sign, house, aspect, and dignity.
Astrological Quadrants for Charles Sobhraj
Each quadrant is a combination of the four hemispheres of your birth chart and relates to a character typology. The Southern hemisphere the top of your chart, around the Midheaven is associated with extraversion, action, and public life, whereas the Northern hemisphere prompts to introversion, reflexion, and private life. The Eastern hemisphere the left part, around the Ascendant is linked to your ego and your willpower, whereas the Western hemisphere indicates how other people influence you, and how flexible you are when you make a decision.
Charles Sobhraj, the diurnal South-western quadrant, consisting of the 7th, 8th and 9th houses, prevails in your chart: this sector brings about a thirst for communication and sometimes a need to take risks in your dealings with others. Relations are a factor of your evolution and your transformation, which you accept serenely. Indeed, what matters to you is the movement and the energy that link you to others and that make you gain more awareness. A kind of rebellion or a desire to get away from it all is rooted in you.
Elements, Modes and House Accentuations for Charles Sobhraj
Charles Sobhraj, here are the graphs of your Elements and Modes, based on planets' position and angles in the twelve signs:
Charles Sobhraj, Fire is dominant in your natal chart and endows you with intuition, energy, courage, self-confidence, and enthusiasm! You are inclined to be passionate, you assert your willpower, you move forward, and come hell or high water, you achieve your dreams and your goals. The relative weakness of this element is the difficulty to step back or a kind of boldness that may prompt you to do foolish things.
The predominance of Water signs indicates high sensitivity and elevation through feelings, Charles Sobhraj. Your heart and your emotions are your driving forces, and you can't do anything on Earth if you don't feel a strong affective charge (as a matter of fact, the word "feeling" is essential in your psychology). You need to love in order to understand, and to feel in order to take action, which causes a certain vulnerability which you should fight against.
The twelve zodiacal signs are split up into three groups or modes, called quadruplicities, a learned word meaning only that these three groups include four signs. The Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable modes are more or less represented in your natal chart, depending on planets' positions and importance, and on angles in the twelve signs.
The Fixed mode corresponds to a majority of elements in your chart, Charles Sobhraj, and represents the desire for security and durability: you are able to concretely appreciate a situation and its stability. You definitely prefer to play the role of a loyal, obstinate and hard-working person, rather than to try new and risky experiences - beware, however, not to confuse obstinacy with intransigence. You structure, cement, and strengthen everything you find on your way: it is your nature, although you are not especially interested in swiftness: slow and steady...
Houses are split up into three groups: angular, succedent and cadent.
The first ones are the most important ones, the most "noticeable" and energetic houses. They are the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses. Their cuspides correspond to four famous angles: Ascendant for the 1st house, Imum Coeli for the 4th house, Descendant, opposite the Ascendant, for the 7th house and Midheaven for the 10th house, opposite the Imum Coeli.
Planets are evaluated according to a whole set of criteria that includes comprehensive Western astrology rules. At their turn, planets emphasize specific types of houses, signs, repartitions etc., as previously explained.
Your angular houses, namely, the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses, are very emphasized in your chart, Charles Sobhraj: according to the Tradition, they are the strongest and most dynamic houses. Should the rest of your chart concur, angular houses suggest that you are an enterprising, energetic and assertive man. Indeed, angular houses are said to generate impulsions and to give a powerful and domineering personality.
Unusual fates are often linked to a predominance of angular houses, but this is only a partial indication...
Note: this dominant is a minor one.
Dominants: Planets, Signs and Houses for Charles Sobhraj
In astrology, planets symbolize core drives, signs shape how they express themselves, and houses show where they manifest in life. A dominant planet points to a strong inner dynamic, a dominant sign reflects prevailing temperament, and a dominant house highlights key life priorities.
This triad or duo when the birth time is unknown offers a broad overview of personality before deeper interpretation through aspects and dignities. It serves as a prelude to more detailed chart analysis.
In your natal chart, Charles Sobhraj, the ten main planets are distributed as follows:
The three most important planets in your chart are Pluto, Uranus and Venus.
With Pluto as a dominant planet in your chart, you are a magnetic and mighty predator, like the Scorpio sign ruled by this planet, who needs to exert pressure on others in order to "test" them. You are always ready to evolve, to risk destruction for reconstruction - including your own - to live more intensely whilst imposing your secret authority on things and on people you encounter.
You may come across as wicked, cruel or too authoritarian, but actually you only follow your instinct, you sound people out, and you like to exert your domination simply because your vital energy is too powerful to remain inside. You are inclined to be passionate, with hidden motivations. You are sometimes misunderstood but one of your great Plutonian assets is to go successfully through each life ordeal with ever growing strength.
Uranus is among your dominant planets: just like Neptune and Pluto, Uranian typology is less clearly defined than the so-called classical seven planets that are visible to the naked eye, from the Sun to Saturn. However, it is possible to associate your Uranian nature with a few clear characteristics: Uranus rhymes with independence, freedom, originality, or even rebelliousness and marginality, when things go wrong...
Uranus is Mercury's higher octave and as such, he borrows some of its traits of character; namely, a tendency to intellectualize situations and emotions with affective detachment, or at least jagged affectivity.
Therefore, you are certainly a passionate man who is on the lookout for any kind of action or revolutionary idea, and you are keen on new things. Uranians are never predictable, and it is especially when they are believed to be stable and well settled that... they change everything - their life, partner, and job! In fact, you are allergic to any kind of routine, although avoiding it must give way to many risks.
With Venus among your dominant planets, one of your first reflexes is... to please! Your look, your charm, and your seduction are omnipresent elements in your behaviour.
Your approach to things is connected to your heart, and for you, no real communication can flow if your interlocutors exude no sympathy or warmth. Cold and logical reasoning, clear thoughts and good sense are not important to you: if there is no affective bond with your environment, no connection can be established with the Venusian that you are, and nothing happens.
You have a strong artistic side, and you never neglect subjective but clear concepts such as pleasure, beauty, and also sensuality. However, sometimes to the detriment of efficiency, durability, logic, and... detachment.
In your natal chart, the three most important signs - according to criteria mentioned above - are in decreasing order of strength Leo, Scorpio and Gemini. In general, these signs are important because your Ascendant or your Sun is located there. But this is not always the case: there may be a cluster of planets, or a planet may be near an angle other than the Midheaven or Ascendant. It may also be because two or three planets are considered to be very active because they form numerous aspects from these signs.
Thus, you display some of the three signs' characteristics, a bit like a superposition of features on the rest of your chart, and it is all the more so if the sign is emphasized.
With Leo as a dominant sign, you naturally shine brightly. Your dignity, your sense of honour, and your generosity can almost turn you into a solar mythological hero, a knight or a lord from the ancient times. People may blame you for your selfishness, your pride or your somewhat loud authority, but if you are self-confident, kind-hearted and strong-willed, it surely makes up for your little flaws, as long as they remain moderate...
With Scorpio as a dominant sign, you are a strong and astute person, complicated and passionate, sometimes destructive and intolerant, but strong-willed, tough and daring, sometimes bordering on aggressive. So many qualities and dangers combined in one person! Obviously, this often results in a natural selection of people around you: those who stand up to you or admire you and those who can't bear you anymore! But that is precisely what you want. You are what you are and you are not going to transform yourself just to please. You are too proud and you never dread confrontations, although your way of fighting is secret, like your nature that, mysteriously enough, you are so reluctant to reveal even to your close friends who will never understand you. That said... what a hellish charm you have!
With Gemini as a dominant sign, your qualities include being lively, curious, mobile, clever, and flexible: you often make others dizzy, and you may come across as a dilettante - a bit inquisitive, shallow, and insensitive because you may be too intellectualizing. However, your natural curiosity, a nice quality, and your quick humour, allow you to demonstrate to everyone how much they may gain from your company, and that your apparent flightiness hides an appetite (particularly mental) for life, which itself conceals a terrific charm!
The 9th, 7th and 5th houses are the most prominent ones in your birth chart. From the analysis of the most tenanted houses, the astrologer identifies your most significant fields or spheres of activity. They deal with what you are experiencing - or what you will be brought to experience one day - or they deal with your inner motivations.
Your 9th house being one of your most tenanted house, or at least emphasized, travels and faraway places play a major role for you: travels may take place in a symbolic sense, namely mind speculations or conceptions about political matters, philosophy, religion or spirituality, or in the literal sense, such as real long distance travels by plane. It may also be that you spend a part of your life far from home, etc. You are driven by some kind of rebelliousness, which urges you to explore the Unknown; it may also be the call of the adventure. Besides, if the rest of your chart concurs, you may be considered as a real draught, often up hill and down dale, constantly on the lookout for exciting discoveries and new, enchanting horizons.
Your 7th house is one of your dominant houses: it symbolizes other people, marriages, associations, contracts, and partnerships. Your personal achievement and maybe your problems - depending on the rest of your chart - are mainly influenced by your rapports with others, the area in which you tend to commit yourself a lot. You appreciate communication, and you give importance to others' opinions. Success requires the support of others, which seems obvious and natural to you. Your marriage generally contributes to your fulfilment.
The 5th house is one of your dominant houses: hobbies, love life, sports, and games, including speculation and all kinds of entertainment, are fields that you actually take seriously! On a more subtle level, artistic creation as well as other forms of creation - including begetting children - could be one of your assets. You gain from taking part in leisure associations and various activity clubs in which a catchword resounds more than for most people: pleasure.
After this paragraph about dominant planets, of Charles Sobhraj, here are the character traits that you must read more carefully than the previous texts since they are very specific: the texts about dominant planets only give background information about the personality and remain quite general: they emphasize or, on the contrary, mitigate different particularities or facets of a personality. A human being is a complex whole and only bodies of texts can attempt to successfully figure out all the finer points.
The Moon in Virgo and in House 10: his sensitivity
Your sensitivity is dominated by your reason, Charles Sobhraj, and you tend to analyze your emotional reactions in the slightest details, as if you wanted you hold them at bay so that they cannot overwhelm you or weaken you. Your nature is anxious, shy, you do not like to be in the forefront and you lack self-confidence. You are extremely perfectionist, you need to examine, to organize and to plan everything according to your logic. You like to help and to feel that you are useful, in your own work or through your wise and clever advice. You may also be very demanding and critical, even unbearable, because you are insistent and you find fault in everything. Learn to gain some self-confidence and do not constantly be ready to criticize...
Your career or professional achievements, Charles Sobhraj, are fields where your emotions will be more easily channelled. You are often popular, especially with women, and you instinctively have the desire to please audiences or crowds.
Your fame is often due to your changeable side, light-hearted, emotional and moody... (excerpt)
The Ascendant is in Scorpio and the ruler of the Ascendant is Pluto, in Leo: his behaviour
Psychologically speaking, your nature is bilious, with aggressive impulses that lead you towards the transformation of your entire being and, continuously, of the situation surrounding you. You seem to be constantly struggling for your self-assertion. You cannot refrain from testing others with cutting remarks, not because you want to hurt them, but because you want to know them better through their reaction; for you, life and the feeling of aliveness are experienced through rebellion and tension. You may be manipulative and your aggressive attitude may equate with sly inquisition. You often remain silent, introverted and secretive, mulling over turbulent thoughts in the depths of your mind, leaving others puzzled by your somewhat peculiar behaviour.
As you are born under this sign, you are secretive, powerful, domineering, enduring, intuitive, assertive, charismatic, magnetic, wilful, daring, clear-sighted, passionate, creative, independent, vigorous, generous, loyal, hard-working, persevering, indomitable, possessive, shrewd, stubborn, ambitious, instinctive, tenacious, sexual, sexy, proud, intense and competitive. But you may also be aggressive, destructive, stubborn, anxious, tyrannical, perverse, sadistic, violent, self-centered, complex, critical, cruel, nasty, jealous, calculating, vulnerable and dissembling.
In love, Sir, you are very magnetic, with a discreet and indefinable charm that inevitably attracts the persons you set your heart on. You detect their weaknesses so well that you can, at will, exert your powers and your manipulation tendencies over them. There are no negative consequences, as long as things go well, because you are very sensual, charming, possessive and swaggering and you make happy all the people who look for this domineering aspect in their partner. However, when things start to deteriorate, your almost pathological jealousy and your capacity to harm when you feel threatened are the causes of your partners' tears.
For you, passion means tension and tragedy. It is the price to be paid for sharing your sexuality loaded with unlimited fantasies, male ardour, loyalty and generosity. You are excessive, but very endearing, and your partner finds it very hard to leave you. It is preferable when things are fine between you.
The ruler of the Ascendant, also referred to as the chart ruler, brings a few interesting nuances to the meanings provided by the Sun and the Ascendant. The sign in which the ruler of the Ascendant is posited fine-tunes the style of personality described by the Sun and the Ascendant. It may strengthen it if the sign is identical to either of them.
The ruler of the Ascendant, Charles Sobhraj, is Pluto. In the sign of Leo, it may endow you with authority and a certain inclination for prestige. Generous and noble, you loathe pettiness. You are not aware that you sometimes irritate the members of your entourage because of your excessive pride or your self-centredness.
The Sun in Aries and in House 5: his will and inner motivations
Your natural energy is cut-and-dried. It may prompt you to take the drivers seat wherever you are. Were it not for the strange feeling of sympathy you arouse, you would seem to be arrogant. Charging ahead is not devoid of drawbacks. Your courage and your restlessness may hurt you and cause you to doubt, all of a sudden. As a consequence, your courage, your honesty, your enthusiasm and your straightforwardness may turn into aggressiveness, rebellion and vulnerability that were never suspected. Fortunately, the level of your dynamism is very high and your instinctive and pugnacious side, your particularly profuse energy will not leave you helpless for too long. The fire in your blood will put you back on the saddle towards new stampedes and conquests, as ambitious and glorious as they are perilous.
Because you are born under this sign, you are courageous, honest, enthusiastic, dynamic, swift, extroverted, straightforward, effusive, warm, impulsive, adventurous, bold, martial, competitive, but you may also be gullible, domineering, self-centered, impatient, foolish, thoughtless, childish, irascible, reckless, primary and a blunderer.
In love, Sir, more often than not, your passions are strong and varied. Far from being roadblocks, obstacles have a stimulating effect. You like quick victories and your love life is a series of conquests and of break-ups, as boredom often puts an end to the initial love that made you move mountains.
Your sexuality is powerful and prevails over feelings. You may marry early or on impulse, but it does not prevent you from having a rich and varied love life. Usually, you have few children.
Charles Sobhraj, your main motivations and your will lead you towards activities related to creation or to the outwards expression of yourself. It may take the form of the mobilization of your energy aiming at artistic, literary or technical creations and works, innovative projects design, or symbolically,... (excerpt)
Conclusion
Astrological Portrait
This text is only an excerpt from the portrait of of Charles Sobhraj, which we hope will inspire you to deepen your knowledge of astrology.
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