Love is supposed to be one of the most beautiful emotions we can experience. It creates bonds, inspires art, and gives life meaning. But what happens when that same emotion curdles into obsession, manipulation, or sadism? What happens when love isn’t about connection, but control? When it becomes a reason not to cherish someone, but to destroy them?

Some of the most disturbing murders in criminal history weren’t committed in isolation. They happened in bedrooms, living rooms, and shared homes, not back alleys or secluded woods. They involved lovers, husbands, wives, partners, and even family members pulled into a disturbing version of intimacy where violence didn’t feel like a betrayal… it felt like an expression of something deeper.

These aren’t crimes of passion in the traditional sense. They aren’t spontaneous outbursts driven by jealousy or betrayal. They’re deliberate. Cold. And somehow, still rooted in desire. A desire to possess, to fuse with another person completely, to eliminate what threatens that bond. That desire doesn’t always come from weakness or insecurity. Sometimes, it comes from power. From the need to dominate. From seeing another human being not as a partner, but as an object, a pawn in a private, emotional war.

Astrology gives us a language for these impulses. When we look at the natal charts of female serial killers involved in these types of crimes, especially those tied to love or relationships, we often find recurring planetary themes. Venus and Pluto. Mars and the Moon. Mercury and Neptune. Aspects that tie attraction to destruction, that blend fantasy with possession, and that reveal how affection can mask cruelty.

Consider Karla Homolka, born with Moon in Aries. She didn’t just fall in love with a sadist – she helped him. She offered her own sister to Paul Bernardo, drugging and preparing her for rape. Later, she participated in the torture and murder of multiple teenage girls, all while continuing her relationship with him. Was it fear? Was it love? Or had those things become impossible to separate?

Moon in Aries can be fiercely loyal and emotionally impulsive. When that placement is entangled with a dominant partner, it can lead to dangerous acts committed in the name of “support” or “devotion.” In Karla’s case, there’s no clear boundary between affection and annihilation – she claimed she was a victim too, but the evidence suggests a woman who wasn’t just complicit, but disturbingly invested in her partner’s crimes.

Then there’s Myra Hindley, who, along with Ian Brady, murdered five children in the Moors Murders. Myra had Venus in Gemini – a placement known for its flirtatious charm, adaptability, and often emotionally detached expressions of love. Venus in Gemini craves mental stimulation and can separate emotion from action with alarming ease when other factors in the chart point that way. In Myra’s case, this placement may have contributed to her emotional flexibility and ability to compartmentalize. She absorbed Brady’s ideology, echoed his sadism, and used her appearance and voice to lure children into danger. Her love didn’t anchor her – it drifted into his orbit, ungrounded and unchallenged.

Venus in Gemini, when tied to darker aspects, can be slippery and dualistic – a love that plays both sides, that charms with one hand and harms with the other. Myra didn’t need to be coerced. She moved fluidly between seduction and brutality, between smiles and silence.

When Venus, the planet of love and attraction, is connected to Pluto, the planet of death, obsession, and control, the results can be intense. This aspect is common in people who experience love as something all-consuming. It can produce a lover who can’t stand separation, who feels betrayed by independence, and who might try to force fusion at any cost.

In some charts, this can lead to passionate, transformative love. But in the wrong hands, it becomes suffocating. Controlling. Violent. The type of love that sees “if I can’t have you, no one will” as a natural conclusion.

Take Martha Beck, one half of the “Lonely Hearts Killers” duo alongside Raymond Fernandez. She didn’t just help him kill – she murdered out of jealousy. When another woman threatened their partnership, Martha took action. She was said to be possessive, emotionally unstable, and fiercely devoted to Fernandez, even while knowing he was manipulating her. Her love wasn’t tender. It was violent, delusional, and deeply dependent.

Martha had Moon in Sagittarius and Mars in Libra. Moon in Sagittarius seeks meaning, freedom, and truth but when warped by instability, it can become erratic and overzealous, jumping to conclusions and acting on impulse. Mars in Libra, which seeks action through connection and partnership, can be indecisive on its own but dangerous when paired with someone who dominates the dynamic. Beck’s placements reveal a volatile mix – a yearning for higher meaning entangled in a desire for romantic connection at any cost. Her emotional idealism turned violent when that bond was threatened. And her passivity in action turned lethal when filtered through Fernandez’s manipulation.

Their crimes weren’t just about murder. They were about a dynamic. A power struggle played out through seduction, violence, and shared fantasy. Together, they targeted vulnerable women, lured them in, and eliminated them when they became inconvenient. It was a partnership built on pain.

Astrology shows us that love doesn’t always protect. Sometimes, it destroys. When personal planets like Venus or the Moon are tied to malefic influences like Pluto or Mars, they can produce individuals who express affection through control. Who see love not as a connection, but a conquest.

We often think of female serial killers as acting alone, poisoning quietly, or operating in the shadows. But the truth is far messier. Many of them acted with men they loved – or claimed to. Many killed because of their lovers, for their lovers, or alongside them. And in a few cases, they were the dominant ones, the instigators. The ones who used charm and sex as tools for manipulation and destruction.

What ties all these women together isn’t a single motive. It’s not just greed, or trauma, or ideology. It’s the way they twisted love into something unrecognizable. They weaponized affection. They used trust as bait. And they proved that not all monsters come in the form we expect.

Astrological profiling allows us to track emotional patterns. To see how certain placements show up again and again in these cases – not as causes, but as contributors. As tendencies. A Moon in Aries might inspire bold action… or reckless loyalty. A Venus in Gemini might flirt with danger… or disconnect from empathy. A Moon in Sagittarius might yearn for meaning… and fall into delusion when the story turns dark.

When we analyze cases like these, we’re not just asking why someone killed. We’re asking how they loved. Because in these stories, love wasn’t the antidote to darkness. It was the disguise it wore.

This is where astrology helps us ask deeper questions. How do certain people confuse love with ownership? How do emotional wounds distort romantic instincts? What happens when passion is unbalanced by reason, when desire meets delusion?

And most chilling of all – how many people in our everyday lives are just as capable? How many wear empathy as a mask? How many are willing to hurt in the name of love?

We’ll keep asking these questions, one chart at a time.

Stay curious. Stay cautious. And keep watching for the signs.