This week we are using astrological
tools to remember women mainly lost to history. I hate to admit it but before
starting this, but I never heard of Angelina Grimke or her sister, Sarah, who
were tireless agents for the anti-slavery movement. However, that proves the
need for this series, sadly.
Angelina Grimke Weld was born into
Charleston society on February 20, 1805. Her South Node* or past life
personality indicator was in Cancer, the sign of the caring nurturer. However,
her Mars in the fiery, stubborn fixed sign of Leo was conjunct (or within 10
degrees) of the South Node. The aspects one planet makes off another help
“flavor” our astrological readings. Mars, the warrior sign, with the South Node
tells us that she had many lives in which she fought for things that mattered
to her.
While the Moon rules Cancer, a sign associated
with mothers, home and hearth, we have to remember that it is a cardinal sign,
one characterized by determination and leadership qualities. She did not come
from a past as some dainty shrinking violet. She knew what she wanted and went
for it.
Mars, named for the god of war, is the
epitome of raw masculine power. She combined Mars’ energy with the caring of
Cancer and became an amazing force in the anti-slavery and pro women’s rights
movements.
A 1967 biography of Grimke by Gerda
Lerner entitled, The Grimke Sisters From South
Carolina had a wonderful
description of Angelina who even as a child knew her own mind and paved her own
path. “It
never occurred to [Angelina] that she should abide by the superior judgment of
her male relatives or that anyone might consider her inferior, simply for being
a girl.” Cancerians want to help people but they do so in their own way.
The opposite sign to Cancer,
and the sign of her soul’s path, was Capricorn, which rules the area of societal
structures such as the government. It is not surprising then that her caring
and nurturing qualities expressed as her insistence that society care for everyone
regardless of race or sex.
Like the other remarkable
women we have met this week, she used her South Node qualities in service to
the North Node.
Angelina spent her
adulthood speaking on the Abolitionist circuit throughout New England and the
Mid Atlantic. In February 1838, she become the first woman to address a
legislative body when she delivered an anti-slavery speech to the Massachusetts
State Legislature. Her book An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South is the only known example of a Southern
woman appealing to her fellow Southern women to renounce slavery.
After the civil war, her
attention turned to woman’s suffrage and she spent her last years as an active
member of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association.
If tasked with cooking for Ms. Grimke I would definitely go
with a Capricorn recipe from my book, “Signs of the Tines: The Ultimate
Astrological cookbook. I think she would
enjoy my sturdy, no nonsense, but delicious Yankee Pot Roast.
*For more information on the role of the North and South
Nodes in astrological interpretation, please see my first blog this week on Ida
Wells.
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