Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Forgotten Women of History - Angelina Grimke by Joan Porte


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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