History is finicky. While some make the leap onto his merry-go-round, thousands, sadly more “hers” than “hims,” fall while grasping at his slippery reins. This week we will astrologically explore the lives of some forgotten women of history.
It is rare to have the exact birth-time of these women. However, we do not need the time to determine the South Node, which shows the personality of our previous lives for which we carry an innate memory. As an astrologer who tracks the progress of the soul from lifetime-to-lifetime, the South Node is an amazing tool of discovery to the current personality.*
Ida B. Wells should be a name every child learns, much as they do Harriet Tubman (hopefully.) She was born July 16, 1862 in Hope Springs, Mississippi as the Civil War raged. Her first job was as a schoolteacher but her life changed in 1884. A railroad conductor ordered her to give up her seat to a white man and go to the “Jim Crow” car in the back of the train. This type of action although prohibited by the 1875 Civil Rights Act was prevalent in the post-war South. Almost 70 years before Rosa Parks, Ida Wells refused to give up her seat. Later she sued the C and O Railroad and while she won the case, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned her victory. This action spurred her desire to write about injustice and she soon took a job with a local newspaper, “The Evening Star.”
After witnessing a lynching of three black men blamed for shooting white storeowners, she stirred her readers to leave Mississippi because it was no longer safe for them. More than 6000 African American’s heeded her call and left the state. Thousands of others boycotted stores until the practiced stopped. She then penned a pamphlet entitled, “Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in All Its Phase,” and took her crusade to end lynching North – calling attention to the rampant use of this torturous and illegal act.
It is no wonder the Ms. Wells took to the pen as her weapon against hate. Her South Node, (the horseshoe facing up) was in Gemini. (Because we do not know the time, we cast the chart for 12 noon; however, the Node was in Gemini that day regardless of her birth time.)
With her South Node in Gemini, her North Node, indicating the lessons the soul desired to learn in her current lifetime, was in the opposite sign, Sagittarius. We should use our South Node in service to the embodiment of the North to realize our full potential and she did that beautifully.
Gemini, ruled by the fast planet Mercury, is the communicator. It is the sign obsessed with quickly gathering and distributing information. Sagittarius, ruled by the enormous planet Jupiter, is the seeker of spiritual and philosophical truth. Ms. Wells used the communication skills she honed in her previous lives as a Gemini in service to her North Node, Sagittarius. She used her Gemini pen to demand the Sagittarian values of truth, freedom, and inclusion.
By the way, if I had the chance to cook for Ms. Wells, I would chose my “on-the-go” Chicken Lollipops because Gemini is just too busy to take time to eat long, leisurely meals. The recipe is in my cookbook, “Signs of the Tines: The Ultimate Astrological Cookbook.”