“None of us can change the past” was King Charles’ attempt to tackle the reparations row over the transatlantic slave trade at the Commonwealth Heads meeting. From 1500, the British government and the monarchy were prominent participants in the centuries-long slave trade, alongside other European nations. British ships are reckoned to have transported over three million enslaved Africans, mostly to colonies in the Caribbean and North America. Britain also had a key role in ending the trade in 1833. Some Commonwealth leaders have called for the UK to pay financial compensation estimated at more than £18tn ($23tn).
The Commonwealth of Nations, is an international association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. It dates back to the first half of the 20th century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formalised on 11 December 1931. The current Commonwealth of Nations was constituted on 28 April 1949. The Head of the Commonwealth is Charles III. He is king of 15 member states, known as the Commonwealth realms, whilst 36 other members are republics, and five others have different monarchs.
The 1931 chart has an enthusiastic Fire Grand Trine of Sagittarius Sun trine Uranus and trine Jupiter; five planets in earthy Capricorn trine an idealistic Neptune; and a hard-edged though innovative Saturn opposition Pluto square Uranus. With fittingly a go-it-alone North Node in Aries.
The 1949 chart has a similarly energized mix of Earth and Fire with a Taurus New Moon plus Venus and Mercury; with Pluto and Saturn in Leo and Mars in Aries. There was a mainly Fire but mixed element Grand Trine of Mars trine Saturn trine Jupiter; with a super-confident Jupiter on the focal point of a yod to Uranus sextile Saturn. Also with an Aries North Node.
Both charts hint that 2026/27 will be years of major upheaval. On the 1931 chart the Solar Arc Uranus conjunct the Pluto and opposition the Saturn will upend that T square. Fractious arguments will precede it with the Solar Arc Mars square the Mercury in 2025.
The 1949 chart has a tension-erupting tr Uranus square the Saturn from mid 2025 into 2026; with a road-blocked and infuriated SA Pluto opposition Mars as well as a can-be-fanatical SA Neptune conjunct the Uranus in 2026/27; followed by a deconstruct and reconstruct tr Pluto square the Sun in 2027/28.
From a previous post April 3 2023. Slavery reparations – righting historical wrongs
The history of British/English involvement in slavery has danced to the tune of Uranus Pluto with its participation in transatlantic slavery beginning in 1592 under Uranus Pluto in Aries; and taking over the slave trade to South America in 1713 under Uranus Pluto in Virgo.
Uranus Pluto is more commonly associated with rebellions and revolutions, present during the civil rights unrest in the USA in the 1960s with Uranus Pluto in Virgo in place and over the independence from colonial rule for 12 African states. But that Uranus Pluto conjunction also oversaw Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment as well as Martin Luther King and the Kennedy brothers’ assassinations.
During the previous Uranus Pluto conjunction in the 1840s and 1850s Natal in eastern South Africa, became a British colony and another Anglo-African War broke out. In the USA Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
In the eternal war between the forces of total oppression (Pluto) and the will for freedom (Uranus) sometimes one wins, sometimes the other. There is not another hard Pluto Uranus aspect until the 2040s. But it may be that Pluto moving into Aquarius, ruled by Uranus, combining as it does the two conflicting energies raises the same mood.
The moves to abolish slavery came in stages in the UK, first with a ban internally in the UK and only after 1833 in British overseas territory.
What is intriguing is that the two key acts – the Slave Trade Act 28 March 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act 28 August 1833 both had Pluto square the North Node – and the 1833 Act had Uranus in Aquarius. Pluto square the NN is puzzling at first glance but perhaps a hint that the zeitgeist/spirit of the Age was moving against Pluto’s need to control and to project its hatred and contempt towards those who are different and therefore deemed inferior.
A quick non-astrological comment before reverting to astrology: I am only thankful that these issues are erupting after the death of the late Queen. She felt strongly about the Commonwealth personally (and not just as part of an official role) and took its headship seriously and she would have found this internal politicking hard to manage.
Now back to astrology. Marjorie, you had mentioned that the EU will come under strain about the same time (2026-27) as the Commonwealth. I wonder if all other multinational organisations (I’m think of organisations like the UN, NATO, Mercosur, SAARC, ASEAN, etc) will also be feeling triggered at that time.
And I wonder if that is one impact of Pluto in Aquarius. Aquarius is the sign of the collective and of groups, and multinational organisations are groups of nations. I wonder if Pluto will lead to the death and rebirth of collective groups. Will these bodies (the EU, Commonwealth, etc) die and be reborn in a different form during Pluto in Aquarius?
In that case, would that also apply to voluntary groups like trade unions AND corporations? Will the nature of trade unions and corporations undergo a change?
The Romans took slaves from Britain; the 11th century Domesday Book shows many communities had slaves (probably taken by invading Normans from the indigenous population) and a number of Cornish coastal fishing communities were ravaged by North African slave-takers in the 17/18th century; who took both their men and boys. The list is endless, unfortunately. Artificial intellingence it now at a stage, however, where it should be possible to accurately create ‘what if’ scenarios for various countries around the World. Turning the clock back, if you like, and seeing where these countries would likely be today without the events in the past.
Actually, the Normans were the ones who abolished slavery.
The Domesday book was just an audit of what property people had, and revealed that the Anglo-Saxons had slaves (probably Celts). William the Conqueror then abolished slavery. Why did such a hard man do that? Probably because his mother was a lowly tanner’s daughter who would have been a slave had she been English and it was too close to the bone.
The Conqueror’s decree had world-wide consequences. In 1774, a runaway American slave stowed away on a ship to England where he was sheltered by anti-slavery campaigners. But his owner sued to get him back. The case went all the way to the House of Lords. The Law Lords ruled that as the Conqueror had abolished slavery in England, and no Parliament had reinstated it, as soon as you set foot on English soil, you were free.
The case caused uproar in America. Two years later, in 1776, slave-owner Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. They knew the British were going to abolish slavery and they wanted out.
BTW, the reason the Americans wrote in their constitution that slaves were 3/4 of a person, was that if they hadn’t, Common Law precedence would have meant the House of Lords ruling would have applied in the States too. The only way to stop that was to put slavery into the constitution.
Slavery existed in one form or another in all early medieval European societies. They are mentioned in Anglo Saxon, Welsh and Irish laws and histories. Usually they were acquired through war and raiding between rival kingdoms though it is known that peasants in Anglo Saxon society could sell themselves and their families into bondage at times of food shortage as we know of such people being freed later by manumission. The only people who ran a slave trading system analogous to what the Atlantic slave trade was to become in the 18th centuries were the Vikings who seem to have had a network that stretched from Dublin to Byzantium, the Middle East and Spain. The trade was big enough to show up in the massive amounts of silver coins from these parts of the world that turned up in Scandinavia in the 10th and early 11th centuries. Slaves were still being shipped from Bristol to Dublin at the time of the Norman conquest because we know that the Norman church negotiated their release at the Council of Armagh in 1171
The Empire podcast has a brilliant series on slavery, with some excellent speakers. I’m currently listening to it, and it’s really expanded my knowledge.
They estimate the British transported 12 million slaves, with 2 million dying on route.
The podcast addresses a lot of the points raised here such as: Africans were involved in the trade, slavery in other times and counteries, for instance in the Ottoman empire, yes they had slaves, but slaves could rise high in the government and their children were not slaves at birth, unlike transatlantic slavery.
It’s an excellent podcast and I’ve learned a lot, and before listening to it, I used to use the argument that Africans were involved in the slave trade, but now I understand the context, and realise it’s not as black and white as this.
Unfortunately, William Dalrymple, who hosts the Empire podcast, does not appear to be unbiased in his approach to historical facts. There’s always confirmation bias to be wary of.
There’s an interesting review of his recent book ‘The Golden Road’ on the History Reclaimed website which does sort of suggest he should not be trusted to be impartial.
Marjorie, I think it would be fair to observe that slavery has been one of the earliest and more primitive forms of capitalism that cannot be pinned primarily on any particular group. The indigenous Polynesian settlers in New Zealand were keen on it while over the last millennium the Arab later islamic world was particularly enthusiastic being the original source of stock for much of the later transatlantic slave trade.
I think we need to celebrate our human advances rather than resort to futile zero sum finger pointing.
The following link might help illuminate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world#:~:text=The%20Arab%20slave%20trade%20was,six%20million%20to%20ten%20million.
Doris Lessing’s book ‘African Laughter’ is interesting. She was a diarist. She records every few years leading up to independence of Zimbabwe. Then the realisation that “they were better off under the British” as the indigenous government disappointed them in every way. I’ve heard that from Egyptians and from Indians too. Whether it is just romanticism or objective is uncertain. The farming in Africa set up and run by the British seemed a lynch pin in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Not sure how agriculture is managed post-colonial.
Inconvenient truth.
Black Africans sold OTHER Black Africans to slave ships, off the coast of Cape Verde for over 400 years. The Europeans didn’t even enter the interior of Africa until the last 50 of the slave trade because the tropical diseases killed them.
@Brigitte, Yes this always gets mentioned as if it is a justification, and slavery in some form gors on now but the scale cannot compare.
So inconvenient correction: all nations and cultures have partaked in slavery internally and neighbour to neighbour in some form as a result of poverty, conflicts wars. The issue for the black slave trade as we now know it is the mass scale production and conmercialisation of it by mere 10s of millions. You know…. like battery hens? Making babies with sole purpose of sell at market where the price of sugar was more than a human being. Scale my dear scale and context.
So yeah of course it was the same as what was taking place whether between Elite Africans or Arabs .
Elite were undoubtedly happy in colonial times…they had almost same perks and slaves like British so them ruing past in natural.
Colonies have transformed to corrupt kingdoms ..as Churchill had wisely prophetised
Its a forever battle between colonial mindset past elites who may b working class now but still hanging onto their ancestral coloníal powers and the working class who now since free no longer accepts but wants to take revenge and be them as in past
In the end…a famous quote..there always will be a quarrel even by a rivulet between vice n virtue, rich n poor
In the parans chart for Slave Trade Act, notice Slavery setting with evil
cruel star HAMAL. Notice hope from benefics Venus & Jupiter on the
angles. Venus rules the 12th House of slavery while Jupiter on IC
denotes the ending of a matter (slavery).
Chiron moving away from the IC gives the start of the end for pain/suffering.
Uranus on the Ascendant promises the start of freedom.
https://ibb.co/9p2HFpX
I had a feeling I had read somewhere that France was just as much a Landowner in Africa as Britain. We were in fact equal in land miles. Which is interesting as Britain is seen as the most and the most talked about . Slavery is a contentious subject and is still carried out today. Although we all appear to be stuck in the past and completely ignoring those who suffer today. Transiting Pluto in Aquarius is coming up to transit the Abolition of Slavery 1833 Chart Jupiter for the last time. Perhaps this may be the last attempt to harness the energy and push for money, as it is also opposes the U.K. 1801 Jupiter in Leo. Interestingly as the solar arc Jupiter is in the sixth house of Business , it could be possible to enter into a partnership enterprise as a solution. .
Have added a map about colonial Africa.
Not only France, but Portugal and Spain as well. The Dutch and even the Danes, who owned islands in the Caribbean, surely joined in. The French have the dubious distinction of being the only country that restored slavery after it had been abolished. Napoleon brought it back after the French Revolution had preceded the British in doing away with it. This prompted Haiti to revolt and become the first black republic in 1804 at the height of Napoleon’s power.
What is also interesting is that Algol is conjunct Chiron in the 1833 Abolition Chart, which appears to be locking Britain in a cathartic wound, along with a Mars/Saturn in the tenth house. Britain is seen as the only boss. It is as if the very country who faught for their freedom, has ended up being the major country to be blamed and attacked. Maybe it was the Empire which synthesised in the world psyche. As Brazil actually bought 11 million Slaves which was the most purchased. This means that there was a lot of Slave traffic in the Caribbean to South America. This is also ignored in favour of the constant narrative of the Atlantic Slave Trade argument.
Hi Helen, I think that is quite a simplistic and not exactly accurate view. It may be that the people more vocal on this issue are the ones whose ancestors were mainly under British rule and can only speak about that experience within their historical context and backgrounds. The other contributors are noted and referred to.
We know what the main bug bear for most is, and how it is washed over every single time but I really can’t bother to go into that again.
We are intelligent enough to know that we can’t change the history of this over 400 year plus atrocity, still in motion in some semblance within the psyche.
Other changes and conscious headways need to continue to be worked on, and somehow some form of amends need to be worked out and made. May not happen in my lifetime but the effort needs to be apparent.
I hope Marjorie will not mind me posting this. As it is important to get into perspective on how many people were treated badly in that era. I have copy of The Slave Trade by Hugh Thomas, which is 925 pages long. Admittedly I haven’t read every page. Yet I read bits, and then research world history. Another interesting aspect of Slavery is the peasants. Russian peasants were whipped, killed and completely owned. Their lives were a misery. They couldn’t marry anyone of their choice. In France if a peasant was to be married, the Lord slept with them first, before their husband. In the late 18th Century and 19th Century, English prisoners and the poor who stole – even a piece of bread – were either shipped off to the penal colony in Australia or used as chain gangs; meaning they were chained together all day and at night and worked very hard. They had to sleep six to a pallet. The first penal prisoners were originally shipped off to Africa in a slave ship. By the time they landed on the coast of Africa, they were all so sick with lack of food and a fever. Every single one of them died. They were not given anything. As they were criminals, whereas, the Caribbean Slaves were potential workers and by law ( I think it is the Bill of Rights 1681) had to be given a certain space, food, fruit and water and had to arrive fit and healthy. I had already written that Brazil bought 11 million slaves. That African’s themselves had sold their people before the advent of Christ. We were just part of an established virtual Worldwide Slave movement. The Portuguese started the European slave trade, as the discovered it in North Africa. The first ship of slaves to arrive in Portugal where of mixed races and families, separated in the market and sold. Over a million white slaves were taken by Pirates in the seas, as they sought to capitalise on the trade as well. Not to mention the many sex slaves and those forced to work in many country’s today . It was a barbaric world trade and practice. As the writer of the Slave Trade, Hugh Thomas wrote, that time should be looked upon as that time. It should not be compared to today. Although people are still kept as slaves today. I find it abhorrent that people wish to talk about the past, rather than deal, with modern slavery. We are all still watching slavery continue and not doing anything about it! I would have thought our African communities would be the first to attempt to stop it! Given the way they have suffered.
Because Britain still has a Monarchy and that symbolism strikes a chord.
Correction: England abolished slavery under its third Pluto return after having created it under its second. There is the intriguing question, according to astrologer Ray Grasse, of precession of Pluto returns. If you take that into account, the peak period of the US Pluto return began the week in July when Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee and will culminate on December 30. If you keep in mind Pluto’s British link to slavery, it would follow that she would become President in a country largely built on slavery under British rule. Perhaps the end of the year is when uncertainty about her election is settled. In that sense, the British and US Pluto returns may have interlocking and cumulative effects.
The 1931 chart is also the chart for the sovereignty of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which all came out of the Statute of Westminster of 11 December 1931. These countries have retained the British monarch as their head of state so far. It is presumed that Australia may be the first to change that after its failed referendum in 1999. Indeed, the present Australian government, if reelected, may well try again. If Australia turns into a republic, New Zealand and eventually Canada are likely to follow.
As a New Zealander it seems to be that the clamor to become a republic has gone quieter currently both here and in Australia I gather. When one sees the disaster of Trump, it makes the monarchy a breath of fresh air.
England entered into the slave trade during its first Pluto return and abolished it during its second. The Commonwealth was created in 1949 in the runup to the third. The call for reparations seems a logical outcome. The issue seems to have surfaced during the recent Uranus-Pluto square. So much for Brexiteers who made much of a return to the Commonwealth.
The crisis of 2026-27 will take place at the same time as the US Uranus return and the deadline China has set for an invasion of Taiwan. The Commonwealth could be split or damaged by such a major conflict. India, a British ally, could be fighting fellow member Pakistan again for instance.
I don’t think brexiteers thought they would get back with the commonwealth after leaving the EU . If anything people were naive that vested interests would allow a change to the systems
That’s interesting, thank you Marjorie. The Commonwealth always seemed to me such a positive institution (if it can be called that), bringing so many large and small countries and peoples together. September’s Solar Eclipse in the 1931 chart 7/8th House seems to have kicked off these financial demands. It’ll be sad for all if it ends.