Activists are on a mission to change the world and come in all forms from national political – South Africa’s ANC, the IRA (and forerunners in Ireland), Palestine Liberation Organisation (Hamas and Hezbollah) – to specific causes within society like Suffragettes, Animal Liberation, Hunt Saboteurs, Climate Change, Stop Oil etc.
Such organisations are by their nature pro-active so assertive Mars will figure prominently, as will Uranus Pluto or strong Uranus aspects. When the will for change meets resistance that assertion gets frustrated and can – in some cases turn violent. For instance the Animal Liberation Front has in recent years been considered a domestic terrorist group by both the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center–despite the ALF’s official stance of nonviolence. It executes raids and attacks on animal testing facilities and was founded around 1974 by a Brit Ronnie Lee (born 1951) by all accounts an unassuming man who launched an extremist movement that uses intimidation and economic sabotage to advance its cause.
The Suffragettes have two founding charts – NUWSS 14 October 1897 and 10 October 1903. The first has a fair-minded Libra Sun trine Neptune Pluto in Gemini with a determined Mars in Scorpio in a risk-taking square to Jupiter. The 1903 chart also has a Libra Sun with Mars in outspoken Sagittarius in a can-be-ruthless square to Pluto opposition Jupiter.
It involved two main groups: the suffragists, who favored peaceful tactics, and the suffragettes, who employed more militant and confrontational methods, chaining themselves to railings, breaking windows, setting fires, and hunger strikes in prison to achieve their goals. “Deeds not words” was the motto reflecting the belief that peaceful methods were not enough to achieve their goals.
Millicent Fawcett wrote: “I could not support a revolutionary movement, especially as it was ruled autocratically. I had no doubt whatever that what was right for me and the NUWSS was to keep strictly to our principle of supporting our movement only by argument, based on common sense and experience and not by personal violence or lawbreaking of any kind.” Born 11 June 1847 she had a Sun Jupiter in Gemini square Mars with her Sun also square Saturn in Pisces.
Emmeline Pankhurst, 15 July 1858 was widely criticised for her militant tactics, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women’s suffrage, helping win the right to vote in the UK. She had a Water Grand Trine of a Cancer Sun trine Mars in Scorpio trine Neptune in Pisces with Pluto in Taurus square Saturn in Leo – tough, stubborn, courageous.
South Africa’s ANC struggling against apartheid, 8 January 1912, has a Capricorn Sun trine both Saturn and Mars in tough-minded Taurus with Uranus also in Capricorn trine Mars and opposition Neptune. Nelson Mandela, 18 July 1918 was a Sun Cancer inconjunct Uranus; with a confident Jupiter Pluto conjunct in Cancer square Mars and his Mars sextile Saturn. He initially started out revolutionary taking direct action in strikes and demonstrations and concluded that violent action would be necessary to end apartheid and white minority rule. He ended up serving 27 years in prison for his beliefs and actions, with apartheid eventually collapsing due to international pressure.
The Palestine activist groups which started because of the violent displacement of Palestinian Arabs after 1948 and the increasing alienation of those who remained have tended to be more violent. The PLO, 28 May 1964, has a revolutionary Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn square Sun; with Uranus Pluto trine Jupiter. With Mars in determined Taurus opposition Neptune and trine Pluto.
Hamas, 14 December 1987 Has a fearsome Mars Pluto in Scorpio and Hezbollah, 16 February 1985, has Mars in direct-action Aries trine Uranus with the Aquarius Sun tied into Saturn in Scorpio and Algol North Node – formidably determined.
Palestine Action (see post below) also leans towards violence in its rage about the unfairness of the situation.
In other arenas – Hunt Saboteurs, 26 December 1963, has a potentially violent Mars in Capricorn trine Uranus Pluto in Virgo. Just Stop Oil, 14 February 2022, has Mars Venus in Capricorn trine Uranus with Sun Saturn in Aquarius. Extinction Rebellion, 31 October 2018, has an exceptionally stubborn chart with a Scorpio Sun opposition Uranus square Moon North Node; with Jupiter in Scorpio square a defiant Mars in Aquarius.
Not sure what conclusions can be drawn except that peaceful protest plus a few (metaphorical) sharp kicks on the shin appear to be needed in certain situations. But not all protests work and it is not a fair world where justice wins through eventually – hence the Tibetans and other beleaguered peoples suppressed under the the dictator’s heel.
Palestinians and Israelis are directly engaged in an existential struggle. I can understand why for both of them the conflict has profound meaning and consequences. For most of the other people who have taken up the issue one harbours the suspicion that they have adopted the cause in order to gain some vicarious validation about being involved in other peoples conflicts. In addition a lot of their effort is misplaced since even if the activists in Palestinian Action or groups such as Extinction Rebellion did change UK government policy completely to meet their aims the impact it would have on events in the Middle East or on Climate Change is going to be so small as to be imperceptible. In that respect they appear to be signing up to the same “imperial delusion” as many British politicians in believing that what this country does somehow has more global importance than is actually the case. It is something that infects all sides of British politics from Farage’s Reform Party to many on the far left.
Hmm. There is a difference between the amount of political influence a country actually wields (which can be disproportionate to its size, or otherwise), and the need for every single country to play their part (in a complex global issue such as climate change). Sometimes co-operation and collective leadership is the only way, and it doesn’t help for anyone to sit there and say ‘we are small and so we won’t make any difference.’
The phrase that came to my mind on reading the suffragettes’ slogan “Deeds not words” was “propaganda of the deed”. That was all the rage in the late 19’th century and start of the 20th century (pre-WWI).
That took the form of direct action, typically assassination attempts of famous people to make a point. And indeed it is possible that the assassination attempt of Archduke Ferdinand that triggered WWI was just a propaganda of the deed against Austro-Hungarian rule, as was the assassination of Empress Sisi a few years prior. Nobody could have foreseen that the former action would end up sending millions of men to their death across Europe.
I’m told that in Indian mythology there is a very potent destructive weapon, which, once released, can’t be recalled nor can its destruction be undone. You could win with it, but whether you win or you lose after its release, you carry the consequences of having released it. They had probably foreseen the atom bomb.
The problem with releasing the genie of activism or violence is that once out of the bottle, you have no control over it, and yet you carry the responsibility for having released it and its negative effects.
“If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst at once into the sky
That would be like the splendour of the Mighty One…
I am become Death,
The destroyer of worlds.
[Quoted from the Bhagavad Gita after the first nuclear weapon test, Trinity]”
― J. Robert Oppenheimer
Never fails to raise goosebumps.
There is a whole chapter about the “Propaganda of the Deed” in Barbara Tuchman’s book the Proud Tower about the period in the run up to the First World War which is well worth reading
Activism and fanaticism are two different beasts. Some of the groups described above are fanatical.
For me, Uranus (unless afflicted) better signals activism e.g. campaining and advocacy activities. Rebelling against the status quo for the greater good of humankind, animalkind and the planet.