African-American Astro-History Month: Why Nat Turner Was Not To Be Fucked With

After actually being shocked again by a prominent person who appeared not to know who Frederick Douglass is, I figured I can do better than just be shocked. Instead, I’m going to write about one of my favorite stories from African-American history – the story of Nat Turner. I like it because of its direct connection to cosmic events, and because Nat Turner proves that Libra Suns are not to be fucked with.

Nat Turner was born in Southampton County on October 2nd 1800. While we don’t know his birth time, he was born on the day of a lunar eclipse at 9 Aries. This is kind of important. He was highly intelligent, learning to read and write from a young age. He had a way with people and was able to get people on his side (Sun in Libra, Venus in Libra). He was also extremely religious, obsessed with the Bible, and prone to “visions” and seeing significance. Fellow slaves nicknamed him “the Prophet”. Today, if he was that one guy in your office, you’d nickname him “a little too hot for Jesus”, or “not to be fucked with”.

On February 11th 1831, a solar eclipse occurred at 23 Aquarius, visible over Virginia. Nat saw it as a sign, interpreting the eclipse as a black man’s hand moving over the Sun. On top of LIVING IN THE ABJECT CRUELTY OF SLAVERY HIS ENTIRE LIFE, the eclipse tipped him over the edge, convincing him that the time to rise up against the slave owners was near. Still, the personal courage and testicular fortitude necessary to contemplate such an action is staggering. The solar eclipse opposed his Saturn at 20 Leo and squared his Mars at 25 Taurus, signifying that shit was about to get real. Pluto was at 8 Aries, closing in on an opposition to Nat’s Sun at 9 Libra, signifying that he was not to be fucked with.

He carried out his rebellion on August 21st 1831, when Venus was conjunct his Sun and Pluto was opposite his Sun, while Mars and Saturn opposed his Pluto, signifying a life-or-death struggle for freedom by all means necessary. He had gathered a force of about 70 black men and women, some slave, some free. They went house to house, freed the black people and killed about 60 white slave owners, including the younglings.

Yes, even the younglings. Don’t pretend innocent children haven’t died in wars or military actions you’ve supported. Come on now. A newspaper at the time noted:

Turner declared that indiscriminate slaughter was not their intention after they attained a foothold, and was resorted to in the first instance to strike terror and alarm.

They did spare a child, and they spared the lives of some white people “because Turner believed the poor white inhabitants ‘thought no better of themselves than they did of negroes.'”

The rebellion ended two days later on the morning of August 23rd 1831, just as a lunar eclipse at 29 Aquarius occurred. Hundreds of black people were executed by trial, militias and mobs, while Nat Turner escaped. In response to the rebellion, (an act of desperation against the barbarism of slavery), the whole South cracked down (even more) on black people in fear of another rebellion instead of rethinking the whole ‘having slaves’ thing and definitely not considering how that in itself would lead to more people getting really, really peeved about it and stuff.

Just as retrograde Venus disappeared into the rays of the Sun, so did Nat stay hidden for about two months while he was hunted down. He was found on October 30th 1831 as Venus was completing its post-retro shadow period. On November 5th 1831 (no Guy Fawkes connection) he was tried. When asked if he regretted what he did, he responded “Was Christ not crucified?” Again, this guy is not to be fucked with.

He was hanged on November 11th 1831. Then they cut his skin off, beheaded him and cut his body into quarters. They must have really wanted to make sure he was dead. Maybe they were bad at confirming if he was dead, or maybe they were worried he’d come back from the dead and try to stop slavery again, heaven forbid. Maybe they wanted to make sure because they understood who they were dealing with. They were dealing with Nat Motherfucking Turner, that’s who, the leader of the most significant uprising against slavery by black Americans in US history. Pluto was at 9 Aries, exactly opposite Nat’s Sun at 9 Libra, signifying once and for all, that he was not and I repeat not to be fucked with.

A Saturn return later these white people and their younglings collectively lost their shit when Abraham Lincoln was elected. This caused the Civil War because apparently the North were such big meanies for not letting them have slaves, but they got their racist asses beat. After that, the United States never got perilously close to war over whether black lives matter ever again.

The End

Interestingly, Nat Turner’s story has returned in a big way, with the release of “The Birth of a Nation” last year. Interesting because it was Pluto’s opposition to Nat’s Sun that brought him to the edge, and “The Birth of a Nation” was released a month before the 2016 election, during Pluto’s opposition to the US Sun, which isn’t creepily ominous at all.