| A Soul-Centered look at the life and writings of Maya Angelou |
| Maya Angelou April 4, 1928 2:10 PM St. Louis Missouri Maya's Natal Wheel Soul’s Purpose Formula: (please see Astrology Harvest for a detailed explanation of the Soul Purpose Formula) |
| Soul’s Purpose Formula in words: Transform the individual will {Sun in Aries, 8th house} thru attunement {Neptune 1st, conjunct ASC} to Divine Will {Sun in Aries}; becoming a vessel for creatively expressing through the Heart of the Sun; the Christ within {Neptune in Leo 1st, conjunct Leo Asc}; destruction of outmoded and limiting philosophies and expanding consciousness {Jupiter conjunct Vulcan in Aries, 9th house} into an awareness of the One Life {Jupiter/Vulcan 9th conjunct Sun in Aries 8th house, Pisces Cusp} and of the connectivity of ALL humanity, ending the illusion of separation {Pluto in Cancer, 11th house,}; communicate knowledge and understandings gained through the experience of self-transformation and empowerment to the masses for their upliftment; a collective voice {Gemini cusp, 11th} ********************************************************************** A passage from Maya Angelou’s work Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now from a chapter entitled ‘In The Spirit’ seems to illustrate the process of re-orienting the Aries sun making it a vehicle for the Soul’s expression: “I believe that Spirit is one and is everywhere present. That it never leaves me. That in my ignorance I may withdraw from it, but I can realize its presence the instant I return to my senses. It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even unknowable. I cannot separate what I conceive as Spirit from my concept of God. Thus, I believe that God is Spirit. While I know myself to be a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation. This is particularly difficult for me when my mind falls upon the cruel person, the batterer and the bigot. I would like to think that the mean spirited were created by another force. But since I believe God to be the creator of all things, I am not only constrained to know that the oppressor is a child of God, but also obliged to treat him or her as a child of God” The sign Aries manifests on the 1st {Will/Power} and 7th (Ceremonial Order and Magic) rays. It’s element is fire, and mode is cardinal. It is initiating and active. The focus of personality centered Aries is driven by the desire for dominance and the need for personal recognition. Aries awakening to the Soul directs life activity much more consciously and is more aware of the well-being of others besides himself/herself. Anger and moral outrage may be conditioning factors. Leo, also a fire sign, manifests on the 1st and 5th (Concrete Knowledge) rays. It is a fixed sign. Leo totally focused in the personality is extremely self-centered and self-conscious and has the need to dominate through the sheer force of personality. Leo awakening to the Soul is increasingly self aware, and leaving the need to be center stage behind, though still has the urge to make an impact on the environment. For a Soul-conscious Leo there is movement toward the realization of the relationship to the collective. How do the energies of Leo {ascending, Soul directive} and Aries {Sun, personality vehicle to be used for the Soul’s purpose} blend in the Life of Maya Angelou? Maya Angelou was born April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis Missouri. Her given name was Marguerite Johnson, but she was nicknamed Maya by her brother Bailey when they were children. The Angelou last name came about after her debut in the Purple Onion Cabaret as a dancer when in her early 20’s. Maya means blinding glamour and illusion {which might be symbolic of her Sun in Aries/Moon in Libra conjunct Earth opposition} and suggests that something is about to be unveiled and transformed via the power of the Apex Pluto in Cancer 11th T-square of which the Sun and Moon/Earth are legs. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise. And Still I Rise, Maya Angelou Maya is a poet, playwright, inspirational speaker sought out on lecture circuits, and has written 5 autobiographies; she has worked as a journalist for foreign publications, was the first Black woman to work on the street cars in St. Louis, has been a dancer in theater, has taught at the University of Kansas, the University of Ghana, and is currently a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. She is a civil rights activist and a spokesperson for battered women. As a personality she definitely has a powerful and dynamic presence, as having Sun in Aries, 8th house and Leo rising might suggest. She has positively influenced the lives of many; most particularly, though not exclusively, African American Women. She has eloquently, insightfully and profoundly documented her Soul’s Journey. I can recall being a part of a poetry group in the late 1970’s; a relatively small group of about 7 or so, that got together monthly to share writings. Two of the persons in the group were Black women. Both had such a respect and admiration for Maya Angelou and seemed totally inspired by her work and her life. They were even more hopeful for their own possibilities as writers because of the ground she broke. This inspired me to want to read her work, and to share with them this empowering sense that all things are possible. Maya’s early life was spent being sent back and forth from Mother to grandmother with her brother Bailey; her mother and father divorced when she was 3. In her growing up in Stamps, Arkansas, she experienced the hate and discrimination directed toward those born African American. Intensely self-conscious, she wrote many passages about her “black ugliness”, and her longing to have the blond locks and blue eyes of little white girls whom she felt were so favored. She was in fact painfully discriminated against by a white dentist when she was only eight years old, being refused treatment for an abscessed tooth; the dentist telling her grandmother he would rather stick his hand in a dog’s mouth. For a soul with less innate inner strength and will to persevere, experiences such as these can be devastating rather than used for the structuring the spiral staircase from whence “I Rise”. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise. And Still I Rise, Maya Angelou A visit to her mother in St. Louis when she was 6 ended in her being raped by her mothers live in companion. After that she decided not to speak for the next 5 years. It was then she truly began to listen. Within all of this she had a great thirst for knowledge, and spent a lot of time reading, absorbing and learning all she could. She was a great observer of life, balancing and weighing all she took in with a wisdom way beyond her earthly years. Although she had anger and resentment about her lot in life it was apparent that she progressively released its hold on her as she grew, in response to her Soul mandate. She transformed great psychological and emotional pain and alientation into great depth and understanding and sensitively shares her insights throughout her work. The Moon conjunct the Earth, suggestive of a strong tie to the past and difficulty in allying it with the present, are in the second house in Libra. From a soul level moon in Libra asks for “the creation of form to be for the harmonious externalization of the principle Unity in Diversity” (SCA, page 263, Alan Oken). The moon conjunct the earth suggests that there is something very specific left undone in a past incarnation that is carried forward into the present for completion. That something might be the expression of this unity in diversity as a foundation from which life energies are expressed. {2nd house}. The Moon is in opposition aspect to the soul-centered ruler of Libra, Uranus that is the Moons dispositor on the soul level, suggesting again that the past is in conflict with the future, and that it will be through a certain rebelliousness against established order and through great personal struggle that the realization of unity in diversity will arise. The Moon is also opposite the Sun in Aries 8th house and Jupiter, and Vulcan in Aries, 9th. All are Squaring Pluto in Cancer, 11th house. Pluto, in turn, is the esoteric ruler of the sign on the 8th house cusp; Pisces and one of the personality-centered rulers of Scorpio, on the 4th house cusp. Pluto in Cancer 11th, then, is the apex of a cardinal T-Square to Jupiter, Vulcan and the Sun {8th and 9th}, and the Earth and Moon in 2nd. The two rulers of the South node {in Sagittarius} are opposing each other {Jupiter, Earth} and squaring Pluto; a powerful impetus for transformation in her life. An all encompassing psychological transformation must occur in order for her to handle the power inherent in this T-Square in a positive way. What this might suggest is that Maya Angelou has had difficulty aligning heart and head in the past, and although arriving with great inner strength, intelligence, personal magnetism and power, what needed to be accomplished is a using of her energy and gifts to benefit the collective, and establishing a solid foundation of spiritual values from which her use of life energies could be directed. {Moon conjunct Earth in Libra, 2nd house} She has so closely identified with specific groups and philosophies that it was difficult to see and interact within the larger whole, and to be an individual within a larger group; humanity. It has been difficult for her to listen and not pre-judge based upon the past. {SN Sagittarius, 4th house conjunct Saturn}. In the past she possibly could have used her power to control groups rather than help to liberate them, and/or hidden within them, fearful of establishing that individualized selfhood separate from that of her biological origin. Saturn in Sagittarius, 4th conjunct the South Node is squaring the Soul and personality centered rulers of Gemini (on the cusp of the 11th influencing Pluto in Cancer). The conjunction of the 2 rulers Venus and Mercury in Pisces, 8th suggests there is a great potential for the infusion of soul energy into the personality, and that the ways in which these principles have previously been expressed will undergo transformation. The Pisces/Cancer connection on the personality level speaks to the mass consciousness and victimization/victimizing, individual and group, that have dominated humanity for centuries. Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise. And Still I Rise, Maya Angelou On a Soul level, Cancer becomes that lighted house, and Pisces moves closer to liberation. Gemini serves to make one aware of the duality between the lower and the higher selves, ultimately to build the bridge that unites the two. The Soul centered ruler of Cancer is Neptune, a factor in the Soul Formula. It is conjunct the Ascendant in Leo, 1st house. The personality-centered ruler of Cancer is the Moon, conjunct the earth in Libra 2nd house and semi-square Neptune {Leo 1st}. The semi-square aspect creates an internal friction manifesting and becoming actualized in a very obvious exterior way. And so the energy exchange of the 2 rulers of Cancer would serve to bring a realization of the stimulation from the Soul that would become a mode of expression building upon and drawing from deeply internalized spiritual values from which Life energies would then be expressed. The personality expression of Saturn in Sagittarius, 4th, would be one of being so attached to personal philosophies, or those of biological and environmental origin, that one is unable to see the whole. From a Soul level this same energy might be expressed as sharing wisdom that transcends all difference. A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Mark the mastodon. The dinosaur, who left dry tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages. But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully, Come, you may stand upon my Back and face your distant destiny, But seek no haven in my shadow. I will give you no hiding place down here. You, created only a little lower than The angels, have crouched too long in The bruising darkness, Have lain too long Face down in ignorance The Rock Cries Out For Us Today, Maya Angelou Saturn squaring Mercury and Venus (conjunct in Pisces, 8th ) suggests a need to incorporate more empathy and compassion for others into the life and disallow any previous mental structures to prevent her from perceiving and living more inclusively. Mercury and Venus are quatra-novile the Moon suggesting that the realization of the path for right thinking is evident and suggests that throughout the life it will be more greatly incorporated then externalized in a certain perceived life mission, path or calling, making the aspect dynamic and purposeful in it’s actualization. Mercury and Venus are tri-septile Neptune in Leo 1st, underscoring again the need for elimination of ‘wrong thinking’ and the beginning of the process of the adjustment and refinement of Spiritual values. We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life. Touched by An Angel, Maya Angelou Saturn in Sagittarius 4th is trine Sun in Aries 8th, and from a soul level would support the right use of will and give expression focus. Saturn trine the Jupiter/Vulcan conjunction in Aries 8th would be helpful in building new structures that embody the expansion in consciousness once undergone. A passage within her book, “I know why the Cage Bird Sings” speaks very definitely to the realization of the oneness of humanity she reached at the age of 15, after having first experienced that very painful childhood that threw her back onto her own resources. She was constantly faced with situations that would challenge her to see beyond her immediate environment and beyond her previous self-definition, and in the right use of Will. The following is her reflection on having spent a month in a junk yard with other runaways: “After a month my thinking processes had so changed that I was hardly recognizable to myself. The unquestioning acceptance by my peers had dislodged the familiar insecurity. Odd that homeless children, the silt of war frenzy, could initiate the brotherhood of man. After hunting down unbroken bottles and selling them with a white girl from Missouri, a Mexican girl from Los Angeles and a Black girl from Oklahoma, I was never again to sense myself so solidly outside the pale of the human race. The lack of criticism evidenced by our ad hoc community influenced me, and set a tone of tolerance for my life” I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the book, Maya Angelou, page 247 Maya Angelou’s soul urge was to create, and to connect with her own innate divinity. Her life experience set the stage for her to deeply and subjectively explore the nature of her reality and to learn compassion for all of God’s children in the school of hard knocks. In this lifetime it was not enough to simply keep this for herself. What she has learned must be freely shared for the good of all, and become the Spiritual foundation from which she perceives and lives. It seems as though she has succeeded in inspiring, and assisting to empower many, and in building a solid foundation from which Spirit can soar. free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the poem Maya Angelou by Sarah Gallant, 2002 thanks to Adele Barger Wilson for the permission to publish this reading using the Soul Purpose Formula, and for the wealth of infomation at Astrology Harvest |
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