Life and death of Malcolm X

One of the most famous civil rights leaders of the 1960s was Malcolm X. He was of African American descent and became an outspoken and controversial Muslim leader in the fight for black civil rights. 

Fallout with his mentor in March 1964 resulted in his religious conversion and the forming of a new church. In February 1965, he was assassinated while giving a speech. Men belonging to his former congregation were arrested, charged and convicted of his murder. 

The astrology of the times and this tragic event are examined in terms of the SAMVA USA chart. 

Synopsis of his life 

Malcolm X, was born in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925.[1] His given name was Malcolm Little. He died from gunshot wounds in New York City on February 21, 1965. 

He was also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, anti-Semitism, and violence. He has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. 

By the time Malcolm X was thirteen, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. His childhood, including his father's lessons concerning black pride and self-reliance and his own experiences concerning race, played a significant role in Malcolm X's adult life. 

After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in hustling and other criminal activities in Boston and New York. In 1946, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison. While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam. 

After his parole in 1952, he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years, he was the public face of the Nation of Islam. Tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to Malcolm X's departure from the organization in March 1964.

After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, after which he disavowed racism. He traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East. He founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular, Black Nationalist Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in New York.[2] He had been threatened in his home prior to that. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam.[3] 

Significance 
While Reverend Martin Luther King is perceived as the towering leader of the black equal rights movement, Malcolm X has a very special place in it. 

In his famous “I have a dream” speech on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King became an icon of his people's peaceful urge to be accepted and a major figure of the idealism that is part of the collective conciousness of Americans. 

By comparison, Malcolm X belonged to those who were impatient and angry towards whites for centuries of abuses, going so far as to reject their faith and refuse their company. He went so far as calling those who participated in the white man's system as "house niggers," a reference to their slave origins in the USA. There was also an unrelated Black Panther movement in the 1960s adopting a revolutionary stance, emphasising also the assertion of black pride. 

In his last year of life, Malcolm X disavowed racism in any of its forms and sought peaceful change. In doing so, he increasingly aligned himself with the idealistic sentiments of the American people as a whole, earlier expressed by Martin Luther King, beginning to transcend the righteous anger associated with the injustices. 

Nevertheless, he continued to seek international condemnation of US practices in this regard. Indeed, the maltreatment of minorities, socio-economic injustices and the violence of daily life are a major blight on the American experience. This feature will likely always manifest in one form or another in the national life. 

At the same time, the strong sense of idealism that is at the heart of a ceaseless struggle to overcome or transcend social injustices and the associated violence has made the USA frequently a tragic yet one of the most fascinating and inspiring countries in the world. 

Astrology of Saturn period 

The 1960s were a decade of social upheaval, where the Vietnam War, civil rights and the idealism of the young collided. The Saturn major period (April 1953- April 1972) was operating. 

Saturn rules the common people. In the SAMVA USA chart, Saturn is 8th lord and thus rules obstacles and endings, beliefs of the people, bureaucratic obstructions or delays and easy gains. As Saturn is placed in the 5th house, the energy is felt more acutely by young people, in the creative sphere and in universities. 

During the 1950s, the Beat Generation launched an examination of the vacuousness of daily middle-class life with its seemingly robotic emphasis on only working to acquire a home, appliances, a car, while offering tacit support to a "Military-Industrial Complex" engaged in a potentially deadly Cold War with the Soviet Union and China. This intellectual development of the young evolved into the Hippy movement in the 1960s and the so-called summer of love. 

Natally, Saturn also aspects the Sun as 2nd lord of wealth and status and Sun is a general indicator of the leader of the country, the President. A lot of the frustration was directed at the sitting Presidents, especially Lyndon B. Johnson, who opted out of running for a second term in 1968. His successor, Richard M. Nixon, was also strained by the demands of young people and discontent with the war. 

As Saturn is 8th lord of the transcendent, psychedelic drugs became popular and they eventually zapped the idealism and vibrancy of the youth movement. 

As regards, the civil rights struggle, it is linked to the placement of Ketu, which rules those separated or isolated in life, on the most effective point of the 4th house in the chart, ruling communal harmony. Ketu also aspects the 8th house of obstacles and death, ruled by Saturn. Ketu's own dispositor, Venus, is placed in the 6th house of the chart, suggesting conflict over those things that separate people within the nation. 

Since its founding, blacks and other minorities have been subject to being marginalized and made to feel separate from the rest of society. During the Saturn period of social upheaval, young people began to adopt a more aggressive stance towards this problem. Malcolm X, who was in his thirties during this time, became one of the most famous and respected spokesmen of the plight of his people, although many also disagreed with his approach.

Assassination 
On February 21, 1965, in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm X began to speak to a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity when a disturbance broke out in the crowd of 400. A man yelled, "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!" As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns, hitting him 16 times. 

Angry onlookers caught and beat one of the assassins as the others fled the ballroom. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m., shortly after he arrived at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Three men belonging to the Nation of Islam were arrested and imprisoned for the murder. Malcolm X left a wife and four young children and millions of Americans stricken with grief. 

Astrology of the event

 On the day of his assassination, the Saturn-Moon period was in operation. Transit Moon was at 23° Libra and 4th house in opposition to transit 6th lord Jupiter at 25° Aries and 10th house. The strong Moon representing the self of the American people and sub-period lord at this time was focused on the communal harmony. Under the influence of the lord of conflict, there was discord in the air. 

Transit Jupiter was also aspecting natal 4th lord Venus at 24° Sagittarius and 6th house, with a sense of conflict disturbing the peace in the community. Transit Ketu was exactly conjunct natal Saturn at 27° Scorpio and 5th house. A sudden violent event brought death. Transit Rahu at 27° Taurus and 11th house was aspecting natal 2nd lord Sun at 24° Capricorn and 7th house as well as transit 4th lord Venus at 27° Capricorn, further undermining the communal harmony. 

Transit Saturn was in its own sign Aquarius and 8th house, but under the aspect of natal Ketu, bringing a sudden and violent event causing a separation. Saturn was also conjunct transit Sun diminishing the status of the USA due to such an event taking place. Also in the 8th house was 3rd lord Mercury linked to an action causing death. Malcolm X possibly had Sagittarius as a rising sign.[4] 

Source 

[1] Malcolm X - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X 

[2] Time of death and a photo of deceased Malcolm X http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0319103malcolmx1.html 

[3] The assailants http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#events-1960 

[4] Malcolm X birth information http://www.astrotheme.fr/