On November 5th in England every year we light bonfires and fireworks to celebrate Guy Faulkes day. Sometimes a ‘guy’, a male effigy made out of old clothes stuffed with newspaper, is burned on the top of the bonfire. 2005 marks the 400th year anniversary of the 1605 events which began this tradition. Terrorism, bombs and religion are a current as well as a historical brew, so what does an astrological insight add to our understanding of this story and its relevance today?
"Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot" goes the children’s chant. The day commemorates the failure of a conspiracy by a group of English Catholics to blow up the Houses of Parliament on the occasion of its State opening, in order to destroy the Protestant King James, along with his family and Government. The idea was recreated in October 1984 when the IRA attempted to assassinate the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Government ministers with a bomb in a Brighton hotel.
Guy Faulkes, whose name is synonymous with the plot, is believed to have been born on 13th April 1570 (OS) in York.
A Taurean by sun sign, he left home as a young man and became a mercenary soldier abroad, making a courageous Leo moon more probable than a home loving Cancerian one. He was successful and admired in his chosen profession and led an unusually clean life, rather like a soldier-monk. His exalted Saturn is the strongest planet in his chart by essential dignity and opposes both Mercury and Venus.
Faulkes’ heritage on his mother’s side was Catholic and his school was a strong catholic influence on him. To be Catholic in England at that time was to be part of an oppressed, persecuted and feared minority who were regularly fined and barred from public office. Catholic Priests were fugitives who, if caught, were subjected to public mutilation and death. Such cruelty was fuelled by fear. It was hard for English Catholics to protest their loyalty when many assumed their first allegiance would be to the Pope in Rome and their faith. Would Catholics link up with foreign powers to overthrow the monarch and restore the English Church to Rome? Such an attempt had been made in 1588 with the Spanish Armada, so this fear wasn’t all paranoia. The result was the oppression of human rights and extensive Government spy networks in the name of national security.
Guy’s heritage of persecution and martyrdom might be seen in his south node in Pisces, a point stimulated by transit this year by Uranus, just as his story will receive anniversary-related attention. His north node in Virgo might indicate a desire to return England to the purity of the ‘true faith’ through practical action. One puzzle is why Guy Faulkes, who was not the leader of the Plot, should be the one we all remember. Perhaps his grand trine in air of Neptune, Jupiter and Saturn describes the flip side of celebrity, infamy on an enduring and major scale. Jupiter in Aquarius gives us the political belief, Saturn the Government, Neptune the pursuit of an ideal.
The plot was hatched on 20 May 1604 (NS) in an inn called the Duck and Drake on the Strand in London. Present were Robert Catesby, the charismatic and hot-headed leader of the conspiracy and three others, including Guy Faulkes. These original conspirators were bonded by family ties (Venus in Cancer of the plot chart) as well as religion. Seven more were later included, weakening the bonds of secrecy.
Catesby outlined his plan to blow up the Government, which he called ‘a stroke at the root’. This shocking and radical idea is indicated by Mercury conjunct Uranus. A new Government, sympathetic to the Catholic cause would replace it (north node in Scorpio). Jupiter in the religious sign of Sagittarius and in rulership was trine to the north node’s powerful ruler Pluto. The idea was grand in scale and over ambitious (Jupiter inconjunct Mercury), but Mars, the ruler of the north node, was in detriment and the outcome was to be totally counter productive to the Catholic cause. Moreover, the Plot was flawed, being too vague in some important areas of detail (Sun and Saturn square Neptune).
The whole thing was essentially a Neptunian dream. Not only was the plan based on over idealistic assumptions about the strength of Catholic support, but the gunpowder itself, when discovered by Government officials, had degraded and would never have ignited. However, a dynamic T square combining the Moon in the political sign of Aquarius, the Mercury/Uranus conjunction and idealistic, dreamy Neptune, gave the Plot momentum. The Moon may also have received a power boost from a sextile to Pluto.
The lunar and solar eclipses of late September and early October that year were later viewed at the time to have been portents of no good. The plot was betrayed and Guy Faulkes was arrested lurking around the Parliament buildings around midnight on 4th November. Hearing the news, most of the others fled. Thirty-six barrels of gunpowder and a great deal of firewood were discovered in a vault underneath the House of Lords. Faulkes held up under interrogation (Taurean stubbornness perhaps) but cracked under torture and named his co-conspirators. Simon Foreman, a celebrated astrologer, was asked to work out the whereabouts of one of the fugitives, Thomas Percy. His prediction of "Saturn, being Lord of the 8th house sheweth that the fugitive shall be taken by the commandment of the Prince, and in being taken, shall be slain" came true.
The Gunpowder Plot was a rash escapade fermented by a small group of fanatics acting in isolation. Yet, its consequences for English Catholics down the centuries was disastrous, perhaps indicated by Saturn in Sagittarius in the chart for the Plot’s inception. Although Catholics at the time rushed forward with ‘not in my name’ sentiments, the innocent suffered as well as the guilty in the outraged public backlash. Priests as well as plotters were relentlessly hunted down and the oppression of Catholics in the cause of national security was increased. The failed conspiracy was used to fuel anti-Catholic sentiment for generations; to be a Catholic was regarded as being a potential traitor.
It suited those in power to keep these fears alive. The cellars of the House of Lords are still ceremonially searched on the eve of the Opening of Parliament by members of the sovereign’s Bodyguard and Yeoman of the Guard. Bonfires were lit on 5th November 1605 in thanksgiving for the failure of the plot and have been burning on that day ever since.
As a final thought, Bonfire night roughly coincides with Samhuin in the Celtic calendar, one of the big four pagan fire festivals we know to have existed in the Iron Age. The Gunpowder Plot gave us a way to continue a much older religious tradition.