Astrology: The Asteroids
Out there, in the black space between Mars and Jupiter, they spin. The remnants of some long ago cosmic collision….. Thousands of them, millions of them. Anyone out there who has read Zechariah Sitchin’s books know that the ancient Sumerians believed there was a planet named Tiamat, in that area of the solar system, which was smashed into by a rogue planet named Marduk. Or maybe it was just that the huge gravitational pull of Jupiter prevented all that cosmic detritus from forming into a normal planet. Four of them just a bit bigger than the others…… perhaps we’ll never know for sure.
The fact remains that if, through the strange and mysterious machinations of quantum physics, a tiny planet – or, according to some, planetoid, called Pluto can have such a profound impact upon our etheric natures, it stands to reason, relatively speaking, that the much smaller, but much closer, asteroids would also have impact. If not as much as Pluto, fine. But certainly enough to warrant research and observation.
It is said by some mystics that right now we are entering a period of time when our consciousness will be evolving at a dramatically stepped-up pace. A hallmark of this could be that our psyches will become more sensitive to the smaller and/or more distant celestial phenomena, like asteroids and black holes.
The interesting thing to note about the asteroids is that they seem to relate to a shattered feminine archetype. Imagine a huge patriarchal boot kicking a planet to smithereens. And that their discover corresponded with the rise of feminine consciousness and the feminist movement itself, back in the Sixties.
It is a bit peculiar that there are so many masculine archetypes represented by the planets and so few feminine.
The asteroids redress that imbalance, at least to some degree.
Allow me to introduce you to the four largest asteroids………
Juno is the asteroid that rules the sacrament of marriage within a union constricted by Jupiterian legalities and local mores. She knows the heartbreak of marriages based on concepts of chattel and property. Juno was the goddess of Marriage and Maternity. When Juno hit the cusp of my 7th house, which is the house of marriage, in November of 1981, I found myself getting married to a witch, in a wheat field outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. An occult wedding, I guess you could call it. The witch happened to be married to someone else at the time, you see, thus the need for, um, an unconventional bonding ritual. Juno is famous for being faithful to her hubby, Jupiter, despite his reluctance to return the favour. Unfaithfulness can some times be a signature in a Juno transit. Juno is strong in Hillary Clinton’ s chart. Juno is the highest octave of Gemini ands finds herself most at home in air.
Ceres is the asteroid that rules all matters associated with the Great Mother, however you perceive the Great Mother to be, including nurturing, and the highest form of love, unconditional love. Her mythic roots are found in the story of Demeter, and her search for her daughter, Persephone, lost in Pluto’s underworld. If you find yourself experiencing a prolonged period of grieving in your life, you might be undergoing a major Ceres transit. When I lost my witch-wife to cancer, in 1995, Ceres in Virgo was directly opposite my moon in Pisces. I very much, like Ceres, in her rage and despair, wanted to lay waste to the land for six months and make it fallow, so nothing would grow. One of the first things the Ceres impulses teaches a child is the mercurial gift of reading and writing. Among her personae is “Mother to the World”, as exemplified in a high soul such as Mother Theresa’ s. Ceres is the highest octave of Cancer and finds herself most at home in water.
Pallas Athena is the asteroid that rules feminists, female warriors and career women, female CEOs and world leaders. Think Joan of Arc and Demi Moore in G.I. Jane and Margaret Thatcher. She’s also the goddess of Wisdom, who sprang fully mature from the forehead of Zeus, without benefit of a mother. She don’ t need no man around, she can take care of herself, thank you. Romance and flowers don’t have much impact on someone with Pallas Athena strong in their charts. When Pallas was trucking through my 8th house of sexuality in August of 1997, I met a very strong-willed career woman at an astrology conference in Vancouver. Very strong-willed, very career driven. Her favourite song is that theme song from MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE, “You Ain’t the Boss of Me Now”. Pallas is the highest octave of Aries and finds herself most at home in fire.
Vesta is the asteroid that rules nuns, prostitutes with hearts of gold and/or copper and anyone who feels” married” to a higher power. They were the high priestesses who kept” the home fires burning”. In the cosmogony of Zerechiah Sitchin, when the extra-terrestrials named the Anunnaki did their wooing of homo erectus in an Eden like garden, it was done with the sense of religious ceremony that imbues the myth of the vestal virgins. Sacrifice is a theme for people with Vesta strong in their charts. Or sometimes they simply express it by being ‘home-bodies…..’
When I was born, Vesta was two degress away from Uranus in the heavens. Uranus rules unexpected change…… and change upon change. Right now the sun is sextile – sixty degrees away – from that Vesta/Uranus conjunction, and sure enough, I find myself packing up liqour boxes full of books and cds yet again, for the tenth time in my life at least. (Saturn, you see, has just hit my Venus square, the classic transit for the end of a love affair; yep, that Pallas Athena type just told me she thought it was high time I hit that lonely cow trail…..) It’s bound to be another unusual habitat, they’ve all been pretty strange places of abode. Vesta is the highest octave of Virgo and finds herself most at home in earth.
You feel the impact of the asteroids in your chart when one of the major planets come to call, primarily through the conjunction, ie, hitting the same degree.
If you would like to find out how the asteroids are expressing themselves in your astrological chart…….and much, much more…….
Continue reading here: About the Suit of Cups
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