The New Moon in Gemini is also a solar eclipse. The eclipse takes place in the first degree of Gemini, square Neptune in early Pisces.

A solar eclipse can only happen at the time of a New Moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction. If the Sun, Moon and Earth are in line, and they also lie in the same plane, the eclipse can occur. The Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, obscuring the disc of the Sun either totally or partially. The type of the current eclipse is called an annular solar eclipse, because the Moon covers only the center of the Sun, letting a bright ring burn around the dark Moon.

The Sun and the Moon, the luminaries, are the two most important factors of any astrological chart. The Sun represents the self, the ego, the purpose, and it is concerned with the future. The Moon is our memory, it gathers our past experiences. An eclipse of the Sun by the Moon can thus feel like a halting moment. It can offer a moment to pause and reflect, and then to make a conscious adjustment of the direction one is heading towards.

While the Sun represents one’s individuality, Neptune and Pisces represent the collective. The square aspect between the two planets brings tension between them. Neptune tends to cause confusion. It tends to dissolve anything it touches, and the blurring of one’s boundaries can feel frightening. Bringing the energies of the Sun, Moon and Neptune together, becomes the challenge. Squares can be highly productive aspects though. They make us act and take the challenge.

The eclipsing Moon can actually help you to focus yourself. In case you feel confused or lost, use the image of the burning solar ring around the Moon to put you back on the tracks.

The spring has kept us waiting. When I look out of my window I can still see a huge mound of snow just outside my garden. The chill in the air is perhaps a breath of Sila, the arctic weather god of the Inuit. Sila has given his name to a distant little body, previously known as 1997 CS29. It is the latest of the transneptunian objects that has acquired a proper name, and this happened in January, 2012. The name in its entirety is Sila-Nunam.

The current Full Moon is in Scorpio. The Moon, and the Sun opposite it in Taurus, is squared by Sila-Nunam in mid-Leo. Since the Taurus New Moon two weeks ago, Sila-Nunam has stationed direct and is now in forward motion. This gives me a good opportunity to tell you a bit about this little transneptunian, about the mythology behind the name, and about the recent events related to it.

Sila-Nunam is a classical Kuiper belt object, also called a cubewano, in a subclass of so-called cold population objects. The majority of the cold population objects have relatively round orbits and low inclinations like the classical planets, as has also Sila-Nunam. Its orbital period is little over 291 years.

Sila-Nunam is a binary system, a double cubewano, consisting of two bodies tightly bound and with nearly equal sizes. It is quite common that the transneptunians have companions, and some systems even have more than two components, like the Pluto-Charon system. In a binary system the two objects are orbiting each other around a point in the free space between them. This point is called a barycenter, and it is a point where the bodies, which usually have a similar mass, balance each other.

Classical transneptunian objects are given mythological names associated with creation. Sila is the Inuit god of the sky, weather, and life force. Though identified as male, he is formless and not thought to have many personality characteristics, and thus he is seldom depicted. Nunam is the Earth goddess, Sila’s wife. Nunam created the land animals and, in some traditions, the Inuit people. Sila breathed life into the Inuit. Sila-Nunam is the second transneptunian body named after Inuit deities, the first being Sedna.

Sedna is the Inuit goddess of the sea and marine animals. In the Full Moon chart Jupiter is in conjunction with Sedna. This aspect emphasizes the arctic theme, because Jupiter tends to magnify everything it touches.

Sila is one of the oldest Inuit deities, even older than Sedna. According to anthropologists, the belief is extremely old. The dominant religious system of the Inuit today is Christianity, but many Inuit still hold to at least to some extent of their traditional religious beliefs. So, at least a few people have believed in Sila, without interruption, from the distant past up to the present time. This is beautifully in accordance with astronomical facts. The cold classical transneptunians are thought to have formed very far from the Sun, in the outermost part of the protoplanetary disk. Having formed and remained so far from the Sun, they are thought to preserve solids from that environment in a relatively unaltered state. And in Eskimo language, the word Sila has meanings of universe, outer world, and space.

Currently Sila-Nunam is undergoing a pretty rare season of mutual events, in which the two bodies alternate in passing in front of one another as seen from Earth. The season stretches from October 2011 to May 2013. These mutual events only occur twice each Sila-Nunam’s almost 300 year-long orbit around the Sun. Sila and Nunam orbit around each other every 12.5 days. They are very close in size, so by turns one of the two objects is hidden from view by the other during these occultation and eclipse type events as seen from Earth.

The Taurus Sun squared Sila-Nunam on May 2, 2012. Squares create tension, and tension usually leads to action. Perfectly synchronous with the square, the news concerning the Arctic region caught my eye. Greenpeace activists tried to prevent the Finnish icebreaker Nordica from departing for the Alaskan Arctic.

Sadly, Finland is involved in oil drilling in the Arctic. The icebreaker Nordica and its sister ship Fennica are owned by a Finnish state-owned firm Arctia Shipping. The oil company Shell is planning to open up the Arctic for oil drilling. Shell has leased both vessels for keeping the icepack from threatening their drilling platforms on the north coast of Alaska. Fennica already departed for Alaska in March.

Last Tuesday (May 1) the Greenpeace activists boarded and occupied the icebreaker Nordica in Helsinki harbor. Police removed them after several hours of negotiations. Two days later (May 3) the activists boarded the ship again at open sea. They were removed again, this time by the Swedish police.

The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth’s ecosystems. It is one of the last continuous wilderness areas in the world, and so far it has remained comparatively clean. The Arctic also holds 1/5 of the Earth’s water supply. Endangering this pristine area and putting profit before the environment is a disgrace. Arctic oil drilling is dangerous, because in freezing conditions oil is known to behave very differently than in lower latitudes. An oil spill would have a catastrophic impact. There is no way to clean up oil underneath the thick ice.

Finland is one of the Arctic nations and we should be protecting the Arctic, not helping to destroy the vulnerable nature of it. As a Finn I am ashamed of our involvement in oil drilling in Alaska.

A New Moon is a potent time for new beginnings. The Sabian symbol for the current New Moon at 1+ degrees of Taurus is supporting the idea of a powerful start-up: An electrical storm. Furthermore Mars in Virgo is in direct motion again, after its three months long retrograde period, and forming a favourable trine to the New Moon. Mars helps you to get things done. It is the planet which you use to get what you want. So, you would expect that everything works for you really well at the moment. This is not automatically the case. Let’s take a look at the obstructions.

Mars is conjunct asteroid Psyche, one of the ten most massive main-belt asteroids. Astrologically Psyche represents a vulnerable spot; a sense of a wound which we mistakenly think cannot be healed. Don’t surrender to feelings of powerlessness coming from Neptune opposite and Pluto trine to the Mars-Psyche conjunction. The wound can be healed, though the recovery may take time.

The New Moon is in conjunction with asteroid Tantalus. Tantalus was discovered in 1975 by Charles T. Kowal, who two years later found also Chiron. In mythology Tantalus was a mortal king, who did some bad things against the gods. His eternal punishment in Tartaros was to stand in a water pool beneath a fruit tree. Every time he tried to drink the water, it lowered. Wind blew the branches out his reach whenever he tried to eat. He would always be hungry and thirsty. The word tantalize comes from his name. Asteroid Tantalus indicates times when something that you badly want is just out of your reach.

The combination of Mercury and Uranus in Aries refers to originality and speeds up thinking. You are eager to express your views. Yet you may have difficulties in getting your voice heard, as there is asteroid Kassandra conjoining those two. The asteroid is named after a prophetess in the tales of the Trojan War. She had the gift of prophecy, but no one believed her predictions.

The New Moon in Taurus (the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon), the Mars-Psyche conjunction in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn form a grand trine in the earth signs. A grand trine represents patterns that hold, but sometimes are difficult to get out of. The earth signs tend to be cautious. In addition, Saturn has been hanging opposite the Sun like an anchor. This aspect is already receding, but you may still feel some of the weight.

The way out of stuck patterns of a grand trine is a planet at the midpoint of two planets, making sextiles to them and opposing a third. This aspect figure is actually called a kite. Asteroid Panacea in Pisces is at the forementioned midpoint, showing a way. Mars at the tail end acts like a power source.

Panacea is a healing asteroid. It represents cures for all kinds of problems and difficulties. It symbolizes the philosopher’s stone, the legendary alchemical substance which would enable the transmutation of lead into gold. In the chart, asteroid Panacea suggests what you believe it takes to find solutions. Chiron conjunct Panacea adds awareness and healing, Neptune suggests that you can find solutions in your unconscious.

Don’t let frustration take over. Let the kite fly!

The April Full Moon is glowing in Libra together with Haumea, one of the largest Kuiper belt objects, and perhaps the strangest one in the whole Solar System. Finding balance is the challenge now. You may need to make tiny adjusting moves just at the right moment, like a tightrope artist dancing on the wire. Philippe Petit, a highwire-walker, who is famous for his walk between the towers of the World Trade Center, was born with his Sun conjunct Haumea.

The Full Moon is an opposition of the Sun and the Moon. Libra is a sign ruled by Venus, thus we can say that the Moon in Libra is ruled by Venus. The Sun is in Aries, which is a sign ruled by Mars. Venus and Mars for their part are both in signs ruled by Mercury (Venus in Gemini and Mars in Virgo), so, in a way, Mercury is leading the show.

Mercury is moving forward again after the direct station, which occurred shortly before the Full Moon, so we can anticipate mental energy to flow again. However, Mercury is unaspected in the chart, i.e. it is not receiving any major aspects from the planets. This can appear as difficulty to express the mercurial capacity. On the other hand, unaspected Mercury is unrestrained by other planets and can act in exaggerated manner.

Haumea is named after the goddess of childbirth and fertility in Hawaiian mythology. The Sabian Symbol for the discovery degree for 13 Libra is Children blowing soap bubbles. The myth reflects physical properties of this icy distant world.

The goddess Haumea represents the element stone. She is Mother Earth. She takes many different forms and has experienced many different rebirths. She once lived as a mortal woman and took a husband among men. Haumea’s many children sprang from different parts of her body. Her children are also described as “born from the brain.”

Most things out in the Kuiper belt are about equal portions of rock and of ice, but, unusually, Haumea is almost entirely composed of rock. Haumea has two moons, and it is followed in its orbit around the Sun by a swarm of small icy bodies that were ejected from the surface of Haumea, when another object slammed into it in the distant past. Scientists call them the Haumea family. Haumea is the fastest rotating body of its size class, and its shape is therefore stretched out like an American football.

To establish astrological meaning for a new planet can be a painfully slow process. There are different methods of doing this. We can study charts of people who have the object in question prominently situated in their birth chart, for instance, in a tight conjunction with their Sun, and observe mutual factors. Sometimes the influence is subtle; in other cases it can be quite tangible.

Among the musicians and artists who were born with their Sun conjunct Haumea are Ian Anderson, Mark Knopfler, Amy Winehouse and Pink. Anderson and Knopfler are Leos, Pink and Amy Winehouse are Virgos.

The singer-songwriter Pink shares Philippe Petit’s interest in acrobatics. She has performed doing dashing trapeze acts while singing. She is a fearless artist, who does things her own way.

Balance is required also when standing on one leg while playing a flute, like Ian Anderson, the leader of the legendary Jethro Tull. He introduced flute to rock music. As a flautist, he is self-taught, and his style is unconventional and recognizable.

Another self-taught musician, whose distinctive sound is recognizable, is Mark Knopfler. His fingerpicking technique is not common among electric guitar players. In an interview Knopfler has said: “…if there is a definition of freedom, it would be when you have control over your reality to transform it, to change it, rather than having it imposed upon you. You can’t really ask for more than that.” Perhaps the shape-changing goddess Haumea contributed.

Amy Winehouse was unique. It’s been said that she made it easier for unconventional women to have mainstream pop success. A continuing wave of fearless female musicians has emerged in her footsteps – like the offspring of Haumea.

One of the biggest news events of 2010 was the rescue of 33 Chilean miners, after they had been trapped underground for more than two months. At the time of the rescue, the Sun was conjunct Haumea. The element of stone is concrete. The theme of rebirth and transformation is obvious. Since the usual access to the mine was collapsed, an alternative “birth canal” had to be drilled for the delivery. In fact, the first miner to ride the rescue capsule to the surface, Florencio Ávalos, has afterwards described the event as a rebirth.

Overall, the energy of Haumea feels bold, but not unsound. What was conceived during the New Moon two weeks ago is ready to be burst in the air now.

A new astrological year started on March 20, 2012, when the Sun ingressed into Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. The first new moon of this eventful year is electrified by Uranus in the early degrees of Aries. This is a good moment to restart the blog, especially as Urania, the muse of astrology, is sitting at the midheaven in the chart cast for Kotka, Finland, the place where I am writing.

On Monday evening I watched a documentary film, Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, on television. It was almost a scary experience. Something that welled up from his unconscious obviously went straight into mine. I am old enough to remember the Walker Brothers from the 60’s, but I didn’t know anything about Scott Walker’s later career. He is an eccentric who avoids publicity, and his creative process is unique, like a shaman’s journey.

We all are different and the creative process is different for each of us. The first degree of Aries is called the Aries Point. It is a sensitive point, which connects us with the world, and in the birth chart it can tell something about the native’s relationship to the public. Currently in the astrological sky Uranus and Mercury are at the Aries Point, and the New Moon (a conjunction of the Sun and the Moon) falls there too.

Uranus symbolizes originality, creativity and sudden flashes of genius. It is sometimes called the higher octave of Mercury.

Mercury represents the intellect, the mind, and it tells us something about how we communicate with others. Through our lives we are able to learn. We need to have contact with other people, and we also want to be understood by them. At the moment Mercury is retrograding, which offers an opportunity, for example, to reformulate a message, which in the past didn’t quite catch the listener. It can also expose us to confusion, for Mercury in mythology was a trickster. In Aries honesty is appreciated.

Asteroid Hermes shares the same degree with Uranus. The Sun and Hermes are in parallel, i.e. the Sun and Hermes are in a latitudinal conjunction on the same side of the celestial equator. When two planets are in a latitudinal as well as longitudinal conjunction, like Hermes and the Sun in this case, it is considered a strong condition. Hermes’s presence is emphasizing the importance of thoughtful communication during the next month. Hermes and Mercury are embodiments of the same archetype, as Hermes is the Greek equivalent for the Roman god Mercury.

Throughout the month we’ve been blessed with a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in Taurus. Traditionally, Jupiter is known as the greater benefic and Venus as the lesser benefic. Venus is in her own sign and thus strong. Beauty and harmony, art and music are highlighted. A grand trine (three planets in easy aspect to each other) formed by Jupiter, Mars and Pluto makes things flow.

In Taurus we can find also asteroid Hephaistos in a tight conjunction with Venus. In Greek mythology Hephaistos was the blacksmith of the gods. His Roman counterpart was Vulcan, husband of Venus. Many skillfully made pieces for the gods were hammered in his hot and smoky workshop. It is the place where the creative idea is put into practice.

***

I would like to express my most sincere thanks to Eric Francis, Len Wallick, Chad Townsend and Anatoly Ryzhenko for their help and support.

The New Moon marks the beginning of a new lunation cycle. The Taurus New Moon takes place soon after Jupiter conjoined Eris in Aries, on April 29th. It was the day of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Also the scene of the most famous tale of the Greek goddess Eris was a wedding party.

During the following two days Mars passed over Eris and Jupiter. Suddenly the images of the newly wed couple kissing on a balcony changed to pictures of Osama Bin Laden and people celebrating his death.

Conjunct the New Moon is a strange little asteroid, Phaethon. Phaethon is showing mixed cometary and asteroidal features and its unusual orbit goes closer to the Sun than that of any other numbered asteroid. This is why it was named after the son of the Greek sun god Helios. The name Phaethon means the “shining.” Astrologically Phaethon can bring a feeling of being a bit out of control.

At the Aries Point, the sensitive point where public and personal affairs intersect, we find asteroid Karma. We may feel that as individuals we don’t usually have much influence on the affairs of the world. With our personal choices we create our personal karma though. At the Aries Point we can make an impact on the world.

In conjunction with Karma are two helpful asteroids, Urania and Circe. Urania is the heavenly muse of astrologers and astronomers. Urania gives ability to put things in perspective. Asteroid Circe is named after a minor goddess of magic, the daughter of Helios. Circe has a desire to help. “Its position indicates who, how and, most importantly, WHY you aid others,�? writes Martha Lang-Wescott.

The three asteroids at the Aries Point make a novile aspect (40 degrees) to the Luminaries and Phaethon. The novile is a minor aspect with a similar quality to the trine, though more subtle. It could act as a harmonic link between subtle spiritual dimensions and the ordinary realms of human activity.

References:

Treehouse Mountain by Martha Lang-Wescott

Martha Lang-Wescott, Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids, Treehouse Mountain, 1996

Frances Sakoian and Louis Acker, Minor Aspects, 1978

Lunar Eclipse / Full Moon in Gemini – December 21, 2010, 08:13 UT
Winter Solstice – December 22, 2010, 23:38 UT

This special Full Moon in the last degree of Gemini was a total lunar eclipse at the South node of the Moon. The eclipse took place on the Winter Solstice.

The Sun-Moon opposition was squared by the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Pisces. A pile of minor planets and asteroids including Logos, Juno, Makemake and Typhon on the cusp of Virgo and Libra, completed a mutable grand cross. The Sun in the last degree of Sagittarius was accompanied by a large diversity of planets and asteroids including Mercury retrograde, Pallas, Crantor, and Pluto. The Moon conjoined the Centaur planet Cyllarus in early Cancer. The rich symbolism contained in the prominent heavenly bodies parallels the news and events unfolding in the world.

In the Northern Hemisphere the Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year. After the Solstice the days get gradually longer and the light starts to increase. In the current charts asteroid Balder, named after the shining god of the Vikings, is squaring asteroid Hoder, the namesake of the twin brother of Balder. Asteroid Saga is in conjunction with Balder. Balder gets additional sparks from Vesta. This is the time to be reminded of the story of Balder.

Balder was the most beautiful and beloved of the old Norse gods. Because of Loki’s trickery, the blind brother Hoder threw a mistletoe at Balder and thus caused Balder’s death. The gods were weeping for him. He was ceremonially burnt upon his own ship at Summer Solstice, symbolized by the Midsummer’s bonfires. Balder is said to return to life after Ragnarök. The Earth will appear again from the sea, it will be fertile, green, and cleansed of all its sufferings.

The myth clearly has its origins in the change of seasons. The joy of people is present in the sunlight, in the presence of the radiant god Balder. The gloom of the winter months is symbolized by the death of Balder, carried out by the twin brother. The god of light is reborn at the Winter Solstice and greeted with the burning of the yule log and also with the lights in contemporary Christmas trees.

Happy Winter Solstice!

“With our fingers we make million holes
We run and we fall into pot holes
On a mission to savor the world oooh
We peek at the sky through tree holes
Comet oh damn it…�?

- Björk and Sjón, The Comet Song

Last week I went to say hello to a friend who works in the local day care center. The cheerful environment and atmosphere of the visit still affects me. The Full Moon chart appears to me like a playground of little mermaids and comet chasers, in spite of some clearly stressful chart factors present.

The Full Moon in the last degree of Taurus was loosely conjunct Sedna, one of the strangest little planets in our solar system. The Moon squared Chiron and strictly opposed two other Centaur planets, Chariklo and Echeclus, which both have an association with Chiron.

Chiron works through raising awareness and at the Full Moon was asking for our attention by squaring the Sun-Moon opposition. The apex of any T-square is the driving force of the configuration. Chiron is in conjunction with Neptune, the god of water and the sea. After a long retrograde period, Chiron and Neptune have stationed direct earlier this month, which gives boost to their impact. The empty arm of a T-cross shows where the tension can be released. In this case it points to Leo, the sign which, among other things, can be associated with childlike playfulness.

In astrology comets can be seen as messengers. Astronomically comets are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of a coma or a tail. However, the line between comets and asteroids is not always clear. Sometimes a comet can lose its tail, as it passes close to the Sun many times in its orbit. The ice evaporates away and the comet may come to resemble an asteroid. Chiron was the first object to be given a double designation of a comet and an asteroid (95P/Chiron). Echeclus is the only other Centaur object besides Chiron which has the dual comet and asteroid designation (174P/Echeclus).

The Sun is in conjuction with Echeclus and Chariklo. Centaur planet Chariklo is named after Chiron’s wife, a water nymph in Greek mythology. Caring and commitment are her qualities.

Venus rules two signs, Taurus and Libra. The Full Moon fell in Taurus. Venus in Libra is strong and she stationed direct just a few days before the Full Moon. In the chart Venus forms a yod pattern with the Moon and Uranus. Astrologer Anne Massey reminds us in Venus: Her Cycles, Symbols & Myths that originally the essence of Venus was more diverse than that of the contemporary goddess of love and beauty. We have “sanitized�? Venus over the centuries. Anne Massey writes further:

“Aphrodite emerges from sea foam, or spirit, into matter. We symbolically link the ocean to the unconscious or collective — the realm of Neptune. In fairy tales, the little mermaid becomes sea foam to be washed away by the ocean — ascension from matter into spirit.�?

A reflection of the duality of the goddess shows in two images on a news page telling us how the statue of the Little Mermaid was placed back on her stone in Copenhagen after the long journey abroad. The images instantly reminded me about Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea. In the art Sedna is often depicted as a mermaid. In one of the many versions of the Sedna legend she is a skeleton woman.

Sedna is a primordial, distant object beyond the edge of the Kuiper belt. Mike Brown discovered this reddish little planet seven years ago, in November 2003. Sedna travels 12,000 years around the Sun on its exceptionally long and elongated orbit, far from the planets. In an astrological chart Sedna is in Taurus, moving slowly and acting almost like a fixed star. Scientists are puzzled about Sedna’s crazy orbit. Why is it so strange? So far Sedna has kept her secrets. Until the astronomers find more objects in similar orbits, there is no way to know for sure.

Mike Brown writes about the exciting possibilities on his blog: There is something out there — part 1 and part 2. The chase for more Sednas continues…

References:

Wikipedia, The Comet Song

Wikipedia, Comet

Anne Massey, Venus: Her Cycles, Symbols & Myths, Llewellyn Publications, 2006

Mike Brown’s Sedna page

Mike Brown’s Planets

The Scorpio New Moon coincides with Kekri, the ancient harvest and new year’s festival of the Finns. Kekri has its origins in pagan times, as has Samhain, the Celtic cross-quarter celebration. In the old days the date of the Kekri feast was not fixed, but slightly varying yearly depending on the circumstances. Nowadays it is held on the first Saturday of November.

The pagan holidays were based on the tropical year, i.e. the apparent annual motion of the Sun around the Earth. Solstices and equinoxes are called the quarter days, marking the change of the seasons and the Sun’s ingress into one of the cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn. A cross-quarter day falls halfway between a solstice and an equinox, when the Sun is at 15 degrees of a fixed sign, either in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius. Now the Sun is in the middle degrees of Scorpio.

In the pre-Christian agricultural society Kekri was the most important festival of the year. It marked the end of the harvest and also the turn of the year. It was a communal celebration including abundant eating and drinking. People were looking for omens, and the spirits of the dead were said to wander in this world. The dead relatives were acknowledged as living members of the family, with whom the abundance of the harvest was shared. The spirits were invited to bathe in the sauna, too.

Aptly the New Moon in the mid-degrees of Scorpio occurred in conjunction with asteroid Vesta. Vesta is associated with the element of fire, and bonfires played a large part in Kekri festivities. The Romans regarded Vesta as the goddess of the sacred flame and the guardian of the home. A hearth was the centre of the household. At the end of the harvest season the outdoors work was finished and people moved working inside the house. Astrologically Vesta is often seen as the ruler of the sign Virgo, but there is also a correspondence between Vesta and Scorpio.

A common belief has been that there was a Karelian god named Kekri which protected cattle, but this is a misconception. Later studies show that Kekri was a ghost, a spook, or an elf.

Kekri and other pagan harvest festivals in different cultures became linked with the Christian holidays dedicated to saints and the dead and celebrated in the beginning of November. In contemporary Finland we light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives. Some of the traditions associated with Kekri have devolved on the modern Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Also Halloween and many of its symbols, like lanterns and skeletons, originate from the ancient celebrations.

Huya, a trans-Neptunian object and a dwarf planet candidate, is in conjunction with the Sun, the Moon and Vesta at 15 degrees of Scorpio. Huya will come to perihelion (the point in an orbit that is closest to the Sun) in 2015 and is currently inside the orbit of Neptune. Huya was discovered about ten years ago by Venezuelan astronomers and named after the god of rain and hunt of the Wayuu who live on the arid La Guajira Peninsula between Colombia and Venezuela.

The Wayuu believe that the life cycle doesn’t end with death, but that a relationship with one’s bones continues. A few years after the first burial, a woman gathers the bones of the deceased and cleans them. Then the remains are buried again. The second burial has been an important tradition. Long-dead Wayuu are believed to return on the Earth in the form of rain, which assures the rejuvenation of vegetation and life.

References:

Helsingin Sanomat, Kekri – ancient celebration to mark end of harvest season

Wikipedia, Cross-quarter day

Herranen & Kaartinen, Kauan eläköön suomalainen kekri!

Salakirjat, Mikä on kekri?

Demetra George & Douglas Bloch, Asteroid Goddesses, Ibis Press, 2003

Wikipedia, 38628 Huya

Wikipedia, Wayuu

Guajiro – Religion and Expressive Culture

On the 20th October Ceres conjoined Pluto in early Capricorn. In October’s Aries Full Moon chart the tight Ceres-Pluto conjunction is right on the North node of the Moon and square the Aries Point, the point where personal comes political. The Sun is in Libra.

Ceres brings the myth of Persephone into the focus. Hades (Pluto) abducted young Persephone and she became the queen of the underworld. Her mother Demeter (Ceres) was desperate. Eventually Persephone was able to return to her mother. Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds though during her stay in the underworld, and therefore every year she has to go back for a part of the year with Hades, the other part she is allowed to spend with her mother. The myth explains the change of the seasons.

The Moon’s Nodes are the points in space where the yearly path of the Sun and monthly path of the Moon intersect as seen from the Earth. In astrology the North node is considered future oriented (while the South node is associated with the past). The Full Moon is always an opposition of the Sun and the Moon. The Sun is currently in Libra, the sign symbolized by the scales. The sign is concerned with justice, equality and relationships.

The 20th of October was the Global Dignity Day. People in more than 40 countries took part and celebrated our oneness in being human. The mission of the Global Dignity program is the universal right of every human being to lead a dignified life. One of the co-founders of the program is philosopher and professor Pekka Himanen, a Libra, whose breakthrough work, HimEros (1996), portrays Socrates escaping Hades to Helsinki.

We all want dignity and have the right to be treated equally and with respect. During the past week people in Finland have suddenly shown remarkable consistency in claiming this right. Already more than 33,000 people have left the Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church after last week’s televised debate over gay rights. The mass flight from the church is a reaction to anti-gay statements expressed in the broadcast.

Poverty and malnutrition are among the things which threaten a dignified life. Ceres was the goddess of agriculture, so food and nutrition belong to her domain. Ceres addresses, for example, the issues of how we develop feelings of self-worth, how we care for others, and the principle of sharing.

References:

Wikipedia, Persephone

Wikipedia, Global Dignity

Wikipedia, Pekka Himanen

Helsingin Sanomat Intrnational Edition, Oct. 18, 2010

Demetra George & Douglas Bloch, Asteroid Goddesses, Ibis Press, 2003