Archive for October, 2008

The Scorpio New Moon — October 28, 2008, 23:14 UT

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Water to land folk seems never-ending
when they set sail on a heaving ship;
the huge waves overwhelm them
and the seahorse won’t heed the bridle.

— Old English Rune Poem

Scorpio is the intense water sign that is related to stuff mostly dark and deep. However, water is the sustainer of life. Scorpio is the sign of death and resurrection. It is the place in the zodiac where the transformation occurs.

We are definitely entering a new era. Pluto, the modern ruler of Scorpio, is in Sagittarius, but it is in the last degree of the sign, about to enter Capricorn. The sign change takes place on November 27. In Aquarius two Centaur planets, Chiron and Nessus, have stationed direct by this New Moon.

The New Moon always signifies the beginning of a new cycle. The cosmic energies for the following month are set at the New Moon. This lunation is strongly colored by three Kuiper Belt objects in tight aspect to the Sun and Moon. These three minor planets are Deucalion, Echeclus and Asbolus. We can trust that they will carry us safely to the new phase.

Deucalion, a trans-Neptunian minor planet of the cubewano class is conjunct the New Moon in Scorpio. According to the naming rules of the International Astronomical Union, cubewanos are given mythological names associated with creation. Deucalion was discovered in 1999, and named in 2003. The name comes from the Greek flood story that parallels the Judeo-Christian story of Noah’s Ark.

In the myth, Zeus had decided to destroy humankind. A pouring rain from the heavens flooded the world, so that all men were destroyed, except Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. They had been forewarned of the deluge and built an ark. Some sources suggest that Deucalion is to be identified with Aquarius, the water bearer. The rains of the water bearer are a gift from the gods.

Deucalion and Pyrrha drifted to the high mountains, where an oracle told them to “throw the bones of their mother” behind them. They decided that their mother is Gaia and stones are her bones. They threw rocks behind their shoulders, and the rocks formed people and repopulated the Earth. Those thrown by Pyrrha became women; Deucalion’s became men.

Centaur planet Echeclus is in conjunction with the Sun, Moon and Deucalion. Echeclus shares a special astronomical feature with Chiron. Both have been given a double designation as a Centaur and a comet.

Echeclus was discovered in 2000 and initially classified as a minor planet. Then in December 2005, a cometary coma was detected around it. Apparently a chunk of its body was broken off, causing a great cloud of dust. After the cometary outburst the Centaur was officially designated as a periodic comet and renamed 174P/Echeclus. 95P/Chiron was the first Centaur known to have cometary activity.

Comets are like dirty snowballs. They are small icy bodies orbiting the Sun in an elliptical orbit. In the outer solar system, comets remain frozen and invisible. The coma and tail are formed of ice and dust when the comet approaches the Sun and the comet warms. Both the coma and tail become illuminated by the sunlight when the comet travels through the inner solar system. Echeclus comes to its perihelion, the point in its orbit that is closest to the Sun, in 2015.

Astrologically, Echeclus hasn’t been studied very widely. We know that all Centaurs are dealing with the shadow and healing. One of the important keywords for Chiron is awareness. The astronomical similarity of these two Centaurs is perhaps pointing to an important astrological resemblance, too. Anyway, comets seem to be heralding a change.

In Taurus, the Centaur planet Asbolus is in accurate opposition to the Moon and the planets mentioned above. In mythology Asbolus was a seer, who made forecasts from the flight formations of birds. His name means carbon dust. Eric Francis has noticed that Asbolus is a point that shows up in the charts of survivors. Survival, the ability to endure and the blessing of protection even when it seems like none is there, are attributes for Asbolus.

It can be scary to plunge the deep water, but we need to do it if we want to reach a new shore. We are protected.

References:

Nordic runes, Paul Rhys Mountfort, Destiny Books, 2003

Deucalion, Wikipedia

Tarot and the Sign of Aquarius, Tony Louis, StarIQ

60558 Echeclus, Wikipedia

The Comet’s Tale, 2006 April

Asbolus, Wikipedia

Sagittarius Secrets Revealed, Eric Francis

Full Moon in Aries — October 14, 2008, 20:02 UT

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Last week I was visiting Vellamo, the brand new maritime museum in my hometown. Quite unexpectedly, I ran across a piece of my roots there, a wooden Madonna figure from destroyed church of Lavansaari. Lavansaari is a distant island in the middle of the Gulf of Finland, a place I’ve never been able to visit. The sculpture was brought to the mainland during the Second World War.

While I was looking at the old statue from the 15th century, I could see women with their heads covered with a scarf sitting in the church, looking at the same figure that I was looking at now. I felt deep connectedness with my ancestors. The rough beauty of the wooden Madonna represents something genuine for me. On this Full Moon we should seek this kind of truth and genuineness.

The Full Moon takes place in the midst of the Mercury storm. Mercury is slow and ready to station direct the next day. The chart is an image of the feminine shadow, of women suppressed or excluded from their community, getting a warrior-like manifestation in Aries. Water is a symbol of unconscious, and there are several watery planets prominent. Many of the planets involved are dealing with speaking of truth.

There is a six-pointed star in the chart, formed by the Moon, Pallas Athene, Ceres, the Sun, Juno and Neptune.

The Aries Full Moon glows in exact conjunction with Eris. In the same conjunction with the Sun, Moon and Eris we find asteroid Lilith and a cubewano called 1992 QB1. The energies have to do with the feminine shadow.

In mythology, Eris is the goddess of discord. In astrology she can be seen as the messenger of postmodern consciousness. According to Eric Francis, a fragmentation of the self-concept that has occurred in our time in history is one of her themes. She represents an excluded woman. A theme of female equality can be attached to both Eris and Lilith as well.

In the Old Testament and the Midrash: the commentary that accompanies the Old Testament in Judaism, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She demanded equality with Adam, but failed to achieve it. Then she was banished from the Garden of Eden and made into a demon figure. In astrology asteroid Lilith tells you about the original woman inside the woman. It is a woman’s deeper idea of herself and, in the chart of a man, his deeper idea of what a woman is.

1992 QB1 is the trans-Neptunian object that pointed to the existence of the Kuiper Belt. It was the first planet discovered beyond Pluto (in 1992), and as such symbolizes an edge and a bridge that took us into the next phase of existence.

Opposite the Moon in the same degree with the Sun is asteroid Eros. Eros is what turns you on, but it represents more than just sexual interest. According to Martha Lang-Wescott, Eros is the passion “for life, the thirst for survival and ‘living to the fullest’.”

The Full Moon and the minor planets in conjunction with it are in sextile to Neptune, the planet associated with denial, deception and lies, among other things. A sextile aspect is a soft aspect, which allows the planets involved to work together harmoniously. The Sun and Eros form a flowing trine to Neptune.

Another watery planet in Cancer, Varuna, is in square to the Sun-Moon opposition, forming a t-square with them. The empty leg in a t-square pattern (in this case in Capricorn) offers the challenge in handling the energies involved. Uranus is trine Varuna.

Varuna is a trans-Neptunian minor planet, named after a Vedic sky god watching every movement of men, and punishing liars and those who violate contracts. Varuna has been depicted in art as a lunar deity, as a yellow man wearing golden armor and holding a noose or lasso made from a snake. He rides the sea monster Makara. Eric’s keywords for Varuna are “the great equalizer”, and in this chart it is in exact midpoint of the Sun and Moon, a pair of masculine and feminine symbols.

Sedna, yet another water planet, is in Taurus in a tight semisextile to the Moon and in quincunx to the Sun. Neptune squares Sedna. The myth of Sedna, the goddess of the frozen waters, tells us a story of an Inuit girl who becomes betrayed by her suitor and also by her own father.

Mercury in Libra is getting ready for the direct station in 24 hours after the Full Moon. Mercury forms a quincunx to two interesting minor planets in Pisces, Borasisi and Sphinx.

Borasisi is a binary planet in the Kuiper Belt region. The name comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle, meaning the Sun in a fictional cosmogony of Bokononism. In Vonnegut’s novel, the foundation of the fictional religion of Bokononism is based on living by the untruths that make one happy. The companion is the counterpart of the Moon and her name is Pabu. The story of Borasisi and Pabu is describing family patterns and the outcast of Pabu.

Asteroid Sphinx can represent great mysteries, but also missing information.

In Gemini, asteroid Kassandra is opposing the Great Attractor. Kassandra is an asteroid named after Cassandra, the prophetess who was able to predict the future, but nobody believed her. Astrologically she is dealing with the truth and whether to believe what others say. She also addresses the ability to follow advice.

The Great Attractor is a powerful point in Sagittarius, a mass of dark matter pulling everything, including our galaxy, toward it. The point has a polarizing effect, sometimes pushing emotions and ideas to extremes.

Venus in Scorpio is sharing her degree with Astraea, the fifth asteroid. In mythology, Astraea was a personification of justice. “During the Golden Age she dwelt upon the earth with mankind, but was driven away by the lawlessness of the later Bronze Age,” tells the Theoi Project site. Zeus then placed her amongst the stars as the constellation Virgo. The scales of justice she carried became the constellation of Libra.

Venus is sextiling Makemake, the newly named dwarf planet, which may have an association with memory, especially the collective memory of a tribe or a nation. This aspect together with Mercury, which is about to turn direct, may show a moment of an easy access to something that has been forgotten long ago.

Every generation — including our parents and us — makes their own mistakes. However, the wisdom of our ancestors can benefit us greatly, if we allow it.

References:

Mercury is Always Retrograde by Eric Francis

Eris Notebook: Dancing with Discord by Eric Francis

Encyclopedia Mythica, Lilith

Planet Waves Weekly, For Friday, June 27th, 2003, A Few Asteroids for Good Measure

Aries New Moon, and the Radha-Eris Conjunction by Eric Francis

Treehouse Mountain

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

The Theoi Project

Lavansaaren kirkko