Archive for April, 2010

New Moon in Aries – April 14, 2010, 12:29 UT

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

The Aries New Moon is in exact conjunction with 1992 QB1, a minor planet in the frontier beyond Neptune, the Kuiper Belt. The planet is small and still without a proper name; nonetheless it’s a special one.

The Kuiper Belt remained for a long time only as hypothesized. 1992 QB1 was the first trans-Neptunian object discovered after Pluto and Charon. The discovery confirmed the existence of the belt. It was an important step for astronomers. David Jewitt and Jane Luu, two determined astronomers, had spent several years searching the sky without any certainty that they would actually find anything from that part of the solar system. Finally, after five years of searching, they found this faint object beyond Pluto’s orbit and were able to announce the discovery of candidate Kuiper Belt object 1992 QB1.

The size of 1992 QB1 is roughly one-tenth the size of Pluto. The composition of the planet is half rock and half ice. The orbit is a little larger than Pluto’s and is almost circular. It takes about 289 years to orbit once around the Sun. Since the discovery of QB1, thousands of icy minor planets have been found in the region. Similar objects were later called cubewanos.

At the time of its discovery in August 1992, QB1 was on the Aries Point. Len Wallick has studied the discovery chart:

“It was 15 arc minutes into the first degree of Aries – talk about an Aries Point event! Venus was at 28 degrees Virgo, in near-opposition. Luna was in early Libra, also nearly opposed and just off a conjunction with Venus. Given this chart, the sense is that the feminine energy is expressed by transition across thresholds. The sort of experiences that are culturally expressed as rites of passage and ceremonies of initiation.�

1992 QB1 is officially unnamed. Eric Francis has proposed Radharani, the supreme goddess of Hindu mythology and the consort of Lord Krishna. Eric describes QB1 as representing the archetype of the thresholder. That is the person who watches the edge, and guides people over: midwives, hospice workers, orgasm coaches, grief counselors; people who assist others at that moment of total transition.

In Norse mythology the Valkyries, the maids of Odin, are representing this kind of energy. The Valkyries were female spirits, warrior women with spears and helmets. Their task was to guide the slain warriors to Valhalla, the warrior’s paradise. They were complex mythic figures who formed a link between the worlds of the living and the dead. The goddess Freyja was their leader.

In Valhalla the heroes spent the day fighting and the night drinking mead and feasting. The mead, the “drink of the gods,� was carried to them by the Valkyries. After the battle these spirit-beings were also rewarding the warriors with erotic love.

Freyja’s representatives, the völvas, were seeresses, who could travel and see across the threshold of ordinary reality into the otherworld. They conducted oracular ceremonies, in which incantations were chanted by a choir of youths and maidens, perhaps producing a state of enchantment. The seeress then was able to answer questions put to her by those present. The völvas possibly were midwives trained in healing and the use of herbs. “The accounts indicate that the völvas originally travelled around in groups of nine or thirteen to perform their divinatory rituals, suggesting that seership was an organized and recognized professional role for women,� writes Ralph Metzner.

Freyja, as the leader of the Valkyries, was a goddess of battle. She was also the “Lady�, gentle protectress who ruled over love, fertility, and abundance. Her healing powers are available to us at this lunation.

References:

Wikipedia, Kuiper belt

Wikipedia, (15760) 1992 QB1

Len Wallick, The Rights and Responsibilities of Passage

Eric Francis, Radharani New Moon in Aries

Ralph Metzner, The Well of Remembrance, Shambhala Publications, 1994

Freya Aswynn, Northern Mysteries & Magick, Llewellyn Publications, 2006