Archive for December, 2016

New Moon in Capricorn — December 29, 2016, 06:53 UT

Friday, December 30th, 2016

The last New Moon of the year was in Capricorn in conjunction with Mercury retrograde, and two centaur planets, Amycus and Chariklo. 55576 Amycus shared the same degree with the Sun and the Moon.

55576 Amycus was discovered in April 2002 and named for Amycus, a male centaur in Greek mythology. Its orbital period is relatively long compared to the other centaurs, over 125 years. It came to perihelion (the point of least distance to the Sun) in February 2003.

In mythology the centaurs are best known for the battle which took place during the wedding of the king of the Lapith people, Pirithous, and Hippodameia. This battle is known as the Centauromachy, and Amycus has quite an important role in it. The wild centaurs were invited to the wedding, but they became drunk and lost their control. One of the centaurs, Eurytus, tried to rape the bride. Pirithous’s friend then killed Eurytys. Amycus was responsible for the first death of one of the Lapiths, as he in anger smashed the head of innocent Lapith Celadon. Amycus was then killed and sent to the underworld Tartarus. The Lapiths defeated the centaurs, which were forced to flee from Thessaly.

Centaurs are half-human, half-horse creatures, symbolizing the dual nature of man. Besides the civilized, human side of man, there is the wild, animal nature. We all have a shadow, the rejected and irrational part of the psyche, which we tend to project into other people with feelings of anger and fear. Centaurs represent this shadow, but they also offer their healing power to us.

The following persons were born with their Sun conjunct 55576 Amycus:

February 15, 1909 — Miep Gies, one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis during World War II.

February 23, 1915 — Paul Tibbets, the pilot who flew the Enola Gay when it dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

March 25, 1934 — Gloria Steinem, American feminist

April 1, 1939 – James “Spider” Martin, an American photographer known for his work documenting the American Civil Rights Movement in 1965, specifically Bloody Sunday and other incidents from the Selma to Montgomery marches. Martin Luther King Jr. has said, “Spider, we could have marched, we could have protested forever, but if it weren’t for guys like you, it would have been for nothing. The whole world saw your pictures. That’s why the Voting Rights Act was passed.”

April 23, 1954 — Michael Moore, American filmmaker and political activist

June 14, 1979 — Alton Sterling, American man fatally shot by a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officer (d. 2016)

June 21, 1982 — Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

The following events have occurred while the Sun was in conjunction with Amycus:

March 23, 1933 – The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.

May 16, 1966 – The Communist Party of China issues the ‘May 16 Notice’, marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his first public speech on the Vietnam War.

June 4, 1976 — English punk rock group The Sex Pistols perform the first of two concerts to an audience of 35-40 people at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. It is considered one of the most influential gigs of all time. Audience members go on to form the groups Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Simply Red, The Fall, Buzzcocks, and Magazine, and the record label Factory Records.

August 21, 1996 — Former president of South Africa, F. W. de Klerk, makes an official apology for crimes committed under Apartheid to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Cape Town.

August 23, 1996 — Osama bin Laden writes “The Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places,” a call for the removal of American military forces from Saudi Arabia.

October 20, 2004 – The Ubuntu operating system is first released. It is based on free software and named after the Southern African philosophy of ubuntu (literally, ‘human-ness’), which can be loosely translated as “humanity to others” or “I am what I am because of who we all are”.

December 17, 2014 — U.S. President Barack Obama announces the resumption of normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

In the light of the examples above, I think that the Bantu concept of ubuntu can be used in delineating the meaning of Amycus. Ubuntu asserts that society gives human beings their humanity, and that a person is a person through other people. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has explained it like this:

“Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity.

”We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”

Tutu has also said: “You know when ’ubuntu’ is there, and it is obvious when it is absent. It has to do with what it means to be truly human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life.”

Full Moon in Gemini — December 14, 2016, 00:05 UT

Thursday, December 15th, 2016

The Full Moon in Gemini was in conjunction with 19521 Chaos, a trans-Neptunian object with orbital period of approximately 310 years. It is a so-called cubewano and possibly a dwarf planet. It is not in resonance with Neptune and its orbit never crosses the orbit of Neptune.

Chaos was discovered in 1998 and named after the original state of existence in Greek mythology. Nowadays we usually understand chaos as a state of confusion or disorder, but in Greco-Roman tradition Chaos was a divine primordial condition, a dark and formless void. It was the origin of the gods, and all things.

chaos
Image: Sirja Melto

The Apollo 13 lunar landing mission is a good example of Chaos at work, showing its dual nature. The space craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 19:13 UT from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The Sun was in conjunction with Chaos.

Two days after the launch of Apollo 13, an oxygen tank exploded causing a chaotic situation in the space craft. The lunar landing was aborted, and the crew had to start fighting for their lives. The power in the vehicle was limited, the internal temperature dropped, and the carbon dioxide removal system needed to be repaired using duct tape and other stuff available in the craft.

The creative solutions of the astronauts and the ground crew in Houston made the safe return to Earth possible for Apollo 13 crew.