The first New Moon of the year – the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon — took place in Capricorn and formed an exact square to two potent minor planets in Aries, Eris and Bienor.

The square aspect calls attention. The planets involved in the aspect represent something that one has to deal with. The outcome may be uncertain, and uncertainty usually brings fear, but if you make a serious effort, you may get an opportunity to reach new ground. Squares are aspects of growth. This symbolism is emphasized by the nature of Centaur planet Bienor.

Bienor was discovered in 2000 and named after one of the mythological Centaurs. Its orbit lies between Saturn and Uranus, and crosses that of Uranus.

Bienor’s name means a strong one. In the myth Bienor attended the Lapith king Pirithous’ wedding with other Centaurs. There was a fight, in which many of the Centaurs including Bienor were killed. Bienor’s death is unique and resembles to me of taming of a wild horse, an act which may be frightening for both parties. Ovid describes the killing of Bienor in Metamorphoses: “He [Theseus] leaps upon the back of tall Bienor, never trained to carry riders, and he fixed his knees firm in the centaur’s ribs, and holding tight to the long hair, seized by his left hand, struck and shattered the hard features and fierce face and bony temples with his club of gnarled strong oak.”

Eric Francis has phrased the astrological meaning of Bienor like this: “The death of a Centaur symbolizes transformation and healing and offers us a possibility to move to another level of awareness. In this case, we have a fitting metaphor for the idea of transforming that human quality known as strength. In short, do we put our strength to work for us, or against us?”

PJ Harvey (born Oct 9, 1969, Bridport, UK) is an English musician and singer-songwriter born with an exact Sun-Bienor conjunction in Libra, and in addition the magnifying Jupiter is tightly next to them. Dark Centaur energy comes strongly through in her songs. Harvey is always challenging herself and trying to cover new ground in her music. The Bienor energy crystalizes in her words:

“…it’s always my first goal, not to repeat, and to press myself and challenge myself, and to do things that scare me, that I think I can’t do.”

In another interview she said: “I was just looking for something that was new, something to excite me because it was new, because it was unknown, because it was frightening.”

The energy of Bienor can be mind-opening, or lead to expansion of your circumstances. One of the historical moments colored with Bienor was when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth in 1953.

Sir Edmund Hillary’s (born Jul 20, 1919, Papakura, New Zealand) natal Bienor is in the persistent sign of Capricorn trine to his Venus (his values). At the time of the conquest of the mountain (May 29, 1953, 11:30 IST, Mount Everest, Nepal), the Sun was in conjunction with Jupiter and Bienor in Gemini. There had been a Full Moon in the adventurous sign of Sagittarius on the day before the last climb, and the Moon was still opposing Bienor when they reached the top. The transiting Bienor was in exact quincunx to Hillary’s natal Bienor. His autobiography is entitled “Nothing Venture, Nothing Win.”

Bienor was present also when Rosa Parks (born Feb 4, 1913) boarded the bus in Montgomery in 1955 and refused to obey the bus driver’s order to give up her seat to a white passenger. Her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 381 days, until the city allowed black bus passengers to sit virtually anywhere they wanted. Rosa Parks’ act and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern civil rights movement.

Rosa Park’s natal Sun in Aquarius sextiles her Bienor in Sagittarius. The time for her boarding the bus is known (Dec 1, 1955, around 6 p.m., Montgomery, Alabama). At that time Bienor was rising on the ascendant. The transiting North node (the future oriented node) was in Sagittarius conjunct her natal Bienor.

***

“Horses in my dreams
Like waves, like the sea
They pull out of here
They pull, they are free

Rode a horse around the world
Along the tracks of a train
Broke the record, found the gold
Set myself free again

I have pulled myself clear

Horses in my dreams
Like waves, like the sea
On the tracks of a train
Set myself free again

I have pulled myself clear”
– PJ Harvey

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2013 at 4:31 pm and is filed under New Moon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.