The Full Moon at 18+ degrees of Sagittarius has brought us a phase of faith and optimism. The Moon is in tight conjunction to Varda, Lady of the Stars, whose face radiates light.

174567 Varda is a trans-Neptunian object named after principal goddess of the elves in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional mythology. Varda created the stars and constellations, and also set the vessels of the Sun and Moon upon their courses. In light is her power and her joy.

“Of all the Great Ones who dwell in this world the Elves hold Varda most in reverence and love. Elbereth they name her, and they call upon her name out of the shadows of Middle-earth, and uplift it in song at the rising of the stars,” writes Tolkien.

174567 Varda is highly likely to be a dwarf planet. Dr. Mike Brown has ranked it as the 15th largest object on his dwarf planet list. The orbital period of Varda is around 310 years. It is usually classified as a cubewano, a classical Kuiper belt object. Minor planets in this group do not cross Neptune’s orbit, and they are not controlled by an orbital resonance with Neptune. However, the boundary between the classical objects and the so called scattered disk objects is blurred, and there is no official definition of a cubewano. According to the Deep Ecliptic Survey’s (a project to find Kuiper belt objects) classification Varda has been referred as a detached object.

The sign of Sagittarius is symbolized by the centaur, half man and half horse. In the Sagittarius Full Moon chart the planet of love, Venus, is at 3+ degrees of Taurus, which was the discovery degree of Chiron, the first centaur planet. The Sabian Symbol for the degree is “The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”. The keynote by Dane Rudhyar is: “Riches that come from linking the celestial and the earthly nature.”

When I was doing my research for this Full Moon in order to find good examples on Varda, one event rose above the others, namely the discovery of Chiron. Chiron was discovered on Nov.1, 1977, by Charles T. Kowal from images taken on Oct. 18, 1977. It was named after the wise centaur Chiron in Greek mythology. In the discovery chart for Nov. 1, 1977, the Sun in Scorpio is in conjunction with Uranus and couple of minor planets, one of which is Varda. Varda’s prominent position in this chart fits so well with Chiron’s tendency to raise awareness. It is difficult to see in the dark. We need light in order to become aware of something.

Yusuf Islam (born July 21, 1948), previously known by his stage name Cat Stevens, has Varda at his ascendant in his birth chart. It is a Full Moon chart (Rodden Rating A). He sings:

“I think I see the light coming to me,
Coming through me giving me a second sight.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 10th, 2017 at 6:21 pm and is filed under Full 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.