Full Moon in Taurus – November 21, 2010, 18:27:20 UT
“With our fingers we make million holes
We run and we fall into pot holes
On a mission to savor the world oooh
We peek at the sky through tree holes
Comet oh damn it…�
– Björk and Sjón, The Comet Song
Last week I went to say hello to a friend who works in the local day care center. The cheerful environment and atmosphere of the visit still affects me. The Full Moon chart appears to me like a playground of little mermaids and comet chasers, in spite of some clearly stressful chart factors present.
The Full Moon in the last degree of Taurus was loosely conjunct Sedna, one of the strangest little planets in our solar system. The Moon squared Chiron and strictly opposed two other Centaur planets, Chariklo and Echeclus, which both have an association with Chiron.
Chiron works through raising awareness and at the Full Moon was asking for our attention by squaring the Sun-Moon opposition. The apex of any T-square is the driving force of the configuration. Chiron is in conjunction with Neptune, the god of water and the sea. After a long retrograde period, Chiron and Neptune have stationed direct earlier this month, which gives boost to their impact. The empty arm of a T-cross shows where the tension can be released. In this case it points to Leo, the sign which, among other things, can be associated with childlike playfulness.
In astrology comets can be seen as messengers. Astronomically comets are distinguished from asteroids by the presence of a coma or a tail. However, the line between comets and asteroids is not always clear. Sometimes a comet can lose its tail, as it passes close to the Sun many times in its orbit. The ice evaporates away and the comet may come to resemble an asteroid. Chiron was the first object to be given a double designation of a comet and an asteroid (95P/Chiron). Echeclus is the only other Centaur object besides Chiron which has the dual comet and asteroid designation (174P/Echeclus).
The Sun is in conjuction with Echeclus and Chariklo. Centaur planet Chariklo is named after Chiron’s wife, a water nymph in Greek mythology. Caring and commitment are her qualities.
Venus rules two signs, Taurus and Libra. The Full Moon fell in Taurus. Venus in Libra is strong and she stationed direct just a few days before the Full Moon. In the chart Venus forms a yod pattern with the Moon and Uranus. Astrologer Anne Massey reminds us in Venus: Her Cycles, Symbols & Myths that originally the essence of Venus was more diverse than that of the contemporary goddess of love and beauty. We have “sanitized� Venus over the centuries. Anne Massey writes further:
“Aphrodite emerges from sea foam, or spirit, into matter. We symbolically link the ocean to the unconscious or collective — the realm of Neptune. In fairy tales, the little mermaid becomes sea foam to be washed away by the ocean — ascension from matter into spirit.â€?
A reflection of the duality of the goddess shows in two images on a news page telling us how the statue of the Little Mermaid was placed back on her stone in Copenhagen after the long journey abroad. The images instantly reminded me about Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea. In the art Sedna is often depicted as a mermaid. In one of the many versions of the Sedna legend she is a skeleton woman.
Sedna is a primordial, distant object beyond the edge of the Kuiper belt. Mike Brown discovered this reddish little planet seven years ago, in November 2003. Sedna travels 12,000 years around the Sun on its exceptionally long and elongated orbit, far from the planets. In an astrological chart Sedna is in Taurus, moving slowly and acting almost like a fixed star. Scientists are puzzled about Sedna’s crazy orbit. Why is it so strange? So far Sedna has kept her secrets. Until the astronomers find more objects in similar orbits, there is no way to know for sure.
Mike Brown writes about the exciting possibilities on his blog: There is something out there — part 1 and part 2. The chase for more Sednas continues…
References:
Anne Massey, Venus: Her Cycles, Symbols & Myths, Llewellyn Publications, 2006