Summer Solstice – June 20, 2024, 20:51 UT

The Summer Solstice was on June 20 when the Sun entered Cancer. The Full Moon in Capricorn followed on June 22. The Sun in Cancer is in conjunction with centaur Asbolus, the trans-Neptunian Chaos, and Venus. The Sun squares Neptune in late Pisces and the trans-Neptunian Borasisi in early Aries.

Centaur Asbolus was discovered in 1995. It orbits between Jupiter and Neptune and the orbital period is about 76 years. The planet was named from Greek mythology after centaur Asbolus, a seer that was capable of reading omens in the flight of birds. The name Asbolus means ”sooty” or ”carbon dust”.

In mythology the centaurs are best known for two pivotal fights. One took place between the centaurs and the Lapiths at king Pirithous’s wedding. The other one occured at centaur Pholus’s cave, when Heracles tried to steal the wine which belonged to the whole centaur tribe. Asbolus foresaw the upcoming battle at Pirithous’s wedding, but he was not able to assure the centaurs and prevent them from attending the ceremony, and so many of them lost their lives. When Heracles visited Pholus, it was Asbolus who brought the other centaurs to Pholus’s cave, and thus indirectly and involuntarily contributed to Chiron’s and Pholus’s deaths. Asbolus himself is said to have been crucified by the arrows of Heracles.

Chaos is a cubewano discovered in 1998. Its orbital period is almost 310 years. Chaos was the first of the primordial gods, a void state preceding the creation of the universe. Today we understand chaos as a state where things are out of order, but initially it was an empty, formless and fertile space. Gaia, the personification of Earth emerged from Chaos. As the goddess of the air Chaos was also the mother of birds.

At the Aries point another cubewano, Borasisi with an orbital period of 287.5 years, is in the middle of its sign change, which started in May 2023 and ends in January 2025. Borasisi was discovered in 1999 at 25+ Aquarius, the same degree where Neptune was discovered in 1846. These two bodies are now in conjunction. Neptune is associated with dreams, illusions and untruths, among other things. It dissolves boundaries and thus can make it difficult to tell the truth from a lie. Neptune can also manifest itself in a creative way. Borasisi seems to have much in common with it.

The name Borasisi comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle. He uses satire and black humor to examine the relationship between truth and lies. Borasisi is the personification of the Sun in the cosmogony of Bokononism, which Vonnegut describes in his novel. The foundation of the fictional religion of Bokononism is based on living by the holy untruths that make one happy. Many talented writers have a prominent Borasisi in their charts, for example Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, H. P. Lovecraft, and Henry David Thoreau.

Our challenge today is to find out if the news of the day is true, if the email you receive is just an attempt to empty your bank account, and if the picture you see in your news feed is real or the product of artificial intelligence. For instance, last night I received an email inviting me to join the Illuminati. Not all cheating attempts are so obvious though. Hopefully the presence of Venus, the planet of artistic endeavors, channels the current energies to more positive artistic manifestation instead of deceit.

The New Moon at 16+ Gemini is in exact conjunction with Venus and square to Saturn in Pisces. The New Moon is not tightly in conjunction with any of the named distant minor planets. One of the large Kuiper belt objects that are not yet named, (532037) 2013 FY27, is at 17+ degrees of Virgo square to the New Moon and sesquisquare to Pluto in Aquarius. It forms a t-square with Saturn in Pisces, and the triple conjunction of Venus and the lumiaries in Gemini. At the Summer Solstice in two weeks, 2013 FY27 will be square to the Moon in Sagittarius.

2013 FY27 is one of the three largest unnamed objects in the solar system. It is the ninth intrinsically brightest known trans-Neptunian object. It is bigger than Ixion and almost as big as Varda. 2013 FY27 is a scattered disc object like Eris. It is a binary system with two components approximately 740 km and 190 km in diameter.

2013 FY27 was discovered by Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo in March 2013. The orbital period is 448 years. It is currently near its aphelion (the farthest point of its orbit around the Sun), about 80 AU from the Sun. Over time, it will come much closer to Neptune’s neighborhood.

According to the naming rules of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), when the orbit of a minor planet becomes well enough determined so that its position can be reliably predicted into the future, the minor planet receives a permanent designation, a permanent number. The discoverer has the privilege to suggest a name for the body for a period of ten years following the numbering. The permanent number 532037 was assigned for 2013 FY27 five years ago, in May 2019. I hope that the discoverers will make a name proposal soon, unless they already have done so, and this body will get a proper name.

IAU and the science podcast Radiolab have announced a competition to name another unnamed body, one of the quasi-moons of Earth. A quasi-moon is an asteroid that actually orbits the Sun, but if you watch it from the Earth, it looks like it’s orbiting our planet just like the Moon does.

The object in question is (164207) 2004 GU9, an Apollo asteroid discovered on April 13, 2004, near Socorro, New Mexico, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research project (LINEAR). In the discovery chart it was retrograding at 14+ degrees of Leo opposite Neptune in Aquarius and sextile Mars in Gemini.

People worldwide can suggest a name for the quasi-moon between June 1 – September 30. “We’re excited to bring people together around something that unites us across timezones, national borders, languages, and all manner of differences – our shared sky,” said Latif Nasser, co-host of Radiolab.

If you are interested in participating, read more here:

https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2406/

Summer Solstice – June 21, 2022, 09:14 UT

The Full Moon in Sagittarius on June 14 is square to Neptune in Pisces. The Moon is in conjunction with the trans-Neptunian Varda. Mercury has just entered Gemini and it is semisquare to the Mars-Chiron conjunction, which will be exact the next day.

This is the first super Full Moon of the year. A supermoon is a term that astrologer Richard Nolle coined in 1979, describing a New Moon or a Full moon at or near its closest point to the Earth in its elliptic orbit. The Full Moon appears now bigger and brighter than usually, and you may feel edgier than usually.

The brightness of the Moon is emphasized by Varda, the Star-Queen of J. R. R. Tolkien. Varda created the stars and constellations, and also set the vessels of the Sun and Moon upon their courses above the girdle of the Earth. She is said to be too beautiful for words, and her face radiates light. 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.

Manwë and Varda complemented each other. If Varda is beside Manwë, he “sees further than all other eyes, through mist, and through darkness, and over the leagues of the sea. And if Manwë is with her, Varda hears more clearly than all other ears the sound of voices that cry from east to west, from the hills and the valleys, and from the dark places that Melkor has made upon Earth.”

Manwë is at the Aries point conjunct Jupiter in early Aries. Manwë is changing signs from Pisces to Aries in 2021 – 2023, so it is topical now. The final ingress takes place in January 2023.

J. R. R. Tolkien wrote: “Manwë has no thought for his own honour, and is not jealous of his power, but rules all to peace.” According to Tolkien, poetry is the delight of Manwë, and the song of words is his music. In the Full Moon chart Neptune is squaring the luminaries, and thus we may not see things clearly. On the other hand, Manwë can see through mist and darkness, and Jupiter is strengthening his ability further.

A week after the Sagittarius Full Moon, on June 21, the Sun enters Cancer. The Sun’s ingress into Cancer marks the Summer Solstice, when in the Northern Hemisphere we have the longest day of the year. This is the time when the Sun, in its apparent annual motion along the Ecliptic, reaches its most Northern point. In the solstice chart the Moon in early Aries is squaring the Sun in Cancer. The Moon is in conjunction with Jupiter and Manwë.

It feels almost repulsive to have all this light present, when at the same time the world is facing dark times: the ongoing war in Europe, the worsening global food crisis while millions of tons of grain are stuck in Ukraine, Turkey blocking the NATO membership application process of Finland and Sweden for whatever the reason, etc. However, light and shadow take turns in life. We need light at times in order to be able to get on. Life is dualistic, as is the nature of astrology too.

I have found a prominent Manwë for instance in many charts of astrologers, occultists, writers and gifted speakers. When I was searching Wikipedia for examples of the Sun-Manwë conjunctions, the following event caught my eye and touched me.

On Dec. 20, 1939, a fundraising rally for the Finnish Relief Fund called “Let’s Help Finland” was held at Madison Square Garden in New York. Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover made a speech at the event which was also broadcast to the American people. The Finnish Relief Fund was a humanitarian aid organization intended to support Finnish civilians during the Winter War, a war between the Soviet Union and Finland, which began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on Nov. 30, 1939. Hoover’s campaign was advertised in 1,400 newspapers across the United States, and by March 1940 it had raised 2.5 million US dollars. The largest contributions came from private donors.

In the chart cast for the rally, the Sun is in conjunction with Manwë in late Sagittarius. Jupiter in the last degree of Pisces squares the Sun-Manwë conjunction. Mercury at 6+ Sagittarius is sextile to Varda in Libra. The transiting Sun-Manwë conjunction was conjunct Finland’s Mercury and North node of the Moon in early Capricorn. Finland’s Manwë is at 6+ Sagittarius, so the transiting Mercury was in exact conjunction with it.

In the chart of Herbert Hoover (Aug. 10, 1874 – Oct. 20, 1964), his Leo Sun is sextile to his Manwë in Libra. His Moon-Mars conjunction in Leo is conjunct Varda. At the time of the rally at Madison Square Garden, the transiting Manwë in late Sagittarius squared Hoover’s Venus-Jupiter conjunction at the Virgo-Libra sign cusp, and the transiting Varda at 6+ Libra was sextile his Moon-Mars-Varda conjunction in Leo.

The income from first screening of the film Gone with the Wind in the state of Washington on Jan. 27, 1940, was also forwarded to the relief fund. According to Peter von Bagh, a Finnish movie historian, the national anthem of Finland was played before the showing, which began at 8:30 PM. The transiting Sun at 6+ Aquarius was trine Varda in Libra and right at Hoover’s Midheaven. The ascendant of the screening chart at 15+ Virgo was conjunct Finland’s Moon-Mars conjunction in the middle degrees of Virgo.

Ukraine needs help of the world now.

Winter Solstice – Dec. 21, 2021, 15:59 UT

Full Moon occurs in Gemini on Dec. 19 and lightens this dark season a bit. The Moon in Gemini and the Sun in Sagittarius align exactly with the Galactic Center. Venus is in close conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn.

Venus stationed retrograde on Dec. 18, and at the Full Moon it is still stationary, which means that it is powerful and deserves our attention. Anne Massey writes in Venus: Her Cycles, Symbols and Myths: “A stationary Venus, like the final note of a piece of music, echoes long after the musician has struck the last chord, holding a powerful influence. Stations stay active for a long time, leaving a permanent marker, which Venus will revisit time after time.”

On Dec. 21 the Sun enters Capricorn and marks the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the shortest day of the year. After the solstice the days start gradually get longer again. By the solstice the Moon travels 30 degrees from Gemini to Cancer, and is tightly opposite the Venus-Pluto conjunction.

Usually my focus tends to be in the distant icy Kuiper belt bodies, but now I am introducing to you a new discovery from the opposite direction, inside the orbit of Venus, namely asteroid 594913 ʼAylóʼchaxnim, “Venus Girl”. Asteroid ʼAylóʼchaxnim is in conjunction with Venus and Pluto in both charts.

The Main asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter. During the past twenty years or so, 25 asteroids have been found orbiting entirely within Earth’s orbit. 594913 ʼAylóʼchaxnim is the first asteroid discovered to have an orbit completely within Venus’s orbit! Its orbit is moderately eccentric and grazes that of Mercury. The orbital period around the Sun is about 150 days. At about 4.1 million years from the present, ʼAylóʼchaxnim will most likely collide with Venus. The diameter of ʼAylóʼchaxnim is approximately from 1 km to 1.5 km.

In the geocentric astrological chart the only major aspect Mercury and Venus can form with the Sun is the conjunction. This applies also to ʼAylóʼchaxnim, since it is inside Venus’s orbit.

ʼAylóʼchaxnim was discovered on Jan. 4, 2020, at Palomar Mountain in California. The name was approved on Nov. 8, 2021. The name means “Venus girl” in the indigenous Luiseño language of southern California. The name celebrates the location of the discovery, which is on ancestral land of the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians, and the fact that ʼAylóʼchaxnim is the first discovered asteroid to orbit entirely within the orbit of Venus.

According to Wikipedia, the name is derived from ʼaylóchax, “morning star” (also “food left overnight”), which in turn derives (ʼa-ylócha-x) from yulóchax “to stay the night, be kept overnight”. Of course, the morning star refers to Venus, which can rise ahead the Sun as morning star or behind the Sun as evening star. Venus stations retrograde when it is evening star, and it stations direct after the interior conjunction with the Sun, while it is morning star again.

Constance Goddard DuBois notes in her study The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California (1908), that it is possible that in the old times the Luiseño recognized the motions of the planets, but only Venus was distinguished by a special name, Aylucha, “that which is left over from evening till morning, food or anything of the kind.” Only the most important stars had names.

In Roman mythology, goddess Venus was born from the sea foam as an adult woman. Now we have a celestial body named as “Venus Girl”. Is she perhaps representing some so far missing aspect of Venus, which mankind needs in its present time?

Full Moon in Capricorn — June 24, 2021, 18:40 UT

In many parts of the Northern hemisphere, including Finland, people are sweating under a heat dome. The severe heatwave arrived early, fueled by global warming. We are facing the consequences of climate change.

The Sun entered Cancer on June 21, 2021. The summer solstice is the longest day in the Northern hemisphere. Saturn in Aquarius is square to Uranus in Taurus. The Moon was in Scorpio, opposing Uranus. In the solstice chart Mercury at the middle degrees of Gemini was still retrograding. It stationed direct the next day, on June 22. The Full Moon in Capricorn takes place on June 24. The Sun is conjunct centaur Echeclus in early Cancer and trine Jupiter in Pisces.

60558 Echeclus was discovered in March 2000 and initially classified as a minor planet. In December 2005 a large chunk of Echeclus broke off, possibly caused by an impact, and a cometary coma was detected. The body was given also the cometary designation 174P/Echeclus. Echeclus burst out again in 2011 and in 2017. It last came to perihelion in April 2015. Typically, when a comet approaches the Sun, the ice vaporizes and the coma shows. Also centaur Chiron is classified as both a minor planet and a comet. The orbital period of Echeclus is 35 years and its orbit crosses the orbit of Saturn.

Echeclus was named from Greek mythology after one of the centaurs that fought with the Lapiths at King Pirithous’s wedding. The centaurs were guests at the party, but they got drunk and tried to abduct the bride and other women. Echeclus was killed by the Lapith Ampyx, the son of Ophion, who had thrust his lance that lacked its point into the face of Echeclus.

When the cult film Fight Club was released at the Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 10, 1999, the Sun was in conjunction with Mercury and Echeclus in Virgo. The film is based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel of the same name. Plahniuk (born Feb. 21, 1962) has the Sun-Chiron conjunction in Pisces. His Sun is in tight opposition to Echeclus in Virgo.

The director David Fincher (born Aug. 28, 1962) has a Sun-Echeclus conjunction in Virgo in his chart. He is a perfectionist and demands one retake after another to capture a scene perfectly. Fincher’s Sun-Echeclus conjunction is sextile Mars in Cancer and opposing Jupiter and Chiron in Pisces. Martyrdom and alienation are examples of themes in his film. The characters are often troubled and flawed, and they act on their dark, inner impulses. “We sort of attach the sinister to the mundane in order to make things interesting… I think it’s also because in order for something to be evil, it almost has to cloak itself as something else,” has Fincher explained.

At the time of the release of the film, the transiting Jupiter in Taurus was trine to David Fincher’s Sun-Echeclus conjunction in Virgo and sextile his Mars in Cancer.

Fight Club starred Brad Pitt (born Dec. 18, 1963) and Edward Norton (born Aug. 18, 1969). Brad Pitt was having his Echeclus return during the filming and at the time of the release. Pitt’s natal Echeclus is in exact conjunction with his Pluto in Virgo and trine to his Mercury in Capricorn.

Edward Norton’s Echeclus is conjunct Jupiter in Libra, opposite Chiron in Aries, and novile (40º) his Sun in Leo. When Fight Club was released, the transiting Echeclus was right at his Midheaven at 14+ degrees of Virgo. The transiting Mars in Sagittarius was sextile to his natal Jupiter-Echeclus conjunction.

Another interesting case study is the release of the film Face/Off on June 27, 1997. The director John Woo (born May 1, 1946) has natally Echeclus conjunct Mercury in Aries, sextile Uranus in Gemini, and opposite Chiron in Libra. Chaos in Pisces is exactly squaring his nodal axis of the Moon. Woo’s films are action films and he is known for highly chaotic action sequences.

At the time of the release of Face/Off, Echeclus was in the beginning of Virgo. The transiting Echeclus was square to Woo’s natal Venus in Gemini, sesquiquadrate (135º) to his natal Mercury-Echeclus conjunction in Aries, and formed a semisquare aspect (45º) to his Chiron in Libra. The semisquare and the sesquiquadrate belong to the same family of challenging aspects with the square and the opposition. They are not weak aspects, if the orbs are tight.

Nicholas Cage (born Jan.7, 1964) and John Travolta (born Feb. 18, 1954) played the leading roles in Face/Off. In Nicholas Cage’s chart Echeclus is conjunct Pluto in Virgo and trine the Sun in Capricorn. When the film was released, the transiting Echeclus was in sesquiquadrate aspect to his Sun in Capricorn.

John Travolta has natally Uranus in conjunction with Echeclus in Cancer. At the time of the release of Face/Off, the transiting Echeclus in early Virgo was opposing his Sun in the last degree of Aquarius and his Venus in early Pisces.

Face/Off was written by Mike Werb (born June 21, 1977) and Michael Colleary (born Jan.1, 1953). Michael Colleary’s Echeclus is in exact conjunction with Uranus in Cancer. They are opposite the Sun-Chiron conjunction in Capricorn. His Mars in Pisces is sesquiquadrate to the Echeclus-Uranus conjunction in Cancer.

In Mike Werb’s chart Echeclus in Sagittarius is opposite his Mercury in Gemini and with wider orb also opposite his Sun in the first degree of Cancer. The transiting Echeclus in early Virgo at the time of the release of Face/Off was sextile his natal Sun.

Mike Werb is also the screenwriter of The Mask, which was released on July 29, 1994. The transiting Echeclus was then in Leo sextile to Werb’s natal Mercury in Gemini and trine to his natal Echeclus in Sagittarius. It was also in conjunction with the North node of the Moon of Jim Carrey, who starred The Mask. Carrey’s performance helped his way to superstardom.

Summer Solstice – June 20, 2020, 21:44 UT

The eclipse season of this summer began two weeks ago on June 5, 2020, with a lunar eclipse in Sagittarius. There are three eclipses in this eclipse season. On June 21, 2020, there was the New Moon in Cancer, which was also an annular solar eclipse. Two weeks later, on July 5, 2020, there will be another lunar eclipse in Capricorn.

On June 20, 2020, at 21:44 UT, the Sun entered Cancer. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Only about nine hours after the ingress of the Sun, on June 21, 2020, at 06:41 UT, the solar eclipse occurred in the first degree of the sign, in a close conjunction with the lunar North Node. The Nodes indicate the relationship between the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. They are points where the Moon’s orbit around the Earth intersects the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The North Node is oriented in the future. In both charts it is in the last degree of Gemini. Mercury, the ruler of Gemini is retrograding, which suggests challenges on the way.

The solar eclipse in Cancer occurred in a perfect square to the Aries point, which represents one’s relationship to the larger world around one.

The Cancer solar eclipse was in conjunction with the main belt asteroid 10 Hygiea, which in spite of its small size meets the requirements of a dwarf planet because of its round shape. Asteroid Hygiea is associated with preserving good health. It was named after the Greek personification of health, cleanliness and hygiene. She is reminding us, that although the pandemic restrictions are being loosened in many countries, the virus has not disappeared, and we still need to follow good hygiene practices.

The Minor Planet Center has announced two new namings of the trans-Neptunian objects in June 2020. Provisionally designated 2015 TG387 is now 541132 Leleākūhonua. It was discovered by American astronomers David Tholen, Chad Trujillo and Scott Sheppard in October 2015. Based on the letters TG in its provisional designation and the discovery around Halloween it was first nicknamed as The Goblin.

541132 Leleākūhonua is an extreme trans-Neptunian object (ETNO) and a sednoid. Its elliptical orbit fits exactly into the models of how distant objects should behave if Planet Nine exists. According to the official naming citation, “Leleākūhonua is a life form mentioned in the Hawaiian creation chant, the Kumulipo. The name compares the orbit to the flight of migratory birds and evokes a yearning to be near Earth.” Its orbital period around the Sun is about 35,760 years.

What was the world like 35,000 – 36,000 years ago, when Leleākūhonua last time was in this same position in its orbit? It was before the Last Glacial Maximum. Most parts of North America and northern Europe were covered with ice. The Neanderthals had disappeared only recently, around 40,000 years ago. The oldest cave art discovered in the world is from around 40,000 BP. Some of the early Europeans managed to survive the Ice Age.

The ephemeris of Leleākūhonua is not available at the moment, so unfortunately I am not able to place it in the charts yet.

The other recently named trans-Neptunian is 184314 Mbabamwanawaresa, a cubewano discovered in March 2005 by an American astronomer Marc W. Buie. The orbital period around the Sun is 302 years. In the astrological chart Mbabamwanawaresa is now at 8+ degrees of Scorpio opposite Uranus in Taurus.

184314 Mbabamwanawaresa was named after a Zulu goddess of rain, agriculture, and the harvest. “She is the goddess of rainbows, a symbol of the link between heaven and Earth. She is particularly revered for teaching the people of southern Africa the art of making beer.” Beer is one of the oldest and most popular drinks in the world, and certainly one of the most social ones. Currently we have had to reduce our social contacts to minimum. Perhaps Mbabamwanawaresa’s symbolism is in connection to this situation.

A few days ago Alaska officials airlifted a wrecked bus from a remote trail outside Denali National Park into another location. Perhaps you have seen the film Into the Wild (2007), which tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who hiked into the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s. He spent the last months of his life in that bus and died in it in starvation. He distanced himself socially of his own will. Christopher McCandless had Jupiter in conjunction with Mbabamwanawaresa in early Virgo, opposite retrograde Mercury – the ruler of Virgo – in late Aquarius. Jupiter is one of the so called social planets. Its principle is expansion. It can represent exploration, love of freedom and independence, for instance. The negative side of Jupiter is excess, and in this case perhaps the extreme withdrawal from society.

Jon Krakauer, a writer and mountaineer, the author of the book Into the Wild, which was later filmed, has his Moon conjunct Mbabamwanawaresa in Leo. Sean Penn, the director of the film has the Sun-Mbabamwanawaresa conjunction in Leo. Emile Hirsch who portrayed McCandless has his Pisces Sun opposite Mbabamwanawaresa in Virgo. Eddie Vedder, who performed the songs on the soundtrack of the film, has his Capricorn Sun in trine to Mbabamwanawaresa in Virgo.

Today is the summer solstice, when the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky and the day is longest. The Sun enters Cancer at 15:54 UT. Earth’s small companion in the last degree of Virgo is in square to the Sun, like it has been at several solstices before. I am not talking about the Moon, but Kamo`oalewa, the quasi-satellite of Earth.

469219 Kamo`oalewa was discovered in April 2016. It was brought into our consciousness as 2016 HO3 just about three years ago, in mid-June 2016. The naming took place last April. Kamo`oalewa is too small and too distant for us to be seen like the Moon, but nevertheless, it is our constant companion, looping around our planet.

Kamo`oalewa is actually a tiny Apollo asteroid, orbiting around the Sun, but viewed from the Earth it looks like it would be circling us. The orbits of quasi-satellites are unstable. Over time they tend to evolve to other types of resonant motion and no longer remain in the vicinity of the planet. Later they can move back to a quasi-satellite orbit again. Kamo`oalewa is not the only known quasi-satellite of Earth, but it is currently the closest and most stable, predicted to stay in this orbital state for several hundred years.

The orbit of Kamo`oalewa is intriguing. On its yearly round around the Sun, it spends half of the time inside the Earth’s orbit and half of the time outside. The orbit is also tilted a little, so it bobs up and down once a year through Earth’s orbital plane. See Kamo`oalewa’s fascinating dance here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMJc7gmychk .

Astrologically the orbit of Kamo`oalewa is really weird. Sometimes it rushes through several astrological signs in a month. Then there are periods of time when it moves back and forth only two or three signs for decades. This means that there can be a few generations who have Kamo`oalewa appearing only in a handful of signs. We are now in a phase where Kamo`oalewa seems to be covering only degrees in Virgo, Libra and Scorpio. Thanks for astrologer Zane Stein for helping me to understand the strange orbit.

The name Kamoʻoalewa is derived from a Hawaiian word referring to an oscillating celestial object, which refers to the oscillating motion of Kamoʻoalewa in the sky as view from Earth. It is a name found in the Hawaiian chant Kumulipo. Kumulipo is an 18th-century chant in the Hawaiian language telling a creation story and including a genealogy of the members of Hawaiian royalty. It is a cosmogonic genealogy, which means that it relates to the stars and the moon. In the Kumulipo the world was created over a cosmic night, which was not just one night, but many nights over time.

You may think, why bother to pay any attention to Kamo`oalewa, because it is not a true moon, and at some point it is going to leave us anyway. It is worthwhile because it is with us now! A new planet emerges when we are ready to welcome its energy, or when we need it. If Kamo`oalewa has a special message, we are the ones to whom it is addressed to.

We are approaching the summer solstice. Now we are in the midst of an important astrology pattern, Mars in Cancer opposing the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn. Mars is also in contact with the Moon’s nodal axis. The Saturn-Pluto conjunction will be exact in January 2020. This aspect pattern is defining our moment of history, as astrologer Eric Francis has put it. “It’s a before and after moment,” he wrote recently. Please read Eric’s detailed article about the astrology preceding the Cancer solstice, “Mars in Focus: Individual and Society”.

Minor planets can give additional information to the chart interpretation. The Full Moon in Sagittarius makes several tension and friction producing aspects to distant minor planets.

In Sagittarius conjunct the Moon is the plutino Ixion, discovered in 2001. It is about the fifth-largest plutino. It was named from Greek mythology after the Lapith king Ixion, who had no sense of right or wrong. He murdered his father-in-law, and after that he lived as an outlaw and was shunned. The sky god Zeus took pity on him and invited him to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. Instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera, Zeus’s wife. Zeus found out about his intentions and created the cloud Nephele in the shape of Hera, and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. For his crimes Ixion was bound to a burning solar wheel that turns forever in the underworld.

In Pisces, squared by the Moon in Sagittarius and the Sun in Gemini, are two binary trans-Neptunian objects, Borasisi and Manwë. Borasisi is a cubewano discovered in 1999 and Manwë is a Kuiper belt object in a 4:7 resonance with Neptune, discovered in 2003.

Borasisi is named after a fictional creation deity taken from the novel Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. In Vonnegut’s novel, the foundation of the fictional religion of Bokononism is based on living by the untruths that make one feel better; people tend to see what they want to.

Manwë was the fictional king of the Valar, “angelic powers” or “gods”, in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium. He was foremost among the great spirits who rule the world. Manwë was lord of air, wind, and clouds. Birds, especially eagles, flew back and forth and brought to his knowledge everything that was going on in the world. The controversial British occultist and magician Aleister Crowley had his Sun in conjunction with Manwë.

Then in Virgo there is Kamo`oalewa, a quasi-satellite of Earth. It is one of the most recently named asteroids, discovered in 2016 and named last April. The name is derived from a Hawaiian word referring to an oscillating celestial object. I will write more about Kamo`oalewa at the summer solstice.

As Eric wrote in his article, “Mars in Cancer on the North Node wants something new…” In Sagittarius, in its own sign and not very far from the Moon, there is also Jupiter, the planet of growth. An urge for the search of deeper meaning can be strong. Saturn can represent authority figures. The aforementioned minor planets are currently advising: “Don’t fall for false gods.” These “false gods” could be political or religious leaders, opinion leaders, bloggers, causes, etc.

The Sun in Gemini is in conjunction with Chaos, a cubewano discovered in 1998. It is named after the primeval state of existence in Greek mythology. It was a dark, formless void preceding the creation of the universe, from which the first gods appeared. Today we are usually referring to a state of confusion when we speak of chaos. The meaning of the cubewano Chaos can sometimes appear as such, but it can also act as a great creative force. Chaos conjunct the Sun and Mars in trine to Neptune will help us to find the new path that we long for.

New Moon in Sagittarius — December 18, 2017, 6:30 UT

The New Moon at 26+ degrees of Sagittarius on Dec. 18, 2017, was at the Galactic Centre and in conjunction with Saturn, centaur planet Pholus and trans-Neptunian object Quaoar. At Winter Solstice the Sun, Saturn and Quaoar are in exact conjunction in the first degree of Capricorn, one of the Cardinal Points, which tend to connect us to the larger world around us.

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, and Saturn entered its own sign yesterday. The Sun followed there today. Quaoar is a trans-Neptunian object with an orbital period of 284.5 years. Quaoar ingressed Capricorn two weeks ago.

Quaoar is a quite large cubewano, possibly a dwarf planet, discovered in 2002 by Mike Brown and Chad Trujillo. At the time of its discovery it was the largest object found in our Solar System since the discovery of Pluto. Its orbit is nearly circular and moderately inclined. Quaoar has a moon, Weywot, discovered in 2007 by Mike Brown. Both names come from the mythology of the Native American Tongva tribe in Southern California, where the discovery of Quaoar was made.

Quaoar was the creation god of the Tongva. Quaoar has no form or gender. He danced and sang the sky god Weywot into existence. Together they created everything else into existence: other gods, people, animals and plants.

According to Eric Francis, “Quaoar’s placement in a natal chart gives an intimate portrait of the dance of the family’s emotional process and its impact on us. Quaoar speaks to the rhythms and choreography into which we were born, as these manifest within the family pattern going back generations.”

Saturn once represented the edge of our Solar System. Then the development of astronomical equipment allowed us to see Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. After the discovery of 1992 QB1, thousands of distant minor planets have been found. The Solar System as well as our understanding of it has broadened.

Quaoar has a special meaning for me. In 2002 when the discovery of Quaoar was announced, Quaoar was transiting my natal Moon and my lunar North node. It was the first trans-Neptunian object besides Pluto that I noticed, and which lead me to become aware of the centaurs and all the other intriguing worlds beyond Neptune. Quaoar danced the other small worlds and gods into my awareness.

The Atlantic hurricane season lasts roughly from June to November. Uranus was exactly opposite 42355 Typhon already in the Summer Solstice chart. The total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 was tightly aspecting the Uranus-Typhon opposition. Typhon changed signs to Scorpio on Sept. 20, the same day that the New Moon in Virgo occurred. In the Autumnal Equinox chart on Sept. 22, the Moon was in conjunction with Typhon. Now, at the Aries Full Moon on Oct. 5, Jupiter was conjoining Typhon.

In Greek mythology Typhon was huge. Since the summer all over the world there have been natural disasters on a large scale, which fit in the symbolism of Typhon: wildfires, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. The joined remains of hurricane Lee and Maria reached even us in Finland, giving us a whole month’s worth of rain in a couple of days.

The spiral shape is characteristic for hurricanes and typhoons. It can also be found in the double helix structure of the DNA molecule that carries the genetic code of all living organisms. Viruses also contain DNA, although they cannot naturally reproduce outside a host cell. In August 2017 the worst flu outbreak on record hit Australia. It is expected to turn into a pandemic. In the Full Moon chart on Sept. 6, besides the Uranus-Typhon opposition, asteroid 55555 DNA was in conjunction with the Moon (mutations) and Neptune (diseases).

42355 Typhon and the main belt asteroid 55555 DNA interestingly appear in the charts of many pandemics.

More than 4000 people died in the yellow fever during the epidemic of 1793 in Philadelphia. Two of the early cases were treated on Aug 7, 1793. In the chart Jupiter (expansion), Uranus (sudden events) and Pluto (viruses) were forming a t-square. Jupiter was in exact conjunction with Typhon in Scorpio. Mars (fever, infections) was in trine to the Jupiter-Typhon conjunction.

The first recognized cases of AIDS were reported by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on June 5, 1981. Five homosexual men in Los Angeles were reported to have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems. In the chart Typhon is in conjunction with Chiron in Taurus and in a wide opposition to Uranus at 27+ degrees of Scorpio. Also Mars (infections) and asteroid DNA, both in the first degree of Gemini, were opposing Uranus. Jupiter (expansion) in the first degree of Libra (one of the four Aries points, a point of interaction between the individual and collective) was in trine to Mars-DNA conjunction.

Asteroid DNA, Jupiter and Typhon made a triple conjunction at 11+ degrees of Leo in late September 2002. In the middle of November 2002, DNA opposed Uranus on the axis of 24+ degrees of Leo/Aquarius. The Sun-Mercury conjunction in Scorpio was at the midpoint completing the opposition aspect to a t-square pattern. The epidemic of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) appears to have started in China on Nov. 16, 2002. The first case of infection was speculated to be a farmer in Foshan County. The Jupiter-Typhon conjunction was opposing Neptune in Aquarius in February 2003. On March 12, 2003, WHO issued a global alert. The Sun was squaring Pluto at the time.

The 2009 swine flu influenza reached the media spotlight around the time of the Taurus New Moon on April 25, 2009. Asteroid DNA was at 16+ degrees of Pisces opposite Typhon. Mercury (lungs) was in tight sextile to Uranus and trining the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron in Aquarius. Mars (infections) was at the Aries Point. On June 11, 2009, WHO raised the alert level to phase 6 and announced the pandemic. Because Mercury had been retrograding in May, it was in sextile to Uranus and in trine to the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron in June for the second time.

There was also a swine flu outbreak on Feb. 5, 1976, in Fort Dix, in the U.S. Army installation. The epidemic mysteriously disappeared within a couple of months. Uranus in Scorpio was opposite Typhon in Taurus. Mercury was in conjunction with asteroid DNA in Capricorn. They squared Jupiter-Chiron conjunction in Aries. The Sun in Aquarius was in exact trine to Mars in Gemini (lung infections).

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the Greek term typhos, which means smoke, mist or fog, is related to the Greek word typhon, meaning the whirlwind. The disease called typhus got its name from the Greek typhos, describing the state of mind of those infected. The extreme weather phenomena today reflect the collective psychic state of the humankind. The healing can begin only by us, the individuals.