The New Moon in Cancer occurred precisely conjunct asteroid Atlantis, named after the mythical island which sank into the ocean, and opposite Crantor, a Centaur planet which was discovered in 2002. A new astronomical study has revealed fascinating facts about Crantor.

Crantor is trapped in a 1:1 mean motion resonance with Uranus, following a complex horseshoe orbit around the planet. The three-dimensional presentation of the orbit resembles a corkscrew spiraling around the orbit of Uranus, while both revolve slowly around the Sun. From time to time, due to the horseshoe behavior of Crantor, the body undergoes close encounters with Uranus.

Crantor orbits the Sun in about the same time as Uranus does, in 85 years. It is very close to the orbital period of Uranus, which is a little over 84 years. There are two other known Centaurs co-orbital with Uranus, both currently unnamed. A Centaur planet is a minor body that orbits the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune and crosses the orbits of one or more of the giant planets. Crantor moves in an eccentric orbit, but crosses only the orbit of Uranus. Its semi-major axis is close to that of Uranus.

The diameter of Crantor is around 60 km, and it is one of the reddest objects in the solar system.

In Greek mythology Crantor was not a Centaur, but a Lapith who was killed by Centaur Demoleon in the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding of Pirithous. The name Demeleon means “Lion-Bodied.” Crantor can be linked to the lost continent of Atlantis through the Greek philosopher Crantor, who actually lived circa 335–275 BC. He is said to have visited Egypt, talked with priests, and seen hieroglyphs confirming the story.

Eric Francis elaborates the themes of the Atlantis New Moon at Planet Waves: http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/astro-daily/cancer-new-moon-conjunct-asteroid-atlantis/

According to Edgar Cayce there is a Hall of Records beneath the Great Sphinx of Giza that holds the historical texts of Atlantis. The Sphinx is depicting a creature with a lion’s body and a human head. The statue was excavated in digs from 1925 to 1936. According to Wikipedia, on Dec. 26, 1925, the Sphinx was unearthed at the start of a complete excavation. On the previous day the Sun had made a conjunction with the minor planet Crantor in Capricorn.

Another event concerning the conservation of a lion-bodied historical statue happened in 1961 in Sweden. King Gustavus Adolphus (1594–1632) had built the warship Vasa, which sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. There was a 3-meter long figurehead lion in the ship Vasa, one of the heavy ornaments, which possibly caused the sinking. On Apr. 24, 1961, the exact day of the Sun-Crantor conjunction in Taurus, the ship was removed from the water after 333 years.

Uranus is the cosmic trickster. We associate unpredictability, surprises, sudden events, rebellion and brotherhood with Uranus. Is the energy of its co-orbital companion, Crantor somehow resembling that of Uranus? In the light of the following examples gathered from Wikipedia, it is possible:

Jan. 7, 1928 — The River Thames floods in London; 14 drown, thousands became homeless. The flood peaked at about 1:30 am. The Sun, Mercury, Atlantis and Crantor were in tight conjunction in Capricorn, opposite the Moon-Pluto conjunction in Cancer.

May 1, 1964 — At 4:00 a.m., John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz run the first program written in BASIC, a programming language which they had created, one of the first programming languages intended to be used interactively. They decided to make the compiler available free of charge so that the language would become widespread. On that day the Sun conjoined Crantor in Taurus.

On the next day, May 2, 1964, students marched through Times Square in New York City in the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War.

May 13, 1968 – Paris student riots; well over a million people marched through Paris. The student protests were followed by the workers’ strikes. The May 1968 events in France were characterized by spontaneity. The exact Sun-Crantor conjunction in Taurus took place on the previous day.

May 14, 1968 – The Beatles announced the creation of Apple Records in New York City. McCartney said it would be, “A beautiful place where you can buy beautiful things… a controlled weirdness… a kind of Western communism” and “We’re in the happy position of not needing any more money. So for the first time, the bosses aren’t in it for profit. We’ve already bought all our dreams. We want to share that possibility with others”. Lennon said, “We want to set up a system where people who just want to make a film about anything, don’t have to go on their knees in somebody’s office…”

July 10, 1985 – Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, the vessel of Greenpeace. The ship was sabotaged and sunk just before midnight in Auckland, New Zealand (1pm BST, 8am EDT). The first bomb went off 11:38 p.m. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, returned below decks to fetch his camera equipment. At 11:45 p.m., the second bomb went off. Pereira drowned in the rapid flooding that followed. The exact Sun-Crantor conjunction in Cancer occurred the day before.

Saturday’s New Moon, the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon took place in Gemini. Jupiter and Mars are in Gemini, too. Mars (focused action) is in tight conjunction with two asteroids, which represent female warrior energy, Pallas and Lilith. Pallas Athene was the goddess of wisdom, a respected counselor of the gods, who was known for her strategic and political ability. Lilith represents the independent female spirit.

One of the interesting aspects of the chart is the conjunction of 1992 QB1 and Bienor in the first degree of Taurus. 1992 QB1 was discovered in the first degree of Aries, and it has taken twenty years for it to travel through the sign, so the first time we get the chance to consciously experience this distant body in another sign than Aries. We are truly on a brink of a new era.

1992 QB1 was the first trans-Neptunian object discovered after Pluto. Think about it, just twenty years ago Pluto was the only known body in our solar system beyond Neptune. There was nothing but an empty space out there. The world was a different place then. The discovery of 1992 QB1 proved the existence of the Kuiper belt, which had only been hypothesized. Currently there are more than twelve hundred known Kuiper belt objects, and hundreds of thousands are believed to exist.

1992 QB1 was discovered in the first degree of Aries, at the Aries Point, one of the four cardinal points (the first degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn). This is a point which connects the individual with the collective, where the personal meets the larger world. Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, represents initiative action, the beginnings. The next sign, Taurus, provides the platform, the soil for the seeds.

1992 QB1 ingressed Taurus on May 18, 2013, so at the time of the Sagittarius lunar eclipse of last month, it already occupied the first degree of the sign. In the autumn it is going to retrograde back to Aries, and in March, 2014, to change signs to Taurus for good, on this round. The orbital period is nearly 300 years.

Centaur planet Bienor entered Taurus a couple of days ago. Bienor grazes the orbit of Uranus and its orbital period is about 67 years. The exact conjunction of Bienor and 1992 QB1 happens on June 20, just before the Summer Solstice. The last time these two bodies met, was a hundred years ago in Sagittarius.

Bienor’s name means a strong one. Here you can find some astrological examples of Bienor: http://sphinx.planetwaves.net/blog/?p=1120 I sense something similar in the meaning of 1992 QB1 and Bienor. Considering the difference in the orbits of these two bodies, I would say that Bienor gives the push to challenge oneself and conquer a new territory (either figuratively or concretely), and 1992 QB1 is the bridge beyond the edge, leading to the unknown.

Recently the news has reported that Amina Tyler and three other Femen activists have been put on trial and are facing long imprisonment in Tunisia. Femen is a feminist protest group founded by Anna Hutsol in 2008 in Ukraine, and famous for its topless protests. Femen – “the new Amazons” – is fighting for women’s rights, not only in Ukraine, but also internationally. The activists say that their bare breasts are their political weapons.

Femen was founded on April 10, 2008, in Kiev, Ukraine. At the time, 1992 QB1 was in a rare conjunction with Eris, which is named after the Greek goddess of strife and discord. Eris is also an indicator of female warrior energy in the chart. Probably you remember that before the official naming, the body was nicknamed as Xena after the warrior princess of a television series. The founding chart’s Sun was forming a tight triple-conjunction with those two slowly moving bodies. Uranus (rebellion), Chiron (awareness) and Jupiter (expansion), all were in a tight aspect to the triple-conjunction. Mars in Cancer squared Mercury and Pallas Athene in Aries (active vocal warrior women). Venus was in conjunction with Bienor. Pluto in early Capricorn squared the Aries Point. In the chart set for noon, the Moon is in Gemini near the current New Moon degree.

The astrological factors which represent breasts (generally in astrology) are the Moon, Venus and the sign of Cancer. The Moon and Cancer refer to milk and breast feeding. Venus has the sexual aspect, but the Femen activists usually are young, pretty women, which makes Venus worth noticing in this connection.

Anna Hutsol’s transits at the time she founded Femen, are meaningful. The triple-conjunction of the Sun, QB1 and Eris was opposite her Libra Sun. The transiting Jupiter in Capricorn squared her Sun. The transiting Uranus in Pisces was conjunct Anna’s natal QB1, Pluto in early Capricorn conjuncted her natal Bienor. The transiting Mercury and Pallas in mid-Aries were conjunct her natal Eris. Her Eris was also squared by the transiting Mars in Cancer. The transiting Venus-Bienor conjunction in early Aries was conjunct her mean Black Moon Lilith and squared her natal Bienor.

The Black Moon Lilith is a calculated point, the mean lunar apogee, not to be mixed up with asteroid Lilith. To learn more about mean Black Moon Lilith, please read astrologer Len Wallick’s article Out Of Sight — Gemini New Moon

According to astrologer Demetra George, the Black Moon Lilith “forces us to look at ourselves with utter, naked honesty and makes us demand the truth of things – from our families, partners, groups and government.” She also writes: “She is a warrior goddess of revolution who creates troubling disruption as she moves us to protest against those who have a vested interest in keeping us submissive and subservient.”

Initially Femen gained attention by demonstrating in erotic clothing. However, on August 24, 2009, at the demonstration on Ukrainian independence day, one of the key members, Oksana Shachko went topless. This approach rapidly became Femen’s trademark.

Oksana Shachko is an Aquarius. In her natal chart, the ruler of her Sun, Uranus, is at the Galactic Center conjunct her Venus in Sagittarius. She has an exact Mars-Eris conjunction at her North lunar node in Aries. Mars is the ruler of Aries. Eris is named after the Greek goddess of discord, sister of Ares / Mars. Oksana’s Mars-Eris conjunction is in exact square to her Bienor in Capricorn. Her Jupiter in Pisces is in conjunction with her natal QB1 and trine to her Pallas in Scorpio.

Oksana’s transits at the time she went topless are striking. The transiting Uranus in Pisces was conjunct her Jupiter and squared her natal Venus-Uranus conjunction. In 2009 the much speculated triple-conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius was conjunct her natal Mercury, squared her Pallas, and sextiled her Venus and Uranus.

During the next decades, while traveling through Taurus, 1992 QB1 hopefully helps us to acknowledge the suppressed parts of ourselves and guides us into better self-awareness.

***

I would like to thank Chad Townsend for his contribution to this blog.

The water sign Pisces is crowded with planets. In addition to the Sun and the Moon, there are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Chiron and Neptune. Venus is in conjunction with the New Moon. Neptune is the ruler of the sign. Venus is exalted in Pisces, which means that we can expect it to express its energies most purely now. Also the trans-Neptunian minor planet Salacia, named after Neptune’s wife, is in Pisces. Water is the symbol for emotions. Love, romance and compassion may be strongly present in your life.

There is another side in Pisces, the tendency for escapism and delusion. Borasisi, a trans-Neptunian minor planet, is also in Pisces, which emphasizes the theme. The name Borasisi comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle, meaning the Sun in a fictional cosmogony of Bokononism. In the novel, the fictional religion of Bokononism is based on harmless untruths. One who believes those lies will have peace of mind and a happy life.

The sign of Sagittarius is square to Pisces. Sagittarius is packed with Centaur planets, and there are a couple of trans-Neptunians, too. These minor planets represent the shadow, something which we may fear, but which we have to deal with somehow, in order to get the healing process to start. Of these minor planets, Pholus is forming the tightest square to the New Moon. In mythology Centaur Pholus was the guardian of a jar of wine, which was communal property of the Centaurs. The jar was not supposed to be opened for four generations, but Pholus opened the jar for Heracles. Other Centaurs became intoxicated with the smell of wine, and a huge riot broke out. There is an ancestral theme related to Pholus.

Pisces represents the collective unconscious. You may find it difficult to recognize the boundaries between yourself and the rest of the world. Discerning the truth from lies, or knowing what belongs to you and what belongs to the others, may not be simple.

In Gemini, exactly opposite Pholus and square to the New Moon is Thereus, a Centaur planet, which offers help in the current confusion. Thereus is named after a fearless Centaur, who used to capture bears and carry them home, alive and struggling. I think Thereus is asking us to pause, to take a look inside ourselves, and not to be afraid of the dark stuff which we may encounter. The healing can begin after acknowledging the shadow.

The New Moon at 21+ degrees of Aquarius fell exactly square the lunar nodes on the Taurus-Scorpio axis. The luminaries aspected tightly several Centaur planets (Amycus, Bienor, Pholus and Thereus) and several orbit-crossing minor planets beyond Neptune as well (Eris, Haumea, Ixion and Sedna) at 20-22 degrees of the signs that they occupy.

When the Centaurs are present, we are dealing with the psychological term shadow. We all have a shadow, the rejected, irrational part of our psyche, which we tend to project into other people with feelings of anger and fear. The more these projections are unrecognized, the blacker and taller is the shadow. According to Carl Gustav Jung, the shadow may be in part one’s link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.

Juan Revilla, one of the pioneering Centaur astrologers, has beautifully used a wolf as a metaphor of the astrological Centaurs. Quoting Juan: “The wolf is a part of ourselves that is socially feared and shunned. But he has great shamanic power. He is outcast and wounded, he can be both loving and fierce, he knows his ways amidst sheer emptiness and hunger, he lives in the solitude of far away and dangerous places. He is wilderness himself, inhospitable nature, like the dark forces of instinct inside of us, but he also incarnates the nobility and sacredness of the wild, and he may come to us with the wisdom of winter… as teacher and healer of our hunger and loneliness inside.”

Aquarius is known as the sign of equality and social grouping, among other things. The Sabian symbol for the New Moon is Aquarius 22: A rug is placed on the floor of a nursery to allow children to play in comfort and warmth. The symbol for the North node’s degree in Scorpio is talking about different kind of social activity: Hunters shooting wild ducks. Keynote: The socially accepted release of an individual’s or group’s aggressive instincts. Dane Rudhyar has clarified: “What this symbol clearly stresses is the socialization of man’s primitive instincts according to a cultural ritual. Social hunting is a regulated seasonal outlet for male aggressiveness – a safety valve for emotional pressures in human beings in whom animal compulsions and biospheric values are still strong.”

In Finland we are currently experiencing a fierce wolf hunt comparable to the one told by Nicholas Evans in The Loop. The book tells a story about a ranching town in Montana, where appearance of wolves reawaken an ancient hatred. It is a story about man’s fight against his own dark side.

The wolf is classified as a highly endangered species in Finland. In recent years our small wolf population has collapsed because of poaching. When in 2006 there were about 300 wolves in our forests, the current figure is about 150. An unusually ugly case emerged just recently in Perho. Three wolves out of a pack of five were shot dead. The Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute had been planning to equip the herd with tracking collars this spring. The illegal hunt had been well planned, and one of the poachers was in a high post in the local game preservation society.

The wolf-hatred is incomprehensible, as they have not attacked humans. Erkki Pulliainen, popularly known as “Susi” (“Wolf”) Pulliainen, a Finnish biologist and an expert on wolves, said a couple of days ago, that the debate on the evilness of the wolf has reached the point, where it may turn to an advantage for wolves.

Nicholas Evans – who has his natal Sun opposing a conjunction of Pholus and 1992 QB1 in his birth chart, by the way – has described The Loop: “It’s about a pack of wolves returning to a place where they had been cruelly hunted to extinction and how their return sets aflame old hatreds. In a way it’s a fable about racism: how ignorance brees fear and hatred and, ultimately, violence.” It is not surprising that lately in the Finnish news one of the hot topics besides the poaching has been racism in Finland.

The lunar nodes are the points in which the Moon’s orbit around the Earth intersects the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun around the Earth. Thus the nodes involve all three bodies. The South node deals with the past and the matters that are familiar to us, and which we find hard to let go of. The North node shows the direction which we should strive for.

The Moon symbolizes our instincts and emotions; the Sun is the symbol of the ego. The lights were squaring the lunar nodes at the New Moon. Melanie Reinhart calls the points square the nodes as the “balance points”. The New Moon in Aquarius marks the moment in time in which we can let the Centaurs begin to do their healing job and start acknowledging our shadow.

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

The Sagittarius New Moon was on Thursday. There is a prominent yod pattern in the chart, formed by Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. Saturn is sextile to Pluto, and retrograding Jupiter is the apex of this yod, forming quincunx aspects (150 degrees) to both Saturn and Pluto. The ruler of Sagittarius, the current New Moon’s sign, is Jupiter, which forms the focal point of the yod. This yod will still be valid in the Winter Solstice chart on Dec. 21 and also in the Full Moon chart on Dec 28.

Quincunxes may feel annoying and stressful. This feeling is perhaps signaling that everything is not as it should be. Bernadette Brady writes in Predictive Astrology, that “the quincunx wants to move you into a new situation whether you are ready for it or not. Sometimes this is very stressful; at other times it may be joyful.” To ease the stress, you could make some adjustments, and to be able to do the right kind of adjustments, you first need to understand your present situation and what needs to be changed. We humans seldom manage to do everything perfectly, but even small adjustments can make a difference. Striving for the goal may pay off now.

Sagittarius is an adventurous, enthusiastic and future-oriented fire sign. Exploration and long-distance travel are connected to this sign. Faith, trust, joy and optimism are attributes commonly associated with it.

Jupiter stands for expansion, growth, opportunity, support and faith. Saturn stands for grounding, structures, limits and fear. Jupiter and Saturn are called the social planets. They mediate between the so-called personal planets (the luminaries, Mercury, Venus and Mars) and the collective planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto), and connect our personal life to the wider world. Jupiter and Saturn represent opposite principles. We need both of them.

Pluto is known as the planet of renewal, the great transformer. It operates deep in the shadows. Just as the physical planet Pluto cannot be seen without technical equipment, the matters it deals with tend to be hidden in our consciousness.

So, the challenge of the moment is to make these energies represented in the yod work constructively for your goal, whatever that may be. The retrograde movement of Jupiter gives a clue that integrating something from the past might be beneficial for the task.

When considering the nature of the quincunx aspect, it is worthwhile to determine if the aspect is approaching or departing. On which side of an opposition the quincunx takes place, matters. Jupiter, the faster moving planet, is moving towards the opposition to Pluto, away from the conjunction which has already taken place in the past. This is a departing quincunx, which corresponds to the sign Virgo and the sixth house. For a while, dedicate yourself to practical work, remember to take care of your health though, and pay attention to details. There is a strong Mercury connection, because Jupiter is now in Gemini, the other Mercury ruled sign besides Virgo.

The aspect between Jupiter and Saturn is an approaching quincunx. The opposition has already taken place, and now Jupiter is moving toward the conjunction with Saturn. The approaching quincunx corresponds to Scorpio and the eighth house matters. Saturn is in Scorpio, which emphasizes the need for renewal, even if it causes a bit of pain. Perhaps opening up a little bit with others is what is needed. In Minor Aspects, Frances Sakoian and Louis Acker say about the approaching quincunx:

“It is often associated with death of old conditions and birth of new ones on some level of expression. To achieve this successfully, it is essential to learn the lesson of proper recycling of the waste products of the old as a useful part of the new expression. …These waste products can also be mental, emotional or physical in their nature.”

An apt image for this New Moon is Voyager 1 on the edge of our solar system heading to the stars, the news which was widely reported just recently.

Image by NASA

Voyager 1 is one of two space probes launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets in our solar system. On board is a recording of music and voices, greetings from Earth. A favorable alignment of the planets allowed the probes to reach the outer solar system by means of the new gravity assist technique. A slingshot maneuver around a planet was used to adjust the probe’s trajectory and speed relative to the Sun. Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter and Saturn, made new discoveries, and sent detailed pictures of the giants to us.

When the primary mission was over and Voyager 1 was speeding out of the solar system, it was still operational, so the scientists gave it a new one, an interstellar mission. At the moment Voyager 1 is the farthest manmade object ever sent from Earth, still receiving commands and transmitting information to Earth. It is near a new breakthrough in the heliosheath, the last boundary before interstellar space. It has reached a “magnetic highway” where the Sun’s magnetic field connects to the magnetic field of interstellar space. Voyager 1 keeps moving forward in a region unlike anything any manmade machine has entered before, until it exits from our solar system. It has enough power to continue the adventure into the future and keep communicating with Earth until 2020, possibly longer.

As my friend and editor Chad Townsend expressed it, the lesson of the quincunx is to adjust (Virgo) to where you end up and make the most of what you are given (acceptance).

– – –

The news about the tragedy in Connecticut reached me while I was writing the blog. I would like to express my sincere condolences for the community of Newtown.

The Scorpio New Moon on Nov 13 was a powerful total solar eclipse. Eclipses can be stressful, but they offer us a moment to pause, to notice the matter which calls our attention, and to choose a new path if necessary. In Finland we are experiencing the Scorpio eclipse at full force. We are in the midst of the worst environmental crisis in our history.

Often the energy of an eclipse can be felt before the actual event. On Nov 4 a waste water pool at the Talvivaara mine in Northern Finland started to leak and spill out poisonous water at a speed of 5000 – 6000 cubic meters an hour. The mining company’s attempts to block the leak failed and the waste water pool drained empty. Part of the contaminated water gushed right away out of the mine area and continued into nearby rivers and lakes. Part of it ended up in emergency pools, but the emergency pools lack bottom structures, so the water which contains toxic heavy metals, chemicals and uranium will eventually soak through the soil into groundwater.

The Talvivaara mine is one of the largest nickel mines in Europe. Talvivaara applies a new method, bioleaching, to extract the metals from ore. The production started in 2008 and the short history of the mine is full of problems. Finally, a couple of weeks ago the situation got totally out of control.

The eclipsing Moon on Nov 13 was at its perigee, which means that it was closest in its orbit to the Earth. The eclipse was forming a semi-square aspect (45 degrees) to Pluto, the ruler of Scorpio. Mining, toxins and pollution belong to the dominion of Pluto. Uranus is square to Pluto. The Uranus-Pluto square has been called the 2012 aspect. Uranus governs modern technology and metallic element uranium. It is associated with sudden events and breaks. The transiting Uranus is in exact square to Finland’s natal Pluto at 4+ degrees Cancer (Finland, Dec 6, 1917).

Neptune stationed direct just before the eclipse and in the chart it is in conjunction with the stationary Chiron. The energy of stationary planets is concentrated and powerful. Leaking and absorption belong in the rule of Neptune. Chiron raises awareness. Saturn in Scorpio is in aspect with Uranus, Chiron and Neptune. Saturn represents boundaries and structures. Besides the aforementioned square from the transiting Uranus, Finland’s Pluto in Cancer received transits from Saturn, Chiron and Neptune, too.

The eclipse is square to Nessus in Aquarius. Nessus speaks of the abuse of power. It has correspondence with poisons and sometimes with eczema. The local residents near Talvivaara mine have suffered from itching and skin symptoms for some time. In recent years the transiting Nessus has been hovering over the natal Uranus of Finland at 20+ degrees of Aquarius. On Nov 4, the day when the leaking started, Nessus stationed and turned direct.

The solar eclipse took place in conjunction with a plutino called Huya. The eclipse chart’s Huya forms a sesquiquadrate aspect (135 degrees) to Finland’s Pluto.

Semi-squares and sesquiquadrates are minor aspects, but there is no reason to overlook them. Just keep in mind when working with them that the orb has to be tight. Semi-squares and sesquiquadrates are irritating and frustrating in nature and they require practical action. They belong to the same aspect family with squares and oppositions.

At the time of its discovery in March 2000, Huya was the biggest and brightest trans-Neptunian object found since Pluto. Like Pluto, Huya spends part of its orbit closer to the Sun than Neptune. It is currently inside the orbit of Neptune and will come to perihelion in 2015.

Huya is named after the rain god of the indigenous Wayuu people of Colombia and Venezuela. In Wayuu mythology Pulowi and Juya, a married deity couple is associated with procreation and life. Juya is a male, a wanderer, a hunter, a warrior, and a seducer. He is a master of rain, and he lives in a distant place beyond the Sun. The Wayuu inhabit the arid Guajira Peninsula. The lack of water is a huge problem there.

The Wayuu have had to deal with problems caused by the coal mining industry. Their environment has been polluted and they suffer from health problems. They are forced to relocate and leave their ancestral land. In the coastal area the Wayuu people for their part have practiced artisanal sea salt mining for centuries. In recent years there has been struggle between the Wayuu and the government that has industrialized the salt production.

The Wayuu believe that the life cycle doesn’t end with death, but that a relationship with one’s bones continues. Burials are important. According to their tradition, a few years after the first burial, a woman gathers the bones of the deceased and cleans them. Then the remains are buried again. Long-dead Wayuu are believed to return on the Earth in the form of rain, which assures the rejuvenation of vegetation and life.

The traditional Wayuu style of living seems to be on a collision course with the changes caused by modern technologies. A Wayuu leader Jorge Montiel has said: “We will not be removed from the lands where our ancestors are buried. We are defending the animals, the forests and the water. This planet can’t withstand any more contamination. What good is all this wealth from oil and coal if we are dying of diseases and misery?”

The astrological meaning of Huya seems to tell something about the interaction between a man and the nature and about the consequences of our actions on the environment.

One more minor aspect is worth mentioning. There is a decile (36 degrees) between the eclipse and the Galactic Center. A decile belongs to the same aspect family with quintiles, and these aspects are found in the pentagram pattern. F. Sakoian and L. Acker write about this aspect group: “One of the abilities unique to this family of aspects is the capacity to understand the inner relation between seemingly isolated sets of circumstances.” About decile they say: “The division of the circle by ten suggests the number ‘1’ since ten reduces to one by adding its digits – ‘1’ is the number associated with will power, action and new beginnings.”

Centaur planet Echeclus is conjoining the Galactic Center at the moment. Echeclus was discovered in 2000 and initially classified as a minor planet. In December 2005, a cometary coma was detected around it. After the cometary outburst it was given a double designation as a centaur and a comet and renamed 174P/Echeclus. There was another outburst in 2011. Like Huya, also Echeclus comes to perihelion in 2015.

In Greek mythology centaur Echeclus was killed in a fight between the Centaurs and the Lapiths. He was hit in the face with a lance that lacked its point. Eric Francis has delineated: “It has a tendency to break apart and explode. It’s a comet-like centaur, with a 35 year orbit. The name is associated with gluten. Echeclus was killed by being hit in the face with a spear. I take this as losing face, or having one’s identity shattered. So there is something here about how we finally no longer identify with what is wrong with us, but this can only happen after we identify with it for a while.”

The mining company and the Kainuu ELY Centre (centre for economic development, transport and the environment) certainly have lost their face. Regulations have been broken, there has been deficiency in control, and authorities did not intervene fast enough. The Finnish government has been inept in handling the situation.

The police have started a preliminary investigation concerning the leak. The Talvivaara mine is under suspicion for an environmental crime. There is also a need for amendments to legislation. A massive clean-up needs to be done. A danger for the last safety bank to fail is hanging in the air. Protests have been held and people are demanding the closure of the mine.

Disasters like the one we are currently facing in Finland happen everywhere on the Earth. We have reached the point where we have to recognize our personal responsibility for the pollution and take action for the future of this planet. Australia has just set a good example by creating the world’s largest network of marine reserves, protecting oceans around its coast. The Earth needs our protection.

The sign of Libra, ruled by Venus, relates to harmonious atmosphere and justice, and as the seventh sign of the zodiac, to relationships and projection.

Ronald C. Davison wrote in Astrology: “The glyph of Libra represents the setting sun, showing that the essence of being is projected into the world of the ’not-self’.” He continues: “The symbol of the Scales further emphasizes that the main function of the sign is to establish equilibrium and to maintain a balance between the conflicting forces of good and evil.”

The New Moon in Libra is in close conjunction with Rhadamanthus, a trans-Neptunian minor planet named after an earnest figure in Greek mythology, a wise king, who after his death became one of the three judges of the dead. I have placed in the chart also two main belt asteroids, Themis and Justitia, representing the goddess of divine justice.

Themis was a female Titan, the second wife and chief adviser of Zeus. She was goddess of justice of the Greeks. Even Hera is said to address her as “Lady Themis.” According to Ovid, it was Themis rather than Zeus who told Deucalion to throw the bones of “his mother” over his shoulder to repopulate the earth after the deluge. In the New Moon chart asteroid Themis is in exact conjunction with Jupiter in Gemini. Lady Themis has joined Zeus – perhaps giving him advice on matters related to social relations of humans.

A Roman equivalent of one aspect of Themis, as the personification of the divine rightness of law, was Justitia, Lady Justice. The blindfolded figures with scales and a sword outside courthouses depict Justitia. In the chart asteroid Justitia is in Virgo with loving Venus.

Rhadamanthus in mythology is a colorless and rigid character. He was the son of Zeus and Europa. He was a wise and admired king who had a great sense of justice. Because of his inflexible integrity he became the judge of the dead. He has also been described as a punisher of the damned in the Underworld. In spite of his integrity, not a very pleasant figure, I think.

Opposite the New Moon, Eris, the goddess of discord, challenges the law and order of Rhadamanthus. Things seldom are just black and white. We humans make mistakes, we may tell a white lie every now and then, or do even something worse. Luckily we usually learn from our mistakes, we get an opportunity to evolve, or make amends.

The Libra New Moon prompts us not to be too judgmental towards ourselves or our fellow beings.

Autumnal Equinox — Sep 22, 2012, 14:49 UT

The sign of Virgo represents both the archetypal mother, the harvest goddess, as well as her daughter, the virgin maiden. Appropriately in conjunction with the Virgo New Moon was a representative of the daughter, asteroid Persephone. Ceres in Gemini is opposing the Galactic Center. Gemini and Virgo are both signs ruled by Mercury. Mercury was in conjunction with the luminaries. The days are shortening and we are reminded of the approach of winter, the unavoidable return of the daughter to the domain of Hades.

However, I would like to draw your attention to another young bride, Salacia, the goddess of salt water, the wife of Neptune. In Pisces (ruled by Neptune), directly opposite the New Moon we find a minor planet named after her.

120347 Salacia is a binary Kuiper belt object orbiting the Sun at an average distance slightly greater than that of Pluto. This dwarf planet candidate was discovered in 2004. The name was assigned on February 18, 2011. The companion was named Actaea. Both bodies in the binary system are named after sea nymphs, more precisely nereids, which are nurturing female spirits, sailors’ friends.

According to the myth, Neptune wanted to marry the beautiful nymph Salacia, but she was reluctant, and to preserve her virginity, she hid from him in the Atlantic Ocean. Neptune sent a dolphin to look for her and persuade her to come back and marry him. Salacia agreed, and so she became the female divinity of the sea, the queen of Neptune.

Water is the necessary element of life. Also the two major components of salt, chloride and sodium ions are needed by all known living creatures in small quantities. The salt levels within our bodies influence our internal balance. Water symbolizes the unconscious. The astrological symbol for instincts, unconscious responses and emotions, is the Moon. The physical Moon governs the tides on the Earth, and similarly the astrological Moon affects the ebb and flow of our feelings.

Salacia was the personification of the calm and sunlit ocean. However, according to some sources there were two entities associated with Neptune, actually two different aspects of a same deity. Salacia represented the violent and gushing waters, whereas Venilia the still or quietly flowing waters. Salacia was also known as the goddess of springs, ruling over the springs of highly mineralized waters.

In its discovery chart, Salacia is in conjunction with Centaur Asbolus. The name Asbolus means carbon dust. What happens if we mix carbon with salt water? Carbon dioxide plays a major role in global warming and climate change. In the Earth’s atmosphere it acts as a greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is composed of oxygen and carbon. The oceans absorb carbon dioxide, which dissolves in water forming carbonic acid, causing ocean acidification.

The oceans are tied to the water cycle. Scientists have noticed that the salinity has changed over the last 40 years. They don’t know why this has happened, but it suggests that something fundamental is going on in the water cycle. They have gathered information about wind speed, sea surface heights, temperatures and rainfall, but have missed an important element, sea salt. In June 2011 Aquarius/SAC-D satellite was launched to map the salinity from space. On the midheaven of the launch chart was minor planet Salacia.

The astrological meaning of a planet is always more complex than just the most obvious meaning derived from mythology. Perhaps Salacia’s violent and gushing side reflects in mundane astrology and the recent events in Libya. In February 2011, precisely at the same time when Salacia was named, protests in Libya against Gaddafi’s rule began. The vilolence in Benghazi last week coincides with the Sun’s opposition to Salacia and the current New Moon.

In the equinox chart the Sun is still opposing Salacia. The Moon at the Galactic Center is aligned with Ceres. We can try to evoke the nurturing side of Salacia.

I was watching the webcast from Ecuador’s embassy in London today, when Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, gave a statement. The recent drama around matters that concern Mr Assange’s asylum and extradition to Sweden has not come as a big surprise for an astrologer who watches new planets.

The New Moon in Leo (drama) on Aug 17, was tightly placed in opposition aspect (confrontation) to Centaur planet Nessus (abuse of power). The New Moon was strictly sextile (opportunity) to Mars-Saturn conjunction (structured leadership) in Libra (justice).

Nessus was the third Centaur discovered, after Chiron and Pholus. The discovery was in 1993 and the naming in 1997. The naming of Nessus was cooperation between astrologers and astronomers. Astrologers suggested the name Nessus based on their studies, and the International Astronomical Union approved it.

Astrologically Nessus speaks of the abuse of power. Melanie Reinhart is one of the pioneering astrologers who have studied Nessus. According to her, “Nessus brings opportunities to understand and release deep patterns of helplessness, being taken advantage of, and being oppressed.” She continues: “Nessus activations correspond with times when things really do end, finish and transcend to another level.” Her key phrase for Nessus is “The buck stops here.” It means the point, where one accepts personal responsibility for the way that things are, and refuses to pass on their responsibility beyond that point.

Ecuador granted Julian Assange asylum in June, but Mr Assange is not able to leave the embassy, because the British police would arrest him once he stepped outside the embassy building. Last week Britain even threatened to enter the embassy, which has caused an international diplomatic strife. The foreign ministers of South American nations are going to meet to discuss about the situation.

In his speech today, Mr Assange urged the US to end its “witch-hunt” against Wikileaks, called for the release of Bradley Manning, and drew parallels between himself and the three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, who were sentenced to two years in prison for an anti-Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral. He said: “There is unity in the oppression. There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.”

In other words, “the buck must stop here.”