The Gemini New Moon invites us to dance. Besides the Sun and the Moon in Gemini, also Mercury has newly arrived to its home sign.

Gemini is a youthful and sociable air sign, where planets want to have fun. Both the sign and its ruler, Mercury, are concerned with communication, contact and motion.

The Roman god Mercury was a swift-footed messenger between gods and men, who, with his winged golden sandals, travelled like the wind between the worlds. He was a playful trickster. He was musical; Mercury inherited his attributes from the Greek equivalent, Hermes, who invented several musical instruments. He made the first lyre, and he knew how to play it, too.

The Sabian symbol for the New Moon degree Gemini 22 is A barn dance. This is a symbol of self-fulfillment through participation and shared experience. Dr. Marc Edmund Jones’s keyword for the symbol is gregariousness.

In Sagittarius, opposite the Sun and the Moon dances Quaoar.

Quaoar is a Kuiper belt object discovered eight years ago by Chad Trujillo and Mike Brown. It is possibly the densest known object in the Kuiper belt, a rock ball among the icy population of the belt.

Quaoar is named for the creation deity of the Tongva tribe. The Tongva are the native people of the area around Los Angeles, where the discovery of Quaoar was made. The planet has a tiny moon named after Quaoar’s son, Weywot. The name for the moon was chosen by the Tongva tribe and made official last year.

According to the myth, at first there was Chaos, and then along came Quaoar, who was lonely and began to dance and sing the song of creation. God of the Sky, Weywot, was first to be formed of the creation melody. Next came the goddess of the Earth. These new deities joined Quaoar in the dance and created the Sun and the Moon. Together they sang and danced everything else into existence.

References:

Encyclopedia Mythica, Hermes

Marc Edmund Jones, The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, Aurora Press, 1993

Frequently Asked Questions About Quaoar

Wikipedia, 50000 Quaoar

Sedna is not happy today. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by a drilling rig explosion on April 20, is still gushing thousands of barrels of oil daily into the sea. Efforts to stop the leak haven’t been successful so far.

Sedna is a trans-Neptunian object which astrologically has a strong association with the climate change and other environmental issues. She is conjunct the Taurus New Moon and wants to be heard now! At the moment she is also tightly opposite to the Sun of her discovery chart. My attention was drawn to this current transit by the Planet Waves astrologer Len Wallick. Thank you, Len!

Sedna is a peculiar little planet with her extremely long orbital period at somewhere between 10,500 and 12,000 years. She works almost as a fixed point in the chart. She will reach her perihelion within this century, before moving farther away from the Sun again for another 12 thousand years or so. We could say that now that Sedna is relatively close to us spending “only� about 100 years in one sign, we are able to experience a transit of Sedna.

Sedna is named in honor of the Inuit goddess of the sea. Sedna was a beautiful young girl who had many suitors. She and her father had no food. One day a hunter came and said that if he could have Sedna, he would give her father fish in return. Sedna’s father agreed. The hunter was really a birdman who took Sedna to a big nest on a cliff where she had nothing else but rotten fish to eat. Sedna cried for her father to take her back, so he came to rescue her, but the birdman caused a terrible storm which nearly sunk their kayak. In desperation, Sedna’s father threw her into the raging sea. Sedna tried to hold on to the boat, but he chopped off her fingers, which became marine animals. Sedna descended into the depths of the ocean and became the mighty queen of the underworld.

There are several variants of the myth. In some of them Sedna is an innocent victim, in others she is portrayed as a hungry and greedy creature. But all tales agree that she became the goddess of the icy waters. When Sedna is happy, she releases her mammals and allows the humans to eat from the bounty of the sea. If she is not respected, she sends storms and starvation. Then a shaman must visit her in the deep waters and calm her down again.

Astrologer Karen Hamaker-Zondag has noted that Sedna wants to be known. She gives us subtle warnings. If we don’t pay attention to her, we may have to deal with her strength.

In the New Moon chart, Ceres (the goddess of grain) and Pluto (the god of underworld) are retrograding together in the early degrees of Capricorn, one of the four cardinal signs, and squaring the Aries Point. The first degrees of any of the cardinal signs are related to the Aries Point, the point where affairs of the world become personal. Chiron (cave) which has just recently entered Pisces, is in conjunction with Neptune (water).

In the light of the chart aspects, the news release on the day of the New Moon, concerning the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, made sense to me. The local newspaper on Spitsbergen, Svalbardposten, reported that the temperature in the secure seedbank is too high, and that there is water in the surrounding tunnels.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a backup storage for seeds from gene banks around the world. It is an effort to protect the globe’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity. The seed vault is located on Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. The vault is an underground cavern surrounded by arctic permafrost. The permafrost will help maintain the low temperature of the seeds even in the worst-case scenario of global warming, or if mechanical refrigeration should fail. Seeds from most major food crops could preserve for hundreds of years. The seeds of important grains could survive far longer, possibly thousands of years.

There has been significant public interest in the seed vault project. The laying of the first stone took place on June 19, 2006. This was an Aries Point event, having its orientation in the future, symbolized by the North node of the Moon in the first degree of Aries. The Sun was in exact conjunction with asteroid 55555 DNA (genes) to the degree. The Sun-DNA conjunction was opposing Pluto, and the opposition was aligned with the Galactic Core, emphasizing the large scale of the project.

The opening of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was held on Feb. 26, 2008 with Centaur Bienor at the Aries Point. In the Lunations solar eclipse article only few weeks earlier Eric Francis had phrased it like this: “Bienor may be associated with the strength of mankind expressed through technology, and when we combine it with the Aries Point, it affects ‘everyman’.” Pluto had recently ingressed Capricorn for the first time squaring the Aries Point. Sedna (cold) was in conjunction with Ceres (grain) in the same degree of Taurus (seeding). The Ceres-Sedna conjunction was in opposition to asteroid DNA (genes).

“Biological diversity is under threat from the forces of nature … and from the actions of man,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at the opening ceremony of the seed vault. Today the biodiversity of the sea is in jeopardy in the Gulf of Mexico because of the actions of man. This is a wake-up moment for us. We have to start noticing Sedna.

References:

Wikipedia, 90377 Sedna

Wikipedia, Sedna (mythology)

Wikipedia, Deepwater Horizon oil spill

Sedna, Karen Hamaker-Zondag, Astro Logos Ltd

For varmt frølager, Svalbardposten 14/05/2010

Wikipedia, Svalbard Global Seed Vault

The Aries New Moon is in exact conjunction with 1992 QB1, a minor planet in the frontier beyond Neptune, the Kuiper Belt. The planet is small and still without a proper name; nonetheless it’s a special one.

The Kuiper Belt remained for a long time only as hypothesized. 1992 QB1 was the first trans-Neptunian object discovered after Pluto and Charon. The discovery confirmed the existence of the belt. It was an important step for astronomers. David Jewitt and Jane Luu, two determined astronomers, had spent several years searching the sky without any certainty that they would actually find anything from that part of the solar system. Finally, after five years of searching, they found this faint object beyond Pluto’s orbit and were able to announce the discovery of candidate Kuiper Belt object 1992 QB1.

The size of 1992 QB1 is roughly one-tenth the size of Pluto. The composition of the planet is half rock and half ice. The orbit is a little larger than Pluto’s and is almost circular. It takes about 289 years to orbit once around the Sun. Since the discovery of QB1, thousands of icy minor planets have been found in the region. Similar objects were later called cubewanos.

At the time of its discovery in August 1992, QB1 was on the Aries Point. Len Wallick has studied the discovery chart:

“It was 15 arc minutes into the first degree of Aries – talk about an Aries Point event! Venus was at 28 degrees Virgo, in near-opposition. Luna was in early Libra, also nearly opposed and just off a conjunction with Venus. Given this chart, the sense is that the feminine energy is expressed by transition across thresholds. The sort of experiences that are culturally expressed as rites of passage and ceremonies of initiation.�

1992 QB1 is officially unnamed. Eric Francis has proposed Radharani, the supreme goddess of Hindu mythology and the consort of Lord Krishna. Eric describes QB1 as representing the archetype of the thresholder. That is the person who watches the edge, and guides people over: midwives, hospice workers, orgasm coaches, grief counselors; people who assist others at that moment of total transition.

In Norse mythology the Valkyries, the maids of Odin, are representing this kind of energy. The Valkyries were female spirits, warrior women with spears and helmets. Their task was to guide the slain warriors to Valhalla, the warrior’s paradise. They were complex mythic figures who formed a link between the worlds of the living and the dead. The goddess Freyja was their leader.

In Valhalla the heroes spent the day fighting and the night drinking mead and feasting. The mead, the “drink of the gods,� was carried to them by the Valkyries. After the battle these spirit-beings were also rewarding the warriors with erotic love.

Freyja’s representatives, the völvas, were seeresses, who could travel and see across the threshold of ordinary reality into the otherworld. They conducted oracular ceremonies, in which incantations were chanted by a choir of youths and maidens, perhaps producing a state of enchantment. The seeress then was able to answer questions put to her by those present. The völvas possibly were midwives trained in healing and the use of herbs. “The accounts indicate that the völvas originally travelled around in groups of nine or thirteen to perform their divinatory rituals, suggesting that seership was an organized and recognized professional role for women,� writes Ralph Metzner.

Freyja, as the leader of the Valkyries, was a goddess of battle. She was also the “Lady�, gentle protectress who ruled over love, fertility, and abundance. Her healing powers are available to us at this lunation.

References:

Wikipedia, Kuiper belt

Wikipedia, (15760) 1992 QB1

Len Wallick, The Rights and Responsibilities of Passage

Eric Francis, Radharani New Moon in Aries

Ralph Metzner, The Well of Remembrance, Shambhala Publications, 1994

Freya Aswynn, Northern Mysteries & Magick, Llewellyn Publications, 2006

A new astrological year has begun with bold cardinal energy. In Finland a heavy snow cover is melting. Due to climate change cold winters are becoming increasingly rare here in Southern Finland, but during the past winter we got more snow than in decades. Easter is approaching, and we are welcoming the spring.

The Sun entered Aries on March 20 and formed a cardinal T-cross with the retrograding Saturn in Libra, and Ceres-Pluto conjunction in early Capricorn. The ruling planet of Aries, Mars, turned in direct motion already before the equinox. The Libra Full Moon is in conjunction with Saturn. The cardinal point action continues.

The Pisces New Moon earlier in the month was tightly conjunct Mercury and Uranus. The creatively sparking conjunction was in exact opposition to one of the new planets, Makemake. The Uranus-Makemake opposition in Virgo-Pisces is one of the long time transits of the current era. These two planets form a series of oppositions between April 2009 and January 2011. The Virgo-Pisces sign polarity deals with being in service to others.

After the Pisces New Moon the Sun moved on opposite Saturn, thus giving us an opportunity to stabilize what was started at the time of the new moon. The Uranus-Makemake opposition still holds.

Makemake is a bright Kuiper belt object covered with almost pure methane ice. It is the third-largest known dwarf planet in our Solar System after Eris and Pluto. Its orbital period is nearly 310 years. The body was discovered five years ago, and the discovery team nicknamed it as Easterbunny, because of its discovery near Easter. The permanent name of Makemake after the creator god of the native people of Easter Island was chosen in part to preserve this connection. The official naming took place in July 2008 at the time when Uranus and Makemake had reached a near exact opposition.

Makemake in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island, was the creator of humanity, the god of fertility and the chief god of a birdman cult. The cult ritual was a dangerous competition. The contestants raced to collect the first egg of a seabird from an islet near by. They had to swim in waters which were heavily populated with sharks, then climb sharp cliffs with the egg. The winner became the birdman and spent the next year in seclusion. His clan got sole rights to collect that season’s harvest of wild bird eggs and fledglings from the islet.

Makemake the dwarf planet was discovered at 20+ degrees of Virgo. The Sabian Symbol for Virgo 21 is A girl’s basketball team. Dr. Marc Edmund Jones has delineated the symbol: “…The self cannot exist in a vacuum, and there is no satisfaction in any effort expanded for ends in which others are not vitally concerned. Man’s fulfillment is primarily a continued participation in common goals, with rewards to which his fellows contribute as consistently as himself. The keyword is expression.â€?

Lets take a look at what was happening in the world during the last major Uranus-Makemake transits.

The first Uranus-Makemake opposition in the current series of five occurred on April 12, 2009. It was the day when the Maersk-Alabama hijacking ended and Capt. Richard Phillips was freed. In the series of events involving the pirate seizure, the captain had offered himself as a hostage to save his crew.

The latest square between Uranus and Makemake took place in 1980, which was also the year when Lech Walesa at a Polish shipyard founded Solidarity, the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country. Solidarity gave rise to a broad anti-communist nonviolent social movement and contributed to the fall of communism.

Uranus conjoined Makemake in 1955. Year 1955 marks the beginning of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. During the period 1955–1968, nonviolent protests and civil disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and authorities. In December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus to make room for a white passenger. There had been similar incidents before, but Rosa Parks’s action led to Montgomery Bus Boycott, and she became the icon of resistance to racial segregation.

These examples seem to point to events where courageous individuals have stood up for the common good of their community. Two more exact Uranus-Makemake oppositions are ahead (in October 2010 and January 2011) and we can expect to learn more about Easterbunny.

References:

Wikipedia, Makemake (dwarf planet)

Wikipedia, Makemake (mythology)

Mike Brown’s Planets, What’s in a name? [part 2]

Wikipedia, Tangata manu

Dr. Marc Edmund Jones, The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, Aurora Press, 1993

On the Maersk: ‘I Hope if I Die, I Die a Brave Person’, The Wall Street Journal

Wikipedia, History of Solidarity

Wikipedia, African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)

Wikipedia, Rosa Parks

The passionate Scorpio New Moon occurs at the time of a Saturn-Pluto square, the first in a series of three. The current square was exact on Nov. 15, 2009. We get to experience the two other squares next year, the second one already in January, and the last one in August. For more information on the Saturn-Pluto cycle, please read what Eric Francis writes about it at Planet Waves: Beyond the Reactionary Floorshow.

A new moon is a potent time for beginnings. Pluto is the powerful ruler of Scorpio, the sign of renewal and transformation. Besides squaring Saturn, Pluto is now also forming a sextile to an actual dwarf planet candidate called Snow White, currently in the first degree of Pisces. Mercury, the messenger of gods, in the early degrees of Sagittarius, is square to Snow White.

Snow White is a nickname for a big and bright Kuiper belt object 2007 OR10. The name was given to her by the discoverers, Schwamb, Brown and Rabinowitz. This distant icy planet has just recently received a permanent number 225088, which means that now she can be officially named, too. According to astrologer Philip Sedgwick who has contacted Mike Brown, any name proposal hasn’t been made yet by the discoverers. 2007 OR10 is currently the largest known solar system object without an official name.

The orbital period of Snow White is about 552.5 years. The orbit resembles that of Eris.

Philip Sedgwick offers us preliminary keywords on his website http://www.philipsedgwick.com/, though he points out that they are by no means complete and will be revised as research continues. Establishing the astrological meaning of any planet is a long process.

Fairy tales resemble myths. They can have symbolic meanings, and often slightly different versions of the same story are told in different cultures. In the story of Snow White a beautiful maiden bites a poisoned apple, which was given to her by her evil stepmother. She falls into a deep sleep and is thought to be dead. Time passes, and a prince traveling through the land sees Snow White and falls in love with her. The prince takes her coffin with him. The movement causes a piece of poisoned apple to fly from Snow White’s mouth, so she awakens.

Snow White’s mock-death and transformation story is actually one version of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. Demeter’s daughter Persephone became the goddess of the underworld when Hades (Roman Pluto) abducted her from the earth and brought her into the underworld.

Persephone was freed, but during her captivity she had eaten pomegranate seeds, the food of the underworld, and was therefore forced to spend a part of each year in the underworld with her husband. For the other part, she is able to return to live with her mother on the earth.

The apple is an element that appears in various tales and myths all over the world. Eris was the Greek goddess of strife. She tossed into a party the apple of discord, addressed “to the fairest one,” thus provoking a quarrel between goddesses about the appropriate recipient.

In Norse mythology, the golden apples are the source of the god’s immortality and eternal youth. They are in the possession of the goddess Idunn. She is depicted as a young maiden who carries a basket full of apples. At the onset of the Ragnarök she sinks down into the roots of Yggdrasil (the tree of life) and disappears from the earth to reappear afterwards with new life.

English scholar H. R. Ellis Davidson notes a connection between fertility and apples in Norse mythology. She concludes that in the figure of Idunn “we must have a dim reflection of an old symbol: that of the guardian goddess of the life-giving fruit of the other world.”

The Scorpio New Moon is square to the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius, drawing out the healing powers of the conjunction. We can safely give up on some effete patterns in our lives and start something new.

References:

Wikipedia, (225088) 2007 OR10

Wikipedia, Snow White

Wíkipedia, Eris (mythology)

Wikipedia, Demeter

Wikipedia, Idunn

Freya Aswynn, Northern Mysteries & Magick, Llewellyn Publications, 2006

The New Moon occurs at 28+ degrees of the creative sign of Leo, near the so-called Sphinx point, the region on the Leo-Virgo cusp. The Sphinx represents mysteries. Eric Francis sheds light on the subject in his article Leo and the Sphinx.

 

Unsolved mysteries are represented in this chart also by asteroid Sphinx in conjunction with Mars in Gemini. They sextile the New Moon. Some of these mysteries may get resolved by the help of the current aspect setting.

 

The New Moon opposes the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron in Aquarius. These planets offer us awareness and inspiration. Together with the triple conjunction is asteroid Pandora. Martha Lang-Wescott writes about Pandora:

 

“You’ll recognize Pandora at work whenever you hear someone say, ‘Yes, but I didn’t know THAT was gonna’ happen!’ Pandora initiates a whole new ball game; it throws you a curve ball; it shows you that ‘with two, you get egg roll.’ And it uses curiosity and a desire for change to propel you into an entirely unexpected circumstance. …Often it leads one to paths they would not have tried — the sudden circumstance or consequence forces exploration of untried or latent talents.”

 

Mercury has entered its echo phase. It is in close conjunction with dwarf planet Makemake. Communication has an important role. Philip Sedgwick has suggested the following keywords for Makemake:

 

“Articulate and ultra-communicative. Self-assuredness, especially by verbal means. Clever, quick-witted and interested in invoking insight and inspiration with speech. Quick to report findings, regardless of impact.” Please read more at http://www.philipsedgwick.com/.

 

The New Moon is in conjunction with Centaur planet Elatus. Tracy Delaney has written an excellent article on Elatus. According to Tracy, “Working with Elatus in charts, the art of communication is a theme commonly picked up by astrologers for this object… In its highest form I think Elatus is about communicating that which is deeply felt and comes through you, echoing the arrow passing straight through him in the myth, changing him as it does so. This is really all you can do with anything that comes from Neptune, where words are inadequate. The struggle comes when you try to do it the other way round; the frustrating process of grasping for the right words which seem out of reach, struggling to express yourself, not making yourself understood etc. You could look at it as a lesson about getting your ego out of the way, in this case to allow inspiration to come, for which you can take no credit. It seems to me that all the Centaurs have this same basic lesson, taught through their very different paths. I think Elatus could relate to learning through the whole creative process in that way, and the phenomenon of affecting others by it in ways you’ll never know.”

 

Please read the whole article at Serennu.

 

 

References:

 

Eric Francis, Leo and the Sphinx

 

Martha Lang-Wescott, Treehouse Mountain —

 

Martha Lang-Wescott, Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids, Treehouse Mountain, 1996

 

www.philipsedgwick.com/

 

Tracy Delaney, Astrology Notes: Chiron & Elatus 

The New Moon in the last degree of Cancer is a total solar eclipse, the second of the three eclipses of the summer. This is the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting as long as 6 minutes and 39 seconds in some places. This is possible because Earth happens to be near its farthest point from the Sun. At the same time, the Moon will be near its closest point to Earth.

A solar eclipse can occur only on a New Moon and when the luminaries are in conjunction at or near either of the lunar nodes. The Moon is aligned between the Sun and Earth and blocks the Sun’s rays.

In Norse mythology, Sol is the goddess of the Sun, who rides through the sky on her chariot, pulled by two horses. She is chased during the daytime by the wolf Skoll, who tries to devour her, just like her brother Mani is chased at night by the wolf Hati. It was believed that during solar eclipses the Sun was in danger of being eaten by Skoll.

At Ragnarök, “the final destiny of the gods”, Sol will be swallowed by the wolf, but her daughter, no less lovely than herself, will follow the same path as her mother. The light appears again after the dark. The Norse believed firmly that a new world will emerge even after the greatest of destruction.

Eclipses are intense. “They tend to speed up the process of life, shake the tree of fate, and propel us from one reality into the next,” has Eric said. We can use eclipses as times to make necessary changes.

Dagaz/Dag is a rune of change and unlimited possibilities. Nigel Pennick writes:

“It is the sort of change studied in catastrophe theory, where one apparently stable state ‘flips over’ suddenly into another, quite different, yet steady, state. …The physical form of the Dag rune mirrors the balance between the polarities, especially light and darkness.”

References:

NASA Science News, Longest Solar Eclipse of the 21st Century

Encyclopedia Mythica, Sol

Eric Francis, Eclipses

Nigel Pennick, Runic Astrology, Capall Bann Publishing, 1995

Wikipedia, Dagaz

The New Moon in Cancer followed close to the solstice, falling opposite Pluto and squaring the Aries Point in the chart. No doubt, this is one of the most important lunations of the year.

The Aries Point is one of the cardinal points which are the first degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. They are sensitive points in the chart.

The heavens are said to rest on four corners which are universal in ancient mythologies and symbolize the elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth. In the Norse creation myth Odin with his brothers placed four dwarves (Nordri, Sudri, Austri and Vestri) to hold up giant Ymir’s skull and create the heavens. Then using sparks from Muspelheim, the realm of fire, the gods created the Sun, Moon and stars.

“These elements were all later personified as Gods, Genii, and Winds, progeny of the Great Mother, the ‘Bearer of the Waters,’ or the enceinte mother. She was the primordial ark, and long before boats were built was called the Ship of Life or the Ship of the North. And this primitive ark or ship contained within herself the causation of all the Fours, which still cling to the cardinal points and the corss,” writes E. Valentia Straiton.

The New Moon occured in exact conjunction with Vesta and in very close conjunction with Cyllarus.

Vesta is the asteroid of burning fire, the eternal flame of creativity. Vesta is comfortable in Cancer, the home sign of the Moon. Vesta represents focus and integrity. This is great time for dedication and commitment. In ancient Greece, a warm hearth dedicated to Hestia, the Greek equivalent for Vesta, was central to every home.

Commitment can be applied also to Cyllarus, one of the Centaurs. Eric Francis writes about him:

“Cyllarus reminds us to be conscious of the choices we are making in our lives — particularly the choice to fight, or walk away from one. Cyllarus says that the decisions we make directly affect our relationships, and we need to be conscious of our choices in this context. We are connected by the threads of our lives to every person in our lives.”

In Greek mythology Cyllarus was a young and beautiful Centaur, and though the Centaurs were not gods but a group of troublemakers, the story of Cyllarus has many points of contact with the Norse myth of Balder, the most beautiful and beloved of the gods.

Balder was a solar god who was pierced by a mistletoe and whose body was burned on a funeral pyre at the summer solstice. After Ragnarök Balder returns to life (symbolized by the lights of the Christmas tree at the winter solstice). The bonfires are still lit in Scandinavia on Midsummer Eve.

A feeling of magical moment is intensified by three minor bodies conjoined in early Libra, at one of the cardinal points: Asteroid Freia is named after the Norse goddess of love, beauty and fertility. Okyrhoe is a Centaur, the daughter of Chiron and Chariklo. Her name means “swift-flowing.” and she was a prophetess. She was transformed into a mare by Zeus for revealing the secrets of the gods. Asteroid Karma was discovered by a Finnish astronomer Liisi Oterma. The name refers to concept of the cycle of cause and effect.

So perish the old Gods!
But out of the sea of Time
Rises a new land of song,
Fairer than the old.
Over its meadows green
Walk the young bards and sing.

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

References:

E. Valentia Straiton, Celestial Ship of the North, Kessinger Publishing, 1992 (published originally in 1927)

Wikipedia, Creation myth

Eric Francis, Small World Stories, Cyllarus

Holy Nation of Odin, Balder

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tegner’s Drapa (on the death of Balder the Beautiful)

The torch we know by its flame,
which brings illumination and light
wherever noble souls congregate.

— The Old English Rune Poem

Gemini is an air sign, and the element of air represents the intellect, mentality and ability to communicate. Mercury, the ruler of Gemini is retrograding in Taurus. When a planet is retrograde it tends to turn the energy of the planet inward.

This New Moon in Gemini can help us to get intuitively in contact with the light within, start off a special learning and teaching process and share it with our friends and community, or even in a wider concept, for the good of the humanity.

The current astrological climate has its parallel in the energies represented by the rune Kenaz.

The New Moon is square asteroid Hermes in Pisces. Mercury retrograde is squaring the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius, another air sign. Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius is sextiled by Mercury. In Greco-Roman mythology Hermes/Mercury, the messenger of the gods, was traveling the pathways between the worlds.

Jupiter conjoined Chiron the previous day. Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune are now in tight conjunction, all three sharing the same degree in Aquarius. This is an aspect of strong intuition and devotion, and it encourages us to teach and inspire our fellow humans. Aquarius is the humanitarian sign, where we as individuals are able to connect with the wider world.

Chiron’s elliptical orbit around the Sun links the realms of Saturn and Uranus. The Sabian symbol for the discovery degree of Chiron is Taurus 4: The rainbow’s pot of gold. Barbara Hand Clow called Chiron the rainbow bridge between the inner and outer planets.

In Norse mythology also we find the rainbow bridge, Bifröst. It is a bridge that links the worlds above and below, the earth and heaven. It is sometimes called a bridge of flame, and it also symbolizes the world within.

Norse god Heimdal is the guardian of the rainbow bridge. He is one of the solar gods, whose domain is between the worlds, on the threshold, just as Chiron has been sometimes described as a doorway between the worlds. Heimdal is said to have taught the runes to humankind.

Kenaz is one of the runes that are used to invoke Heimdal. Kenaz symbolizes the torch, the inner light, the torch of learning. It is associated with consciousness, creativity, wisdom and mental agility. Kenaz can stand for a burning dedication to an outside cause. It symbolizes a gathering of people sharing the light. It is a guiding torch which can be handed from one person to another. The torch is a fire which is controlled and made of service to the humankind.

Here we get a link to the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was known for his intelligence, and who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals. Richard Tarnas has proposed that Prometheus is a more fitting figure for the astrological traits of the planet Uranus — the creative spark, technological breakthrough, sudden enlightenment, intellectual and spiritual awakening — than the sky god Ouranos.

Zeus punished Prometheus by having him bound to a rock while a great eagle ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day. Here we get a connection to Chiron, too. Chiron had been wounded by Hercules’ poisonous arrow. He was in great agony, but he was not able to heal himself, nor was he able to die, because he was an immortal. Prometheus could only be released if an immortal offered to take his place. Chiron agreed to take the place of Prometheus, and thus eventually was released from his pain.

In the chart Mercury retrograde is in conjunction with two asteroids, Apollo and Sphinx. They are emphasizing the theme of the acquisition of knowledge and passing the information forward. Asteroid Sphinx stands for mysteries and missing information, but usually when questions arise, the curiosity pushes us to seek the answers.

In mythology Apollo was a solar god. He was the patron god of music and poetry, and half brother of Hermes, who created the famous lyre for him. Asteroid Apollo is an Earth-crosser asteroid on a strange orbit around the Sun, different from the Sun itself which is the center of our solar system. This is why Eric Francis has proposed that astrologically Apollo might be a light-bringer in other ways than the Sun, perhaps representing something of the inner quality or talent of seeing the light where others might not see it.

Asteroid Pandora represents a point of curiosity, and now shares the same degree with the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune. We may be allured by new ideas, and by exploring them we may suddenly discover some hidden talent in us.

By trusting in one’s own intuition, and by determined effort, the torch can be handed over.

References:

Paul Rhys Mountfort, Nordic Runes, Destiny Books, 2003

Melanie Reinhart, Chiron and the Healing Journey, Penguin Books, 1998

Marc Edmund Jones, The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, Aurora Press, 1993

H. R. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, Penguin Books, 1990

Freya Aswynn, Northern Mysteries & Magick, Llewellyn Publications, 1998

Richard Tarnas, Prometheus the Awakener, Spring Publications, 2004

Martha Lang-Wescott, Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids, Treehouse Mountain, 1996

Eric Francis, The Spiral Door Almanac, 2007

Birch is without fruit
but just the same it bears
limbs without fertile seed;
it has beautiful branches,
high on its crown
it is finely covered,
loaded with leaves,
touching the sky.

– The Old English Rune Poem

Berkano, the Birch Rune, is the rune of fertility and birth, of a new phase or relationship. It means renewal and new beginnings. It is a conserving, protective force. Edred Thorsson writes: “The B-rune rules the cyclical process of arising (birth), becoming (life), passing away (death) to a new arising (rebirth).�

In Finland there are no leaves on the birch trees yet. Nonetheless, Berkano is a descriptive symbol for this Taurus New Moon.

The Sun and the Moon are conjoined in the earthy, fertile Taurus; Venus and Mars are together at the Aries Point, the first degree of the zodiac. These two pairs of planets are representing the feminine and masculine principles in the astrological chart. Mars and Venus are the rulers of Aries and Taurus, respectively.

A conjunction of any two planets begins a new cycle. The current unity of the polar opposites indicates a start of the phase of inner balance, the balance between the animus and anima, or balance in sexual relationships. Also Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune are forming a triple conjunction in the humanitarian sign Aquarius, adding optimism, idealism and light to this moment.

Pluto in Capricorn receives a trine from the Sun and Moon, and a square from Venus and Mars. These aspects are providing passion, intensity, sex, healing and transformation through love or through artistic work. According to tradition, the Moon is in its exaltation in Taurus; it is supposed to work especially well. Taurus is a sensual sign which enjoys the physical delight.

According to Robert Hand, Taurus’ function is to provide a vessel for the energies of Aries so that they can be made manifest. He writes: “Aries and Taurus form the first positive-negative pair of the signs in the zodiac, and even though they contrast, when put together they represent a whole.â€?

The minor planet Ceto in Scorpio, in the sign of transformation, represents cyclical rebirth and continuity. Ceto was prominent already in the Solar eclipse chart of January, as the eclipse in Aquarius was tightly squaring Ceto. On the February New Moon this trans-Neptunian binary planet was trining the Luminaries in Pisces.

Now Ceto is whirling right opposite the Sun and Moon. Oppositions symbolize polarity and confrontation, but also awareness and change through conflict. This can be felt mostly in personal relationships.

Ceto and her binary companion, Phorcys, have approximately similar sizes; they form a close binary system, and their mutual orbit is nearly circular. In mythology Ceto was a marine goddess of whales and sea-monsters, depicted as a serpentine fish. Eventually, the word ceto became shorthand for any sea monster. Jörmungandr, a sea serpent biting its own tail and forming a circle, is the sea monster of Norse mythology. In the form of the Ouroboros, Ceto represents cyclicality, re-creation and wholeness.

References:

Edred Thorsson, Runelore, Weiser Books, 1987

Wikipedia, Anima and animus

Robert Hand, Horoscope Symbols, Whitford Press, 1981

Hellenica, Michael Lahanas

Wikipedia, Ouroboros