The New Moon at 10+ degrees of Libra was an annular solar eclipse. In the same degree with the Sun and the Moon were two main-belt asteroids, Astraea and Mnemosyne, and one of the largest trans-Neptunian objects, Makemake. Mercury was in a close conjunction with the eclipse.
Libra is the sign of relationships and balance. The eclipse appeared on the South node of the Moon. The South node is said to represent familiar things and the past. Sue Tompkins has suggested the keywords “association, joining, entanglement, connection, meeting, remembrance” for the South node (Sue Tompkins, The Contemporary Astrrologer’s Handbook, 2006).
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun. The Moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly elliptical, and that’s why the Moon sometimes appears smaller than the Sun. A solar eclipse that occurs when the Moon is near its farthest distance from Earth is called an annular eclipse. The Moon doesn’t completely cover the Sun, and the Sun appears as a very bright ring, surrounding the dark disk of the Moon. On October 2, 2024, ”the ring of fire” was visible in parts of South America. The eclipse was seen as a partial solar eclipse in parts of South America, Antarctica, North America, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii.
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) was in the relatively narrow path of the annular eclipse, which is noteworthy considering that the eclipse was in exact conjunction with Makemake.
136472 Makemake is one of the three big discoveries that were announced at the end of July 2005, namely Eris, Haumea and Makemake. Makemake is the largest cubewano and the brightest trans-Neptunian object after Pluto. It is fairly round and the estimated dimensions are 1434 x 1420 km. The orbital period is about 306 years. Makemake will reach its aphelion in 2033. Makemake was long thought to be alone, but in 2015 a moon was discovered and nicknamed ”MK2”. There may be another large, undiscovered satellite orbiting Makemake.
A recent study from February 2024 challenges our understanding of distant icy worlds like Makemake. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) gave scientists a surprise. Evidence of internal geochemical activity on Eris and Makemake suggests that there may be water oceans beneath their surface.
The discovery team of Makemake nicknamed the object “Easterbunny” because of its discovery shortly after Easter. The official name Makemake was chosen in part to preserve the object’s connection with Easter. It is Polynesian in origin and is the name of the creator of humanity and the god of fertility in the mythology of the Rapa Nui, the native people of Easter Island. Makemake was the chief god of the Tangata manu bird-man cult and was worshiped in the form of sea birds, which were his incarnation. His material symbol was a man with a bird’s head.
The bird-man cult included an annual dangerous competition on Rapa Nui. The contestants had to swim to the nearby island to collect the first egg of the season of a certain tropical seabird, and then swim back to Rapa Nui. Many lost their lives. The winner was entitled to gifts of food, and his clan would have sole rights to collect the wild bird eggs and fledglings of that season. The winner had to go into seclusion for a year and spend his time eating and sleeping, and could not engage in any other activity. He did this for his community.
Easter Island is one of the most isolated inhabited places in the world. The island is famous for its monumental statues called moai. Rapa Nui history has been presented as a warning for humanity’s overexploitation of resources. There was an environmental collapse and a cultural collapse on the island. The trees were cut down, and when the wood ran out, the islanders couldn’t even make canoes and became completely isolated from the rest of the world. The few hundred people left were unable to remember their past, they lost their collective memory. According to the newest research, although the residents did cut down the trees, they were able to adapt to the changing environment. The island never had more than a few thousand people prior to European contact. Europeans brought disease and slave traders took a third of the island’s population. In the 1870s, there were only 110 people left on the island.
Asteroid 5 Astraea was discovered in 1945. The four first asteroids, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta, were first classified as planets. However, after the discovery of Astraea, new asteroids started being discovered at a rapid pace, and it became apparent that there were thousands of members of this new type of celestial body. Astraea’s orbital period is little over four years and the mean diameter is 125 km. The fifth asteroid was named after Astraea, the Greek goddess of justice. She was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Golden Age. As mankind became wicked, she was the last to stay on earth. Zeus then placed her amongst the stars as the constellation Virgo. The scales of justice she carried became the constellation of Libra. According to myth, Astraea will one day come back to Earth, bringing with her the return of the utopian Golden Age.
Martha Lang-Wescott suggests that Astraea may have something to do with the difficulty of letting go of things, people or events. This can be a virtue or a hindrance. Astraea gives persistance, or it can make you cling to situations longer than is good for you. Astraea can make it difficult to know exactly when things are starting or ending. Also, one can become the observer, the witness who stands without judgment and ”insures that a cycle has truly reached completion (Martha Lang-Wescott, Mechanics of the Future, 1996).”
57 Mnemosyne is a large asteroid discovered in 1859. It’s orbital period is over 5 years and the diameter is about 113 km. It is named after the Greek goddess of memory and remembrance, and the inventress of language and words. The Theoi Project site mentions that she “represented the rote memorisation required to preserve the stories of history and the sagas of myth before the introduction of writing.” Asteroid Mnemosyne emphasizes planet Mercury’s function in the chart, as Mercury is associated with memory, and with written and spoken communication.
Memories can fade or become distorted. Perhaps one of the challenges of this eclipse is to find the right balance between the memories you hold dear and carry with you and the ones you’d better let go of. Rapa Nui has slowly revealed some of its secrets, as has the planet Makemake. Scientific research will continue, and so does the astrological research of Makemake.
Salvador Dali (May 11, 1904 – Jan. 23, 1989), the Spanish surrealist artist, had Makemake in Taurus in conjunction with his Sun, Mercury and Mars. His Makemake is occupying the midpoint of Astraea and Mnemosyne. One of Dali’s most famous works is The Persistence of Memory, which depicts a surrealistic image of soft, melting pocket watches. It has been interpreted that in the painting, everything created by man is perishable, the only permanent thing is the cliffs in the background, where the true permanence of memory resides. In his last years Dalí became withdrawn and he lived almost in isolation.
