The Scorpio New Moon — October 28, 2008, 23:14 UT
Friday, October 24th, 2008Water to land folk seems never-ending
when they set sail on a heaving ship;
the huge waves overwhelm them
and the seahorse won’t heed the bridle.
— Old English Rune Poem
Scorpio is the intense water sign that is related to stuff mostly dark and deep. However, water is the sustainer of life. Scorpio is the sign of death and resurrection. It is the place in the zodiac where the transformation occurs.
We are definitely entering a new era. Pluto, the modern ruler of Scorpio, is in Sagittarius, but it is in the last degree of the sign, about to enter Capricorn. The sign change takes place on November 27. In Aquarius two Centaur planets, Chiron and Nessus, have stationed direct by this New Moon.
The New Moon always signifies the beginning of a new cycle. The cosmic energies for the following month are set at the New Moon. This lunation is strongly colored by three Kuiper Belt objects in tight aspect to the Sun and Moon. These three minor planets are Deucalion, Echeclus and Asbolus. We can trust that they will carry us safely to the new phase.
Deucalion, a trans-Neptunian minor planet of the cubewano class is conjunct the New Moon in Scorpio. According to the naming rules of the International Astronomical Union, cubewanos are given mythological names associated with creation. Deucalion was discovered in 1999, and named in 2003. The name comes from the Greek flood story that parallels the Judeo-Christian story of Noah’s Ark.
In the myth, Zeus had decided to destroy humankind. A pouring rain from the heavens flooded the world, so that all men were destroyed, except Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha. They had been forewarned of the deluge and built an ark. Some sources suggest that Deucalion is to be identified with Aquarius, the water bearer. The rains of the water bearer are a gift from the gods.
Deucalion and Pyrrha drifted to the high mountains, where an oracle told them to “throw the bones of their mother” behind them. They decided that their mother is Gaia and stones are her bones. They threw rocks behind their shoulders, and the rocks formed people and repopulated the Earth. Those thrown by Pyrrha became women; Deucalion’s became men.
Centaur planet Echeclus is in conjunction with the Sun, Moon and Deucalion. Echeclus shares a special astronomical feature with Chiron. Both have been given a double designation as a Centaur and a comet.
Echeclus was discovered in 2000 and initially classified as a minor planet. Then in December 2005, a cometary coma was detected around it. Apparently a chunk of its body was broken off, causing a great cloud of dust. After the cometary outburst the Centaur was officially designated as a periodic comet and renamed 174P/Echeclus. 95P/Chiron was the first Centaur known to have cometary activity.
Comets are like dirty snowballs. They are small icy bodies orbiting the Sun in an elliptical orbit. In the outer solar system, comets remain frozen and invisible. The coma and tail are formed of ice and dust when the comet approaches the Sun and the comet warms. Both the coma and tail become illuminated by the sunlight when the comet travels through the inner solar system. Echeclus comes to its perihelion, the point in its orbit that is closest to the Sun, in 2015.
Astrologically, Echeclus hasn’t been studied very widely. We know that all Centaurs are dealing with the shadow and healing. One of the important keywords for Chiron is awareness. The astronomical similarity of these two Centaurs is perhaps pointing to an important astrological resemblance, too. Anyway, comets seem to be heralding a change.
In Taurus, the Centaur planet Asbolus is in accurate opposition to the Moon and the planets mentioned above. In mythology Asbolus was a seer, who made forecasts from the flight formations of birds. His name means carbon dust. Eric Francis has noticed that Asbolus is a point that shows up in the charts of survivors. Survival, the ability to endure and the blessing of protection even when it seems like none is there, are attributes for Asbolus.
It can be scary to plunge the deep water, but we need to do it if we want to reach a new shore. We are protected.
References:
Nordic runes, Paul Rhys Mountfort, Destiny Books, 2003