Archive for March, 2014

New Moon in Aries — March 30, 2014, 18:45 UT

Sunday, March 30th, 2014

The New Moon in Aries falls in conjunction with Uranus and thus merges with the powerful long-term t-square pattern formed by Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto.

We are at a threshold of a new phase, slipping on uncharted routes, to something we haven’t experienced before. A New Moon (the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon) always starts a new lunation cycle, and the Sun in Aries, in the first sign of the zodiac, means the beginning of a new solar cycle. Uranus adds the surprise factor to this lunation.

Last week the long awaited news was announced: the astronomers have found an icy little planet in Sedna’s region. Sedna is not alone anymore!

The new minor planet doesn’t have a name yet, but for the time being we can call it VP – a shortening from 2012 VP113 – or Biden, as the discovery team has nicknamed it.

Sedna was discovered ten years ago. It is the coldest and most distant place known in the Solar System, so it was named after the Inuit goddess of the sea, who lives at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. All this time the astronomers have been searching for more objects like Sedna, and now they have found another, which raises the hope that there are even more of them.

Chad Trujillo, an astronomer at Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii, and the co-discoverer of this new body said in an interview: “It goes to show that there’s something we don’t know about our Solar System, and it’s something important.” And he continued: “We’re starting to get a taste of what’s out beyond what we consider the edge.”

Sedna is at 23+ degrees of Taurus at the moment, right opposite Saturn in Scorpio. VP is also in Taurus, somewhere in Sedna’s vicinity. Yesterday in Finland during The Earth Hour the lights were turned off with a focus on raising awareness about climate change in the Arctic. Let’s hope that the newcomer brings the change for the better.

Full Moon in Virgo — March 16, 2014, 17:08 UT

Tuesday, March 18th, 2014

The Full Moon in Virgo on March 16, 2014, conjoined a trans-Neptunian minor planet named Logos. This proved to be a Logian moment, as on the following day the media announced a spectacular discovery: the scientists have found the signal left in the sky by the rapid expansion of space that occurred just fractions of a second after the Big Bang.

Heraclitus (ca. 535 – 475 BCE), a Greek philosopher, claimed that everything originates out of the logos.

58534 Logos is a binary object with an orbital period of almost 303 years. A binary planet consists of two objects that are similar in mass and orbit to one another. Each orbits the other around a gravitational balance point that is between the two. The point is called the center of mass, or the barycenter. The pair may have been born like twins, or may be produced by a collision, where a single body is split in two. The number of trans-Neptunian binaries (TNBs) with known mutual orbits has expanded fast in recent years.

58534 Logos was discovered in 1997 and its binary companion Zoe in 2001. The name of the pair comes from the creation myth of the gnostic traditions. The Greek word logos is commonly translated as “word”, but it can mean “speech”, “plan”, “formula”, “account”, and “reason”. Ancient philosophers used the term in different ways. The name Zoe means “life”.

Heraclitus established the term logos in Western philosophy. His main doctrine was the unity of opposites. He thought that all things are composed of opposites, and because the opposites are at strife with one another, all things are in constant change. The change is governed by logos, a principle of order.

In English, the word logos is the root of “log” (as in record) and of “logic.” Logic is a special area of philosophy and it has many branches. In ancient times the motivation for the study of logic was to learn to distinguish good arguments from bad ones, and to become more effective in argument. Logic is the essence of critical thinking, which is not necessarily anything critical in the negative sense of the word. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It enables one to analyze, evaluate, and restructure one’s thinking. Fair-minded critical thinking requires intellectual humility, empathy, integrity, courage and other intellectual traits. Critical thinking without these traits may result in clever, but manipulative thought serving unethical purposes.

In later times formal logic has been studied in the context of mathematics. The development of formal logic and its implementation in computing machinery is the foundation of computer science. Computers can be used as tools for logicians, and logic is essential for scientists.

The following persons have a Sun-Logos conjunction in their chart:

Rene Descartes (March 31, 1596 – Feb. 11, 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer. He is credited as “the father of modern philosophy”. Analytic geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, has been attributed to Descartes. He is also regarded as the first thinker to emphasize the use of reason to develop the natural sciences. Descartes had a Sun-Logos conjunction in Aries.

According to a study carried out in Helsinki in 2013, Esko Valtaoja (June 20, 1951 – ) is the most notable Finnish scientist. He is an astronomer and writer, who works as a professor at the University of Turku. He has ability to present complex scientific theories in a manner that is both understandable and entertaining to the general audience. Esko Valtaoja has a tight Sun-Logos conjunction in Gemini.

Louis Braille (Jan. 4, 1809 – Jan. 6, 1852) was a French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for use by the blind, known worldwide as braille. The system consists of a code of small raised dots that can be felt on paper. Louis Braille himself had gone blind in his childhood. Braille’s Sun-Logos conjunction was in Capricorn.

Thomas Alva Edison (Feb. 11, 1847 – Oct. 18, 1931), the American inventor, who patented over a thousand inventions, had a triple conjunction of the Sun, Mercury and Logos in Aquarius. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention. In his youth, before his career as an inventor and a businessman, Edison was a telegraph operator.

Galileo Galilei (Feb. 15, 1564 – Jan. 8, 1642), the Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, has been called the “father of science”. Galileo was one of the first modern thinkers to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical. He wrote: “Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe… It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures.” Galileo’s Sun-Logos conjunction was in Pisces.

Another scientist with the Sun-Logos conjunction in Pisces, was Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – Apr.18, 1955). His name has been synonymous with genius. He developed the general theory of relativity. Einstein also came up with the idea of gravitational waves, the subject of the sensational science news in the last couple of days. He predicted that violent events should trigger gravitational waves, which would set space rippling. Direct evidence to prove his theory has been missing so far. The astounding findings, which were announced just after the Virgo Full Moon, are offering the first direct evidence of those waves.

New Moon in Pisces — March 1, 2014, 08:00 UT

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014

The astrologers are watching the Grand cross developing, formed by Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto, and at the same time the whole world is watching the crisis in Ukraine deepen.

Ukraine proclaimed its independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991. The referendum confirming independence and the first presidential elections took place on Dec. 1, 1991. According to The Book of World Horoscopes by Nicholas Campion, the result was announced at 6:00 pm GMT, and it was then, that Ukraine began to function as a genuinely independent sovereign state. In the chart cast for the time when the result was announced, Uranus is in exact conjunction with the North node of the Moon at 11+ degrees of Capricorn. The lunar nodal axis is currently tightly transited by the t-cross formed by Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto.

In the chart of the Pisces New Moon, there are two stationary planets, Mars and Mercury. Mercury stationed direct in Aquarius on the previous day, and Mars stationed retrograde in Libra on the same day that the New Moon occurred. A stationary planet is focused and effective. Let’s hope that during the following days these two planets will play well together for Ukraine: Mercury moving in direct motion will support the negotiations, and Mars changing in retrograde motion will ease off the warrior energy of the planet.

My main focus in this blog are the new minor planets, such as the Centaurs and the trans-Neptunian objects, and in the chart there are two minor planets prominently situated, both which have a strong association with grain, namely Ceres and Teharonhiawako.

The New Moon in Pisces is conjunct Chiron and Teharonhiawako. Teharonhiawako is the maize god of the Iroquois. Ceres, the Roman goddess of the grain, is in exact conjunction with the lunar North node in early Scorpio, and also in conjunction with the stationary Mars in late degrees of Libra. According to Demetra George, Ceres symbolizes the principle of adaptation and the survival of the species, among other things.

88611 Teharonhiawako is a binary trans-Neptunian object. The companion is called Sawiskera. The names come from the Iroquois creation myth. The twin gods are the grandsons of the Sky Woman, who was said to have fallen through a hole in the sky. There are several versions of the creation story, and in one of them the creator god was said to have planted a single maize plant in the body of his mother, the Sky Woman. The plant was a gift to mankind. The twins are personification of good and evil. Teharonhiawako was a farmer and was loved by the people. Sawiskera was the evil twin. He was jealous, cruel and destructive, and he was eventually conquered by his brother.

The creation story is reflecting almost literally in the cultivation of maize. Maize has been grown thousands of years. Today it is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, and widely cultivated throughout the world. Maize constitutes a staple food in many parts of the world. Genetically modified maize represents the evil side of the story. There are potential health risks and serious environmental risks concerning GM food.

On Feb. 11, 2014, a new genetically modified corn, insect-resistant TC1507, made by DuPont and Dow Chemical, won EU approval in a controversial voting, even though a majority of the member states were opposing. This is possible because in the EU voting system the votes of the big countries carry more weight than those of the smaller ones. I am sad to tell that Finland, represented by Alexander Stubb, our Minister for Europe and Foreign Trade, voted for the approval.

In the chart cast for Feb 11, 2014, the Sun is in conjunction with 5335 Damocles, named after a figure of Greek mythology. “The Sword of Damocles” is an expression, which is used as a metaphor for the imminent and ever-present peril faced by those in positions of power. We should be careful what we ask for, when we are dealing with Damocles. In Pisces we find a stellium of planets pregnant with meaning: the retrograding Mercury is not recommendable for decision-making or signing contracts; Teharonhiawako, the maize god himself, is between the awareness giving Chiron and the blurring Neptune; a few degrees from Chiron there is Borasisi, a minor planet, the meaning of which is related to lies that we believe and that make us feel better.

The case is not yet closed. Because of an error in the procedure, the final decision concerning the new GM corn will be made by the European Court of Justice.