Archive for November, 2017

New Moon in Scorpio — November 18, 2017, 11:42 UT

Sunday, November 19th, 2017

The New Moon at 26+ degrees of Scorpio on Nov. 18, 2017, was opposite Sedna at 26+ degrees of Taurus. Currently Sedna is also receiving the following aspects: a quincunx (150 degrees) from Saturn at 26+ Sagittarius, a sextile (60 degrees) from Chiron at 24+ Pisces and a semi-sextile (30 degrees) from Uranus at 25+ Aries.

Sedna has an exceptionally long and elongated orbit. The orbital period is around 11,400 years. At the moment Sedna is about three times as far as Neptune, approaching the Sun, and coming to its perihelion in 2076.

Sedna is named in honor of the Inuit goddess of sea and marine animals. She is thought to live at the bottom of the frigid Arctic Ocean. There are several variants of the myth, but all of them agree that Sedna was a beautiful young girl, who became the goddess of the icy waters. According to Grey Eagle, a Native American ceremonial storyteller, “all the broken taboos and sins against the nature of the people fall through the water, to collect on Sedna’s body. When the accumulation is too great, Sedna sobs in pain.” The sea creatures gather by her door to comfort her, and in the above world there is hunger and sickness. Then a shaman must visit her in the deep waters and clean her body and comb her hair. When Sedna is happy again, she releases her mammals and allows the humans to eat from the bounty of the sea.

Astrologically Sedna has a strong association with climate change and other environmental issues. She reminds us that we should not be exploiting the resources of Earth. Sedna must be treated with respect.

Last week more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries published a letter as a warning to humankind: “Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is running out. We must recognize, in our day-to-day lives and in our governing institutions, that Earth with all its life is our only home.”

The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth’s ecosystems. So far it has remained comparatively clean. The Arctic holds 1/5 of Earth’s water supply. Endangering this pristine area is inexcusable. Arctic oil drilling is dangerous, because in freezing conditions oil is known to behave very differently than in lower latitudes. An oil spill would have a catastrophic impact. There is no way to clean up oil underneath the thick ice.

Environmental organizations have filed a historical lawsuit against Norway. On April 22, 2016, Norway signed the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 Cº. The subject of the lawsuit is the government’s decision to grant new oil drilling licenses in highly sensitive areas of the Norwegian Arctic. The first hearing will take place on Nov. 21, 2017, at Oslo District Court.

In one of the variants of the Sedna myth she is described as a hungry and greedy girl. She was so huge and hungry that she ate everything in her parents’ home, and even gnawed off one of her father’s arms as he slept. Humankind cannot afford to be greedy anymore. We have to face the facts and work together in order to save our planet.

The Fire Woman Returns

Friday, November 17th, 2017

In October 2017, a trans-Neptunian object (47171) 1999 TC36 was named as Lempo. Lempo was originally the goddess of love and fertility in Finnish mythology. According to the myth, a glowing fireball shot from the sky and hit the ground. It was the sacred Fire Woman with a flaming hair. The myth is describing a meteor hitting the ground very long ago.

On Nov. 4, 2017, the New Moon in Taurus was in conjunction with 47171 Lempo. On Nov. 13, 2017, Venus and Jupiter made a conjunction in Scorpio, right opposite 47171 Lempo in Taurus. Only a few days after the spectacular conjunction, Lempo manifested herself.

A very bright fireball exploded over the Finnish Lapland on Nov. 16, 2017, at 16:40 UTC. The dark evening sky was lit up, there was a loud noise, blue light, trembling houses and barking dogs. Tens of kilograms of meteor rocks fell on the ground somewhere in the vicinity of Lake Inari.


A video by Aurora Service Tours

Full Moon in Taurus — November 4, 2017, 5:23 UT

Sunday, November 5th, 2017

In Finland All Saints’ Day was celebrated on Nov. 4 this year. I made the traditional visit to the local cemetery with my sister and my brother-in-law, where we lit candles at the graves of our loved ones.

The Moon was full on Nov. 4, 2017, in Taurus, in conjunction with 341520 Mors-Somnus, named from Roman mythology after twin gods of the underworld.

341520 Mors–Somnus is a small double plutino discovered in 2007 and named in 2015. The two components have almost equal size. The orbital period is approximately 244 years.

All plutinos are given mythological names associated with the underworld. Mors was the Roman personification of death, and Somnus was the personification of sleep. The Greek equivalents are Thanatos and Hypnos. According to the Theoi Project, a site exploring Greek mythology and gods, Thanatos was the god of non-violent death, and his touch was gentle, likened to that of his twin brother Hypnos. Hypnos was said to be a calm and gentle god, who helped humans in need. A poppy was his symbol.

47171 Lempo, a triple plutino which was named a month ago from Finnish mythology, was also in conjunction with the Full Moon. The timing of the naming of this celestial body was excellent, because Finland is celebrating its hundred years of independence this year. In mythology Lempo was a sacred Fire Woman, who gave bread, iron and love to humankind, and also escorted the deceased to the Otherworld.