Archive for April, 2021

Full Moon in Scorpio — April 27, 2021, 03:31 UT

Sunday, April 25th, 2021

The Sun, Mercury and Venus have moved to Taurus. The Sun is in conjunction with Uranus and 15760 Albion, the thresholder that proved the existence of the Kuiper belt in 1992. The Full Moon in Scorpio is in conjunction with 184314 Mbabamwanawaresa, one of the latest named residents of the Kuiper belt, discovered in 2005.

Full Moon in Scorpio
Both Albion and Mbabamwanawaresa are cubewanos with the orbital period roughly around 300 years. The diameter of Mbabamwanawaresa is approximately 242 km, which means that it is bigger than Albion, perhaps even twice the size of Albion.

184314 Mbabamwanawaresa was officially named last summer after the Zulu fertility goddess Mbaba Mwana Waresa, the goddess of rainbows, the symbol of the link between heaven and Earth. She has also another name, “She who chooses the state of an animal”. The Zulu call on her when they need guidance to make an important decision.

Indeed, the astrological meaning of Mbabamwanawaresa could have something to do with decision-making. Some people with their Sun natally in close conjunction with Mbabamwanawaresa have been in a tough situation, where they’ve been forced to make a life-altering decision. The Chilean President Salvador Allende committed suicide during the 1973 military coup (Mbabamwanawaresa conjunct the Sun and the North node). Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition politician, decided to flee to Lithuania after the 2020 presidential elections. She was afraid on behalf of her children and how the repercussions would affect them (Mbabamwanawaresa conjunct the Sun and Haumea). Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, stepped down from his role as the working member of the British royal family and moved to the United States. His worry over his family and children was contributing to his decision (Mbabamwanawaresa conjunct the Sun, Rhiphonos and Haumea).

The Zulu mythology offers hints of other possibilities, too. Last summer after the naming I followed my hunch and noticed that many people who are linked to the 2007 film Into the Wild, have a prominent Mbabamwanawaresa in their charts. The film tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who hiked into the Alaskan wilderness and died there. Since then I have discovered that many people who are naturalists, evolutionary biologists, or have studied man’s place in nature, have tight Mbabamwanawaresa aspects. The examples follow at the bottom.

One can try to examine the astrological meaning of a body from the discovery chart of that body. This is not always a fruitful method, but in Mbabamwanawaresa’s case it seems to work. In its discovery chart, Mbabamwanawaresa is in Libra in conjunction with Jupiter. The ascendant is in Sagittarius (ruled by Jupiter) in conjunction with the Galactic Centre. Pluto, the great transformer and the symbol of rebirth, is rising.


The Sabian symbol for the ascendant degree of the discovery chart is Sagittarius 28 An old bridge over a beautiful stream. According to Dr. Marc Edmund Jones, “this is a symbol of the eternal stability of the world at large, and of each person’s ability to preserve its form and function in full accordance with his own convenience. Implicit in the static symbolism is the complete dependability of man-made structures at their best, and the joy of nature in making them an enduring part of herself in every respect. What is ephemeral in any possible phase of the real is merely that which serves no purpose in its transient state of existence. The keyword is conservation.

Examples:

Charles Darwin (Feb. 12, 1809 – Apr. 19, 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He published his theory of evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. — Mbabamwanawaresa conjunct Jupiter in Pisces, semisextile (30º) the Sun in Aquarius, and sextile the Moon in Capricorn.

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. He was deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay. He neither rejected civilization nor fully embraced wilderness. Instead he sought the middle ground integrating nature and culture. — Mbabamwanawaresa in Aries square the Moon in Cancer, sextile Venus in Gemini, semisextile (30º) Mars in Taurus, semisextile (30º) Saturn in Pisces, trine Jupiter in Sagittarius, and trine the Midheaven in Sagittarius.

Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy and religious studies. He was concerned for man’s loss of connection with nature. From The Earth Has a Soul, C.G. Jung on Nature, Technology & Modern Life: “At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons.” — The Sun in Leo sextile Mbabamwanawaresa in Gemini.

Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, atheist thinker, and author. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularized the gene-centered view of evolution. (He first introduced the term meme.) Dawkins is a guest star on the Nightwish album Endless Forms Most Beautiful (2015). He provides narration on two tracks: “Shudder Before the Beautiful”, in which he opens the album with one of his own quotes, and “The Greatest Show on Earth”, in which he quotes On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. — Mbabamwanawaresa conjunct Pluto in Leo, trine the Sun and Eris in Aries, and quincunx Ceres in Capricorn.

Tuomas Holopainen (born Dec. 25, 1976) is a Finnish songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, and best known as the founder, leader, keyboardist and songwriter of symphonic metal band Nightwish. In 2017 a new insect species discovered by a Finnish biologist, was named as Sciophilia holopaineni after Tuomas Holopainen, because of Holopainen’s love of nature. Endless Forms Most Beautiful, a studio album by Nightwish (2015), was primarily inspired by the work of naturalist Charles Darwin. Richard Dawkins is a guest star on the album, providing narration on two tracks. The song “My Walden” is inspired by the book Walden by Henry David Thoreau. — Mbabamwanawaresa in Virgo square Neptune in Sagittarius, semisquare (45º) the North node in Scorpio, semisextile (30º) Pluto in Libra, and quincunx Eris in Aries.

New Moon in Aries — April 12, 2021, 02:31 UT

Monday, April 12th, 2021

Aries energy is heavily emphasized at this New Moon. Besides the Sun and Moon, there are planets Mercury and Venus, dwarf planets Eris and Ceres, and centaur Chiron in Aries. The New Moon was in conjunction with Eris.

New Moon in Aries
Eris is now at the Mars/Jupiter midpoint. Eris is squared by Pluto in Capricorn. Last year Eris was also receiving squares from Jupiter and Saturn. Eris is named after the Greek goddess of strife and discord, who indirectly started the Trojan War. Recently there has been alarming news about the growing tension at the Ukrainian border and in Crimea between Russia and Ukraine. Also in Northern Ireland the worst wave of violence for years is now causing concern.

Nicholas Campion writes in The Book of World Horoscopes: “The history of the Cold War in Europe may be traced to The Yalta Conference, at which Roosevelt secretly agreed with Stalin that the Soviet Union should have a sphere of influence in eastern Europe after the Second World War.” He sets the chart for the beginning of the conference at 5:10 pm on Feb. 4, 1945. Saturn in Cancer was squaring Eris in Aries in 1944 – 1945. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the end of the Cold War.

Some say that the second cold war has already begun. For example Edward Lucas’s The New Cold War was published in 2008, relatively soon after the discovery of Eris. Eris was discovered in January 2005 from images taken in October 2003. Also the launch of many popular platforms of social media is dated in the same period. LinkedIn was launched in May 2003, Facebook in February 2004, YouTube in February 2005, and Twitter in July 2006. Populist movements have gained popularity in the 21st century, too. Polarization is the feature of today.

Everything stated above may be relevant with Eris. However, the molding of the astrological meaning of a planet may sometimes take time, and the myth behind the name is not always in-line with the astrological meaning. It seems that in Eris’s case the delineation is still developing.

Astrologer Raimo Nikula proposes in Eris vai Proserpina? (Eris or Proserpina?), that the symbolism of planet Eris is better in accordance with the Greek myth of Persephone, the equivalent of Roman Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres. Unfortunately both names were already taken for asteroids, but the planet could have been named as Kore, as the daughter of Demeter (Ceres) was also called in Greek mythology. The name Kore is Raimo’s own favorite.

In myth Ceres’s daughter Proserpina was abducted by Pluto, and she became the queen of the Underworld. In her desperation Ceres stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables. Proserpina was freed, but she had to spend a part of each year in the Underworld with Pluto; for the other part, she was able to return to living with her mother on Earth. Before the abduction she was Kore, “the maiden”.

In his book Raimo Nikula reminds that for example the name of Uranus doesn’t correspond with its astrological symbolism either. Among other things he notes that astrologer Dane Rudhyar (1895 – 1985) proposed the name Proserpina as the name for a yet undiscovered planet beyond Pluto: “Beyond the planet Pluto, symbol of the Guardian at the Gates of Immortality, we may already distinguish the presence of a new orb. I have suggested long ago the name Proserpine for the yet unknown planet; for in that name lies hidden the symbol of all resurrections. And the stage beyond Pluto can only be that of the Resurrection.”

Before the official naming, astronomer Mike Brown, the discoverer of Eris, had also speculated that Persephone, the wife of the god Pluto, would be a good name for the object. According to science writer Govert Schilling, Brown initially wanted to call the object “Lila”, after a concept in Hindu mythology that described the cosmos as the outcome of a game played by Brahman. The name resembles “Lilah”, the name of Brown’s then newborn daughter. However, one of the names by which the Hawaiian goddess Haumea was known is Lailai, which sounds a lot like Lila. Haumea is another dwarf planet discovered by Mike Brown’s team. Goddess Haumea was called by many names, because she could take many different guises and morph from old woman to young girl, and become her own daughter or granddaughter. In 1900 Edward Tregear wrote in The creation song of Hawaii: “‘Lailai of the distant night, Lailai the woman,’ appears as a very shadowy figure, and it seems impossible to understand what power she is intended to represent. She is indeed, to be described best in the line, ‘This woman was from a race of illusions (myth)’—and is evidently some Cosmic goddess, probably the impersonation of the Eternal Feminine in Nature.”

In Jungian psychology Kore is the personification of feminine innocence. Quoting Carl Jung, “Demeter and Kore, mother and daughter, extend the feminine consciousness both upwards and downwards. They add an ‘older and younger,’ ‘stronger and weaker’ dimension to it and widen out the narrowly limited conscious mind bound in space and time, giving it intimations of a greater and more comprehensive personality which has a share in the eternal course of things.”

Interestingly, the New Moon in Aries was also in conjunction with asteroid 4946 Askalaphus, which is a Jupiter trojan and therefore named after one of the Argonauts from Greek mythology. But there is another Ascalaphus in mythology, the custodian of the orchard of Hades. He told the other gods that Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds in the Underworld, and because of this revelation she was obliged to return to the Underworld every year. Demeter was so angry because of this that she buried Ascalaphus beneath a heavy rock in the Underworld. Heracles for his part rolled the stone away and released Ascalaphus.

In Eris vai Proserpina? Raimo Nikula suggests as one of the meanings of the transit of Eris to the natal Sun as getting lighting to unfinished and current matters. He writes: “A conjunction can be particularly illuminating and truth-revealing.” Are there going to be crucial revelations now that the transiting Sun is in conjunction with Eris and Askalaphus?