Winter Solstice – Dec. 21, 2021, 15:59 UT

Full Moon occurs in Gemini on Dec. 19 and lightens this dark season a bit. The Moon in Gemini and the Sun in Sagittarius align exactly with the Galactic Center. Venus is in close conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn.

Venus stationed retrograde on Dec. 18, and at the Full Moon it is still stationary, which means that it is powerful and deserves our attention. Anne Massey writes in Venus: Her Cycles, Symbols and Myths: “A stationary Venus, like the final note of a piece of music, echoes long after the musician has struck the last chord, holding a powerful influence. Stations stay active for a long time, leaving a permanent marker, which Venus will revisit time after time.”

On Dec. 21 the Sun enters Capricorn and marks the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the shortest day of the year. After the solstice the days start gradually get longer again. By the solstice the Moon travels 30 degrees from Gemini to Cancer, and is tightly opposite the Venus-Pluto conjunction.

Usually my focus tends to be in the distant icy Kuiper belt bodies, but now I am introducing to you a new discovery from the opposite direction, inside the orbit of Venus, namely asteroid 594913 ʼAylóʼchaxnim, “Venus Girl”. Asteroid ʼAylóʼchaxnim is in conjunction with Venus and Pluto in both charts.

The Main asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter. During the past twenty years or so, 25 asteroids have been found orbiting entirely within Earth’s orbit. 594913 ʼAylóʼchaxnim is the first asteroid discovered to have an orbit completely within Venus’s orbit! Its orbit is moderately eccentric and grazes that of Mercury. The orbital period around the Sun is about 150 days. At about 4.1 million years from the present, ʼAylóʼchaxnim will most likely collide with Venus. The diameter of ʼAylóʼchaxnim is approximately from 1 km to 1.5 km.

In the geocentric astrological chart the only major aspect Mercury and Venus can form with the Sun is the conjunction. This applies also to ʼAylóʼchaxnim, since it is inside Venus’s orbit.

ʼAylóʼchaxnim was discovered on Jan. 4, 2020, at Palomar Mountain in California. The name was approved on Nov. 8, 2021. The name means “Venus girl” in the indigenous Luiseño language of southern California. The name celebrates the location of the discovery, which is on ancestral land of the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians, and the fact that ʼAylóʼchaxnim is the first discovered asteroid to orbit entirely within the orbit of Venus.

According to Wikipedia, the name is derived from ʼaylóchax, “morning star” (also “food left overnight”), which in turn derives (ʼa-ylócha-x) from yulóchax “to stay the night, be kept overnight”. Of course, the morning star refers to Venus, which can rise ahead the Sun as morning star or behind the Sun as evening star. Venus stations retrograde when it is evening star, and it stations direct after the interior conjunction with the Sun, while it is morning star again.

Constance Goddard DuBois notes in her study The Religion of the Luiseno Indians of Southern California (1908), that it is possible that in the old times the Luiseño recognized the motions of the planets, but only Venus was distinguished by a special name, Aylucha, “that which is left over from evening till morning, food or anything of the kind.” Only the most important stars had names.

In Roman mythology, goddess Venus was born from the sea foam as an adult woman. Now we have a celestial body named as “Venus Girl”. Is she perhaps representing some so far missing aspect of Venus, which mankind needs in its present time?

The New Moon in Sagittarius was a total solar eclipse at the south node of the Moon. The south node is oriented in the past. Ancestral themes can arise. The Sun and the Moon were in conjunction with Mercury and Vesta. Mercury symbolizes our intellectual activities. Vesta is a Main belt asteroid. It is brightest of the asteroids and even visible to the naked eye. It is the symbol of the eternal flame, or the sacred flame. Vesta indicates the focusing principle, and now in Sagittarius in conjunction with the Sun, the motivation for finding one’s purpose can be strong.

A solar eclipse is a powerful New Moon, and the New Moon always starts a new cycle. Sagittarius is a freedom-loving and future-oriented sign. Growth, optimism and joy can be attached to it by its sign ruler Jupiter. However, there are also some dark shadows in the chart, represented by some Kuiper belt minor planets. The eclipse was square to Aphidas and Orcus in Virgo, and Okyrhoe and Nessus in Pisces.

The Sabian symbol for the solar eclipse degree is Sagittarius 13 A widow’s past brought to light. The keynote by Dane Rudhyar is: “The karma of past actions as it affects opportunities presented by a new cycle.”

Each solar eclipse is a member of a particular Saros Series. The characteristics of the series can be delineated on the grounds of the chart of the initial eclipse in the series. According to Bernadette Brady, “This is a very joyful, happy family of eclipses. There is a sense of good news, falling in love, a peak experience that is joyful in some way.” There is a Neptunian influence in this 5 New South series. Rose Lineman says that it “heightens sensitivity and reinforces psychic tendencies.”

Neptune retrogrades every year for about five to six months. Neptune has just turned direct on Dec. 1, which emphasizes the Neptunian influence of the eclipse. So does possibly the fact that the eclipse was squaring centaur Okyrhoe in Pisces. Okyrhoe is named after a prophetic nymph daughter of Chiron and Chariklo.

Centaur Nessus offers healing on issues to do with the abuse of power, and it has ancestral implications. Quoting Melanie Reinhart and Sue Tompkins: “Nessus activations correspond with times when things really do end, finish and transcend to another level, when release occurs and when the turning point is reached.”

In Greek mythology, during the battle between the Centaurs and Lapiths, the centaur Aphidas remained in a drunken sleep. One of the Lapiths killed Aphidas with a thrown spear while he slept. Withdrawal is not always the best policy, at least not if you want your inner light shine.

Orcus is a plutino and named after the Etruscan god of the underworld and punisher of broken oaths. Orcus is a transformative energy, like Pluto. According to Jeremy Neal, “rather than a metamorphosis of control needs, Orcus requires a metamorphosis of integrity.”

Asteroid Euphrosyne is conjunct Saturn in Aquarius. Euphrosyne is a large Main belt asteroid which has a small moon. It is the third-roundest known asteroid. It was named after one of the three Graces, a goddess of joy, mirth and merriment. The solar eclipse sextile Euphrosyne is suggesting that grace of joy is coming into your life, although it may first require some work and serious commitment.