The New Moon in Cancer on July 17 was opposite centaur 10370 Hylonome in Capricorn and square Eris in Aries. Pluto in Capricorn was squaring the lunar nodes.

The night before the New Moon I was watching one of my favourite films, Warren Beatty’s masterpiece Reds (1981). The myth of Hylonome and Cyllarus is interspersed throughout the relationship of the main characters and their charts and also the charts of the leading actors of the film.

10370 Hylonome was discovered in 1995. Its orbital period is little over 126 years and it is a Neptune-crosser and Uranus-grazer. It is currently moving out from the Sun and is expected to reach aphelion (the farthest point of an orbit around the Sun) in 2057. It was named after a female centaur from Greek mythology. Hylonome’s husband, the handsome Cyllarus was brave and dearly loved by many, but Hylonome had gained his heart. Their love was equal. They fought side by side in the battle against the Lapiths. Cyllarus was fatally wounded by a spear and died in the arms of Hylonome, who then took her own life to join him. There is also a centaur planet 52975 Cyllarus with orbital period of approximately 133.5 years.

All myths are metaphors. Centaurs are wild creatures. In mythology the destiny of a centaur is always to die. It is a metaphor for transformation and change. We all have a shadow, the rejected and irrational part of the psyche, which we tend to project into other people with feelings of anger and fear. Centaurs represent this shadow. In astrology the transits of centaur planets offer potential for healing.

Quoting Melanie Reinhart: “You cannot really integrate the energy of the outer planets with a rational Saturnian consciousness, which cannot perceive and appreciate and work within the world of subtle energies. Something else is required. And I think that ‘something else’ may be a kind of centauric consciousness, resting on the animal connection with the Earth beneath, reaching for the stars, and understanding mortal existence through its poignant temporality.” (Saturn, Chiron and the Centaurs, the CPA Press, 2002)

Centaur Hylonome addresses the theme of grief and the healing of grief. According to Eric Francis, ”On the personal level, Hylonome counsels against being a martyr. On the collective level, it represents ‘the cry of the people’.” These themes can be recognized in the film Reds.

Reds tells about the relationship of John Reed (Oct. 23, 1887 – Oct. 17, 1920) and Louise Bryant (Dec. 5, 1885 – Jan. 6, 1936), two American journalists and political activists, who witnessed the 1917 Russian revolution. Both wrote and published a coverage of the events. After short illness John Reed died in 1920 in a hospital in Moscow. Louise Bryant was sitting at his bedside holding his hand. Reed had been close to the inner circle of the new socialist government of Russia. He was given a hero’s burial, and is buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, located in Red Square. Louise Bryant returned to the U.S. in 1921 and later remarried.

Louise Bryant’s radix Sun is conjunct Hylonome in Sagittarius and forms a t-square with Chiron in Gemini and Mars in Virgo. There is a t-square in John Reed’s chart too, formed by the Sun in the first degree of Scorpio, the Moon in early Aquarius, and Cyllarus in the last degree of Cancer. At the time of Reed’s death the transiting Saturn-Cyllarus conjunction in Virgo was conjunct Louise Bryant’s radix North node of the Moon. In their Solar Arc directed charts, John Reed’s SA Jupiter is conjunct his radix Hylonome in Sagittarius, and Louise Bryant’s Solar Arc directed lunar nodes are squaring her radix Cyllarus in Cancer.

Warren Beatty (born March 30, 1937) had already become interested in John Reed story in the 1960s. During the 1970s Beatty continued researching, and as early as 1971 filmed interviews with people who could provide information on Reed and Bryant and the American Left movement in the early twentieth century. They appear in the film as “The Witnesses”.

The announcement that Beatty would direct and produce Reds was given on May 31, 1979. Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton (born Jan. 5, 1946) co-starred the film and they were in a romantic relationship at the time. The relationship ended shortly after the filming. One actor said, “Diane almost got broken. I thought Beatty was trying to break her into what Louise Bryant had been like with John Reed.”

In his radix chart Warren Beatty has a triple conjunction of the Sun, Mercury and Hylonome in Aries opposite Cyllarus in Libra. Diane Keaton has Cyllarus conjunct Jupiter in Libra, opposite Hylonome in Aries, square Mars in Cancer, and sextile Mercury in Sagittarius. (The Hylonome-Cyllarus opposition in itself in this case is not special, because the two centaurs were in opposition about 50 years between 1931 and 1983, so a great meany people has it in their charts.)

One reviewer has said: ”Warren is not so much playing Reed as channeling him.” When comparing Warren Beatty’s and John Reed’s radix charts with each other, Beatty’s Scorpio Moon is exactly in conjunction with Reed’s Mercury, and Beatty’s North node of the Moon is conjunct Reed’s Hylonome in Sagittarius.

At the time of the announcement on May 31, 1979, the transiting Cyllarus in Capricorn was conjunct Beatty’s radix Jupiter and sextile to his radix Moon. The transiting Hylonome was conjunct Keaton’s radix Saturn in Cancer and square her Chiron in Libra. Beatty’s Solar Arc directed Cyllarus was conjunct his radix Moon and his SA directed Hylonome was opposing his Moon. Diane Keaton’s SA directed Chiron was at her Scorpio ascendant.

Reds was released on Dec. 4, 1981, when Jupiter in early Scorpio formed a t-square with Hylonome in Leo and Cyllarus in Aquarius. The transiting Jupiter was in conjunction with John Reed’s Sun and Midheaven, highlighting his life and career again. The transiting Hylonome-Cyllarus opposition aligned with John Reed’s Moon-Cyllarus opposition. The transiting Sun in Sagittarius was conjunct Louise Bryant’s radix Sun-Hylonome conjunction, the transiting Cyllarus in Aquarius was conjunct Bryant’s radix Venus, and the transiting North node in Cancer was conjunct her radix Cyllarus. The transiting lunar nodes also aligned with Warren Beatty’s natal Jupiter-Pluto opposition. In Beatty’s Solar Arc directed chart Cyllarus in Scorpio is conjunct his radix Moon. His SA directed Sun-Hylonome conjunction in Taurus is opposite his radix Moon.

At the Capricorn Full Moon, the Sun in Cancer is in conjunction with Mercury, the planet of mental processes and communication. The Sun and the Moon are squaring 58534 Logos, a trans-Neptunian cousin of Mercury, and so Logos in Libra is the focal planet of a t-square formed by the luminaries and Logos. The Moon is trine Jupiter in Taurus. The Sun is sextile to Jupiter and trine Saturn in Pisces.

Jupiter and Saturn represent opposite principles that need balancing: Jupiter represents expansion and growth while Saturn represents restriction and limits. Now the two are in a harmonious sextile aspect to each other. Logos forms an aspect pattern with Jupiter and Saturn too, and is again the apex of a configuration. The pattern is the yod, sometimes called also “the finger of god” or “the finger of fate”. In a yod two planets are in sextile to each other, and both form a quincunx to a third planet. A quincunx (150°) is a stressful aspect which needs conscious adjustment, regardless the planets involved.

This is a fruitful time for solid mental work and honest expression.

The minor planet Logos was discovered in 1997 and its binary companion Zoe in 2001. They are named from the Gnostic tradition, where Logos and Zoe are a paired emanation of the deity, and part of its creation myth. The Greek word logos means “word”, but the term has been used in different ways. It is often translated as some variation of logic or reasoning, but it originally referred to the actual content of a speech and how it was organized. In English language, the word logos is the root of “log” (as in record) and of “logic”.

Logic plays a fundamental role in computer science. The birth chart of Frederic C. Williams, the developer of the “Manchester Baby”, the first electronic stored-program computer, and the chart of the first computer program – ran by the “Baby” in 1948 – are a top example of the astrological Logos.

Sir Frederic C. Williams (June 26, 1911 – Aug.11, 1977) was an English engineer, a pioneer and innovator in radar and computer technology. The exact birth time is not known, but it was a day of the New Moon in Cancer, and in the noon chart the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon is tight. Logos is in early Taurus sextile to the luminaries, square Uranus in Capricorn, and opposite Jupiter in Scorpio.

The “Manchester Baby” was the first working machine to contain all the elements essential to a modern electronic digital computer. The first computer program was fed into it in Manchester University on june 21, 1948. The time of running the program was just before lunch. The “Baby” successfully executed its first program the same day. The chart for the first program is a Full Moon chart. The Moon is in conjunction with Jupiter in Sagittarius. Jupiter is opposite Logos in this chart too. The Sun and Uranus are in conjunction with Logos in Gemini. The Sun is also in conjunction with Mercury and Venus in early Cancer. Virgo is rising and the Midheaven is in Gemini, both signs ruled by Mercury. The Sun, Mercury, Venus, Uranus, and Logos are all in the 10th house of the chart. They were transiting Frederic C. Williams’s natal planets in late Gemini and early Cancer.

Many notable scientists from various branches have their Sun conjunct Logos, for example such as Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642), Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650), Louis Braille (1809 – 1852), Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931), Wu Lien-teh (1879 – 1960), Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), Rollo May (1909 – 1994), Paul Modrich (born 1946), Esko Valtaoja (born 1951), and Tim Bray (born 1955).