New Moon in Scorpio – Nov. 13, 2023, 09:27 UT
Saturday, November 11th, 2023Mars in Scorpio is aligned in opposition to Uranus in Taurus. The New Moon in Scorpio is in conjunction with Mars, the traditional ruler of Scorpio. Uranus in Taurus is in conjunction with plutino 47171 Lempo, a trinary system from the Kuiper belt.
Lempo is one of the three known trans-Neptunian multiple systems with more than two components; the other two are the dwarf planets Pluto and Haumea. Two small satellites orbit Haumea. In the Pluto system four small moons are orbiting the central binary of Pluto and Charon. The central bodies orbit each other around a point in space, the barycenter (the center of mass of the two bodies). Lempo is a fascinating trinary system which resembles the Pluto system. Lempo and Hiisi, two almost similarly-sized components, form the central primary, which is a binary. The smaller outer component Paha orbits around them.
The largest component Lempo was discovered by American astronomers Eric Rubenstein and Louis-Gregory Strolger in October 1999. The other two components, Paha and Hiisi, were discovered in 2001 and 2007, respectively. All three bodies were named from Finnish mythology in October 2017.
According to the naming rules of the International Astronomical Union, plutinos are named after mythological creatures associated with the underworld. In the Finnish folklore and mythology Lempo is a sort of fiend, who brought down Väinämöinen, the wise old seer and the central character in the Kalevala, the national epic of the Finns. Lempo got help from his two demon cohorts Hiisi and Paha. The Kalevala was compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology. The first version of the Kalevala was published in 1835. Scholars still argue about how much of it is genuine folk poetry and how much is Lönnrot’s own work.
Originally, before the Christianization, Lempo was worshiped as the goddess of love and fertility. According to the myth, a glowing fireball shot from the sky and hit the ground. The Fire Woman with flaming hair came from beyond the visible world. The gender of the enigmatic Lempo is a bit unclear, but she is often described as a woman. In folk poetry the “lempo” related words can be associated with fire and iron. Lempo gave people fertile soil, tools and weapons, she lit the flame of love, and she escorted the dead to the Otherworld.
Lempo is mythological fire. Lempo is the creative fire burning inside every one of us. Now that the New Moon is in the passionate sign of Scorpio and the liberating Uranus is with Lempo in Taurus, perhaps we are free to express our originality and let our inner fire create something good and meaningful.