The Full Moon in Leo is in tight conjunction with centaur Cyllarus and opposes the Sun-Pluto conjunction in Aquarius. Pluto entered Aquarius a couple of days earlier, on Jan. 21. This is Pluto’s second ingress to the sign, and it will once again retrograde back to Capricorn in early September before its third and final ingress to Aquarius in November 2024. Pluto is in less than five degrees apart from centaur Hylonome in late Capricorn. Jupiter in Taurus squares the luminaries tightly and adds weight to the themes of this Full Moon.

52975 Cyllarus was discovered in 1998. Its orbital period is 133.4 years. Its orbit crosses those of Uranus and Neptune. Cyllarus came to perihelion (the nearest point of its orbit around the Sun) in September 1989. The body was named after the handsome centaur Cyllarus from Greek mythology. Cyllarus was brave and dearly loved by many, but centaur Hylonome had gained his heart. Their love was equal and 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. This is a sad story, but we must keep in mind that it is a symbolic story; all myths are metaphors.

In the myth the lives of these two centaurs are bound together, and in the astrological charts the bodies seem to have a certain relationship too, because a great many people living today have the Hylonome-Cyllarus opposition in their chart. There was a long ongoing opposition between Cyllarus and Hylonome from 1931 to 1983, although between 1949 and 1974 there were no exact oppositions, and at times the opposition went out of orb.

Last summer I was studying Hylonome and Cyllarus in the charts 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. Louise Bryant had the Sun-Hylonome conjunction. John Reed’s Cyllarus was square his Sun and opposite his Moon. You can read the entry here New Moon in Cancer – July 17, 2023, 18:32 UT .

According to astrologer Zane B. Stein, Hylonome represents ”the need to tell the truth no matter the consequences,” while Cyllarus desires to ”recreate the world in some way” (The Mountain Astrologer magazine, issue 172 / 2014). His ideas fit in with the astpirations of Reed and Bryant and with the following examples too.

President John F. Kennedy’s (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) natal Sun in Gemini was square Hylonome in Pisces and his Moon in Virgo was conjunct Cyllarus. President Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, when the Sun was transiting in conjunction with Cyllarus in the last degrees of Scorpio and the Moon was in the same degree with Damocles in Aquarius. ”The sword of Damocles” is a symbol for an over-hanging threat, faced especially by those in positions of power. The transiting Hylonome in Gemini was conjunct Kennedy’s natal Sun. The transiting Pluto in Virgo was conjunct his Cyllarus.

Martin Luther King’s (Jan. 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) Uranus is opposite his Cyllarus, and his Hylonome is sextile to the Sun and in wide conjunction with the Moon.

The present-day Hylonome and Cyllarus can be found either in prison or exiled in order to prevent them telling their truth. For example Julian Assange (born July 3, 1971), the founder of Wikileaks, has been kept in Belmarsh prison since April 2019 waiting extradition to the US. Assange’s Hylonome is conjunct his Venus (his values) in Gemini.

The Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (born Sept. 11, 1982) is forced into exile in Lithuania. After her husband’s arrest she was standing as a candidate in the 2020 presidential election against the dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Tsikhanouskaya has established an oppositional government in exile. She was tried in absence by the Belarusian government in 2023 and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has a precise Grand square in the fixed signes formed by the Hylonome-Cyllarus opposition and Jupiter-Sedna opposition (betrayed and isolated).

The New Moon in Capricorn is in conjunction with Arrokoth, the trans-Neptunian object that five years ago became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System visited by a spacecraft. The New Horizons space probe first made a flyby of Pluto in 2015, which later was followed by a flyby of Arrokoth. The closest approach to Arrokoth took place on Jan. 1, 2019. At the time of the New Horizons launch, Pluto was still a planet and Arrokoth was not even discovered.

New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft ever launched, took off on Jan. 19, 2006. Its primary mission was to perform a flyby of the Pluto system, and the secondary mission was to study one or more of the other Kuiper belt objects in the decade to follow. In the launch chart the Sun in the last degree of Capricorn was in conjunction with asteroid Photographica in early Aquarius. Astrologer Martha Lang-Wescott’s keywords for this asteroid are ”While useful for showing the importance of photography and visual images, Photographica also relates to the brain’s ability to retain and interpret visual imagery.” And what stunning images of Pluto the probe sent us! Pluto in the launch chart at 25+ Sagittarius was novile Photographica in Aquarius and in conjunction with Arrokoth in the first degree of Capricorn.

Planetary scientist Alan Stern (born Nov. 22, 1957) is the team leader of the New Horizons mission. His natal Sun in the first degree of Sagittarius is squaring his Pluto in early Virgo and semisextile Arrokoth in early Scorpio. His Mercury in the mid-Sagittarius is semisquare Arrokoth and biseptile Pluto. His solar arc directed Pluto, progressed to the launch date, is in Libra conjunct his natal Jupiter.

Arrokoth was discovered on June 26, 2014, by astronomer Marc Buie (born Sept. 17, 1958) using the Hubble Space Telescope in order to find a target for New Horizons’s extended mission. Marc Buie’s natal Sun in Virgo is in conjunction with asteroid Photographica. His Jupiter in early Sciorpio is in tight conjunction with Arrokoth and sextile Pluto in Virgo. When New Horizons made its closest approach to Arrokoth on Jan. 1, 2019, the Sun, Photographica and Arrokoth were in conjunction in Capricorn. The probe delivered us astonishing images again.

The instruments of New Horizons still continue to be operational. According to team leader Alan Stern, there is potential for a third flyby in the 2020s at the outer edges of the Kuiper belt. This depends on a suitable Kuiper belt object being found.

The name Arrokoth means “sky” in the Powhatan / Algonquian language of native people from the Tidewater region of Virginia and Maryland. Alan Stern has said: “The name ‘Arrokoth’ reflects the inspiration of looking to the skies, and wondering about the stars and worlds beyond our own.” According to Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, Arrokoth’s name “signifies the strength and endurance of the indigenous Algonquian people of the Chesapeake region. Their heritage continues to be a guiding light for all who search for meaning and understanding of the origins of the universe and the celestial connection of humanity.”

Arrokoth is a bilobate contact binary, composed of two lobes, that are named as Wenu and Weeyo. Both names mean “sky”. “Wenu” is the word for the sky in the Mapuche language spoken in Chile and Argentina, and “weeyo” in the Pulaar language of western Africa.

Once astronomy and astrology were linked together, and both functions were practiced by the same person. Nowadays there is a distinction between the two disciplines, but Arrokoth is the guiding light for both practitioners and keeps inspiring us. Astronomer Mike Brown, the discoverer of the largest members of the Kuiper belt, has said:

“Astrology is not just figurative literature about humanity. Astrology cares about the sky. The astrologers who occasionally correspond with me love to hear about new solar system discoveries, figure out orbital relationships and patterns, and speculate about what else might be out there and how everything fits together. I do all of these things, too. I then take these thoughts and move on to think literally their scientific implications. The astrologers take these thoughts and move on to think figuratively about what these mean for humans. But we, astronomers and astrologers, start in the same spot, with an intense interest in the sky. To me, that matters. Astronomy and astrology are brothers. Brothers don’t always do the same things or make the same choices. But when they maintain their initial ties to where they came from, their connection cannot help but stay strong.”

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