Full Moon in Cancer — January 2, 2018, 2:24 UT
The year begins with a Full Moon in Cancer, the home sign of the Moon. The Sun in the opposite sign Capricorn is in conjunction with Venus and a little centaur planet Amycus. Also Saturn is in Capricorn. Saturn arrived in its own sign about two weeks ago. Neptune in Pisces is in tight trine to the Moon and sextile to the Sun-Amycus conjunction.
In Cancer the focus is on the home, the family and the motherland. We may want to withdraw from contact with others and turn within. This tendency can be increased by Saturn’s inclination to set boundaries and build defenses. Centaur Amycus wants to remind us, that we are connected to other people and what we do – whether good or bad — affects everybody. We can’t be truly human in isolation.
55576 Amycus is a rather small centaur with a relatively long orbital period of over 125 years. It was discovered in April 2002 by the NEAT (the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program). It was named after a male centaur, which had an important role in the Centauromachy, a famous battle between the Lapith people and the centaurs in Greek mythology.
The battle took place during the wedding of the king of the Lapiths, Pirithous, and his bride Hippodameia. Amycus was responsible for the first death of one of the Lapiths. The wild centaurs were invited to the wedding, but they became drunk and lost control. One of the centaurs, Eurytus, tried to rape the bride. The other centaurs followed his example and tried to attack and violate the Lapith women. King Pirithous’s friend Theseus killed Eurytus. In anger Amycus then smashed the head of innocent Lapith Celadon. Amycus was killed with a leg from a maple table and sent to the underworld Tartarus. The Lapiths defeated the centaurs, which were forced to flee from Thessaly.
In Greek mythology there is also another Amycus, the son of Poseidon (the Greek equivalent of Neptune) and nymph Melia. He was a boxer and the king of the Bebryces. During the expedition of the Argonauts, Polydeuces (Pollux) killed him in a boxing match.
During the Full Moon the presence of loving Venus and idealistic Neptune support 55576 Amycus, and help us to be truly human in a good way and to spread the good. My little example is from Suomussalmi, Finland, from the past week. Because of heavy snowing, thousands of people were without electricity in the Kainuu region since Christmas. On New Year’s Eve the municipality of Suomussalmi opened the doors of the local spa for all those who suffered from the power failure. They could use the spa and recharge their cell phones for free.