The Full Moon occurred at 10+ degrees of Libra. The Sun in the opposing sign Aries is conjunct Mercury and 37117 Narcissus, a centaur-like minor planet. Mercury turned retrograde a week ago, and is now approaching the Sun.

37117 Narcissus was discovered in 2000 by Canadian amateur astronomer William Kwong Yu Yeung at the Desert Beaver Observatory, a private observatory near Eloy, Arizona. 37117 Narcissus crosses the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. Using a broader definition of a centaur planet, it can be classified as a centaur, but its perihelion, the closest point in its orbit about the Sun, is inside Jupiter’s orbit. The Minor Planet Center defines centaurs as having a perihelion beyond the orbit of Jupiter and a semi-major axis less than that of Neptune. 37117 Narcissus will reach its perihelion in January 2019.

The myth of Echo and Narcissus was told by Ovid in the Metamorphoses. Echo was a talkative nymph cursed by goddess Juno. Echo was unable to say anything on her own, only repeat the last words of someone else. She fell in love with Narcissus, a beautiful youth who rejected her love. Narcissus bent down to drink from a spring and as a punishment fell deeply in love with his own reflection in the water. He was gazing into the pool hour after hour, until he changed into the narcissus plant.

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder with a long-term pattern of abnormal behavior characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for other people. The condition was named after Narcissus from the Greek myth.

We need to be cautious in the usage of the term NPD, because in spite of the common use of the word narcissism, only a small fraction of people actually have the disorder. We all have 37117 Narcissus somewhere in our charts, and we all can sometimes be vain or self-centered. Many social phenomena of our time encourage narcissistic behavior. We publish selfies and pour our lives to Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and blogs.

Aries represents self-directed energies, and the Sun is the symbol of ego. Libra is the sign of relationships and projection, and in Libra we seek balance. The Full Moon in Libra should help us to reflect healthy self-esteem.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 31st, 2018 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Full Moon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.