The Full Moon is in the enthusiastic and optimistic sign of Sagittarius. The Moon and the Sun in Gemini form a Grand cross with the centaur-like Damocles in Pisces and the trans-Neptunian Aya in Virgo.

55565 Aya is a large cubewano named from Akkadian mythology after the goddess of dawn. Aya is associated with morning light and the rising sun. Aya was the second-brightest Kuiper belt object known at the time of its discovery in 2002. It was named in 2025. Its orbital period is 324 years.

5335 Damocles was discovered in 1991 on an orbit that was completely different from all others known. Its aggressive orbit reaches from inside Mars to outside Uranus. It is now the namesake of a group of objects, the damocloids. Damocles, like other damocloids, are believed to be inactive nuclei of long-period and Halley-type comets that have lost their volatile material and are dormant. The diameter of Damocles is only about 10 km. The small size is probably the reason why Damocles has not been observed since 1992, and it is currently ”lost”.

The orbit of Damocles is stable for tens of thousands of years, but there is a good chance that it will become an earth crosser asteroid. According to the official naming citation, “Legend has it that Damocles, a courtier of the tyrant Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, was invited to a feast, where he was seated below a sword suspended by a thread. Intended to demonstrate the impermanence of power, the ‘sword of Damocles’ has become a symbol of impending disaster. This minor planet, in an unusual orbit of very high eccentricity and inclination and crossing the orbits of Mars to Uranus, could itself be seen as such a sword during periods of its orbital evolution when it becomes an earth crosser.”

“The Sword of Damocles” is the metaphor for the imminent and ever-present peril faced by those in positions of power. It is often used also in a broader sense, and simply means an unexpected peril.

Damocles will reach its next perihelion on Aug. 23, 2031, in Leo. The orbital period around the Sun is nearly 41 years. However, astrologically it spends most of it, around 30 years, in Aquarius, and then hurries through the rest of the eleven signs of the zodiac in about ten years. Damocles has recently started a new round. In April 2021 it visited Pisces for the first time, made a visit back and forth between Aquarius and Pisces five times, and in December 2025 ingressed Pisces for good on the current round.

It is darkest before dawn. From a scientific standpoint this is not true. It is a proverb which reminds us that when things in life feel at their worst, a new beginning is just around the corner. Have faith, there is hope even in the worst of circumstances.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 30th, 2026 at 11:20 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.