Asteroid Goddesses

in the natal chart of

Streep, Maryl

by Demetra George and Douglas Bloch

with Patricia White

Asteroid Positions

Planet Sign Longitude Declination

O Ceres is in h Virgo 1` 55' 32" +19` 33' 00"

P Pallas is in g Leo 6` 26' 38" + 5` 01' 00"

{ Juno is in f Cancer 12` 45' 10" +14` 58' 00"

} Vesta is in c Sagittarius 17` 53' 20" -18` 22' 00"

Other Positions

Planet Sign Longitude Declination

q Sun is in f Cancer 0` 43' 02" +23` 27' 00"

w Moon is in s Taurus 14` 23' 34" +17` 53' 00"

e Mercury is in d Gemini 10` 17' 13" +17` 59' 00"

r Venus is in f Cancer 18` 25' 10" +23` 27' 00"

t Mars is in d Gemini 8` 49' 54" +21` 53' 00"

y Jupiter is in b Aquarius 0` 31' 52" -20` 27' 00"

u Saturn is in h Virgo 1` 34' 09" +12` 27' 00"

i Uranus is in f Cancer 0` 44' 05" +23` 39' 00"

o Neptune is in z Libra 12` 23' 46" - 3` 26' 00"

p Pluto is in g Leo 14` 51' 04" +23` 41' 00"

l N. Node is in a Aries 22` 18' 22" + 8` 41' 00"

j Ascendant is in g Leo 2` 45' 26" +19` 33' 00"

k Midheaven is in a Aries 18` 40' 46" + 7` 19' 00"

$ Chiron is in c Sagittarius 4` 13' 17" -16` 20' 00"

Planetary Aspects

q Sun is G Sextile O Ceres The orb is 1` 13'

w Moon is G Sextile { Juno The orb is 1` 38'

e Mercury is G Sextile P Pallas The orb is 3` 51'

r Venus is Z Semisquare O Ceres The orb is 1` 30'

r Venus is A Conjunct { Juno The orb is 5` 40'

r Venus is V Quincunx } Vesta The orb is 0` 32'

t Mars is G Sextile P Pallas The orb is 2` 23'

y Jupiter is V Quincunx O Ceres The orb is 1` 24'

y Jupiter is S Opposite P Pallas The orb is 5` 55'

u Saturn is A Conjunct O Ceres The orb is 0` 21'

i Uranus is G Sextile O Ceres The orb is 1` 11'

o Neptune is D Square { Juno The orb is 0` 21'

p Pluto is F Trine } Vesta The orb is 3` 02'

l N. Node is F Trine } Vesta The orb is 4` 25'

O Ceres is C Semisextile j Ascendant The orb is 0` 50'

P Pallas is A Conjunct j Ascendant The orb is 3` 41'

} Vesta is X Sesquiquadrate j Ascendant The orb is 0` 08'

O Ceres is X Sesquiquadrate k Midheaven The orb is 1` 45'

{ Juno is D Square k Midheaven The orb is 5` 56'

} Vesta is F Trine k Midheaven The orb is 0` 47'

O Ceres is D Square $ Chiron The orb is 2` 18'

P Pallas is F Trine $ Chiron The orb is 2` 13'

Introduction:

The Asteroid Goddesses

The Discovery of the Asteroids
The asteroids are small planet-like bodies that orbit the Sun in a belt that lies mostly between Mars and Jupiter. They first dawned on human consciousness in the early 1800s. The first four asteroids to be sighted were given the names of four of the great goddesses of classical antiquity: Ceres (discovered in 1801), Pallas Athene (discovered in 1802), Juno (discovered in 1804) and Vesta (discovered in 1807).

Many more asteroids were soon discovered, so that by the end of the 19th century, over a thousand were known. The first asteroid ephemeris (a table listing planetary positions) was made available to astrologers in 1973 by Eleanor Bach, and it covered only the original four. Today astrologers have computer software that tracks the placements of over five thousand.

What the Asteroids Mean for the World
Astrologers have often observed the tendency for the sighting and naming of new bodies in the solar system to come at the same time in history as the activation of new centers of consciousness in the collective human psyche. Overall, the rapid discovery of so many new celestial bodies in such a short time mirrors the modern acceleration of human brain potential, and the recent exponential growth of information that has yielded so many thousands of new facts.

As to uncovering a more particular meaning for the asteroids, the names that become attached to newly discovered bodies always seem to be significant. Though many asteroids were given the names of gods, people, places, concepts and things, over three-quarters of the first thousand to be discovered were named after goddesses from various mythological traditions.

The naming of so many asteroids after female deities paralleled an awakening of a feminine-defined principle in women, men and society. Around 1973, when the first astrological asteroid ephemeris was published and astrologers began extensive consideration of asteroids, the women's movement emerged, and new aspects of feminine expression began to awaken in human consciousness. Women became imbued with the seed possibilities of feminine creativity and intelligence that expanded and transcended the traditional roles of wife and mother. This period also marked the rediscovery of women's ancient history, the growth of women's culture in creative and professional areas, and the rebirth of the Goddess in women's spirituality. The lives of men and that of society in general have also been affected by the activation and growing influence of a right-brain, feminine-polarity, holistic way of perceiving the world.

In the symbolic language of astrology, the goddess asteroids provided new archetypes that specifically addressed the current psychological and social issues that arose from this activation of the feminine principle. Only two of the usual planets, the Moon and Venus, represent feminine archetypes, and these are of the mother and the wife. Until the asteroids, astrology had to fit all other women's experiences into masculine- defined archetypes. What was needed was a set of symbols by which to describe the other avenues of feminine expression that exist today. During the years since 1972 when astrologers have observed the significance of asteroids in birth charts, they have uncovered a wealth of information that adds insight and understanding above and beyond that gained from the usual ten planets.

Astrology's Use of Asteroids
Clearly, it is impossible to include all the thousands of asteroids in a birth chart and then make sense of them. To select asteroids to look at, some astrologers note only the asteroids that are very closely conjunct important points in the chart such as the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Midheaven or a particular planet that is being considered. Alternatively, they look for asteroid names that suggest people, places or themes in a person's life, and then see where these asteroids fall in the chart. Using these approaches, astrologers such as Zipporah Dobyns, Jacob Schwartz, J. Lee Lehman, Nona Gwyn Press and Batya Stark (as well as myself) have come up with an amazing number of startling (and often amusing) synchronicities. Playing the asteroid name game is great fun, and it gives yet another comforting manifestation of the interconnectedness of all things.

Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta
Among the thousands of asteroids known, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta have a special place. While these are not necessarily the largest asteroids, they were the first to be discovered, and as such they have imprinted themselves on human consciousness in a major way.

They also complete the female pantheon of goddesses, rounding out the system of symbols begun in the usual ten planets. Of the six great goddesses of Olympus, only Aphrodite (Venus) and Artemis (the Moon) are represented in the conventional astrological symbol system. The other four great goddesses of Graeco-Roman mythology, Demeter (Ceres), Athene (Pallas), Hera (Juno) and Hestia (Vesta), were missing from astrology until they were re-invoked by their discovery in the early 1800s.

The Mandala of the Asteroid Goddesses
Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta represent four very basic feminine archetypes which amplify and particularize the more general energies of the Moon and Venus. Their relation to the regular planets and to each other becomes clear in a mandala.

The large circle in the mandala represents the Moon, the fundamental feminine principle that contains all the potential expressions of the feminine nature. Behind the Moon resides the Sun, the embodiment of the fundamental masculine principle. The union of the masculine and feminine, of the Sun God and Moon Goddess, give rise to what mystics have described as Oneness.

In the center of the mandala is Venus. As the essence of the feminine nature in her activated form, Venus embodies the feminine creative, magnetic, sexual, reproductive, vital life force. Venus is surrounded by Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta. Each of the four in its unique way uses the creative sexual energy of Venus to express the various functions and activities of the feminine principle as it operates in both women and men.

Note that these asteroids are placed at the four cardinal directions of the mandala. These correspond to the four "angles" of the astrological chart: the Ascendant and Descendant to the left and right along the horizon, and the MC (Medium Coeli or Midheaven) and IC (Imum Coeli or Lowest Heaven), at the top and bottom of the vertical meridian line. The basic symbolism of these four great goddesses is as follows:

OCeres, the archetypal Mother and the Goddess of Agriculture, gives birth to the world of physical form, bearing children and providing food for their survival. As the Mother archetype, she stands for the principle of unconditional love and nurturing support in both women and men. In the above mandala she is placed at the IC, the very bottom of the horoscope wheel, which in astrology is related to the foundation, the roots, and the family.

PPallas Athene, the daughter of Zeus, is the Goddess of Wisdom who generates mental and artistic creations from her mind. Sprung from the head of her father, she represents the principle of creative intelligence. Her place in the mandala is at the MC, the "head" of the chart, the uppermost point, which symbolizes one's ambitions and one's visible, socially useful accomplishments.

{Juno, or Hera, was the wife of Zeus. As such, she is the Goddess of Marriage who fosters and sustains union with a partner. More generally, she symbolizes the principle of relatedness and commitment to another over time. In the mandala, she is placed at the Descendant, which in the horoscope wheel is the point that signifies reaching out from the Self to another in order to complete oneself in a one-to-one relationship.

}Vesta, or Hestia, was Zeus's elder sister who never married. In mythology she became the protectress of the hearth and the sacred altar flame. The archetypal Temple Priestess, she is a virgin in the original sense of being whole and complete in oneself. In the system of goddess symbols, she represents the principle of spiritual focus and of devotion to following one's calling. Placed in the mandala at the Ascendant, Vesta corresponds to the Self.

These asteroids represent the primary relationships of a woman's life: that of mother, daughter, wife and sister. The fertile sexual energy of Venus is used by Ceres to birth children of the body, by Pallas to birth children of the mind, by Juno to build relationships with others, and by Vesta to deepen a relationship with the Self or with the Divine.

The Asteroid Goddesses in the Charts of Men
Just as the planets named after male gods pertain to the lives of women, these asteroids named for female goddesses are also important in the lives of men. The recognition and honoring of one's contrasexual side completes and strengthens the personality, embracing the unintegrated energies that are often sources of trouble.

OCeres expands on the Moon's symbolism by further illuminating the relationship of a man to his mother and also to women and other nurturing figures in his adult life. In addition, Ceres signifies a man's own tender, caregiving side and the ways in which this part of his nature can find expression. Typical manifestations of Ceres energies in a man are teaching and mentoring, pediatrics and pedagogy, farming and gardening, cooking and nutrition, medicine and therapy, ecology and environmental protection, and, of course, his part in helping his own children thrive and grow.

PPallas, for a man as well as a woman, can symbolize his capacity for strategy, his quest for clarity and truth, his sense of justice, the acquisition of skill and ingenuity in useful arts, and the ability to channel life energy for healing. Just as she can in women, Pallas can signify either a man's rejection of the feminine within himself, or the drive to integrate the opposite sexual polarity into his psyche. The placement of Pallas can also suggest how a man perceives the strong, independent women in his life. This usually has to do with his sense of his own competence.

{Juno can signify a man's style of dealing with marriage and other forms of partnership, including, in some cases, business partnerships. Her placement determines how the struggle between the self and the other plays out, and whether the partnerships a man enters into are likely to be equal or unequal. Juno may also show the sort of wife a man is likely to pick, and his attitude toward married women in general. This asteroid has to do with the man in his procreative role as husband and father, and, by extension, in any joint venture for the production of a new entity. Just as she does for a woman, Juno may also show how a man deals with the infidelity of a partner.

}Vesta signifies a man's relationship to himself as a complete being, apart from relationships with others. Her placement can suggest to a man how he can best become still, look within, and tend to Deity or his inner spirit. Just as she does in women, Vesta can also signify a man's urge to conserve and preserve the home, the state, the culture and its institutions.

The Asteroids as Developmental Stages
When you combine the above basic symbolism of the first four asteroids with the order in which they were discovered, the four great goddess asteroids form yet another self-contained symbol system, one that defines four stages of human, and most particularly feminine, lives:

OCeres, the first asteroid to be discovered, governs the first stage of life, when the person's primary focus is the mother. This is the stage of the Child.

PPallas, the second to be discovered, suggests the time of life when the child starts looking toward the father to be initiated into the rules of the world outside the home. This period starts when many girls become tomboys and dream of their future careers. It continues into the period when young people are out in the world studying or working or pursuing a career but are not yet parents. In a woman's life this pre-reproductive stage is that of the Maiden.

{Juno, the third asteroid to be discovered, was the archetypal wife on Olympus and was also a protectress of childbirth. She suggests the one stage of a person's life that is commonly devoted to marriage and reproduction. In a woman, this is the stage of the Matron.

}Vesta, the last-discovered of the four, represents the final stage of life when a woman's focus commonly turns away from child-bearing and child-rearing, and she turns toward cultivating herself as a separate individual, apart from her family relationships. In women, this post-reproductive period is the stage of the Crone. This supplements the pre-reproductive or self-contained Virgin symbolism already mentioned in connection with Vesta.

Arranging the asteroids in this way gives further clues to their meaning. Naturally, however, a woman may embody the symbolism of any of these asteroids at any time in her life.

These life stages pertain to a woman's life in particular, something that has until recently been largely neglected. They of course have their analogies in the lives of men, but in a slightly modified form, since reproduction does not tend to be so central to men's lives and many men can reproduce well into old age. Like women, men typically have a Ceres stage in which their primary attachment is to their mother, a Pallas stage where they are initiated by the father into the outside world, a Juno stage when they are husbands and fathers working to sustain a family, and a Vesta stage when they are free to retire and cultivate their inner lives.

How to Use This Report
You could think of your birth chart as a play. The planets and asteroids are the actors, harmonizing with, clashing against, or ignoring one another, depending on the aspects that they do or do not make with the other points in the chart. The sign of the zodiac that the asteroid or planet is in shows where the actor is "coming from": whether he or she is at home or in foreign territory, and his or her style of operation. The house that a planet or asteroid falls into is like the scenery, showing the area of life in which that archetype is most likely to operate.

The house cusps, and the Ascendant, Imum Coeli, Descendant and Midheaven (which in most systems of house division are the cusps of the First, Fourth, Seventh and Tenth houses) are the fastest-moving points in the chart. Moving about one degree along the zodiac during every four minutes of time, they travel all the way around the zodiac every twenty- four hours.

These are what make your chart different from the charts of other people born the same day. They deliver the most personal, particular information in your chart, but for them to do so, your birth time must be given as accurately as possible, preferably within a half-hour of time. If you are uncertain of your birth time, it is best to ignore the paragraphs that deal with houses, or with conjunctions to the Ascendant, Imum Coeli, Descendant or Midheaven. If necessary, you can probably get your birth time from your birth certificate, obtainable from the Bureau of Vital Records in the state where you were born.

When You're Reading This Report
When you read about the sign and house placements of each asteroid, it is best not to draw any conclusions about that asteroid until you after you've read about the asteroid's aspects. For example, if you had Ceres in Cancer conjunct the planet Uranus, Ceres's Cancerian need for emotional security would be offset by Uranus's desire for freedom and change. Both indications may apply, but in different areas of life, or you may feel an ongoing sense of contradiction and tension between the two. Conversely, if several indications reinforce each other, their manifestation in your life will most likely be strong and obvious. Also remember that when a planet is at the end of a house within a degree or two of the cusp of the next house, it starts to take on the meanings of the next house as well.

An Important Note about Aspects
The authors do not consider the "hard" aspects (squares, oppositions, semisquares and sesquiquadrates) and other traditionally difficult aspects (like quincunxes and sometimes semisextiles) as uniformly bad. Neither do they consider the so-called "soft" or "easy" aspects (trine and sextile) as always good. Practicing astrology from a mythic and psychological point of view, they find that the nature of the two archetypal principles being connected is more important than the nature of the aspect. Regardless of the type of aspect being made, most people experience the entire range of interactions between two planets (or between a planet and an asteroid).

We believe that people grow by integrating opposing polarities in the psyche (represented by the opposition aspect) and by resolving inner conflicts (represented by the square). We do not wish to give you the limiting suggestion that the issues depicted by difficult aspects are impossible to resolve, or give you a false sense of security that the so-called good aspects require no awareness and effort on your part. You will therefore find that the interpretations in this report cover a wide range of both positive and negative possibilities for each aspect.

Aspects do, however, differ in strength. Major aspects (particularly the conjunction and opposition) and aspects involving the Sun or Moon tend to speak louder than others. To help you spot the more important aspects in your chart, you'll see notations ranging from "Very strong influence" to "Slight influence."

You can get an even more precise idea of the strength of an aspect by looking at the aspect table at the beginning of this report. The values in the "The orb is" column show how far the aspect is from being exact. If you see an aspect with an orb of zero (that is, less than one degree), you can mentally "bump up" the aspect's rating a notch (for example, from "Strong" to "Very strong"). Conversely, if you see an orb greater than eight degrees, you can consider the aspect's importance diminished.

With this said, let us now explore the role that each of these four asteroid goddesses plays in your astrological chart.

Part One:

Ceres, the Mother

Appropriately, the first asteroid to be discovered was named after the Olympian goddess who most exemplifies the mother - the first human being with whom most of us have contact, the first relationship that we encounter in life. Ceres, the Mother, deals with all sorts of mother-child issues. Of the four stages in a person's life, she signifies the Child.

The glyph or written symbol for Ceres takes the form of a scythe. Besides signifying the goddess of agriculture, this tool for harvesting suggests both the roundness of a breast and the themes of separation and death that run through the legend of Ceres. As the mother, she brings us into life, and, like the Christian Mary who grieves over her crucified Son, she also lets us go into death, thus starting another cycle. For this reason she is associated with the IC of the horoscope, the very bottom of the day cycle, where, in the system of astrological houses, life begins and ends.

The Myth of Ceres
Known to the Greeks as Demeter, Ceres was the goddess of agriculture who worked unceasingly to bring food and nourishment to the people of the earth. One of the great classical myths tells of her daughter Persephone's ravishment and abduction by Pluto, lord of the underworld. Grieving, Ceres wandered over the earth in search of her missing child. In her grief, depression and anger, she caused a famine, withholding production of all food until her daughter was returned.

Persephone meanwhile had eaten pomegranate seeds, a symbol of sexual awareness, thus giving Pluto a claim over her so that she could not be returned permanently to her mother. A compromise was reached whereby Persephone would spend part of each year in the underworld with Pluto caring for the souls of the dead, but each spring would be reunited with her mother in the upper world as she initiated the dead into the rites of rebirth. For over two thousand years, this drama was celebrated regularly in ancient Greece as the initiation rites of the Eleusinian mysteries.

Ceres Within Us
Ceres represents the part of our nature that longs to give birth and then to nourish and sustain the new life. She represents the essential bonding or lack thereof that occurs between mother and child. She is the impulse not just to nurture, but also to be nurtured by others through the giving and receiving of acceptance and unconditional love.

The story of Ceres and Persephone speaks to the complex mother-child relationship, emphasizing the interplay of closeness and separation, of nurturing and eventual letting-go as the child becomes an adult able to function on her or his own. Once the letting-go is accomplished, the child is free to reestablish the bond in a different key by becoming a friend to the parent and by producing grandchildren.

The Ceres myth also contains the themes of major physical or emotional loss, separation, abandonment, rejection, and estrangement that occur between parents and children, and later in life with other loved ones. One example of this is the anguish we face in cases of divorce or adoption when we need to share our children with their other parent. Ceres symbolizes attachment to whatever we have given birth to or created, and also the agony of losing it. If her myth is one of loss, however, it is also one of return, of death but also rebirth. Reminding us that loss makes way for new birth, Ceres can teach us the lesson of letting go.

A central part of Ceres bonding is the giving of food as an expression of love. In our early experiences as children, this food and love may be freely given. In other instances, however, it is conditionally awarded, withheld as a form of punishment, pushed upon us, or simply neglected. Then the self-love and self-worth of the child are undermined and underdeveloped, causing a host of psychological problems.

The mythological Ceres withheld food in the midst of her grief and depression. Correspondingly, one typical kind of Ceres wound is an obsessive relationship with food, including the whole range of eating disorders and food-related illnesses. Related to this, there can also be problems with a poor body image.

In her grief, Ceres became immobilized. Thus another Ceres problem manifests as being plunged into depths of depression or despair, making us incapable of daily functioning, work, and all other forms of productivity. To the extent that depression is associated with incomplete mourning, working through the stages of grief (shock, anger, bargaining, depression, and ultimately acceptance) can help to promote healing in times of loss.

An additional theme comes from Ceres's daughter Persephone being raped by Pluto, her mother's brother. This points to fears that parents may have in protecting their children from similar harm. Certain Ceres placements in the chart may also point to one's having oneself experienced incest or other sexual abuse as a child.

In a desire to keep their children safe, parents with strong Ceres placements can become overly controlling and restrictive. In order to establish their own identity, their children may then struggle against the parental attachment. This, in turn, can bring up the Ceres theme of loss of the child.

On a transpersonal level, Ceres as the Mother of the World moves us to care about the homeless and hungry, and also about the destruction of the earth's resources. She urges us to take compassionate action to provide for fundamental human needs, and to care for the body of the earth which supports and sustains us.

Ceres not only gave birth to the living, but in her aspect as Persephone she received the souls of the dead back into her womb to prepare them for rebirth. Thus Ceres can also express as a vocation for either midwifery or hospice work, facilitating the transition from death to life and back again on either the physical or the psychological level.

Ceres embodies the great truth of transformation, that from death comes new life. This comes not just from the Persephone part of her story, but also from the nature of food, which always requires the taking of plant or animal life in order to sustain our own lives.

Ceres also teaches the wisdom that over-attachment and possessiveness can eventually bring loss, whereas sharing and letting go lead ultimately to reunion.

Ceres in Your Chart

Ceres's Zodiacal Sign
The zodiacal sign of Ceres shows the particular quality of nurturing that you experienced as a child. This sets the stage for how you presently nurture the child within yourself, and ultimately determines how you nurture others. The sign position of Ceres can alert you to possible problems with nurturing, and can direct you to the kinds of experience that you need to feel unconditionally loved and accepted.

These indications may be reinforced or contradicted by other factors in the chart such as aspects and (if you have given an accurate birth time) houses. Therefore, to get a rounded picture, be sure to read through the whole section on each asteroid.

Ceres in Virgo
When you were born, Ceres was traveling through the sign Virgo. When you were a child you identified nurturance with being raised in a clean, orderly, healthy living environment. Also, you wanted your parents to teach you skills and competence, thus equipping you to function in the everyday world.

If these needs were not met in an ideal manner, you may have been told that you were not good enough, no matter how hard you tried. You may have reacted (and still be reacting) to this criticism by having an obsessive need to be perfect and by finding fault with other people or with your circumstances.

As an adult, you still desire to have these needs met by whomever you turn to for nurturing - whether it be a parent, partner or other loved one. You can nurture yourself or the child within you by creating a clean and orderly living environment, by mastering a skill or technique that reinforces a sense of competency, by cultivating good health and hygiene habits, and by finding ways to be useful. In turn, your natural style of nurturing children or other loved ones is to create order in their surroundings and habits, to teach them to achieve excellence by the right application of skills. You have a strong desire to be of service, and may be especially drawn to the areas of health and nutrition.

The House that Ceres Occupies
Assuming that the birth time that you have given is accurate within an hour or so, the houses of the horoscope give more particular information about the way the asteroids and planets operate in your chart.

Besides the Fourth House, which shows your earliest upbringing, the house that Ceres falls into shows where or in what department of life you may most directly feel the need for mothering and nurturing. The house that Ceres is in also suggests the areas in which you are likely to feel your profoundest losses. In addition, it can give a key as to what kinds of experiences will either foster feelings of self-love, or feelings of self-criticism and rejection.

Ceres in the Second House
With Ceres moving through the Second House at the hour of your birth, you often find yourself nurturing loved ones by providing for material needs such as shelter, food or money. Nurturing yourself may take the form of buying things, indulging in physical pleasures, or pampering yourself in other concrete ways. You may want to take care that you don't over-identify with your possessions or expect things in and of themselves to bring you happiness.

Because of the Ceres themes associated with loss, the significant dramas of your life may come from the loss of physical possessions or the threat of financial insecurity. To you, this may feel at first as if your entire means of survival is threatened. It helps to remember that in the myth of Ceres, loss is part of a cycle of loss and then return. It is important to ride out these times by building up your inner sources of nourishment and strength as well as taking practical outward measures. When you at last realize that you are not dependent on others for your physical survival, you gain a much greater sense of self-worth and self-acceptance.

The Aspects that Ceres Makes
The aspects that Ceres makes with other planets and asteroids show how her nurturing energies interact with the concerns of the other gods and goddesses in your chart. If her aspects reinforce the themes suggested by her sign and house, these themes are bound to be obvious in your life. If the aspects in some way contradict the themes of the sign and house, they may give rise to interesting tensions that take some creativity and practice to resolve. If an asteroid makes an aspect with the Sun or Moon, her importance for you is greatly magnified.

Ceres sextile the Sun. Strong influence.
Ceres, the great nurturer, unites with the symbol of your basic identity and conscious purpose.

This aspect suggests that parenting or some other kind of nurturing is central to your being. Whether or not it is directed toward your own children, you have a strong desire to love, protect, take care of. Either literally or figuratively, you are driven to give birth or start something, and then to nourish and sustain the new entity as it grows.

Paralleling the Ceres myth, at some point in your life you may have to deal with loss, separation, rejection or abandonment from your parents, children or other family members, or with the loss of something else that you have created or which is dear to you. According to the myth, after a period of grieving and withdrawal, this loss can be followed, in one form or another, by a return.

You may become intensely involved with your family, either parenting your children or taking care of your parents, or both. Outside of the family, you may find that activities such as growing or preparing food, feeding the homeless and hungry, protecting Mother Earth through environmental activism, or working with the dying (as in the hospice movement), take a central place in your life.

A person who lives out the Ceres-Sun archetype is Yoko Ono, wife of the late John Lennon. With Ceres conjunct the Sun in Aquarius/Pisces, she suffered the denial of her first child, lost her husband, and as a single parent has given much of her inheritance from John Lennon to feed poor and hungry children.

There are some potential dangers in this aspect. One is that excessive attachment to your children or loved ones can lead you to smother them with over-protectiveness. As a result, the child or other loved one may struggle to break free from your control. In the past, you yourself may have had to struggle to assert your own independence from an overbearing or controlling parent. This over-attachment to a child could also stem from underlying fears that, like Persephone, the child could experience sexual violation.

Remember that, in the myth, Pluto dragged Persephone into the underworld. Paralleling this, people with strong Ceres energies sometimes have children who slip into the underworld - through substance abuse, running away, experiencing sexual violation, getting involved in unsavory circumstances, or having a life-threatening illness. Fortunately, the myth suggests that the child will eventually return.

Another danger of this aspect is that you may feel a conflict between being your own person and taking care of others. If you self-sacrifice long enough, you will also sacrifice intimacy and closeness with your loved ones. This is because when you suppress your own needs, you eventually lose touch with yourself. You cannot have real intimacy with others if they find "no one there" with whom to relate. To nurture the souls of your loved ones, you must first nurture and develop yourself.

Other Ceres problems may include a low self-image, the thwarting of your nurturing needs, an obsessive relationship with food (which may turn into an eating disorder), a poor body image, or recurring themes of depression and rejection. The resolution of these challenges lies in developing a positive sense of self-worth. Again, the key is always to remember to nurture yourself. If you seek counseling or therapy for such problems, your counselor may have a Ceres- like, nurturing style.

To increase your understanding of this important aspect, we suggest that you pay special attention to the story of Ceres. As you do so, you may find that other themes from her story are reflected in your life experience.

Ceres semisquare Venus. Slight influence.
Ceres's capacity to nurture and protect combines with Venus's urge to attract people and things that you love and value.

The goddess of love, beauty and sexuality can both reinforce and conflict with your nurturing instincts. With this aspect, you tend to care for others with a sensual tenderness that borders on the erotic. This can lead to extremely nurturing and emotionally fertile love relationships for you and your partner.

This is also an extremely beneficial aspect for physical and artistic creativity. Ceres's fertile productivity when linked with Venus's aesthetic nature enables you to create nurturing, life-promoting environments that are luxuriant, harmonious and pleasing to the senses. You may prepare beautiful meals, or turn other aspects of nurture into art. For you, nurturing may also mean introducing your loved ones to beautiful things or cultivating their artistic talents. Or you may nurture yourself with your own artistic endeavors or by appreciating art.

While these two energies reinforce each other to produce great fertility, the combination of the Great Nurturer with the goddess of sexual love can also produce problems. While love and beauty can add to the nurturing of children, when a parent's feeling of nurturing inappropriately combines with sexual attraction, seduction or incest can result.

This aspect may also mean a role conflict between being the nurturer of your family and being your partner's lover, or in your relationship with your lover playing the parental role too strongly. If this happens, the unconscious incest taboo may lead to a crippling of sexual intimacy. One danger of this is in children being substituted as the objects of one's erotic feelings. Or one of the partners may tend to project unmet nurturing needs onto the other, resulting in conflicts stemming from a perceived lack of nurturing.

Another way that this aspect could play out is simply in a conflict between your artistic endeavors and your family obligations.

Ceres-Venus problems can also include complexes that arise from the relationship you had with your nurturer over food. You may have been denied food, rewarded with it, or force-fed, such that in adulthood you may deny yourself food or overindulge. In extreme cases this can lead to anorexia or bulimia. The resultant shame around body image can lead to feelings of not being attractive or desirable to others, and can inhibit you in the expression in your sexuality. You could use food as a substitute for love and acceptance, or use being overweight as a protective mechanism to avoid intimacy. This situation is especially painful for those with a Ceres-Venus contact, because these are the people who most link their own self-esteem with being attractive and sexually desirable.

After Ceres's daughter, Persephone, was raped and violated, both mother and daughter starved themselves as a way of coping with the trauma. This connection can be seen in the fact that people with eating disorders often have a history of sexual abuse.

In all of the above cases, healing the wounds of your inner feminine can help you to magnetize nurturing and supportive sexual interactions.

Ceres quincunx Jupiter. Slight influence.
Ceres's capacity to nurture and protect combines with Jupiter's urge to search for meaning, truth and ethical values.

This aspect intensifies Ceres's need to bestow love and unconditional acceptance. Jupiter's generous nature increases - even to excess - your desire to nurture your loved ones, and to provide for their well-being and domestic comfort. Jupiter also influences you to nurture your children by giving them the best of educational opportunities and by imparting a strong system of values and beliefs.

On the wider scene, you may nurture people's minds as well as their souls through teaching and publishing. Or you may provide for others by becoming involved in world hunger programs or with the large-scale production, provision, and distribution of food and other basic services.

Since Jupiter rules excess, and Ceres rules self-worth, there is a potential for grandiosity through an overinflated sense of self. This could be the result of a parent's overindulging you. When you left the nest, you may have felt shocked that the world didn't cater to your every need.

There is also a danger of over-identifying with the parental role and believing that you must bestow all good things, perhaps even the best, on your family and perhaps on the rest of the world as well. Remember that if you give too much, you deplete your own nurturing reserves. This can lead to personal overindulgence such as overeating or overspending. To keep this overweening hunger at bay, you must remember to balance generosity to others with generosity to yourself.

Ceres conjunct Saturn. Strong influence.
Ceres's capacity to nurture and protect combines with Saturn's urge to create structure, limit and form.

When it works optimally, this aspect shows that your primary caregivers provided a stable, orderly and structured environment for you. They strove to impart the virtues of discipline and self-responsibility, so that as an adult you are responsible, loyal and dedicated to members of your own family. Your nurturing relationships will then be characterized by respect, depth and enduring bonds.

On the other hand, since Saturn rules the concept of limits and scarcity, you may have experienced a lack of love and validation from your primary caregivers. Excessive punishment, rigidity or harsh discipline may have been administered. In your home setting you may have felt restricted and confined. Your caregivers may have been absent, or cold, or have demanded certain behaviors or expected you to live up to high standards in exchange for their approval. The result is that you may still feel that in order to be loved you have to perform.

Whatever the details, you did not feel unconditionally loved. Because you didn't get what you needed, it may be difficult for you to offer and express emotional support to your own loved ones. To break the pattern of feeling deprived and resentful, you may have to let go of blaming your parents and learn to give yourself the love you that were previously denied.

In other cases, your parents may have been overly responsible, doing everything for you and not allowing you to discover your own strength. In this case, as an adult the most nurturing thing you can do for yourself is to learn to be strong your own. This means developing self-discipline and independence.

Another scenario is that you may have had to take on the responsibility of parenting your siblings, or even your parents in some cases, if they were physically or emotionally debilitated. In your current role as provider, also, you may feel overly obligated and constrained by the responsibilities of caring for your children or elderly parents. Although taking responsibility can be a source of satisfaction and self- development and a way to express love, it should not be allowed to fill up your whole field of view. You may have to discipline your self to take time off to give yourself the nurture and pleasure that you need.

Ceres sextile Uranus. Moderate influence.
Ceres's capacity to nurture and protect combines with Uranus's urge to express one's uniqueness and to deviate from the norm.

When this aspect works well, you have an original and innovative approach toward caring for others that is related to the way you were treated as a child. As a parent, you are likely to give your children a great deal of freedom to be themselves and to follow their own interests. You nurture individuality and are tolerant of people's unusual behavior. You may also extend the idea of family to embrace odd groupings not usually thought of as family. In fact, other people may have viewed your family of origin as unusual or eccentric.

This combination also suggests that you can universalize the nurturing impulse into humanitarian activities. Your desire to nurture can take the form of envisioning and working toward social change. Ceres-Uranus individuals are often advocates of human rights and especially support children's individuality. Moreover, this aspect can connote a highly developed intuition concerning human nature that enables you to establish rapport with people very much unlike yourself, including those of other races and nationalities.

The downside of this aspect is that you may have experienced childhood nurturing that was unreliable and erratic. Life might have seemed unpredictable, out of control, or chaotic. If your own home life was unstable, this can create difficulty in forming emotional bonds as an adult. If you were raised in a "broken" home or rebelled against your parents, you may later feel a persistent conflict between family closeness and personal freedom.

Because setting limits was not modeled for you, as a parent you may have difficulty in setting limits for your own children. You may have erratic relations and separations with them or may experience them as rebellious. This may bother you if Saturn is strong in your chart, but if Uranus predominates you may think of it as normal. For the sake of your children and possibly your own sanity, it is a good idea to lay down some ground rules that will ensure at least a minimum amount of order.

One other meaning of this aspect can be unusual tastes in food.

Part Two:

Pallas, the Daughter

Pallas, the second asteroid to be discovered, was named for the goddess who, instead of being born from the womb, sprang from the head of her father and in her later actions exemplified strengths that are often thought of as masculine. Befittingly, this second asteroid to be discovered represents a second developmental stage in people's lives, when they look to their fathers to provide them with the firmness and independence to leave the home and go forth into the world. This is the time of life when one acquires skills and a sense of competence, and starts to formulate oneself as an independent person. In societies where female children were expected to marry at the earliest possible age, this stage was largely neglected in a woman's development, but it is a stage as important for women as it is for men. For either sex, only when this stage is successfully mastered is one truly ready to embark on the next stage, wherein one becomes a partner in a relationship of equals.

The astrological glyph for Pallas pictures the spear that is carried by the goddess in many depictions. The spear points upward and outward toward the world at large. Like the suit of swords in the Tarot, the spear suggests the intellect, which probes and severs, seeking knowledge and separating one idea from another to achieve clarity. The glyph also suggests a head upon a body; signifying the goddess's origin, her associations with the intellect, and the movement from the womb center to the head, or from the bottom, or IC, of the horoscope wheel to the top, or Midheaven.

The Myth of Pallas Athene
Pallas was better known to the Greeks as Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom. She is said to have sprung full-grown, clad in a suit of gleaming war armor, from the crown of the head of her father, Zeus (Jupiter), and to have immediately taken her place at his right-hand side.

As patroness of Athens, she presided over military strategies during wartime and over justice in peacetime. She also fostered useful arts, including spinning and weaving, pottery, healing and other areas in which human skill and ingenuity improve the quality of life for all. Another art that she fostered was horse-taming (an interesting association in light of the "horse-crazy" stage that many girls go through in early adolescence).

Among all the goddesses, the classical Greeks held Pallas Athene in a unique position of power and respect. She walked easily and freely through the world of gods, heroes, and men as their colleague, advisor, equal, and friend.

She was idealized as Athene Parthenia, the virgin warrior queen, and took neither lovers nor consorts. In the myths she denied her matriarchal origins, claiming that no mother gave her life, as she arranged for the death of her sister Medusa. In all things except marriage, she upheld male supremacy.

The price that was extracted from her was the denial of her femininity. She severed her connection from her mother (Metis), her sisters, the community of women, and her sexuality, and lost touch with her feminine qualities of sensitivity, softness, and vulnerability.

Pallas Athene is mythologically related to an ancient lineage of goddesses from the Near East, North Africa and Crete who were associated with the serpent as a symbol of wisdom and healing. She affirmed this connection by placing the head of her dark sister, Medusa, the serpent-haired queen of wisdom, in the center of her breastplate. In the yogic tradition, kundalini energy is depicted as a serpent that is coiled at the base of the spine ready to rise through the spinal canal and emerge from the top of the head as cosmic illumination. This has similarities to the wisdom of Pallas Athene, who emerged from the head of Jupiter.

Pallas Within Us
Pallas Athene's association with both the serpent and the taming of horses suggests that her basic theme has to do with reason civilizing the forces of nature for the benefit of humankind. As a woman, she represents the force of nature that brings new life into being, the raw energy that underlies aliveness. As her father's daughter, she executes his will, using that force for the good of society. Administering justice, she is able to discern the truth amid tumultuous emotions. Healing illness, she diverts the life force back into the proper channels. As a weaver and potter, she uses cleverness and dexterity to turn raw materials into useful objects.

Through the ages, women have been major contributors to these arts of civilization. However, in some eras such as the one we are emerging from, many of the civilized arts including the law, medicine and manufacturing were largely taken over by men while the role of most women was limited to handmaiden and reproducer of the race.

In our culture still, women who are smart, powerful, strong, and accomplished are like Pallas in that they may not be considered "real women." They are often pressured to make a choice between career and creative self-expression on the one hand, and relationship and family on the other. We see Pallas Athene all over again in the high-school girl who is applauded for her victory on the debate team, but who is not asked to the prom.

The danger of the Pallas Athene archetype is one of severing our feminine side and encasing the wounds in armor. This may lead us to further our ambitions with a kind of cold, ruthless, calculating, expedient strategy.

To heal ourselves, we must remember that even though the Greek myths had Athene denying her female origins, they still made her not a god but a goddess, one whose unique strength has its roots in the feminine powers of nature. Her story enlarges the possibilities for women, telling women everywhere that they, too, are free, if they wish, to channel their womanly life-creating Venus energy not only through their procreative powers but also through their intellects. This is the Pallas way of enriching and enhancing life. Pallas Athene, that productive and powerful goddess, shows that women do not have to be men to be effective in the world. As women, they are able to impart a special kind of life- promoting energy to intellectual and professional pursuits.

As Zeus's favorite daughter, the archetypal "daddy's girl," Pallas Athene points to another issue, our relationships to our own fathers. In our birth charts she reveals the ways in which we emulate them, seek their approval, want to interact in their world, and give them power over our lives. A strong, well-placed Pallas in a woman's chart usually shows a girl who was cultivated by her father and who has learned valuable life skills from him.

As a woman dressed in the garb of a warrior, Pallas speaks to calling up and expressing the masculine within women, and the feminine within men. This movement toward androgyny balances and integrates polarities within the self and brings wholeness through reclaiming our contrasexual identity.

Pallas Athene's serpent symbolism also connects her to the healing arts. In one of her guises she was called Hygeia, goddess of miraculous cures. Her armor and shield can be likened to our immune system warding off attacks. She especially represents the power of our minds in curing disease.

To sum up, Pallas represents the part of you that wants to channel creative energy to give birth to mental and artistic progeny, children of the mind. She represents your capacity for creative wisdom and clear thinking, and speaks to your desire to strive for excellence and accomplishment in your chosen field of expression. The model of the strong, courageous, ingenious, artistically creative and intelligent woman, Pallas shows how you use your intelligence to seek truth; how you achieve in practical, mental or artistic fields; and how you work to attain worldly power.

Insofar as Pallas is the military strategist and the administerer of justice, her placement in the horoscope shows how you apply your intelligence to warding off attack and preserving balance and integrity in your body, mind and social interactions. This is not only a matter of self-defense, it is also a fundamental principle of healing. The placement of Pallas in your chart shows the healing modalities that are likely to work best for you, either when applied to yourself, or by you to others.

In addition, the placement of Pallas may suggest how you relate to your father and to what fathers stand for, and how you incorporate the qualities of the opposite sex into your own makeup. It may also suggest what life was like for you when you were deciding upon a career and setting out for yourself in the world.

Pallas in Your Chart

Pallas's Zodiacal Sign
The zodiacal sign in which Pallas was placed at your birth shows the style of perception through which your creative mind operates, and also your style of applying your creative intelligence and ingenuity to the affairs of life. It can therefore have a lot to do with your career and hobbies. It also shows the special kind of wisdom and skill that you offer to the world. In a sense, the placement of Pallas shows how you carry out the will of the Deity (or the light within you), and make it materialize here on Earth.

Pallas in Leo
Pallas is particularly at home in Leo because, of all the signs, Leo most governs creative self-expression. With Pallas here, your creative intelligence is best expressed through projects that impress your own unique vision upon the world. You are likely to have great charisma, and an ability to stand up in the public eye. If other factors in the chart support it, you may be drawn to positions of leadership - the sort of leadership where your presence attracts and gives energy to those around you.

For you, natural forms of expression include performing arts such as drama, acting, music and dance. Work with children either as a teacher or a counselor may also be especially satisfying, as you will instinctively understand how to help others express themselves, especially through their creative, playful side. Your healing talents would be best expressed through play modalities such as art therapy, music therapy or psychodrama. With your magnetic, theatrical way of doing things, you are likely to be an attention-getting public speaker and a skillful promoter of causes.

The House that Pallas Occupies
The house in which Pallas is found shows what departments of life are most likely to provide the outlet for your creative intelligence and ingenuity. Taken along with the Tenth and Sixth houses, which are the traditional significators of your calling and your daily work, the house that Pallas occupies can be an indicator of your career. Along with the Fifth house, the house in which Pallas is found can also indicate your hobbies.

Pallas in the First House
Your chart shows Pallas Athene in the First House, just about to rise. This indicates your strong personal identification with the Pallas qualities of intelligence, power and/or creativity. Because of this inner feeling, you may embody quintessentially Pallas qualities for others, such that you become a role model for those who want to achieve and create in the larger world of action and ideas.

You may have a tendency to express androgynous qualities or to defy conventional male/female stereotypes. Having Pallas conjunct the Ascendant, the aviator Amelia Earhart stated, "Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be looked on as a challenge to others." Whether you are a man or a woman, you may be especially drawn to moving beyond the limiting societal roles that have been imposed on your gender. In addition, others may see you as a political activist, protesting injustice and fighting for a cause in which you believe.

Pallas has special prominence in your chart.
Assuming that the birth time you have given is accurate, Pallas stands very close to the longitude of your Ascendant, or rising degree. This gives her particular importance for you as a filter through which you project yourself out into the world.

Depending on how you related to your father, there are two ways you can express the Pallas archetype. If you identify with the father image, you probably rely strongly on your intelligence, creativity and skill when dealing with others. You would tend to project an air of competence, and your career would probably be an integral part of the mask that you wear. Carried to the extreme, you may project the image of the armored amazon, suppressing all softness in your drive to emulate so-called masculine virtues. Alternatively, you might try to validate yourself by seeking the approval of your father and subsequent men, acting in their interests, and, to some extent at least, concealing your own strength, resourcefulness and creativity.

Many people who express Pallas strongly have anxiety about competing with others and must deal with a fear of success. Depending on other factors in your chart, you may either avoid competitive situations or try to win at all costs. You are most comfortable simply concentrating on your job and letting success take care of itself.

Because Pallas is so much in the foreground of your chart, even minor themes in her story are apt to find echoes in your life. You should take special note of the aspects that she makes with other planets and asteroids.

The Aspects that Pallas Makes
The aspects that link Pallas to other planets and asteroids in your chart show how her intelligence and skill become connected with other drives such as your urge to nurture, to communicate, to create and to assert yourself.

Pallas sextile Mercury. Moderate influence.
Pallas's wisdom combines with Mercury's urge to communicate and share ideas.

Any combination with Mercury especially highlights the creative intelligence symbolized by Pallas Athene. When this contact goes well, you possess strong creative-intellectual capacities and can often display power and skill in using words and the communications media to make your point. You can be a good orator and can be adept in the arts of mediation and negotiation. You can use the power of thought in a creative way through visualization, affirmations and positive thinking. You can also use logic and the written or spoken word as a means of protecting or defending yourself or in persuading others to take action. In addition, you may communicate a certain wisdom or understanding that goes beyond the mere intellect.

A prime example of this contact is Marie Curie, the only person to win a Nobel Prize in both chemistry and physics. She has Pallas conjunct Mercury at her Midheaven, the point of the chart signifying career and status. Yet, as brilliant as her intellect was, following the Pallas Athene archetype she was never admitted to the Academy of Sciences because she was a woman.

Stressful Pallas-Mercury interactions can signify potential blockages in your ability to reason, create, and verbally express your ideas. Perhaps intelligence and/or creativity were not encouraged or valued when you were a child and thus you lack confidence in your mental or creative abilities. Feeling inadequate and insufficient, you may feel hampered in your ability to express yourself clearly and coherently. This aspect may point to learning problems or to perceptual, auditory, or mental dysfunction. At times, your thinking may be scattered or clouded, and you may have difficulty defending yourself against other people's criticisms.

Sometimes a Pallas-Mercury contact can make you overly mental. There may be periods when you have difficulty giving voice to your creativity. At times your rational mind may overpower your wisdom nature so that you may talk yourself out of an idea that you intuitively know is right. You may also be caught up in details and not see the big picture. At other times your creative visions may overlook key facts and thus be impractical. The resolution of these challenges involves bringing together the needs of the mind and heart, so that you can successfully integrate knowledge with real wisdom.

Pallas sextile Mars. Moderate influence.
Pallas's creative wisdom combines with Mars's masculine principle of action and assertion.

Here, Mars heightens the valor and activism of Pallas Athene and enhances her tendency to execute well-thought-out plans with strategic skill and confidence. This gives you the capacity to fight for cherished ideas and emerge victorious.

One of the functions of both Mars and Pallas is to defend boundaries. For example, with Pallas conjunct Mars in Pisces, consumer crusader Ralph Nader has been true to his calling of protecting consumers. However, when these two principles are not well integrated, you may have difficulty in mobilizing your "inner armies" to protect and defend yourself or that which is important to you.

Some astrologers suggest that Pallas's shield of armor that wards off attacks corresponds to the immune system in the human body. Similarly, Mars rules the vital life force and the blood that carries the antibodies that ward off invading microbes. Both these energies are vital in creating a strong physical and psychological immune system. When Pallas and Mars are related stressfully, there may be difficulty in putting your creative ideas into action. This is because Mars signifies the ability to take action to get what you want. With this aspect you may be presented with lessons that challenge you to develop your inner strength and courage.

Pallas was a virgin goddess who had no interest in sexual liaisons, and some astrologers consider Mars to signify the masculine sexual drive. Thus, if you are a man, this contact may show a frustration in the expression of your sexuality. This frustration can lead to feelings of sexual inadequacy and fantasies or acts of sexual aggression and violence.

Pallas's asexualization could also be interpreted as a movement toward androgyny. People of both sexes may find themselves more than usually in touch with their contrasexual natures. This sometimes causes confusion over one's sexual identity, but ultimately, feeling equally comfortable with both one's male and female sides can impart a feeling of wholeness and integration.

Pallas opposition Jupiter. Strong influence.
Pallas's creative intelligence combines with Jupiter's urge to search for meaning, truth and ethical values.

This astrological combination of Pallas Athene with Jupiter recalls the myth in which Athene sprang from the head of her father to bring the gifts of intelligence and skill to human society. Jupiter, known as the supreme ruler of all the Gods, is astrologically connected with the principle of wisdom, and Pallas carried out his will.

A Pallas-Jupiter combination can indicate exceptional intelligence. More specifically, it means a broad, far-seeing vision that grasps the implications of the larger whole. It bestows a holistic mind that sees how the parts of any system interweave and interconnect. From this, Pallas can take this process one step further and create altogether new and original understandings, theories and formulations.

In keeping with the Jupiter symbolism, you will probably be drawn to philosophical, judicial, or educational pursuits, or become involved in fighting for justice or defending the truth. An example of this is Winston Churchill, Primer Minister of England, who was born with Pallas in opposition to Jupiter.

If the Jupiter-Pallas relationship is a stressful one, however, it can mean mental blocks in expressing or understanding concepts and ideas.

As her father's daughter, Pallas served the patriarchal state and upheld traditional masculine values. She considered Jupiter to be her only parent and denied that she had a mother. Pallas was the first goddess to initiate women into the rites of the father-daughter relationship, and as such, symbolizes all the complexes that women have with their fathers.

Pallas can signify a woman who has a strong relationship with her father. She may want to please him by emulating him and moving out of the domestic scene to function in the outer world. In wanting to be like her father, she may over- identify with the masculine and see the feminine, perhaps symbolized by her own mother, as being ineffectual or unimportant. This signifies the ways in which women devalue and reject their own feminine nature. It can also point to an idealization of the father and a disappointment with other men who cannot live up to one's unrealistically high expectations.

In an earlier matriarchal myth, however, long before the arrival of the god Jupiter into Greece, Pallas Athene was a queen in Northern Africa who exemplified both wisdom and warriorship on her own. This theme suggests the importance of acknowledging your own wisdom nature as opposed to projecting it onto an outside male authority.

Part Three:

Juno, the Wife

Juno, the third asteroid to be discovered, represents a third stage of life. After the Pallas stage of going out into the world, possibly to have a career, one is ready to encounter one's equal and embark upon the journey of partnership that usually takes the form of marriage.

The glyph for Juno suggests a scepter, befitting the queen of the gods, and a flower, befitting her femininity. In general form, the glyph for Juno resembles that for Venus; but instead of the circle denoting Venus's mirror, there are outward- pointing rays, indicating that the seductive femininity of Venus is about to turn outward, bearing fruit in marriage and children.

The Myth of Juno
In classical mythology, Juno, known to the Greeks as Hera, was wedded to Jupiter (Greek Zeus), supreme king of heaven and earth. As such, she became his queen and the Goddess of Marriage. In the myths of an earlier time, however, long before her meeting with Jupiter Juno was one of the primary great goddesses in her own right. As the only one who was his equal, Juno was chosen by Jupiter to initiate with him the rites of legal, monogamous, patriarchally defined marriage. As his queen, she became but a figurehead and was repeatedly deceived, betrayed, and humiliated by her husband's many infidelities. In the myths Juno was portrayed as a jealous, manipulative, vindictive, revengeful, and malcontent wife who, after tempestuous fights, would periodically leave her husband. However, she always returned to try to work things out one more time.

Juno Within Us
In the human psyche, Juno represents that aspect of each person's nature which feels the urge to unite with another person to build a future together in a committed relationship. This partnership is sustained over time through a formal and binding commitment, whether it be a worldly or a spiritual bond. Juno speaks to our desire to connect with a mate who is our true equal on all levels - psychologically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

When we do not receive intimacy, depth, equality, honesty, respect and fulfillment in our unions, Juno speaks to our emotions of disappointment, despair, anger and rage, which can overwhelm us. This is especially true when we have given up a great deal, such as a career, family, home, or religion, to enter the relationship. The Juno in us makes us confront the issues of submission and domination, fidelity and infidelity, trust and deception, forgiveness and revenge. In her realm we find ourselves in power struggles for equality as we attempt to balance and integrate ourselves with another person and learn to transform selfish desires into cooperative union.

Within a context of separation and return, Juno encourages us to take the vow of "for better or worse, in sickness and health, till death us do part." She brings the wisdom that conscious relationship is a path to spiritual enlightenment, and the knowledge that relationships allow us to perfect and complete ourselves.

In today's world, Juno is also a symbol for the plight of battered and powerless wives and minorities; for the psychological complexes of love-addiction and codependency; for the rise in divorce rates as people are driven to release unmeaningful relationships; and for the re-definition of traditional relationships in the face of feminism and of gay and lesbian coupling.

To sum up, Juno is the archetype of the wife and partner who maintains her marital commitment to her husband in the face of conflict and struggle. In the birth chart she, along with other chart factors such as the Seventh House, represents your capacity for meaningful committed relationships, your attitude toward such relationships, and the type of relationship experiences that you need in order to feel fulfilled. She represents both what you need and what you attract, and she also signifies the ways in which you act out your disappointment over broken unions. These relationships are usually romantic in nature, but may sometimes assume other forms such as business, professional or creative partnerships.

If you are in a relationship, you may want also to determine the element of your partner's Juno. In general, fire signs are most compatible with air signs, while earth and water seem to form a harmonious pair. However, if you and your partner's Juno's are placed in challenging elements (for example, fire and water), the relationship is still workable. It simply means that you will have to make more of an effort to understand each other's needs.

Juno in Your Chart

Juno's Zodiacal Sign
The sign that Juno was in when you were born describes what you are seeking in a long-term sexual partnership such as marriage, or, by extension, in a business partnership or enduring friendship. It can give clues about your most likely relationship problems, and can suggest ways to make your style of relating work more harmoniously for you.

Juno in Cancer
Emotional closeness and nurturing are likely to be central to your one-to-one relationships. A strong emphasis on home life, perhaps including the sharing of meals on a regular basis, is likely to be one of the ways in which you foster the intimacy and strong sense of emotional connection that you need.

You need a partner who can talk openly about his or her feelings and also be comfortable when you display your feelings. You want your feelings, no matter what they are, to be validated and understood. Also, you may often need your partner's reassurance that he or she loves you and that all is well in the relationship.

When these emotional needs are not met, you may become moody, clinging, and dependent. In fact, dependency issues may be a major lesson for either you or your partner. Each of you needs to maintain your own autonomy and avoid being overly merged or enmeshed with the other. Then, even while you experience the intimacy and closeness that those with Juno in Cancer crave, both of you will still be able to grow and evolve as individuals.

One other possible reaction of your Juno in Cancer is the tendency to withdraw into a shell to protect yourself when you feel hurt or vulnerable. To restore connection and trust between you and your partner, you may need to pay special attention to developing and using good interpersonal communication skills. These include using "I" statements to share your feelings: that is, clearly indicating to your partner how you feel without adding the baggage of accusation or blame.

With Juno in Cancer, even business partnerships can take on an intimate and emotional tone. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If you remember to set up some ground rules and be open about emotional issues as they come up, you may find these associations quite nurturing. It's also possible that your product or service will have to do with parenting, home or family life.

The House that Juno Occupies
In the birth chart, Juno's house position shows where or in what department of life you will experience your most significant relationship interactions.

Juno in the Twelfth House
At the moment of your birth, Juno had just recently risen into the Twelfth House from the hidden depths below the horizon. Only very newly established in the upper and more public hemisphere, she still carries with her an atmosphere of inwardness, the unconscious and the past.

For this reason, Juno's position in the Twelfth House can give your long-term partnerships a karmic dimension. Whether they are for romance or business, your committed one-to-one relationships may have a destined or fated quality. Though there seems to be no discernible reason for the union, under the surface there is an emotional power that you cannot deny. Sometimes people with this placement may simply experience a sense of loss, limitation, or confinement in the relationship, and have a difficult time figuring out why because there seems to be no immediate cause.

The visible relationship, of course, is only the tip of the iceberg. The causes may go back to previous lives, or to traumas of the forgotten past in this lifetime. These unconscious aspects may surface and dominate your life together. For example, one partner may be disabled or ill, so that the other needs selflessly to serve and make amends. Or one partner may play the victim, and the lesson for the other will be to release that partner to grow on his or her own.

In your relationship, your joy is most likely come from the compassion and selfless service that you are called upon to give. Your lesson may be to find happiness even when you seem to be denying your own desires. Because your relationship is so likely to bring up issues from your depths, it may become a fertile ground for artistic invention, for deep insights into yourself, or for devising ways to help others in similar circumstances.

Alternatively, your partnership may have an element of secrecy. It may be a clandestine relationship, there may be secrets between the partners, or the devotion of one of the partners may remain unseen to the other. On a happier note, it may be simply that, as a couple, you lead a relatively secluded life, or that one of you, at least, remains behind the scenes. If you are business partners, your business may have to do with undercover work or be in some area of which the public is seldom aware.

It is also possible that a long-term committed relationship may never quite get off the ground. One person may remain devoted to the other for a long time, but this devotion may be unrequited, or your relationship may remain platonic. Or you may be so self-sufficient that you do not really need a primary relationship with another person.

Yet another possibility of Juno in the Twelfth is that in your partnerships you may really be seeking a divine union, either with a higher power or with someone with whom you can pursue a spiritual path and share mystical aspirations.

The Aspects that Juno Makes
Juno's aspects to other planets and asteroids indicate how her issues of attracting and keeping long-term relationships fit in with your other drives, as, for example, for self-expression, communication, creativity or the search for meaning in life.

Juno sextile the Moon. Strong influence.
Juno, the archetype of the wife or partner, combines with the symbol of emotional responsiveness.

This aspect mixes Juno's concern for meaningful relationships on the one hand with lunar matters such as feelings, daily habit patterns, and your most basic sense of security and belonging. The fulfillment of your emotional needs is more than usually intertwined with having a meaningful long-term relationship. More than most people, you want a partnership in which you feel a secure sense of belonging. Creating a home and family may be an important way of meeting this need.

Once you feel emotionally safe, you are able to express an unusual degree of sensitivity and empathy toward your significant other. In the course of understanding, supporting and nurturing your partner, you may find yourself tuning into his or her unconscious, and fulfilling needs of which your partner may not even be consciously aware.

More than for most people, your partnerships tend to become identified with the early relationship that you had with your mother. Very likely, you will pair off with a partner who resembles your mother, and this initial imprint may affect your approach to, and beliefs about, all human relationships.

When Juno and the Moon are relating stressfully, your need for a long-term committed relationship may come into conflict with your need for nurturing and emotional security. There may be a tendency to project unmet childhood needs onto your partner, or to have your partner do this with you. Feelings of insecurity in either of you may bring out possessiveness, jealousy, dependency, or emotional manipulation. Either or both of you may feel emotionally needy, and a fear of being engulfed may lead a partner to withdraw as a strategy for emotional self-protection.

One Juno issue that is at odds with the Moon is that of equality in a relationship. With your strong Juno-Moon connection, there is a danger that dependency issues could compromise the equality needed in a truly adult partnership. To achieve the strong partnership that is so essential to your emotional well-being, you will need to face up to these dependency issues and move beyond them.

Besides yourself being lunar in your Juno-type relationships, you tend to seek long-term partners who have a lunar quality. These are strongly feeling types who may have the Moon or the sign Cancer or some other water sign prominent in their charts. You may experience such a partner as sympathetic, sensitive or nurturing, or in some way parental. This can feel sometimes smothering and sometimes comforting.

At other times you may find yourself playing the parent to a partner. You may find your partner dependent or moody or otherwise childish, but may also be nourished by a partner's strong emotional energies.

Since Juno-type relationships are such a strong factor in your emotional makeup, still other themes from the Juno myth may well repeat themselves in your life. We suggest that you re-read the story of Juno. As you do so, you may find that many of the themes discussed there are reflected in your life experience.

Juno conjunct Venus. Strong influence.
Juno's desire for committed relationship combines with the feminine principle of love and sexuality.

A Juno-Venus aspect such as this emphasizes the romantic and aesthetic dimensions of partnership. You may form artistically creative partnerships, or marital partnerships that you infuse with love, pleasure, and the appreciation of beauty. It is usually important for you to you experience your partner as beautiful and sexually desirable.

The downside is that Juno and Venus represent two different approaches to relationship., Whereas Juno symbolizes the monogamous wife, Venus symbolizes the polygamous lover. When these two symbols are well-integrated in your chart, you have a passionate, erotic relationship with your marriage partner. When the Venus and Juno energies are not integrated, you may have a satisfactory relationship with your partner but still find that either you or your partner are drawn to having outside romantic relationships. This is exactly what happened in the Juno story, where her husband, Jupiter, enraged her by having many sexual affairs. This can give rise to jealousy, fear of sexual betrayal, and competition with real or imagined rivals.

In other instances, one or both partners may remain faithful, but may be frustrated by sexual problems or by a lack of sexual fulfillment in the primary relationship. There may be differences in tastes, preferences and values. Or a woman may feel dependent on the relationship to validate her femininity.

Juno-Venus individuals are attracted to artistic and sensual (that is, Venusian) types. While at some times they may experience their partner as attractive, pleasing and graceful, at other times they may view the other as self-indulgent, passive or superficial (beauty being only skin deep).

Juno square Neptune. Moderate influence.
Juno's capacity for meaningful relationships combines with Neptune's urge to transcend individual boundaries and merge with the greater whole.

Neptune's psychic sensitivity gives you the potential to relate to your partner with empathy, compassion, and even telepathic rapport. Highly idealistic about marriage, you wish to have a mystical union with your partner and may want to dedicate this union to a cause. It's also possible that you will work with a long-term partner in spiritual, healing or artistic pursuits.

Before the modern age, people sought to fulfill their spiritual need through a relationship to Deity. Now many ask human relationships to fill this need. With this Juno- Neptune tie, you may be one of those who see romantic love as a path to salvation. The problem with this is that human partners are not God or the Goddess. They can neither save us nor make us happy. When you place unrealistic expectations on your partner, you invite disillusionment. The way to be happy with your all-too-human partner is to look to the Infinite to fulfill your spiritual hunger.

A similar Juno-Neptune way of relating is to try to save or rescue the partner. You may attract partners who are addicted, have been victimized, or who have emotional or physical problems. Helping others in need may do real good and bring you a sense of fulfillment, but if you take on a long-term partnership to do so, you need to ask yourself why you are doing it. Do you feel truly strong and capable yourself? Are you projecting your own sense of weakness onto another? To continue feeling needed, do you have an unconscious investment in prolonging your partner's dependency on you? If you embark on a savior-victim relationship, you run the risk of disappointment when your partner rejects your efforts or does not improve in the way that you want. At some point you will realize that you are actually draining your own energies and only perpetuating your partner's problem. If you find yourself in the savior-victim trap, you are not alone. There is a whole co-dependency support movement out there to help.

There have of course been successful, fulfilling and really noble partnerships where one partner helps the other who is disabled in some way. In these cases the disability is usually some physical one and not an addiction. The important thing in a partnership that is truly a marriage of human beings is that there be some kind of equality. If one partner is unable to contribute in some area, he or she makes up for it in another, so that both partners are bringing roughly the same amount of energy to the relationship.

With a Juno-Neptune aspect it's also possible that you are legally married, but your relationship is not psychologically a marriage. For example, your partner could be disabled to the point where there can be no equality, or you could have a heterosexual marriage to someone who is gay, or some other sort of union that is not what it seems on the outside. Such relationships are not necessarily emotionally disastrous. Some Juno-Neptune people do not need an egalitarian marriage. As long as they are not deceiving themselves, they may actually find that such unions suit them and that they are quite content.

Yet another possibility is that you project your fantasies onto your partner, expecting him or her to fulfill your desire for the white knight or golden princess. In time, when it becomes clear that your partner is not what you wished him or her to be, you become disillusioned. Though you may feel you were deceived, it was your lack of clear perception that set up the fall.

You may also attract a genuinely deceptive partner. Developing your powers of discrimination will keep you from forming deep unions with these people and playing the role of victim.

With a Juno Neptune aspect, you may attract Neptunian mystical or artistic types, or your partner may see you in this way. When all goes well, the Neptunian partner will be seen as refined, sensitive, empathetic and spiritual. If the Neptunian energies are misdirected, however, the partner can be seen as victimized, confused, helpless, or deceitful.

Part Four:

Vesta, the Sister

After one has been nurtured, gone out into the world, found one's life partner and borne children, the time comes to turn inward to reconnect with one's spirit. In women, the Matron becomes the Crone; in the culture of India, the householder sets out on his final spiritual journey as a monk-like wanderer; and in Jungian psychology, the active person of affairs embarks on an inward journey to find the Self.

Vesta, the fourth and final of the major Olympian goddesses to give her name to an asteroid, relates to this final stage of life. Although renowned for her shining beauty, she is in fact the eldest of the Olympian gods.

Like Pallas Athene, Vesta was known as a virgin. If Pallas Athene was the pre-reproductive Maiden, Vesta could be thought of as the post-reproductive Crone. After their thirty-year term of office was up, the Vestal Virgins of Rome were allowed to marry, but they were then often beyond childbearing age. In pre-classical times, the cult of the goddess who later became Vesta included sex as a sacrament. Thus Vesta, insofar as she is sexual, represents a rarefied form of sex that transcends the procreative function and aims to achieve spiritual union rather than physical children.

Vesta was related to Jupiter as his sister. This, too, expresses her non- procreative way of relating, and the fact that she is often thought of as the prototype of the nun, whom we also call "Sister."

Besides suggesting the letter V, which points downward and inward, the astrological glyph for Vesta represents a flame burning on either a hearth or an altar. This signifies Vesta's function as keeper of the hearth fire and the temple flame, but it also points to the cultivation of the pure spark of spirit within us. Fittingly, Vesta is the brightest object in the asteroid belt.

The Myth of Vesta
To the ancient Greeks, Vesta was known as Hestia, a name derived from the word for hearth, and it appears that she had to do with the domestication of fire for human use in the home and in sacrificial offerings. As the eldest of the Olympian gods, she was the most venerated, and was always given the first sacrifices and libations. There are few stories about her deeds, and the few depictions of her show her in repose, indicating an inward, contemplative nature. She refused the marriage offers of Apollo and Poseidon, and under Zeus's protection vowed to remain a virgin forever.

In Roman mythology, Hestia became Vesta, always veiled, but known as the most beautiful of the deities. In the home she was venerated as the protectress of the hearth and its flame. In public life, she was thought of as the protectress of the state, and her priestesses were the six Vestal Virgins of Rome. Dedicated to spiritual service, the Vestals were responsible for keeping the sacred flame burning which was thought to ensure the safety of Rome. They enjoyed great prestige, but if they let the flame go out, they were whipped, and if they violated their oath of chastity during their term of office, they were punished by a public whipping, and then buried alive.

Vesta became the prototype of the medieval nun. However, several thousand years earlier in the ancient Near East, the predecessors of the Vestals tended a temple flame but also engaged in sacred sexual rites in order to bring healing and fertility to the people and the land.

The original meaning of the word "virgin" meant not "chaste," but simply "unmarried." Whereas Ceres and Juno required relationship to complete themselves, Vesta's priestesses represent an aspect of the feminine nature that is whole and complete in itself.

When the old goddess religions gave way to those of the solar gods, sexuality became divorced from spirituality, such that a woman desiring to follow a spiritual path had to remain chaste. Earlier, however, a priestess, representing the Goddess, could enter into a state of spiritual transcendence through sexual union with an partner in a manner that did not call for marriage or commitment. In the later patriarchal culture, ecstatic illumination was experienced as the descent of the spirit of the god into oneself, and the now-chaste Greek priestesses became the brides of the god Apollo in the sense that the Christian nuns became the brides of Christ.

Vesta Within Us
In the human psyche, Vesta represents the part of each person's nature that feels the urge to experience the sexual energy of Venus in a sacred manner. This may occur in several different ways.

If we are a typical product of our culture's mores, we will most likely internalize this sexual energy. We may devote ourselves to following a spiritual, religious, or meditational path, even following in priestly or monastic footsteps. Or, in our lifelong therapeutic work, we may experience this union with the Self as the process of psychological integration. In one way or another, we turn inward to attain clarity, and in this way we energize ourselves. The vision that arises when we reach the whole and self-contained core of our being then enables us to follow a vocation in which we can be of service in the world.

Vesta the virgin speaks to us of the importance of the relationship we have with ourselves. This may lead to a single lifestyle. If we are married, we may not be comfortable with the total surrender asked for in the merging with another. In Vesta's realm we may find our most satisfactory sexual encounters in being our own best lover.

Alternatively, we may hark back to the earlier cults of priestesses in the Ancient Near East, and periodically find ourselves in sexual encounters with those who pass briefly through our lives or to whom we are not married or committed. These couplings are often marked by a sense that something special, healing and sacred has occurred. To the extent that our society has no context in which to validate sexual unions that do not lead to becoming mated, we may be left with a sense of shame, guilt, and incompleteness. To free ourselves from this burden, we must understand the inherent nature of Vesta's virgins and how they unified sexuality and spirituality.

Vesta protects not only the inner flame of spirituality and sexual energy, but also other precious things that ensure the continuation of human life. As "keeper of the flame" she preserved the state and the institutions of society. She also guarded the home and hearth, including kitchens and the preparation and purity of food. Today she could be seen as a librarian, museum curator, or other sort of worker who preserves the sparks of human culture. She could also express herself in an occupation that deals with housing or food.

Through Vesta, you integrate and regenerate on inner levels so that you can then focus and dedicate yourself to work in the outer world. In the human psyche, Vesta represents the process of spiritual focus that can lead to personal integration. In a broader sense, she signifies the ability to focus on and dedicate ourselves to a particular area of life. When our focus becomes too narrow, we can sometimes feel limited and hemmed in. When our capacity to focus is obstructed, we can feel scattered. This, too, may cause us to experience limitation in the area of life represented by Vesta's sign or house position.

To sum up, Vesta is the archetype of the Sister and the Temple Priestess, whose virginity signifies her wholeness and completeness within herself. Her sign, house and aspect placements in your birth chart show how you use the basic sexual energy of Venus to deepen your relationship to yourself.

Vesta in Your Chart

Vesta's Zodiacal Sign
The zodiacal sign of Vesta in your chart suggests how you can best cultivate the spiritual flame within, and then use it in service to others. It can alert you to ways in which the intense focusing quality of Vesta can become too narrow and hence counterproductive, and it can also provide a key to exploring the spiritual qualities of sexual energy.

Vesta in Sagittarius
This placement suggests dedication to a search for truth and meaning. At some point your path of self-integration will involve developing a religious belief or an all-embracing philosophy of life. Contact with people from other cultures and traditions may enrich your spiritual path. You are likely to reach out and explore many different ideas and points of view before you synthesize these into something of your own.

Your path of service may involve a traditional religious vocation such as being a priest or priestess, minister or rabbi. Or, in a less formal manner, you may help others to clarify their religious ideas and consciously explore their faith. In the secular realm, you may help people to develop their own philosophies, as the best teachers do. Or you may help to give people a sense of breadth and possibility in their lives by introducing them to new people, places, ideas or skills. This could extend to the physical realm, with you teaching athletics or some other bodily discipline that instills confidence and a feeling of freedom.

In questing for truth, you are able to focus in a concentrated manner over the long term. If your focus becomes too single-minded, you could become fanatical about your cause, or could get caught up in abstract intellectualism that is not relevant to daily life. When the real world does not conform to your expectations, remember that too much idealism can lead to disillusionment.

To bring the sacred dimension into your sexual relationship, you need to share a moral, ethical or spiritual belief system with your partner and together dedicate yourselves to an ideal. Alternatively, like Mohandas Gandhi, the spiritual and political leader of India who was born with Vesta conjunct Saturn in Sagittarius, you may sublimate your sexual drive into a spiritual path.

The House that Vesta Occupies
Vesta's house position shows the areas of life where you are most likely to experience your desire for self-integration and your dedication to a calling. This can be a place of dedication and commitment, and also a place where you experience limitation of some sort in order to realize that commitment.

Regardless of the house where your Vesta is placed, you might also like to look at other houses that have to do with Vesta themes. The Fourth and Twelfth houses show how you withdraw into yourself to do inner work. The Tenth House signifies your dedication and your calling. The Sixth House deals with service, the Twelfth House with where you experience limitation and blockages, and the Eighth House with inner transformation and your attitudes toward sex.

Vesta in the Fifth House
Your inward quest tends to be channeled through Fifth-House matters such as creative self-expression, recreation and children. This area of dedication can marshal your creativity and bring you into the limelight.

Your spiritual path may involve art, especially working in the theater, and you may use art to promote a cause or ideal. Alternatively, your path may be to study recreation, in the sense of self re-creation through play. Or you may feel drawn to serving others by improving the lives of children, as through, teaching, social work, foster-parenting or being a parent yourself.

With dedication comes some sacrifice. A single-minded dedication to your path may at times alienate you from children, romance or pleasure. Pursuing your art, or taking on excessive responsibilities with and for children, may call for sacrifice in other areas of your life. If you accept this as your path of service, it can further your spiritual growth and bring a deep sense of satisfaction. If you sometimes feel a blockage in your creativity and spontaneity, it may be because of Vesta's tendency to focus on flaws. In such cases it is helpful to lighten up and remember that the Fifth House is for play. If you take some time for recreation and fun, your creativity will flourish.

In the area of romance, Vesta in the Fifth is more likely to signify short-term relationships than the courtship that precedes marriage. In keeping with Fifth- House symbolism, the focus is on the moment for its own sake rather than as a means of achieving an end. Vesta here sees sex as recreation, especially in the higher sense of spiritual re-creation. Her sexual style in the Fifth House would be playful, and would include role-playing, ritual, and art. In the Fifth House, Vesta may also find her outlet sublimated into creative pursuits.

The Aspects that Vesta Makes
Vesta's aspects to other bodies in the solar system show how her drive to go inward and search for higher meaning either clashes with or finds an outlet through the other functions of your chart.

Vesta quincunx Venus. Slight influence.
Vesta's urge toward spirituality combines with the feminine principle of love and sexuality.

In ancient times, when sexual rites were an expression of one's spiritual devotion, the temple priestesses we associate with Vesta were one and the same with Venus's priestesses of love. One of the difficulties that people with this aspect now have is that today sexuality tends to be divorced from spirituality. Because of the negative moral and religious attitudes our culture has toward sex, you may believe that you cannot be sexual and spiritual at the same time. You may therefore repress the natural expression of your sexual urges.

It's also possible that you may have freely expressed your sexuality outside the boundaries of conventional standards and then been made to feel ashamed about it. This, too, can cause confusion over the appropriate expression of your sexuality. Or, because of prior-life memories concerning the higher purposes of sexuality, you may find it difficult or unsatisfying to participate in sexual interactions that do not include the sacred dimension.

While both goddesses in their way are concerned with sex, neither Vesta nor Venus are particularly interested in committed partnerships. The Vestal temple priestesses were not allowed to marry during their term of office, and Venus simply didn't want to. A Vesta-Venus aspect thus tends to produce sexual expression outside of legal marriage. If you are married, containing your sexuality within the marital structure may be a struggle, but to the extent that the marriage is based on spiritual foundations, fidelity will be far easier. Also, preferring to keep a sense of separateness and self- containment, you may find it difficult to surrender all of yourself to a partner. An example of this kind of Vesta-Venus interaction is Bill Clinton, who has Venus and Mars conjunct Vesta on the Ascendant.

In fact, some people with this aspect prefer to have their primary intimate relationship with the god or goddess within, as do nuns who take vows as the bride of Christ. Alternatively, as described in Jungian psychology, a woman may simply relate to the inner male known as the animus, and a man to the inner female known as the anima.

If you have given your sexuality freely, with a Vesta-Venus aspect it may be an expression of your spiritual service. Another possibility with this aspect is sublimating your sexual expression into a dedication to the arts, the creation of beauty, or a spiritual path.

This aspect can also give you a sensitive understanding of feminine psychology that leads you to work with women or participate in women's spirituality or healing groups. An example of this is Anais Nin, who had Venus conjuncts Vesta and wrote psychologically perceptive novels on the nature of women and their sexuality.

With this aspect, Vesta's desire for personal integration is linked to accepting, enjoying, and feeling comfortable with Venus's femininity. Strongly focused on the cultivation of your feminine nature, you may enjoy making yourself beautiful, not primarily for another, but for yourself.

When Vesta and Venus are in a tense relationship, dedicating yourself to your career or engaging in your spiritual practice may seem at odds with sustaining an intimate personal relationship. In the course of your life you may try one and then the other, and through trial and error eventually find the path that is right for you.

Vesta trine Pluto. Moderate influence.
Vesta's urge to deepen your relationship to yourself and find an inner calling combines with the Plutonian urge to bring about profound change.

This Vesta-Pluto aspect emphasizes the transformative dimension of the spiritual path. For you, personal integration involves diving down into the deepest levels of your psyche and encountering anything and everything that you find there, including the most ugly and demonic parts of yourself. Intuitively, you know that within these seemingly destructive forces is enormous power for change and renewal. Facing these demons with respect, you make them your allies. In this way you release and purify the unconscious patterns and beliefs that create separation between you and the Divine.

Vesta gives you great power to engage in long-term, concentrated focus on this and related tasks. You may plumb inner realms through pure introspection, through the study of dreams, the penetrating analysis of the outward behavior and events that reflect the inner realms, or through the mirror of symbols in art and literature. Alternatively, life events may force you to deal with your inner demons, the worst parts of yourself and the most shattering fears. Again, Vesta gives you the focus and concentration to do so.

Once you have confronted your demons successfully, you are ready to follow your true calling. Having faced the worst in yourself, you are uniquely equipped to comfort others who are going through various sorts of hell. Your work may involve life- threatening diseases, major crises and catastrophes, or helping others face death or other kinds of profound loss. Triumphing over your worst inner demons also gives you great poise and power for other sorts of work, such as doing business or politics on a grand scale, dealing with people who have great power for good or evil, or creating art that has a devastating emotional effect. Whatever you do, it may affect large numbers of people. Pluto's penetrating, delving quality and Vesta's one-pointed focus could also suit you for scientific or other kinds of research.

Like Vesta's temple priestesses of old, you are able to engage in sexual practices that create regeneration, healing, and spiritual illumination. Another possibility is that you can sublimate your sexual energy and redirect it toward a variety of creative accomplishments. Sigmund Freud provides an interesting example of this. With Vesta conjunct Pluto, he focused his work on uncovering and healing the sexual complexes of his patients.

When the energies of Vesta and Pluto do not work well together, you could be subject to sexual obsessions and compulsions, or experience sex in connection with power, domination and control. Or a single-minded focus on dark and dangerous realms could lead to extreme, one-dimensional, obsessive and decidedly unwholesome thinking and actions. With great power to do good also comes great power to do evil. With Pluto involved, it is important to exercise discrimination and care when using Vesta's great capacity for focus and devotion.

Conclusion:

Taking This Report Further

Now that you have read all about your asteroids, you may wonder which of the four goddess archetypes predominates in your nature. Having just immersed yourself in the symbolism of these four great goddesses, you most likely have a feeling for which of the mythical themes has touched you the most deeply.

But what does your chart say about this? Looking back at the lists of chart positions and aspects at the beginning of this report can give you some idea of which asteroid has the strongest position in your chart. Roughly in order of importance, the main factors that give a planet or asteroid strength are:

1. Being in aspect to the Sun, Moon or Ascendant. If there is a tie, you can consider the aspect with the smallest orb to be the strongest. In order of importance, the aspects are the conjunction, opposition, square, trine and sextile. The "minor" aspects such as the quincunx, semisextile, semisquare and sesquiquadrate are only considered if they are very close (say, within an orb of 2 degrees). 2. Being closely conjunct (within 5 to 7 degrees of) the Midheaven, Descendant or IC. If you have more than one asteroid conjunct one of these points, the one that has the smallest value in the "Orb" column is the strongest. If the orbs are approximately the same, aspects to the Midheaven are considered stronger than aspects to the Descendant or IC. Also, applying aspects are stronger than separating ones. 3. Having the closest aspect of any of the four asteroids. Run your eyes down the "Orb" column and find the smallest orb value. You might think of this as a sort of keynote aspect in your chart, especially if it is a major aspect such as the conjunction, opposition, square or trine. 4. Having the most aspects. This means that the asteroid is well-integrated into your chart and influences many functions in your life. If it is involved in a pattern of planets such as a cluster of conjunctions, a T- square, grand cross, or grand trine, this group of planets and asteroids will form a more or less self-contained complex that describes a recurring theme in your life. 5. Having an asteroid that is "elevated." Look at your chart wheel. Even if an asteroid or planet is not closely conjunct the Midheaven, if it is closer to the Midheaven than any other planet or asteroid, it gains some power because it tends to be more publicly observable than the other celestial bodies in your chart.

After all these considerations, do you feel that you are primarily a Ceres nurturer, a Pallas career person, a Juno partner, or a Vesta keeper-of-the-flame? We hope that these four great goddesses of antiquity have given you some new and useful perspectives on the major themes in your life.

If you would like to learn more about these goddesses and what they represent in your birth chart, we recommend the books Asteroid Goddesses by Demetra George, and Astrology for Yourself by Douglas Bloch and Demetra George. These are available at bookstores or through the authors.

The Authors of This Report
This report comprises over forty years of combined research by the authors. During this time, we have been amazed at the power of the goddess archetypes to give understanding and meaning to people's lives. With the release of the Asteroid Goddesses computer report, this information is being made available to many more individuals. As part of our continuing research, we would like to hear your stories about how the themes symbolized by the asteroid goddesses in your birth chart have manifested in your life. Please write, call, or email us at the addresses that follow.

Demetra George, a practitioner of astrology for thirty years, teaches internationally and leads pilgrimages to sacred sites in the Mediterranean. Her pioneering work synthesizes ancient history, cross-cultural mythology and archetypal psychology with contemporary astrology. In order to further her studies in mythology she is currently pursuing graduate studies in Classics at the University of Oregon.

Demetra George is the author of four books. Asteroid Goddesses (San Diego: ACS Publications, 1986; co- authored with Douglas Bloch) is considered a seminal textbook on the subject. It is rich with additional meanings for the four first- discovered asteroids, as well as having some interesting perspectives on lesser-known asteroids. Other books by Demetra George include Astrology for Yourself (Wingbow Press, 1987, co-authored with Douglas Bloch), a basic text on astrology in workbook format; Finding Our Way Through the Dark (ACS, 1994); and Mysteries of the Dark Moon (Harper, 1992).

Demetra George can be reached at dgeorge@orednet.org or at P.O. Box 5431, Eugene, OR 97405, or telephoned at (541) 345-5680.

Douglas Bloch, M.A., has practiced as an astrological writer, counselor and teacher since 1973. He is a member of the Oregon Astrological Association and the AFAN astrology network, and has hosted a call-in radio talk show in the Portland, Oregon, area. | His own books include Words That Heal (Pallas Communications, 1989); Listening to Your Inner Voice (Hazelden, 1991); I Am With You Always (Pallas Communications, 1992); Positive Self-Talk for Children (Bantam, 1993), and When Going through Hell . . . Don't Stop: A Survivor's Guide to Overcoming Clinical Depression and Anxiety (Pallas Communications, 1998). With Demetra George he has co-authored the books Asteroid Goddesses and Astrology for Yourself.

Douglas Bloch can be reached at dbloch@teleport.com or 4226 NE 23rd Avenue, Portland, OR 97211, or telephoned at (503) 284-2848.

Patricia White is vice-president and one of the five founders of Astrolabe, Inc., a leading publisher of astrological software. She has served as publications director of the National Council for Geocosmic Research, and as editor of its Journal. She can be emailed at pat@alabe.com.


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