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The Iris Asteroids Report
Rainbow Messenger of the Gods and Goddesses
INTRODUCTION
Ever since the early 19th Century, astronomers have been aware of the existence of asteroids, but astrologers have only been using them as part of the horoscope since 1973. And even so, only a small number of astrologers actually use the asteroids when reading charts for people. This is in large part because the asteroids are not well understood, except for the first four to be discovered: Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta. But now, the Iris Report aims to change all that! Here you will find interpretations for twelve major asteroids and their impact in the natal chart. They add balance, detail and depth of meaning to astrological interpretation.
Most of the asteroids found in the Iris Report are named for classical goddesses rather than gods, and this is partly in order to balance the excess of masculine energy that a purely planetary astrology reveals. Most of you will know that the ten ‘planetary’ factors used in standard astrological interpretation
are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Many astrologers also include the planetoid Chiron to this list of ten, making eleven. If the Sun and Moon are considered primal masculine and feminine energies respectively, then out of the remaining nine god symbols there is only one goddess, Venus. This hardly represents the yin-yang balance either of physical Nature or of what is taught about the spiritual realms.
The other reason for choosing certain asteroids over others is that several of the early asteroids discovered show a resonance with the way that the culture was evolving at the time, which in turn reflects the ongoing evolution of consciousness in the material realm of the Earth. The asteroids Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Astraea, Iris and Hygiea are all especially relevant in this regard.
The other asteroids selected for the Iris report are Flora, Hekate, Diana and Apollo (additional lunar and solar symbols that show the primal life energies working in a larger social context), Proserpina, and the two great gods not represented by planets in the solar system: Bacchus and Hephaistos. These all
together complete a kind of balanced listing of archetypal energies which astrologers can use to make sense of a horoscope.
One of the ways of deciding which asteroids are useful is found by considering the concept of the energy dyad. The Sun-Moon dyad of archetypal masculine and feminine energy is very well known to astrologers, as is the desire and love dyad symbolized by Venus and Mars. But other possibilities are proposed in the table below:
Yang symbol Yin symbol
———– ———-
SUN: archetypal masculine/yang MOON: archetypal feminine/yin
life energy, spirit life energy, soul
MERCURY: masculine/yang intelligence, IRIS: feminine/yin intelligence,
“left brain”, data collecting, “right brain”, intuitive
and analytical mind and synthesizing mind
MARS: masculine desire, dynamic VENUS: feminine desire, receptive
activity, outward acting pleasure activity, inward drawn pleasure
JUPITER: Sky Father, male CERES: Earth Mother, female
protector and nurturer, nurturer and protector,
promoter of ethics/abundance promoter of ethics/abundance
SATURN: masculine energy of VESTA: feminine energy of
tradition, structure, and tradition, structure, and
material good order material good order
CHIRON: masculine energy of healing- HYGIEA: feminine energy of healing-
transformation and purification transformation and purification
URANUS: masculine change agent PALLAS: feminine change agent
and consciousness raiser and consciousness raiser
NEPTUNE: masculine passivity and PROSERPINA: feminine passivity and
sublime/altered states sublime/altered states
PLUTO: masculine energy of primal JUNO: feminine energy of primal
power and transformation power and transformation
HEPHAISTOS: masculine principle of ASTRAEA: feminine principle of
work, order, integration and work, order, integration and
disintegration disintegration
APOLLO: additional solar symbol, DIANA: additional lunar symbol,
creative maturity emotional maturity
BACCHUS: masculine symbol of dark FLORA: feminine symbol of refined
primal passions, escapism, passions and the greening power
individualism, and the forces of nature which vitalizes and
which inspire and vitalize inspires and brings to bloom
MOON’s NORTH NODE: masculine HEKATE: feminine symbol of
symbol of intense desire, the focused force of desire
attachment, connection, and manifestation, and
and manifestation “magic” power
MOON’s SOUTH NODE: masculine BLACK MOON LILITH: feminine symbol
symbol of renouncing of dark primal passions,
desire and attachment, resolute individualism,
disinterested connection and renunciation
With this table you find a balanced grouping of archetypal divine energies which have significant astrological influence. The Iris Report gives you the opportunity, for the first time, to add twelve asteroids to the major factors usually considered in the chart – the Sun and Moon, the planets, Chiron and Lilith – and thereby get a much more complete picture of how the astral energies were constellated at the time of birth for the chart you are reading, whether it is your own or someone else’s.
Of course, the balance suggested by these dyads, or pairings, does not mean that the yin and yang symbols are identical – Venus and Mars are hardly the same, after all! But there is a sense in which the two planets or asteroids involved represent divine archetypes whose energies complement each other, and work something like the positive and negative charges of an electrical current. One end of the archetypal ‘pole’ is outgoing and active, or ‘masculine’. The other end of the archetypal pole is incoming and receptive, or ‘feminine’.
In each of the twelve mini-chapters that follow, a particular asteroid (or dwarf planet, depending on the new astronomical definitions!) is given the focus of attention and related to all the other major elements of the horoscope, including those two important angles the Ascendant and Midheaven, and also the
Nodes of the Moon. They are listed not in any order of importance, but according to the order in which they were discovered, from Ceres first to Hephaistos last.
So – let Iris, the rainbow messenger of the goddesses, add her many colors to your chart and complete the work of Mercury, the messenger of the gods.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For the benefit of astrologers and students of astrology, information used
to produce this report is given below:
Sun 14 Pis 36 Ceres 25 Gem 10
Moon 14 Cap 46 Pallas 26 Ari 49
Mercury 11 Pis 25 Juno 0 Leo 11
Venus 12 Ari 14 Vesta 27 Sco 24
Mars 3 Sco 09 Astraea 6 Sag 02
Jupiter 24 Can 49 Iris 3 Vir 57
Saturn 0 Ari 14 Hygiea 2 Cap 34
Uranus 22 Vir 43 Proserpina 9 Pis 41
Neptune 24 Sco 20 Diana 3 Pis 36
Pluto 19 Vir 28 Apollo 14 Can 36
True Node 8 Tau 36 Bacchus 23 Sag 45
True Lilith 16 Pis 35 Hephaistos 9 Tau 07
Asc. 21 Leo 12 Flora 20 Sag 04
MC 14 Tau 05 Hekate 2 Ari 15
Chiron 25 Pis 01
Tropical Equal Standard time observed
GMT: 21:04:00 Time Zone: 5 hours West
Lat. and Long. of birth: 38 N 50 46 77 W 18 24
Aspects interpreted:
Conjunction: 5 Deg 00 Min Sextile : 3 Deg 00 Min
Opposition : 5 Deg 00 Min SemiSquare : 2 Deg 00 Min
Square : 4 Deg 00 Min Sesequiquadrate: 2 Deg 00 Min
Trine : 4 Deg 00 Min
Asteroid interpretation: Ceres, Pallas, Juno. Vesta, Astraea, Iris, Hygiea, Proserpina, Diana, Apollo, Bacchus, Hephaistos, Flora, Hekate and Chiron
Chapter 1: Ceres
Ceres, lady of loving-kindness
Ceres symbolizes the fertility and abundance of the corn goddess, an aspect of the great Earth Mother. Ceres was the Roman deity; Demeter the earlier Greek goddess of grain and fertility in the classical tradition. With the new astronomical definitions of the various bodies in the solar system, Ceres the former asteroid is now considered to be a ‘dwarf planet’. In astrology, the divine archetype Ceres bestows the blessing of loving-kindness. She distils her energy gently in the horoscope, and does not make a fuss.
Ceres helps you to see the world through kindly eyes, and to enjoy what is natural and simple and good. With her help, you grow in compassion for others, and gain in empathic understanding. She promotes generosity of spirit, and helps you to help other living beings: people, animals, and the natural world. Her
position shows something about how you find ways to look after other people, and seek to bring out the best in them. Ceres nurtures and educates, in the best sense of those words. And on a larger worldly scale, she promotes the good of ordinary people, helps humankind to build democracy, and fosters respect and care for the environment as a whole. Her darker side tends to smother love and games involving manipulation or rejection. However, her more noble urge prompts everyone towards leading a good life, which facilitates the correction or elimination of such unattractive qualities.
Ceres in Gemini:
Your urge to look after people takes butterfly wings in airy Gemini, making you a wonderful person to talk to about anything, since you listen avidly and respond generously with a stream of suggestions, from good to bad and everything in between. You have something of the idealist in you, and are open to most new ideas, especially those offering practical help to you and your loved ones. You can become passionate about educational causes and about building community. Ceres bestows a practical cast to your intelligence and helps to ground Gemini flights of fancy in more sensible and achievable terms. You can be a formidable speaker and debater, especially for ‘good’ causes, and can have a real knack for relating to young people on their own level.
Ceres in 11th house:
You are a great friend to have, because you put so much of yourself into your friendship bonds, and will go out of your way to be kind or helpful to others. This good nature can get you into trouble if you allow yourself to be imposed on, or if you have yet to learn how to choose friends wisely. People tend to turn
to you for mothering (or fathering!) and your shoulder has a way of becoming wet with the tears of the wounded. You are also a tremendous asset to any group activity, and can find yourself becoming a leader of sorts, or in full, depending on how outgoing you are. You have a gift for enhancing group dynamics, but should watch out you don’t do too much and find yourself burning out.
Ceres Sextile Pallas, Orb: 1 deg. 39 min.
You have the ability to give care and support by engaging with new and unusual ideas and pushing the boundaries with wider social relationships. There can be a maverick or revolutionary quality to you, and you ardently support intellectual and social freedoms. You love to keep up to date, and will often be ahead of the pack, creating new trends.
Ceres Square Uranus, Orb: 2 deg. 27 min.
You know very well how valuable a little craziness can be: someone’s got to stir the pot and make things move. But not everyone appreciates your reforming zeal or full-on individualism, so you need to get smart about when to move and when to retreat. Parental issues can also cloud your judgment, and you may need to work on your mother image.
Ceres Square Chiron, Orb: 0 deg. 09 min.
Your desire to help people to understand their difficulties, get over the pain, and find ways of coming out on top, is very worthy, but it can get you into trouble. You need to find the right ways to educate or enlighten, or you risk alienating people by coming on too strong. Gently does it – do as you would be
done by! And don’t smother, either!
Ceres Opposition Bacchus, Orb: 1 deg. 25 min.
You have a strong drive to help other people, but this can take on an addictive or compulsive quality if you overdo the generosity, either in fact or by appearance. This can lead people to suspect your motives or accuse you of intrusiveness or manipulation. Be clear about your motives and strategies, both to
yourself and others, and all is well.
Ceres SemiSquare True Node, Orb: 1 deg. 34 min.
You have a very strong drive to support other people in loving and practical ways, but can get stretched on the rack of too much involvement with others versus too little investment in yourself. Finding balance is essential, but also a challenge. You need to face things honestly and follow Thoreau’s advice:
‘Simplify, simplify.’
Ceres SemiSquare Hephaistos, Orb: 1 deg. 03 min.
Your passionate intensity is very exciting to some people, but will set off alarm bells in others, because it is all too easy for you to convey mixed messages without even trying. Try to distance yourself a little so you can see things from other perspectives. That way you can avoid either unnecessary conflicts, or
attracting the clingingly co-dependent.
Chapter 2: Pallas
Pallas, lady of consciousness-raising
Pallas was a title of the great Greek goddess Athena, warrior, strategist and wisdom seeker. Her Roman counterpart was Minerva. The asteroid (perhaps eventually to be classified as dwarf planet) Pallas brings gifts of understanding, insight and skillfulness, and helps you to take things to a higher level than you might have thought possible. The energies of Pallas often seem to appear suddenly in the horoscope, and she can present in a surprising, even shocking, way. These upheavals are necessary sometimes in order to shake you out of your complacency and get you moving.
Pallas helps you to see much more clearly, and although this can involve pain, it is for the best in the long run. Illusions are stripped away and you comprehend at a deep level the lessons brought by this asteroid. You grow in intellectual dexterity and sometimes manual dexterity as well, and learn how to
approach issues more strategically. Just as Pallas improves the linkages in your brain, so she also helps you to create better linkages in the world at large. Pallas can prompt you to respond very coldly, too, so you need to be careful of her chilly intellectualism and its snare of retreat into airy, abstract absolutes.
But Pallas also promotes equality and cooperation, and helps you to help others in clear-sighted and astute ways. She assists you to act more fairly towards people, and to fight for fairness in turn. Pallas is a true raiser of the level of consciousness, and ultimately she helps you to think and act in much better, more skilful ways than you might ever have imagined possible.
Pallas in Aries:
You have an ardor to understand how the world works, or at least those parts of it that engage your interest. Your curiosity can be aroused quickly, but it can also move quickly to a new focus, so you need to be careful to complete whatever you’ve started. There is a pioneering quality to your nature which begins with your intellectual openness to new ideas and possibilities. Inventions and gadgets can appeal to you, and you are often ahead of the pack with trends. You can get a bit too full-on with your enthusiasms, though, and need to watch out that your attempts to engage other people aren’t interpreted as bullying. You are a zealous champion, especially of ideas, but need to invoke the Pallas gift of strategy in order to stay focused, and to keep mindful of the sensitivities of others.
Pallas in 9th house:
Pallas is right at home in the house of the ‘higher mind’, as this brings out many of her best, most natural qualities. Your life will be driven by a high level of aspiration and idealism. Learning, however you define it, is a lifelong love and preoccupation. Indeed, you can become a perpetual student, or traveler, constantly questing for more and more. Narrow mindedness, intolerance and stupidity all bewilder you as you find it hard to understand how other people could possibly be like that. Well, they can be, but instead of judging, try showing them how your own spacious thought processes work, and help them to
broaden their perspectives to something closer to your own.
Pallas Trine Bacchus, Orb: 3 deg. 05 min.
You are very in tune at your best, and can receive the most wonderful flashes of inspiration to guide your works. Although you go your own way, people don’t tend to mind and instead admire your independence and zaniness. Life’s a bit of a roller coaster ride, but that’s how you like it, and you’ll find drama if drama doesn’t find you.
Pallas Square Jupiter, Orb: 2 deg. 00 min.
People who think big can do big things, but they can also blow it. Can this be anything to do with you? You’d hate to think so, because you mean so well, but sometimes the way to hell is paved with good intentions. Be clear about the usefulness of your grand vision, the details, and check in to make sure anyone else involved wants it too!
Pallas Square Juno, Orb: 3 deg. 21 min.
Although you are in many ways an astute and visionary operator, and have strong leadership potential, you also have an unfortunate knack of getting caught up in differences of opinion and power plays. Your way is not always best: listen fairly and dispassionately to others and make informed choices, not knee-jerk reactions.
Pallas SemiSquare Mercury, Orb: 0 deg. 24 min.
Tense alignments of Mercury and Pallas tend to show up as mental tension. Your mind is quick enough, too active really for your own good. So it is easy for you to suffer burn-out. Another challenge lies in spreading yourself too thin, or in becoming too evangelical when selling new ideas: the problem, basically, is extremism. Chill out to go well.
Chapter 3: Juno
Juno, lady of personal power
Juno symbolizes the primal power of the original Great Mother Goddess, whom the Greeks called Hera. The goddess Hera’s supreme position was lost when the sky and warrior gods of patriarchal tribes supplanted the deities of the old agricultural proto-civilization. Hera became the wife of Zeus and patroness of marriage, a much narrower remit of power. Her Roman counterpart was Juno, wife of Jupiter. Although most astrologers read the asteroid Juno primarily as a symbol of relationships and the passions and power struggles entangled in them, there is a much deeper significance to this asteroid in your chart.
Juno is above all about personal power, where you find it, and how you use or misuse it, or fail to use it at all. People often struggle to express their Juno energy, perhaps because the world still struggles collectively with what feminine energy really means. It is not simply about sugar and spice and all things nice.
Juno is often not very ‘nice’ at all, and challenges you to wake up to what you want and find a skilful way of shaping your life path. Juno shines a light on inequalities and demands fairness, or – if she feels thwarted – retreats into angry sulking and defeat. Her most blunted and distorted energies manifest as
arrogance and self-entitlement, or in envy and spite; but at her best she bestows a kind of truly royal authority, grounded in maturity and deep understanding.
Juno demands you take responsibility, first of all for yourself. She also teaches you lessons about your values and helps you to transform anything primitive, selfish or self-defeating into a mature and empowering way of being in the world. Juno’s great gift is precisely this: empowerment. As a corollary, she can help you make money or gain material successes along the way. And she can give you great style and a powerful presence, too!
Juno in Leo:
There is often a majestic quality to Juno energy, and this is never more obvious than when she is clothed in the gold of Leo, the most royal of signs. You can convey an air of effortless authority, or splendor, or drama or pizzazz, depending on what image you want – and image matters to you! Anyone silly enough to ‘diss’ you will be sorry, but treat you with ordinary courtesy and you are nice as pie. You know instinctively that nothing succeeds like success, and therefore will be expert in the art of faking it till you make it. One way or another you are likely to make it, somewhere, in terms that matter to you. Empowerment comes from full expression of your creativity, whether in your work or hobbies or ability to look after relationships. You’re a natural, kid, so
‘break a leg’!
Juno in 12th house:
You possess a deep wellspring of inner power, but in the earlier stages of your life you may not really be awake to what your potential is. Indeed, you could indulge in a good deal of self-defeating behavior and become your own worst enemy until you learn how to ‘wise up’ and listen to the voice within. Your intuition is strong and will serve you well, as long as you leave your ego at the door. Unless Juno is close to your Ascendant you may do better working behind the scenes than up front, but you have the capacity to lead once you figure out how to direct your energies wisely, into a worthy outlet. You have a good instinct for people and their motives, and this also helps you find your way.
Juno Trine Saturn, Orb: 0 deg. 04 min.
You gain a sense of empowerment from your practical savvy and a strong work ethic, which together help you to gain considerable material success in life. You can be a little too demanding of yourself, and will find that the work flows better if you cut yourself some slack. You are good at motivating other people to practical achievement, too.
Juno Trine Vesta, Orb: 2 deg. 47 min.
You derive a sense of personal power and strength from your ability to ease yourself into the flow of getting work done. When you are at your best, there is an almost Zen quality to the way you go with the flow and ‘It’ works rather than your having to do the work by yourself. You are patient and practical, and
provide a great sanity check for others.
Juno Square Mars, Orb: 2 deg. 58 min.
Your high energy level and warrior instincts can be a source of great success, giving you the vigor and determination to get ahead. But if these qualities erupt into aggressive rather than assertive behaviors you could find yourself embroiled in conflict and trouble. Find a worthy focus, even investigate martial arts training to channel physical energy.
Juno Sesquiquadrate Sun, Orb: 0 deg. 35 min.
Your drive to be a person of power and significance in the world, or your bit of it, can become a source of conflict if your aims are shallow or you fail to take account of the rights and needs of others. You have immense capacity, but need to keep it real and fair, and remember to give other people the same respect you expect and deserve yourself.
Juno Sesquiquadrate True Lilith, Orb: 1 deg. 25 min.
This energy combination can become a real emotional pretzel-twisting power trip if you refuse to learn how to stand back and look dispassionately at your passions. Respect yourself and your boundaries so you can respect others in turn. Don’t play reindeer games. Forgiveness sets everyone free, starting first
and foremost with you!
Chapter 4: Vesta
Vesta, lady of focused service.
The asteroid Vesta constellates a very pure energy of dedication to a higher purpose. In worldly terms this often steps down to more ordinary, everyday realities: the willingness to work hard, the willingness to put personal preferences aside to deal with issues at hand or to assist others in need, and above all the ability to focus intently on something in order to get it done.
It is worth remembering that the Roman goddess Vesta was lady of the hearth, and the Latin word for hearth is ‘focus’. Where you put your focus you are, in some sense, kindling a fire in a hearth and tending it, just like the Vestal Virgins looked after the sacred hearth whose fire symbolized the life of the whole collective. Vesta helps you to maintain your focus for as long as it takes to fulfill your obligations or to get the work done. With her help, you become less egoistic and more willing to put others ahead of yourself. But she also teaches you how to do this appropriately – turning into a doormat is hardly going to work well in the long run, either. You can become rather obsessed, too, where Vesta goes, and become righteous about issues with a moral dimension. You need to go a bit easily and honor difference whilst maintaining your own standards. Leading by example is better than grandstanding, and Vesta teaches you to work away quietly, without fuss, and achieve the sense of deep satisfaction that comes from recognizing and doing the right thing. You don’t have to advertise this – virtue is its own reward!
Vesta in Scorpio:
When Vesta is in full flight she can go to extremes, and this is very easy when she is sojourning in the sign of Scorpio. There is an intensity in you, so hot it almost sizzles, but you may not exactly flaunt it, and people usually have to know you very well to know how deep and passionate you really are. Tending your inner fires is well and good, but you can get too worked up for your own good, and worry too much about woes that have never been and never shall be. If you spend too much time brooding, you could develop an obsessive streak, which only serves to disconnect you further from other people and even from achieving your more ordinary goals and desires. Learn how to let go a bit, and take things more easily. Aim to get things done in little steps. All’s well that ends well!
Vesta in 4th house:
Those with strong fourth house energies understand all too perfectly the poignant line, ‘ET go home.’ For you, with Vesta in the hearth and home centre, a safe and happy home is the fundamental essential of life. If your early family experiences were challenging, you’ll do your best to change that pattern around, because you don’t want the next generation to suffer. You may even find ways to work from home, or turn the home base into work of some kind – farming, selling real estate, that sort of thing. A sense of family duty may weigh heavily on you, but it should only be taken on in a spirit of devotion, not resentment. Find other ways (and people) to help you out, if you cannot manage solo.
Vesta Conjunct Neptune, Orb: 3 deg. 04 min.
At your best you can focus your energies in a truly spiritual way; at your worst get lost in fantasy and confusion, or get caught in some kind of fundamentalism, or hard-line skepticism. This is tricky energy, and demands you keep things real whilst not surrendering your imagination altogether. Seek some detachment to achieve clarity.
Vesta Trine Jupiter, Orb: 2 deg. 35 min.
You are strongly interested in ethics and what constitutes a good life, and have many high minded tendencies that will help you to make personal gains and set a good example. You also have the judgment to recognize the difference between doing the right thing and becoming smugly righteous, so people follow your lead rather than pull you down!
Vesta Trine Saturn, Orb: 2 deg. 51 min.
You possess a tensile inner strength that allows you to meet the challenges of life head on, and come up quietly victorious. At your best, you can attain some kind of mastery, of yourself or a craft or study, or all of these. Your patience, diligence and focus can be truly awesome. Just don’t become too pleased with yourself and intolerant of lesser mortals!
Vesta Trine Chiron, Orb: 2 deg. 23 min.
Your ideal work is somehow geared to the future and to maximizing personal potential and development. You refuse to get stuck in a rut and will summon up the energy to work through any blockage that stands in your way. Working in unusual, innovative or spiritual ways will yield the best results. You could be a
gifted teacher of practical life skills.
Vesta Sesquiquadrate Venus, Orb: 0 deg. 09 min.
Your aesthetic responses attune you more to the minimalist or the austerely traditional, and to the piquant, even sad. You certainly take the love game seriously, and don’t like manipulation or hysterics. Drama will turn you off; but genuine feelings, honor and commitment melt your frosty front. Don’t make it
too hard to warm the chill.
Chapter 5: Astraea
Astraea, lady of right judgment and integration
Astraea was a classical goddess of justice, whose symbol was the balanced scales. She presided over the moral sense of rightness and good order, and the poetic tradition relates that she was the last of the divinities to leave the world at the end of the Golden Age. Astraea was then translated into the heavens as the constellation Virgo. These elements of myth give you clues to the meaning of the asteroid Astraea in the horoscope. She is concerned with the integration and organization of things, bringing sometimes disparate elements together and finding the common links that join them up in the web of life. She helps you to focus on detail and understand the meaning of the fine print. She helps you to work both hard and well, and helps you to become more ordered and tidy in at least some aspects of your life.
Astraea can also help you to become quite high minded, whilst integrating into this spacious vision an ability to zero in and see all the small things that go together to make up the greater whole. She can stir up a compulsive quality, too, and stimulate an obsessive streak. This can cause a kind of splitting, which
is another aspect of Astraea energy: the goddess who brings things together can also tear them apart. She does all this, ultimately, in the service of wholeness, and reveals those things it is time to clean up and get rid of, so that everything else can evolve into a more perfect form. Wherever Astraea goes, you are urged to get organized and get your act together – and become the best you can be!
Astraea in Sagittarius:
You are a visionary at best, with a spacious aerial view that takes in the whole world and sees in a glance every connection. At worst, your desire to take in everything means you have no focus and your energies are squandered in a scattergun way. There is a fervor to your nature which is perhaps best described by words like ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’, though your object of worship may as easily be something sporting or worldly as divinely inspired. Your zest for life can be strongly attractive, but there are less energetic folk out there who may find you a bit full-on sometimes. Still and all, you’re too busy having fun to waste much time on them. You’ll take a risk if the payoff looks good, or just for the heck of it. You have a gift for stirring things up and making them happen.
Astraea in 4th house:
Was your family home an organized and tidy house with a place for everyone and everything, or did chaos reign? Depending on what you thought of the good old days, you’ll either replicate or repudiate them. You can turn your own home into the proverbial tightly run ship, or it could look like a bomb-struck
flophouse. But all this is just the physical dressing: what is going on inside? Inside you? That’s where the real organizing and integrating need to be done. You could be so afraid of fragmenting that you over control everything, or you could learn to relax and allow things to be. There is a place for everything in your soul, including the messy bits. Don’t be too hard on yourself!
Astraea Square Iris, Orb: 2 deg. 05 min.
As long as you don’t get blocked by self-doubt and self-criticism, there can be something quite amazing about your capacity to absorb and understand complex information in a deep, thorough way. Your inner critic is the stumbling block. But if you take up a proper meditation practice you could really fly – maybe all the way over Iris’s rainbow.
Astraea Square Proserpina, Orb: 3 deg. 39 min.
Life has a way of taking you down deep, and sometimes it feels like going to hell and back. But you do come back because life teaches you how to organize things around the centre of your being. You’re a survivor, and can help others to become survivors in turn. You know how useless the line of least resistance can be, and can pass on this lesson.
Astraea Square Diana, Orb: 2 deg. 26 min.
You go your own way, and are pretty indifferent if others don’t like it. The connecting game is one you can take or leave, and you generally make linkages on your own terms, and only if there’s wriggle room. Some people could find you cold, or hard to understand, but you are a great practical friend to have – as
long as you want to help!
Chapter 6: Iris
Iris, lady of the intuitive mind and illumination
In Greek myth, there were two divine messengers: Hermes (equivalent to the Roman god Mercury), and Iris. Some traditions suggest that Iris was the messenger of the goddess Hera (whose Roman equivalent was Juno), whilst Mercury served Jupiter. However you play with the myths, there was a feminine energy associated with communication as well as a masculine one. And modern neuroscience tells us there are masculine and feminine aspects to the brain, too.
Few astrologers have learned yet how to honor the great goddess whose archetype stands behind the ‘feminine’ brain and style of communication. That is why this asteroid report is named in honor of Iris! The symbol of Iris was the rainbow, and the Iris energies of the horoscope seem to encompass all the colors of the spectrum, all kinds of light: ultimately, the light of pure consciousness.
Mercury shows how you think and communicate in a more systems oriented, data gathering and sorting way. His energy is yang and outward directed. Iris, however, has yin energy and is receptive. She shows how you receive ideas, how you listen, how you intuit and empathize, and how you deal holistically with all the information thrown at you by living in the world.
Iris helps you to understand things at a deep level, and to grow in wisdom. She adds color and depth to the Mercury energies of the chart, and shows another avenue of expression. She helps you to meditate. At her very best, Iris helps you to find true illumination. There is a vastness and sublime beauty to Iris energy. Wherever she sits in your horoscope can be magical, as she helps your consciousness to expand and evolve.
Iris in Virgo:
Cool. Calm. Collected. You’re something to watch, but usually go about your business so quietly and efficiently that you may not draw notice. That’s fine by you, as you don’t want fuss, and can blush easily in front of an audience anyway. You want results, and will do whatever it takes to get them, and you know it usually takes hard slog and quiet persistence. This you can do in spades. Not only are you a fantastic worker, you’re one clever cookie too. At your best, you’re a master of detail and have a recall that could put a high-speed computer to shame. But you’re also a worrier, a critic, and can go into a dark
obsessive mode, and any or all of these tendencies can spoil the harvest that is rightfully yours. Go a bit easier on yourself, and remember to stop and smell
the roses.
Iris in 1st house:
You have a high level of mental receptivity, but how willingly you show this will depend on how confident you feel about dealing with the world. You don’t want to expose yourself, especially to exploitation, but at the same time people sense you are aware of things and are likely to give them a sympathetic audience. With the right linkages to Iris, you can display quite a level of cleverness and creativity, and even if you aren’t ‘artistic’ in the conventional sense, you probably have a sense of color and form. The main risk here is becoming lost in dreamy preoccupations. But you know, or learn quickly, that life isn’t just about you, and you’re generous in your inclusiveness of others.
Iris Sextile Mars, Orb: 0 deg. 48 min.
The energy and enthusiasm you bring to communication is usually infectious, but can run away with you and exhaust people if you push along too excitedly. Allow the simple harmonies here to work their own gentle magic, because true strength of mind is exercised with grace. Your ideas are too good to be lost in excess noise!
Iris Trine Hygiea, Orb: 1 deg. 22 min.
You find it easy to be open and receptive to people and situations, often bringing a healing touch to fraught circumstances. The desire to know things, to understand in a holistic way, is both a personal driver and a stimulus to worldly success, once you’ve done the work and found the answers, that is! You like things clean and fair.
Iris Opposition Diana, Orb: 0 deg. 21 min.
You go your own way, with a strong independent streak and a coolly analytical mind. When you want to be strategic, few can match you, and your ability to deploy a tactical response makes you a great ally and a wily adversary. Just watch out you don’t become a bit too chilly and remote: this can antagonize
people and spoil your successes.
Chapter 7: Hygiea
Hygiea, lady of purification and healing
Hygiea is named for the classical goddess of health and well-being, whose name also yields the English word hygiene. This brings a sense of cleansing and purification to the symbolism for the asteroid Hygiea, as well as meanings associated with health issues, sickness, cure, and the moral and physical wholeness that are implicit in ideas of good health or good order. Wherever Hygiea goes in the horoscope, she has a way of cleaning up things, bringing them into a very pure, even ideal, state of being.
Hygiea intensifies any other planetary energy with which she links, and assists it to express in a cleaner, stronger, truer form. Sometimes this poses real challenges and problems, making circumstances appear worse before they get better. Then Hygiea seems to act like the force behind a fever, which can rise to dangerous heights before it breaks, and the healing occurs. It’s all about getting the poison out first, so that wholeness can be restored, or aided to form. The poison is more often metaphorical than literal, of course. Hygiea always helps you to scrub up, or purge. She’s a catalyst for action as well as a force for intensifying and purifying other energies. However testing a time you have whilst she’s busy, you’re always left in much better shape when she has finished
with you!
Hygiea in Capricorn:
You like the idea of order, and are very good at keeping things clean and tidy on many levels. Although you could be as house-proud as a manic Virgo, your real interest is probably in how to keep the social order nicely ordered. This could make you something of a revolutionary in your fashion, if you think your patch of turf needs a good re-organizing. Because you understand the rules of society so well, you know exactly when and how to break them, either to do a minor fix without causing intolerable disruption, or to cause just as much havoc as you judge necessary. You’ll tilt at the windmills of authority if it suits you, but don’t like to be challenged yourself. But if you never bend the knee, your own knees could give you trouble. Or other bone or skin diseases.
Hygiea in 5th house:
For you, inner healing and wholeness come most of all from a free flowing exercise of your remarkable creative powers. You were born to strut your stuff, somehow or other, no matter how modest and unassuming the rest of your horoscope may be. It seems to be easier for you to connect with the muses of inspiration than it is for most people, whether you express your creative energies through arts or crafts, science or technology, or just keeping the home fires burning. You also have a real knack for bringing out the creative best in others, and a remarkable number of major therapists share Hygiea in the fifth house with you. Put your heart into everything, and look after your physical heart, too.
Hygiea Sextile Mars, Orb: 0 deg. 34 min.
There’s a wellspring of warrior energy in you which you find it easy to access and a source of both inner and outer strength and satisfaction. You need to get physical in healthy ways, and could become something of a fitness freak. But you know that ultimately moral strength is more important than mere brawn, and go for the best.
Hygiea Sextile Diana, Orb: 1 deg. 02 min.
It is very easy for you to go your own way and let the devil take whoever may be hanging about. You like traveling solo, and doing your own thing; it just feels right, and brings out your best. But you do need to make allowances for the needs and wishes of others, at least occasionally. This teaches you a
deeper emotional maturity, and kindness.
Hygiea Square Saturn, Orb: 2 deg. 20 min.
There’s a reserved streak in your nature; you’re good at conserving energy and measuring it out in a sensible way. But this can also distort into some kind of stinginess or turn you into an anxious control freak or workaholic, or just a wet blanket. Make time for fun as well as duty. And watch out for health issues with your back, or bones, joints, and skin.
Chapter 8: Proserpina
Proserpina, lady of transitions, other-worldly realms, and sacrifice
The asteroid Proserpina is named in honor of the goddess of the dead, consort of Pluto, she who was known as Persephone to the Greeks. As a goddess archetype, Proserpina constellates an energy that is often hard to fathom at first, because in the poetic myths Proserpina/Persephone seems to have little personality of her own. As the innocent maiden, abducted by Pluto/Hades into the underworld, she was scarcely distinguishable from her fertility goddess mother Ceres/Demeter. As Pluto’s wife and queen of the underworld, though, she receives the souls of the dead and as such, is also a guide to other realms and levels of being, and the deepest places of the psyche. The asteroid Proserpina seems to manifest as an energy of innocence and ignorance that learns a very great deal by (often hard) experience. She shows where you tend to take the line of least resistance, to be passive or helpless, and teaches you the consequences of such unaware or unassertive responses. She points to what you learn through the various transitions of life, which may or may not be painful, but which always entail a letting go of what has ceased to be viable, and carry therefore some sense of sacrifice. She shows you altered states of being, can help you to open up to all the stimuli of life, assists you to adapt and change in response to your environment, and even helps you to cultivate psychic perception.
Proserpina is a tricky energy to deal with, though, because she is so hard to know in essence. You need to be still, and quietly open, to access Proserpina and work with her successfully. Ignore her altogether and you may find yourself plunging into situations you never expected or wanted; honor her and she will
help you to find a way through the dark, a guide for your soul who aids your inner journey and ultimately, as a result, your path to individuation in the outer
world.
Proserpina in Pisces:
Pisces can seem an ideal home for Proserpina, offering limitless possibilities for shape shifting and life sampling. But life is not just an endless dressing up box, and you need to get real about something, a job perhaps, or your relationships. And no, you can’t be all things to all people – or you can try, and see what happens. You tend to be entranced by the dramas of life, though, so you mightn’t mind a bit of florid color and feeling in your exchanges with others. Dullness is death, for you: you’d rather die a thousand times than be bored. So if excitement fails to find you, you’ll go out and find it. You have a deep sense of the way intense feeling (even suffering) purifies and magnifies the soul – as long as it doesn’t harm it, at least temporarily. That’s the challenge: to experience everything without losing yourself in the process. You don’t want a quiet easy life, do you?!
Proserpina in 7th house:
The energy of Proserpina has a strange potency in the horoscope sector that focuses on relationships. The whole relating game can be more than usually difficult, especially when you are young, because you find it all too easy to see the best in people and only learn the hard way how to suss out what is really going on, as opposed to what your fantasy projections might be. You may also find yourself in situations that teach you lessons in standing up for your rights or preferences. It can take a while for you to give yourself permission to put yourself first sometimes, but you don’t have to be a sacrificial offering, always, with everyone. And look out for seemingly wounded game players!
Proserpina Conjunct Sun, Orb: 4 deg. 54 min.
There’s a shape-shifting quality to your yang life energy when Proserpina makes this subtle link with the Sun. You can play many parts in the tragic-comedy of life, and may try on several roles before you find the right fit. Watch out that self-sacrifice doesn’t turn into self-destruction. Honor your intuition, but also learn to sift fact from fantasy.
Proserpina Conjunct Mercury, Orb: 1 deg. 44 min.
There is a very subtle quality to the workings of your mind, and your imagination is very vivid. At your best you have psychic potentials, but you can also get carried away by fantasies and end up believing any passing whim is some kind of divine revelation. Keep your feet firmly on the ground so your head can turn safely in wonder in the clouds!
Proserpina Sextile True Node, Orb: 1 deg. 06 min.
You want to taste life to the full but could have some difficulty sorting out what kinds of experiences are worth having and what you should avoid. Neither be too ready to accept anything that comes your way, nor recoil in fear if something looks too risky. Learn how to take calculated risks, and maintain some
practicality even while you chase dreams.
Proserpina Sextile Hephaistos, Orb: 0 deg. 35 min.
That old slogan about the power residing in the passion is one that holds a resonance for you, and once you have clarified any youthful uncertainties or confusions, you can draw on a deep wellspring of talent and inner strength. You accept life’s challenges with grace and grit, and develop a balance of
practical and intuitive wisdom to support you.
Proserpina Sesquiquadrate Jupiter, Orb: 0 deg. 08 min.
Oh yes, you think and dream big. Especially dream big. But you mustn’t leave it all to luck or ‘the universe’, because drifting will only cause you to miss opportunities and squander the good that does come along. Get real about the effort required to put your great plans into action, and you can go a seriously long way. Don’t dream it – do it!
Chapter 9: Diana
Diana, lady of emotional maturity
Diana was the classical goddess associated with the moon, a virginal hunter who was expert with the bow and arrow. She preferred to keep aloof from the company of most of the other gods and goddesses, living in wild mountain fastnesses with her retinue of maidens.
Diana took an interest in the affairs of ordinary mortals primarily when women were giving birth, and she cared for the young of all creatures. But she could be fierce, even lethal, if her rights were impinged upon, or if she were slighted. Her arrows never missed their target.
The asteroid Diana has not been used a lot by astrologers, which is a pity as she seems to show a different quality of emotional response from that traditionally associated with the Moon. Where Diana goes in your chart you are not inclined to the sort of overt, even child-like sensitivity and vulnerability
that the Moon tends to indicate, but to a more restrained, independent and even sometimes avoidant response to the stimuli of life. Diana energy is more austere, but she does not show a lack of sensitivity as such. Indeed, she can be almost hypersensitive in her way, which is to acknowledge feelings and
immediately put boundaries in place to contain and protect them, so that Diana can sometimes seem cold or hard where in fact she is simply looking after herself. Of course, she can help you to be tough if circumstances demand it! She can also point to intense fear responses, which in turn stimulate the ‘fight or flight’ reflex, which in turn makes you either combative or prone to head for the hills. Ultimately the position of Diana in your chart tells you a lot about how you develop emotional maturity, although she can also say something about the distortions and setbacks of this process, too. She shows where you are able to rely on yourself rather than depending on others, and also points to ways in which you will help other people – as long as it suits you!
Diana is not needy, except for space and for the opportunity, quietly, to nurture the inner needs of the soul. She helps you to figure out what you want, but without all the emotional baggage associated with Lunar attachment. Detached, disinterested and dispassionate, Diana energy helps you to engage with life on your own terms, as a fully fledged adult. With Diana, you put away childish things and come into a richer fullness of being.
Diana in Pisces:
Diana always deepens energies and in Pisces she plumbs the depths of sensitivity, which means you may well over-compensate like mad in order to appear cool, calm and collected. One minute you are the most open of souls, but you’ll clam up like (um) a clam if you sense that danger threatens. You have a strong sense of spiritual connection to all life, and can have a very universal vision. Life’s subtleties appeal very much to you, so that you are a sort of connoisseur of experience, especially of suffering.
Your imagination is vivid, and it is easy for you to get more than a little carried away if you let down your intellectual guard. But if sense and sensitivity work together, you can be magnificently inspiring both to yourself and others, and can become a significant agent for change.
Diana in 7th house:
Relationships are very important, even to the extent of making or breaking you. There are major lessons in your life around how you connect with people, or fail to connect, or connect badly – the whole interpersonal drama can turn into quite a production, and there are no dress rehearsals, the show’s always on.
Sometimes you’ll opt out instead of joining in, or you can seem to stand above like a presiding angel, watching all. This could make you a good counselor. At your best, your insights into how people get along together can be truly helpful, and you can even have a gift for galvanizing the whole collective into thinking about how everyone relates to everyone (and everything) else. Unity rocks!
Diana Trine Mars, Orb: 0 deg. 27 min.
All that New Age stuff about the spiritual warrior applies almost effortlessly well to you, when you make the most of this Diana-Mars interchange. You have a clear focus, know very well the difference between assertion and aggression, and understand instinctively the concept of right action. This can take you a
long way professionally, too!
Chapter 10: Apollo
Apollo, lord of creative maturity
In classical mythology, Apollo was the god of the sun, whose patronage extended over harmony, the arts and healing. He was not the literal, physical sun, however, and the asteroid named in honor of this god has a slightly different quality from the Sun energy with which traditional astrology is familiar – just as the energy of Diana is rather markedly different from that of the Moon.
Although work is still in progress on understanding the influence of Apollo – as with all the asteroids! – he seems to take the creative, personality-making energy traditionally associated with the Sun and then place and develop it in a wider social context. If the Sun is about ‘Me’ and my life force in pure potential, then Apollo shows ‘Me’ how to become more fully and completely and socially myself – or rather yourself, as the case may be, since this report is about you, the reader! For this reason Apollo is described here as the lord of creative maturity. He has a sway over the process of full individuation that
allows your innate gifts to shine their light into the world. Apollo shows another aspect of your talents and potentials, but he also shows possible areas of downfall, if more primitive egoistic urges get in the way of the maturation process.
It is all too easy to become proud wherever Apollo goes in the chart, and to become excessively perfectionist and demanding. But all these distortions are unfortunate ways of misusing his wonderful capacities for creation. At his best, Apollo gives clear sightedness, and this includes clarity of insight into who you really are and what you are best able to do in order to make the best of yourself in the world at large. Don’t allow vanity or lazy self-entitlement to trip you up. Be honest about where you are and what you want, and do the best you can to be the best you can. That’s what Apollo’s drive for (true) ecellence is all about!
The asteroid Apollo also has a rather strange orbit and appears to spend much longer in some signs of the zodiac than others. Appropriately enough, he is much more often and longest in Leo, the traditional sign of the Sun. If you have Apollo in the signs from Sagittarius through to Taurus, this is a relatively more rare placement.
Apollo in Cancer:
Sorry if it punctures your ego, but there are lots of Apollo in Cancer people running around in the world. You’re a varied lot, but what you tend to have in common is some fundamental regard for ‘family’. Your own definition of family could be quite broad, not necessarily just the nuclear grouping, and indeed
you could have a very strong regard for the connectedness of the whole human family, or of all living things. You tend to be quite receptive (though other factors could mask or limit this predisposition) and there is often a yin or ‘feminine’ quality to how you present and relate to people. Emotions can get the
better of you, but you’re pretty good at putting up the necessary barriers to hide or protect your soft center. This makes you formidable when you want to go and get something!
Apollo in 11th house:
When idealistic Apollo is resident in the House of Ideals (hopes, wishes, good fortune, friends) he seems to incline you less to worldly wants, and rather more to creating a rich inner life. If it’s not a path with heart, you probably aren’t interested. But if you do take the right road, it can lead you to a place of considerable success and comfort, anyway. All the while, you dream great dreams, which can become even greater if you share them with like-minded souls. If or when you do engage with a group (of any size) you can have quite an impact on it, and indeed have the capacity to be a leader in your field. You’ll probably be known for something a bit different from the ‘white bread’ norm, too.
Apollo Trine Sun, Orb: 0 deg. 00 min.
You find greater than usual pleasure from untrammeled self expression, and feel most fulfilled when your creative energies are working at full throttle. When it all flows, you easily hone your skills and accomplish much, but there is a risk here of being satisfied with even easier appearances. Keep this in check, and you can go far.
Apollo Trine Mercury, Orb: 3 deg. 10 min.
At times your mental processes are so precise and express with such facility that it may seem you are a cross between a super computer and a poet. You enjoy learning, and find a kind of aesthetic pleasure in knowledge – and its display! There’s something of the peacock in you as well, which is fine when you are genuinely drawing on your talents.
Apollo Sextile MC, Orb: 0 deg. 31 min.
The desire to get to the top can be enough to drive you there, but your achievements will mean more to you, as well as everyone else, if you have actually done something real with your talents. This is much easier for you than many. The main challenge is to keep at it – you can coast along, and do well enough,
but you are capable of much more!
Apollo Trine True Lilith, Orb: 1 deg. 59 min.
You find it easier than many people to find creative resolutions to paradoxes, as you live with a free-flowing push-pull energy that enables you to express your creativity through sympathy for dark emotions, whilst taming some of your crazier urges. You bring light to dark places whilst also allowing a little darkness to make the light more interesting.
Apollo Opposition Moon, Orb: 0 deg. 10 min.
Your strong emotions can fuel a splendid creative fire, if you learn enough detachment to tend the blaze effectively. But there is a risk you could project too many of your personal notions onto your environment, and assume people and situations are only and always the way you think or feel they are. Lighten up – others can be (and are) different from you!
Apollo Square Venus, Orb: 2 deg. 21 min.
Your love of beauty can certainly stimulate a great creative capacity, and your high standards can also help to keep the rest of the world on their toes and trying that bit harder. But you can become too demanding and critical, especially during the mating game. Sure you want the best, but the beauty of the soul counts most in the long run.
Chapter 11: Bacchus
Bacchus, lord of altered states and divine inspiration
In Roman mythology, Bacchus was the god of the vine and wine, equivalent to the Greek Dionysos. The cult of Dionysos was ancient and mysterious. He was a strange and subtle god, other-worldly, now kind, now cruel, connected with altered states (including those induced by drugs, from alcohol to hallucinogens), the deity presiding over peak experiences from ecstasy to agony. He was close to nature, wild and free, and his worship had many anarchic as well as transcendental elements. Eventually his archetype and worship became so important to the Greek collective psyche that he was elevated to the Council of Twelve, the great gods and goddesses who presided over the government of Mount Olympus. Unlike other (male) gods, Dionysos was surrounded by women, and mortal women were his most significant votaries. There is an inter-sex, almost androgynous or transgender quality to this divine archetype.
The asteroid Bacchus constellates all these contradictions and mysteries in the horoscope. A good deal of the Bacchus/Dionysos archetype is also apparent in the planet Neptune, and where this asteroid differs and adds value to the chart is in the way it focuses the area of life where you are most open to
inspiration and where you are most eager for pleasure and escape from the everyday. Neptune has a collective energy, but Bacchus is more directly personal. Bacchus tells you a lot about where and how you play, what excites you and inspires you to do better, to go further, and to push things not only to the limit but even past it. The consequences, if any, you will deal with later, if you must. Where Bacchus goes you have a little taste of freedom, a little glimpse of heaven or – if you play foolishly or choose badly – you get a harrowing vision of hell. You need to be careful with Bacchus energy. When he is good he is very, very good; and when he is bad he is horrid. Or to quote another old proverb: ‘Take what you want, the Good Lord says – and pay for it.’
The asteroid Bacchus has an eccentric orbit and spends more time in some signs of the zodiac than others. His longest sojourn is in Sagittarius; if you have Bacchus in the signs from Pisces through Aries to Virgo, this is a less common placement.
Bacchus in Sagittarius:
Free-spirited Bacchus is most often and longest in this most free-spirited sign of the zodiac, so there are lots of you folk running around in the world, doing your own thing, trying not to upset anyone, but not worrying unduly if you do. Stuff happens. Your ideas and ideals can be so broad and deep as to defy any simple categorization, which is fine by you. If others don’t get where you’re at, that’s their problem. Living in the moment, you are swept along by the fiery spirit of Life itself, and you bring your gifts of insight and passion to whatever moves you, whenever and wherever you find it. When you’re done, you move on. Communication is important to you, and you tend either to be very good at it, or rather blocked. If misunderstandings arise, try to be dispassionate and see where, not if, you are part of the problem. Then you can participate in a win-win resolution.
Bacchus in 5th house:
One of Bacchus’s blessings is a more than usually vivid imagination, and when the god of play is running loose in the House of Play, you really just want to have fun. You have access to the magic of what is so often called nowadays ‘the inner child’, that aspect of your being which is full of wonder and delight and knows instinctively how to enjoy life. At your best you can engage the inner child of everyone, and turn everything into a party! Your creative powers can be extraordinary, and you could be an inventor or performer or the model parent. Working at the height of your powers, whatever you produce can touch hearts, a great gift. Somehow you do best in front of an audience, and seem to find one!
Bacchus Trine Asc., Orb: 2 deg. 33 min.
There’s a playfulness to your nature, and something of the actor about you, a desire to experiment with identity and try on different ways of being in the world. Or you could be a mystic or a poet or an artist or, or – just about anything or anyone! Just make sure you keep a sense of your core identity whilst
you spin the dials and ring the changes!
Bacchus Square Uranus, Orb: 1 deg. 01 min.
You could be the original wild child, or you could get rather freaked out by all the crazy stuff in the world (and out of it) and shut down propensities to cut loose and do your own thing. But suppressing your individuality won’t work in the long run, so it’s better to let the craziness out in a constructive way than
have it rise up manically and sabotage you.
Bacchus Square Chiron, Orb: 1 deg. 16 min.
The whole idea of crashing through the pain barrier and reaching a new high of achievement is a big turn-on for you, but you don’t have to confine it to running or even make such a big deal of it. But your maverick streak does take a bit of taming, and sometimes things have to get as tough as they do, in order to set your course aright.
Bacchus Sesquiquadrate True Node, Orb: 0 deg. 09 min.
You are rather torn between a desire to have fun all the time, splashing about in the rock-pools of relating and giving form to dreams, and a more serious, grown-up desire to put away childish things and advance on a higher spiritual path. Perhaps if you look for the balance here, you can turn the quest into a game, and play all your way to heaven?
Bacchus Sesquiquadrate Hephaistos, Orb: 0 deg. 22 min.
When there is tension between the force of divine inspiration and the force of hard work and craft, the energies unleashed are mighty, but not always immediately well directed. That spoils what could be superb results. Try starting with an inspired channel for consistent practical activity, and then see what
creative powers are made manifest!
Chapter 12: Hephaistos
Hephaistos, lord of inner fire, talent, craft and work
The asteroid Hephaistos is named in honor of the ancient god of fire and the forge, the master craftsman and divine blacksmith. In the proto-civilizations of the early Bronze Age, those who worked with the wonders of fire and metal seemed to be magicians, and were thought to possess special powers. But the god Hephaistos had a sad, strange story. He stands for aspects of the masculine that are not only amongst the most worthy (he is a hard worker and consummate artisan) but also the most unfortunate, because Hephaistos was crippled and ugly, so the other gods and goddesses wanted little to do with him.
But they could not ignore him, because he was too clever and too skilful, and he was one of the great gods who sat on the Council of Twelve governors. As we know in human life, too, those who are truly gifted always find a way to the top, and this is something the asteroid Hephaistos can point to in your
horoscope. He also shows where you may feel very unworthy and self-doubting, and so make an extra effort. He reveals many of your deepest passions and dearest desires, but also shows some of your greatest sufferings, because other people do not necessarily understand you or want your company or input.
He shows where and how you work, where and how you are perhaps most skilful. But above all, the divine blacksmith hammers your soul on his forge in order to make you better than you are already. This process of soul making, of what used to be called ‘character building’, can be hard and painful, but it is
very necessary.
Hephaistos knocks you into shape. Once you understand what he is doing, it can actually be fun to cooperate, and turn the work into a game. Mary Poppins, arguably the first super-nanny, knew a thing or two about the secret purposes of the Hephaistos archetype. With his help, you can take the base metal of your nature and transform it into gold, or at least move from childhood to adulthood.
The asteroid Hephaistos also has an even more eccentric orbit than Apollo, and spends very little time in some signs of the zodiac. He is most often in Taurus, and the nearby signs of Aries, Gemini and Cancer. If your Hephaistos is in the signs from Leo to Pisces, this is a much rarer placement.
Hephaistos in Taurus:
When Hephaistos is in Taurus you join hands, as it were, with by far the majority of the human race. Along with the masses, you are learning a large collective lesson around the use and management of the world’s material resources. But soul making is a deeply personal effort, even when you are part of a bigger process, and perhaps the major lesson here is about how each individual yearning contributes to greater collective expressions of need and, alas,greed as well. Regardless of what else is going on in your chart, you have some obligation to understand and master your desire nature, and to develop a
skilful approach to what you do with the basics: money, sex and power. If Hephaistos is strongly placed, your aesthetic sensitivity is also heightened, and a certain earthiness and physical vigor. You will be very talented in some way, and should develop your gift(s).
Hephaistos in 9th house:
The soul making process indicated by the sign your Hephaistos occupies is channeled into what might be called ‘the university of life’, the fields where you get to run free and explore ideas, travel around, and see where your spiritual instinct (whatever it is) takes you. This can turn you into a dreamer rather than a doer, which can spoil your harvest and waste the high intelligence that is your birthright. But once you get a focus and get moving, little can stop you, and your capacity for achievement is great. Sometimes you dither through under-confidence rather than laziness, and just need the right recognition and
encouragement to put a fire in your belly. You’ll do best with a steady burn.
Hephaistos Conjunct True Node, Orb: 0 deg. 31 min.
The realm of desire tantalizes you, and your intense passions and thirst for experience will lead you on deep and transforming adventures. Your soul is refined through the testing fires of the connections you make and the intentions behind them, and what worldly attachments drive you. Be careful what you wish for: you might get it!
Hephaistos Conjunct MC, Orb: 4 deg. 58 min.
You bring tremendous energy to your vocation, once you figure out what it is. You keep going long after less vigorous or resilient souls have wilted and retired, and when you harness your practical skills to a practical goal, there’s little or nothing you can’t achieve. Just don’t get too gloomy; impatience or
over-sensitivity can spoil your harvest.
Hephaistos Sextile Mercury, Orb: 2 deg. 19 min.
It is easy for you to direct your strong imagination into practical channels, and you have the potential to achieve a good deal by skilful application of your capacity for systems thinking as well. You like things to be organized and have a healthy streak of common sense, so people tend to rely on you for help and
advice, and trust your judgment.
Hephaistos Sesquiquadrate Uranus, Orb: 1 deg. 23 min.
You are driven by strong inner fires that catalyze the urge for change, so you need a mission, or at least plenty of full-on work to do. The ordinary and hum-drum will send you stir-crazy, so you need outlets that call for lateral thinking or innovative approaches. Wise self-management is required, as you don’t
want to go into nuclear meltdown!
Hephaistos SemiSquare Chiron, Orb: 0 deg. 55 min.
You have a strong drive to manifest some aspects of the hero archetype, particularly the ability to go far beyond ordinary endurance or achievement. But this can set you up for unnecessarily harsh challenges if you don’t set realistic goals for yourself, and heal inner hurts first. Frenetically ‘showing them’ as
overcompensation doesn’t finally work.
Chapter 13: Flora
Flora, lady of all things that flower and flourish
Flora was one of the loveliest of the Classical goddesses, and her namesake asteroid also has a lovely energy. In the mythic tradition, Flora was a Roman deity; she was the goddess of the fertile season of spring, and patroness of all things budding and flowering. Her name has passed into biological parlance, as “flora” is given now to encompass the entire plant kingdom. Her asteroid bestows her graces and generosity upon the horoscope in sweet and gently powerful ways. Astrologically, the divine archetype Flora shows whatever has come into bloom, whatever is flourishing. She acts to enhance the energies of the other planetary archetypes she contacts, and brings them into a bright, full-flowering strength.
Whilst essentially benign in her action, Flora’s ability to activate and stimulate the energies of other planets sometimes means they flourish unchecked, so that instead of manifesting as (metaphorically) lovely flowers they may look or feel more like rampant weeds! Flora usually adds a graceful strength wherever she goes. She doesn’t swagger and bluster like so many of the god archetypes, but in her own sweet quiet way she points to areas of the horoscope which have a kind of divine favor and blessing. In more material terms this means she shows areas of improved capacity, and often shows things that give us particular pleasure.
In some ways Flora is like a purified Venus in the chart. She adds beauty and charm, but the quality of her energy is mostly untroubled by Venus’s strong desires and attachments. Flora is like a seal of goodwill and protection. She helps you along, gives you subtle inspiration and encouragement, and ultimately shows you where many of your greatest strengths and talents lie. She helps you to “be yourself”, whatever that means, and to find and make the most of your natural gifts.
Flora in Sagittarius:
It’s easy for you to uphold the old hippie motto that says, “Live and let live.” Your way of being in the world is open and candid, springing from a spacious attitude of mind that at its best will allow you to develop a strong and sustaining spirituality. Taken to its highest potential, this can even give you the spiritual authority to act as an exemplar or teacher of some kind, helping others to figure out what they believe in or supporting their quest for personal freedom and self-actualization. At the very least people want to believe in you, so it would be best all-round if you really do have something worth believing in to give to the world. You could get by with the appearance of talent or wisdom, but cultivating the real deal will serve you, and everyone else, much better in the long run!
Flora in 4th house:
The home base, both literal and metaphorical, really needs to be strong for you, and you will put a lot of your energy and talents into making sure you have a solid foundation in your life. It’s not just about the material domicile, however: you want to be strong within yourself, and need above all some sort of spiritual or philosophical keystone you can depend upon and refer back to whenever the going gets tough. You may not need a place as such; sometimes it almost seems as though you take home with you, wherever you go, like a snail with its shell. If the home of your childhood wasn’t much good, you’ll do your best to correct this in your adult years. But no matter how challenging the past was, you have a deep regard for heritage, and act as a torch bearer in your own way.
Flora Conjunct Bacchus, Orb: 3 deg. 40 min.
This is a happy and sometimes very escapist blend of energies. You’ll probably bloom best in an unconventional kind of job if possible, something that allows your creativity full rein. You believe life is about having as much fun as possible, and don’t like constraint. Just remember to do something practical once in awhile!
Flora Trine Asc., Orb: 1 deg. 07 min.
Making connections with the world around you allows you to come into full bloom, so unless there are very shy influences elsewhere, this energy releases inhibitions and makes you open and welcoming, able to demonstrate tact and charm. You have formidable powers of persuasion and understand instinctively that you catch many more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Flora Square Uranus, Orb: 2 deg. 39 min.
Sometimes you play kooky, sometimes it’s the poor lost soul routine, but what is really going on here is the need to harness your healing powers both for your own transformation and for the help and benefit of others. Whatever challenges are thrown at you, you have the inner strength and skills to meet. Look
for the new or odd ways out. Old style doesn’t do it for you.
Flora Square Pluto, Orb: 0 deg. 37 min.
You’re a sensitive soul, perhaps very sensitive, and may find it hard to battle through life in the everyday world. Escape is not the answer, in the sense of opting out; you will be happier, in fact, when you opt in occasionally and just do what needs doing. True mystics have always been quite practical, and
ground their visions in material realities.
Flora Square True Lilith, Orb: 3 deg. 29 min.
The urge to be on your own, or do your own thing without let or hindrance, is a powerful driver but one that isn’t always easily satisfied. You can tend to extremes here, either becoming too unwilling to compromise, or pretending to be more obliging than you want to be (or should be). Balance is essential, but not always easy. Try not to get too darkly moody.
Flora SemiSquare Mars, Orb: 1 deg. 56 min.
This is a zesty, forceful combination that gives you a lot of drive and stamina. It can also cause you to overdo things, or to think that your mighty will should prevail in all circumstances. If you try that sort of stunt in the wrong way, you may find that opposition teaches you to take a more realistic measure of what you can, or should, be doing. Gently does it!
Chapter 14: Hekate
Hekate, lady of magical power and the gifts of wise experience
Hekate was an ancient goddess, associated with the old moon, and her name was not a local Greek one. She is perhaps more familiar under her Latinized name, Hecate. In antiquity, the goddess Hekate was as much feared as she was loved, although her devotees were very ardent in their worship. This was because they believed she was willing and able to grant great blessings, especially wealth and power, to those who found her favor. Hekate seems to constellate rather extreme reactions, and certainly her symbol in astrology has a degree of extremism to it. Neither of the two feminine archetypes who seem to balance the Lunar Nodes, Black Moon Lilith and Hekate, is exactly a sweet and simple manifestation of the Divine Mother.
The goddess Hekate was a figure of immense power, usually shown as having three faces. She related to the final phase of the moon, when the lunar goddess energy was at its most full and experienced, even though the visible moon was waning in the sky. Hekate’s time of day was midnight, or the small hours of the morning, and as, over centuries, the patriarchal traditions supplanted goddess worship, she became associated with witchcraft and darkness in the moral as well as physical sense. Hekate could be found late at night, at cross-roads, with baying dogs about her, perhaps attended by those covens of wise women (demonized as witches) who were her most dedicated votaries.
The astrological Hekate has been little studied, but seems to have a tremendous force inherent in her. She certainly shows one of the points of real power in the horoscope. Like Juno she seems to be a constellation of the shakti force of the Divine Mother, and as such is indeed able to work magic wherever she goes. Magic is, after all, only a way of working with the powers of nature (or of the cosmos) which lie beyond any current level of knowledge or common capacity. There is little that is common about Hekate when she is working at full tilt in the chart. She can show where you get lucky, or rich, or both; and she almost always points to the real talents available to you, if you will only work appropriately to harness them.
Her influence is subtle and can go seemingly unnoticed for years, but sooner or later the potency of Hekate will out. When she emerges from the shadows she is a magnificent figure who enables you to do great things. But this power is perilous and easily wasted or distorted, and Hekate’s dark face is dreadful. Be careful with Hekate. Work well with her, and for the right, and she will bless you and aid your prosperity. Work badly with her, or show her dishonor, and she will stimulate the pride or folly which bring you down and force you to start all over again. In that sorry situation Hekate’s stern message seems to be, “Act more intelligently next time.” Her magic vanishes when you become scattered, unfocused or disconnected. The choice of skilful or unskillful action is all yours. The right use of power is the greatest of all tests.
Hekate in Aries:
You have a tremendous drive to assert your individualism and to “be yourself”, whatever that means. It may take a while for you to figure out who you are or what you need to do, but once your course is set, you aren’t easily dissuaded; and you aren’t exactly patient about pursuing your aims, either. Independence of mind and action are very obvious attributes, along with a high level of assertiveness, unless other chart factors are very strong. Even if you are mostly a quiet, modest soul you will have moments of passion, and can turn swiftly into the proverbial mouse who roars. With ordinary or high levels of self-assertion, you can become a force to be reckoned with. Just be careful how you make your way in the world, and remember to treat people with care and consideration: you don’t want your force to backfire on you!
Hekate in 8th house:
For you, everything is deep. Your passions run very deep and may or may not express happily, depending a lot on the circumstances you find yourself in, especially around close relationships. These tend to be intense and testing, a means to purification, a thing to avoid, or something you plunge into and damn the consequences. You engage profoundly with life, especially with the Big Things: Love and Death, for instance. A deeply serious soul, you approach experiences with what many will describe as earnestness of purpose. You just think you have a proper respect for everything and everyone, unless of course you hate something or someone. Conflicts with authority are possible, or you could put a clamp on the emotional container and channel all your magic into money making. Fundamentally, your whole life is a search for deep meaning.
Hekate Conjunct Saturn, Orb: 2 deg. 00 min.
Some people think you are tough; you know how much you are really a scaredy-cat and how much front you are presenting to keep the world at bay. Your genius lies in what you can achieve through sheer grit and hard work, and this can make you intolerant of fools and slackers. Life is real and earnest for you,
so a little relaxation goes a long way.
Hekate Trine Juno, Orb: 2 deg. 04 min.
Life’s not so much a cabaret for you as an opera, with lots of spectacle and color and movement and sound. You love a grand production and can more than contribute your share when you’re pumped up, and it doesn’t take a lot to pump you. Be generous in your vision, though, and include everyone: it’s not only about you!
Hekate Trine Astraea, Orb: 3 deg. 47 min.
You are one of nature’s problem solvers, and understand how the power and the magic are in the detail. The capacity to get things into order is one of your gifts, and you know how the little things mean a lot. Although you can get hung up on things now and then, for the most part you know how to flow, and to keep a sane perspective on life.
Hekate Square Hygiea, Orb: 0 deg. 20 min.
If there’s something in your bit of the world that needs cleaning up or healing or some TLC, you just know you’ve got the answer. You might have the answer too, but you might also be making a mountain out of your own special little molehill, so apply a little careful modest judgment before you charge in like
Florence Nightingale on steroids!
Chapter 15: Chiron
Chiron, lord of healing-transformation and catalyst for evolution
Chiron is a curious astrological symbol, as the heavenly body is not a planet but a “centaur” body, half icy comet and half asteroid rubble, just as the mythical Greek centaurs were half horse, half human. Chief of the mythical centaurs was Kheiron, whose Latinized name is rendered as Chiron. It is Chiron who is the figure familiar to astrologers and their clients.
Chiron has only been part of the astrological tool-kit since its discovery at the end of 1977, and many astrologers have noted how it came into human
consciousness around the time that the movements towards ecology and complementary medicine were gaining ground in western countries. The meanings of new astrological symbols have a way of echoing conditions in the world at the time they are “discovered”, although of course the multitudinous heavenly bodies have been around forever. It took a while for astrologers to know what to do with Chiron, but nowadays the general consensus is that he represents the “wounded healer”. This is because in mythology, Chiron taught the art of healing, but was unable to heal a grievous wound he sustained in one of the battles fought by Herakles (or Hercules). In this fracas, Chiron was accidentally hit with an arrow tipped with the terrible poison of the hydra, or multi-headed water snake. There was no antidote to the hydra’s poison, and after much agony Chiron prevailed upon Zeus to allow him to swap his immortality for death, and he was translated into the sky as the constellation Centaurus.
Years of practice have given astrologers other insights into Chiron, and one of the best has been offered by an English astrologer called Dennis Elwell, who sees in Chiron a brave and provocative maverick energy which encourages people to transcend their limitations and become the best they can be. This is not wholly incompatible with the idea of the healer, if we read Chiron as showing not just healing in a more or less medical sense, but in a more transformative psychological sense of getting past one’s blockages or overcoming negative patterns, and moving on to a more integrated and skilful way of being in the world. Chiron seems to be very important as a symbol of the energy which leads us towards new evolutionary potentials. It can be hard to make this leap of consciousness, and sometimes conditions in life have to become unendurably painful before we are willing to take the steps needed to shift. This process may not always succeed; with Chiron, failure is an option. But perhaps Chiron was also behind that famous definition of failure as an opportunity to start again more intelligently.
Chiron the heavenly body has a slow and eccentric orbital pattern and a very eccentric way of playing out against the zodiac. The astrological Chiron spends a lot more time in some signs of the zodiac – Capricorn through Gemini, and especially Pisces and Aries – than others. If you were born with a slow moving Chiron, the position by house may be more important than the position by zodiac sign. Wherever Chiron is in your horoscope, however, you have an opportunity to go within and discover not only where there are difficulties or various ways in which you are (or can be) hurt. You also have an opportunity to deal courageously with challenging aspects of life, or personality, and to engage with the world in a much more intelligent, wiser, braver and more compassionate way than you have ever done before. Work well with Chiron and you really will step up to the next level. Now there’s a goal worth chasing!
Chiron in Pisces:
Your quest for healing-transformation finds a wellspring in the need to cultivate an evolutionary movement committed to transcendence. Intensely romantic and visionary, anything seems possible here, from soaring to the heights or plumbing the depths, attaining enlightenment or drowning in a sea of confusion if you are not clear about what you are doing, and why. You have immense potential, which you might waste a little (or a lot) if you lack focus. Your sensitivity and openness are a gift if you are grounded, but a challenge if you lack sensible boundaries or if you wallow in self-pity about old hurts or scores. Chiron in Pisces is about growing up, not regressing or stagnating, and at your best you can embrace a huge vision of what it means to be human, to be part of a great global family, and to make a meaningful contribution to a collective vision. But you do need to watch out for a martyr streak. Strive to transform passion into compassion.
Chiron in 8th house:
No matter how quiet a life you might aspire to, from time to time you find yourself in the centre of radical processes of deep change and healing-transformation. This is powerful soul-making stuff, seldom easy, sometimes thrilling, and always of the most profound importance. You just can’t sit still, or on your laurels: there is always a new world to conquer, so to speak, and you have to be brave about going into sometimes dark or strange places in order to prove your mettle. There is something phoenix-like about your life, as you periodically immolate in the fires of change – especially those to do with intimate relationships, or managing money – and rise again, renewed, re-formed, perhaps reformed as well. It’s all about becoming the best you can be!
Chiron Trine Jupiter, Orb: 0 deg. 12 min.
With a harmonious Jupiter-Chiron aspect, you find it a little easier to figure out how to go deep and come up big, manifesting some kind of large understanding of the mysteries of life and how you can make some contribution, however small and local, to enlarging and invigorating the wider society of which you are part. At your best, you ability to give practical form to big visions makes you truly inspiring, and you can be a leader and guide to other people.
Chiron Trine Neptune, Orb: 0 deg. 41 min.
When you have an easy link between Chiron and Neptune, you will find pleasure and strength in cultivating your psychic or idealistic capacities. You are a sensitive, creative soul who can do something interesting to help make your patch of the world more aware and accepting. The challenge here is not to over-estimate how psychic or intuitive you are, because you can get a bit carried away with yourself!
Chiron Opposition Uranus, Orb: 2 deg. 18 min.
When Chiron and Uranus are in tense alignment – and many people born between the early 1950s and 1990 have a long-running challenging aspect – you are part of some much larger process of social change that you may or may not find comfortable to participate in. This synergy helped to drive the technological revolution of the second half of the 20th Century. How well you handle change is a critical issue, and healing-transformation is driven by your ability to adapt and work creatively with swiftly moving new circumstances.
Chiron SemiSquare True Node, Orb: 1 deg. 26 min.
Life presents you with major challenges around the whole business of what you attach to and what you are willing to give up. Healing-transformation is a potent life theme, and sometimes becomes so dramatic as to have a life-or-death feel to it. This is a tad melodramatic, but you do have some work to do. You really do have to get to grips with what you want to keep and what you want to surrender, and keep it all very fair, and clean.
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Report and Text Copyright 2007 Roderick Kidston