By Cal Garrison a.k.a. Mother of the Skye
This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Sagittarius Moon. Whenever I sit down to write this column, I draw up a chart, and use the aspects to give me a sense of where things are at. Lately, the volume of information and aspects are such that even the best astrologer would have to admit that it would be arrogant to pretend they could put it all in a nutshell. I am here to say that yes, I could showcase my knowledge of the subject by entertaining you with a few observations, but things are so over the top right now, none of it would mean much in the scheme of things.
This is why I have decided to leave it to other astrologers to diagnose the weekly aspect patterns and am choosing instead to use these intros to talk about other things. Of late, I have been receiving emails from readers who are asking me why I use asteroids in my interpretations. Some of them are upset enough to say things like “What kind of lunatic astrologer would put stock in the meaning and significance of these balls of rock?” Their argument is, that the planets, the Sun, and the Moon should be enough for those of us who work in the field to get a beam on things.
I can agree with this to a certain extent, but only up to a point. Every astrologer has to have a deep understanding of the planets, the lights, and the archetypes; of course there is a lot that can be derived from using them alone. But the fact is, and history bears this out, that everything is evolving, and in regularly timed cycles, other bodies are discovered—and their discovery always coincides with the birth of the principles, or “qualities” that those bodies have arrived to awaken in the collective mind.
To cite the most obvious examples:
Uranus was discovered in 1781 – it is a rebellious, revolutionary planet whose discovery coincided with the American and the French Revolutions.
Neptune was discovered in 1846 – it is a highly spiritual, or other-worldly planet whose discovery coincided with the Transcendental Movement, the Spiritualist. Movement, the interest in psychic phenomena, and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement.
Pluto was discovered in 1930 – Pluto is a dark, form of energy that holds sway over the subconscious and all of the powers of life and death. Its discovery coincided with Hitler’s rise to power, the Great Depression, the popularity of Sigmund Freud, the interest in psychotherapy, and the discovery of atomic energy.
Chiron was discovered in 1977 – Chiron is the natural healer and the Cosmic Hippie. Its discovery came hand in hand with the hippie movement and marked a resurgence of interest in environmental issues, alternative healing, and free energy technologies.
If we apply the same axiom to the discovery of the asteroids, and consider that if the rules that apply to the discovery of other bodies apply equally to them, it follows that each of these balls of rock has an impact on the collective mind. The idea that there are thousands of them orbiting in the Asteroid Belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter may boggle the mind, but once we wrap our minds around that issue, the next question might be, “At what point in human history did we first come to know about them?”
Astronomers first became aware of the asteroid belt in the late 1700s. Ceres, the largest asteroid, was discovered in 1801. Only in the last 50 years have astrologers started to understand the meaning of these bodies and begin to incorporate their symbolism in their chart interpretations. This takes us back to 1969 – eight years prior to Chiron’s official discovery in 1977. It is worth noting that Chiron is now classified as a planet, but it was originally classified as an asteroid.
If we go back to review the idea that a celestial body isn’t “discovered” until the principles that it rules become an active ingredient in the collective mind, it is interesting that the late ‘60s and early to mid-’70s was a period of radical change. Dialing back to the 1930s, and considering what Pluto’s discovery did to introduce us to the dark side of the collective unconscious, it should come as no surprise that in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, two world wars, and the advent of the Space Age and techno-culture, all kinds of issues, complexes, and demons would show up to birth an infinitude of psychological patterns that none of us had to deal with prior to that time. By the late ‘60s and mid-to-late ‘70s, humanity was awash in traumas, head trips, and emotional constructs that until then had never been part of the scenery.
In my opinion, the asteroids are indicators that give the astrologer a way to identify specific patterns and issues that are unique to each individuals’ past life karma, and to a person’s experience of themselves in the current incarnation. They allow the astrologer to go deep into a person’s story and thus take every astrology reading beyond the realm of generalities and spiritual platitudes to a place that gives the client something that they can chew on. Let me cite a simple example:
Let’s say that an individual has a square or a conjunction between Pluto and the Moon. Even a novice astrologer would be able to tell the person that they have a mother complex. This is an accurate observation – but the person is most likely already well aware of the fact that they have a mother complex, and if they had their wits about them could turn around and say to the astrologer; ‘So what? Tell me something I don’t know!”
If the same astrologer knew how to work with asteroids they could dip into the chart and see that the Pluto-Moon aspects were forming squares or oppositions to the asteroids Ceres and Psyche – in which case they would be able to tell the client that their mother complex was rooted in their birth experience which could have been a near-death experience for either the child or the mother, and/or could have been rooted in the fact that their mother was too young when she got pregnant, or was perhaps psychologically unstable and thus totally unprepared for the responsibilities that go with motherhood. In its simplest, most mundane expression this aspect pattern would show up as an inability to nurse or feed the child and isolate that problem as the source of the mother issues.
Seen from this perspective, instead of leaving the client with a “So what? You’re not telling me anything new” response, the astrologer gives them something to sink their teeth into, and perhaps offers them insight into a mystery that opens the space for the individual to grok what happened, forgive their mother, and get beyond the need to dwell on the fact that she couldn’t be there for them.
I could go on. There are thousands of asteroids. Their inter-aspects with the planets and with each other is an endless source of learning and inspiration for me. In all of my readings it never ceases to amaze me how these bodies flesh out the intricacies of a person’s story and make it possible for me to really get to the bottom of what our purpose on the planet is all about. They say “All of us are like little snowflakes, and each one of us is totally unique unto ourself”. I am here to say that that is absolutely true, and the astrology of asteroids makes it possible to dissect the geometry and the symmetries of each snowflake in ways that absolutely blow my mind.
Yes, it’s good to have a solid knowledge of the basics – but change is the only thing that is constant on this planet. It is self-limiting to keep ourselves confined to the basics when life introduces us to newness and change and invites us to step outside of the box. Let me leave you with that and invite you to take what you can from this week’s ‘scopes.
