There are many asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. Astrologers today have taken these smaller bodies into account in delineating a natal chart. Many asteroids are named after female family members of Jupiter. Thus the asteroids help bring the feminine into astrology. They tend to suggest an influence on specific matters in life.
Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) are bodies found beyond the orbit of Neptune. These objects are usually influential on our subconscious, our invisible urges, and dealing with themes of illusion. Because they usually have long orbits around the Sun (200+ years), their influence can be seen across an entire generation rather than individually. However, their house placement can signal where in a person’s life he or she tends to direct its energy.
TNOs and asteroids tend to deal with very explicit, particular matters. For example, Chiron deals with emotional wounding and our ability to heal; Ceres reveals our nurturing habits; Ixion shows how we self-sabotage; Chaos signals raw potential and primordial creative force, or the void of the beginning from which all life and ideas have sprung.
Chiron – Centaur (Space Object)
Chiron was a centaur, a skilled archer and a renown healer. His famous mythology tells us that despite his ability to heal others, Chiron was ultimately unable to treat his own wound. He was destined to feel constant visceral pain, leading to Zeus immortalizing him in the heavens as the constellation of the Centaur.
Since Chiron is a recent discovery, it is important that we take its current meaning with a grain of salt, until we have more solid research to ascertain its significance in the chart. However, many astrologers today currently adhere to the mythological interpretation of Chiron when reading its significance, and so far it has proven somewhat effective. What follows borrows from that mythological interpretation.
Chiron in our charts shows us what area in life we will experience pain and wounding. Typically we experience this pain in childhood and unconsciously seek experiences throughout our lives that retrigger it in adult life. However, it also shows where we can provide the most healing to others, if we can first heal from our own trauma. It is an energy that is lived through and transmuted from a detrimental, stagnant state to an invigorating, resuscitating state.
Aspects with others planets in the chart describe the energy and how we either expedite, hinder, share, or hide our own personal healing processes and how we attempt to heal others. Chiron bestows the ability to transcend circumstances and leave one’s comfort zone, into a new and liberating understanding, maturity and confidence.
Ceres – Asteroid
The first asteroid discovered in 1801, Ceres is named after a corn goddess and the Earth Mother in Roman mythology. Ceres represents a mothering, nurturing principle, often practical. Agricultural occupations, eating disorders, protective forces, the well-being of ordinary people, and democracy all fall under the influence of Ceres. The Shadow side of our natal Ceres placement shows where we can smother or be smothered, halting growth and potential.
Pallas Athena – Asteroid
The second asteroid discovered in 1802; Pallas Athena was the daughter of Zeus who sprang forth from his forehead fully matured and armored for battle. Pallas represents our logical, rational mind; artificial intelligence, strategy and wisdom. This asteroid also has similar energy to Uranus in that it can signal sudden changes however difficult or demanding, which leads to higher wisdom gained from bearing the hardships.
As such Pallas Athena represents the ultimate win over adversity and hardships. It also represents humor, mainly satire, as one who laughs after achieving victory or in the face of adversity. A blockage of Pallas’ energies can show where we are dense or stupid.
Juno – Asteroid
Third asteroid discovered in 1804, Juno was named after the heavenly wife of Jupiter, king of the gods. Juno in the horoscope represents the marriage partner, but it also represents the Divine Feminine power active in all women and latent in men.
As the feminine energy is also connected to creation, Juno’s placement in the chart shows how we may choose to create with our partner. Yet it can also represent where we have the greatest obstacles in realizing, fostering and utilizing our creative potentials.
Related to the Divine Feminine shakti force, which challenges women to raise their vibrational frequencies and allows them to create on higher level. Natal Juno also represents resource management, whether spiritual, intellectual, emotional, or material.
Vesta – Asteroid
The fourth asteroid discovered in 1807, Vesta was named after another sister of Jupiter. As keeper of the hearth, Vesta represents focus and dedication, clarity and purity of purpose. It symbolizes tradition, piety, service, focused behavior and efficiency.
Vesta’s shadow qualities include fanaticism, tunnel vision, and excessive conservatism. If one has high self-esteem, Vesta’s energies can manifest as one who is self-sacrificial in an honorable regard; if the native has low self-esteem, the energies may cause him/her to be subservient to others, a doormat, or a martyr unnecessarily.
Ixion – Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO)
Ixion has a weird history. This Trans-Neptunian was discovered May 22, 2001. The mythology is mixed on this character. In general, Ixion was a descendant of the war god Ares and was king of Thessaly. He reneged on a marriage agreement to pay another king dowry for his daughter. When the inquiring king visited, Ixion greeted him by pushing him onto burning coals; this made him the first person to shed kindred blood in Greek mythology.
As Ixion was the first violator, no one knew how to punish him. He was exiled from his kingdom when Zeus, taking pity on Ixion’s fate, invited him to Olympus to party with the gods. However, it was no long before Ixion betrayed again, this time attempting to court Hera, queen of the gods and wife to Zeus. Zeus punished Ixion by eternally binding him to a flaming, gyroscopic wheel, while Ixion screams “show gratitude to your benefactors.”
Ixion’s placement in the natal chart shows where we allow our egotistical delusions and misguided selfish impulses to satisfy our deepest desires. They key to analyzing Ixion lies in the conscious decision of the native to continue doing what he or she absolutely knows is downright selfish and harmful to others.
It is the immediately gratifying, yet simultaneously punishing act that each person performs which is keeping him or her bound and attached to the reincarnation wheel. Ixion has less to do with karma than with the egoic and selfish ties that each individual has for some activity on the dense plane of existence, i.e. Earth.
Eris – Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO)
Coming Soon!
Chaos – Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO)
Coming Soon!
Karma-Free Astrology 