Astrology Explored

May 17, 2008

Eris, our newly discovered dwarf planet of the solar system demands a voice. As the ancient daughter of Night, and having no male provenance in her lineage, Eris was an outsider in the patriarchal pantheon of Olympian gods that dominated Greek culture that spawned our own. She is an ancient goddess whose meaning became subverted when the patriarchal northern tribes of Greece conquered the southern matriarchal tribes and broke and diminished the roles of all goddesses.

In a stunning moment, Eris, crashed a wedding party to which she should have been invited and displayed the weakness of the female Olympian goddesses by tossing a golden apple maked “To the fairest” in the center of the party. All the goddesses, each representing a different aspect of female power, fought over the prize. Note that if each goddess was actually sure of her own power and place, they wouldn’t have fought over this “prize” no matter how valuable. It demonstrated how females fall for outer trappings of beauty and wealth to validate themselves within society.

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January 27, 2007

Demetra George is best known for her ground breaking book Asteroid Goddesses. Her work was an important step in defining feminine roles within the birth chart by using the asteroids Pallas, Juno, Ceres and Vesta. In this video she tells how she come to astrology and what she found:

astrology, , Demetra George, Asteroid Goddesses

The newest dwarf planet discoved is the goddess of Discord, Eris. Her mythology is complex. Looked upon primarily as the genesis of discord, she is looked at another way as well.

“The Goddess of Discord is just one way of looking at Eris. But the other [side of Eris] [is that] . . .She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbor, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order; and neighbor vies with his neighbor as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men.�
 
In other words, another form of the word strife is “striving.� Competition creates conditions where individuals . . . strive to improve their life.�

The parthogenically produced daughter of the goddess Night, who, in turn, was created in primodial Chaos, she has no male heritage. Eris had the ability to produce children without the aid of a consort and she did so many times. She was whole unto herself, not needing the male principle to complete her. Except for the God of War, Ares, whose (non-sexual) company she kept, she was excluded from the company of the patriarchal Olympian gods. Called the Queen of Battle, supposedly delighting in the bloodletting of war, was this the reason she was excluded from the company of other gods?

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October 22, 2007

The power of the feminine is the power of the creation of life inherent in our role in reproducing the species. Many ancient cultures revered feminine energy, with their goddess just as or more powerful than than male deities. Humans shifted from nomadic hunter-gathering lifestyle to a more stable agrarian lifestyle As human populations grew, so did the competition for land. Warrior cultures, with their emphasis on male strength and competitive nature thrived. The balance of power between male and female was disrupted, as patriarchal cultures subverted the power of female deities, shattering the base of the feminine power. In the process the female psyche was fractured, leaving us very confused on what constitutes feminine behavior.

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October 20, 2007

Asteroid Goddesses by Demetra George and Douglas Block 1986 ACS Publications

The complex nature of women and our roles in society is reverberated throughout the themes in this ground breaking work of four asteroids associated with female goddesses.

In pre-Hellenistic society a centuries long cultural war was waged between the invading and patriarchal Archaean tribes from the north and the then matriarchal tribes of Greece. In Greece, the Mother Goddess was worshipped in diverse forms and royal lines of succession came from the distaff side. As the two cultures clashed and eventually merged, the power of the feminine goddesses was subverted and reinterpeted to fit within the patriachal framework of the invading peoples. Here we see the origins of centuries long repression and denial of feminine power The fractured nature of today’s vision of feminimity can be traced to this ancient cultural war.

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October 12, 2007

The mysterious moon in Scorpio draws down a veil of secrecy over this weekend’s proceedings. With most of the planets in feminine signs, sans the Sun in Libra, Jupiter and Pluto in Sagittarius and Neptune in Aquarius, the atmospheric shift is the hidden life within, the flow of emotions, the tide of here and now. We have been riding so much male energy for this past summer that we’ve been carried along on that wave, only to be beached, like a shell riding swept along in the surf to settle on a far away shore.

You can here the roar of the beach as you step in the temple of Isis, an ancient queen for ancient peoples. She sits timeless upon her throne, tranquil and assured. Not a wisp of emotion crosses her face. Since she contains all wisdom, she has no worries about the world.

Behind her is a tapestry, the veil of life, worked in delicate threads with the design of pomegranates, a symbol of fertility. But Isis here is yet a virgin goddess, her potency not manifested through a sacred marriage. She is self contained, complete in and of herself.

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October 5, 2007

Astrology for October 5 through October 11, 2007

Beyond Pluto is a wonky little planetoid named for the Inuit Goddess of the Sea. Sedna’s myth is a sad tale of loss, betrayal and transmutation.

In this tale Sedna is a beautiful Inuit maiden, living with her father, who allows her to do anything she pleases. This is an important aspect of the story, as Sedna’s father irresponsibly avoids teaching Sedna any values. As a result, Sedna develops into a self absorbed young woman who refuses all offers of marriage. At a certain point, Sedna’s father decided he could not longer afford to feed himself and Sedna, and decides she should marry.

Because Sedna had turned away all the potential suitors in her village she was forced to look elsewhere for a future husband. A suitor came to her village dressed in beautiful furs and proposed to Sedna. Though she didn’t see his face, she was impressed by the richness of his furs and accepted his offer. They were married. Sedna’s husband took her far from her village to her new home. Sedna was expecting a fine and comfortable hut, but instead was taken to a barren rock of an island to a nest lined with feathers. It was only then did Sedna see her husband’s face and she found to her horror that she married a demon bird.

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