New Planetary Points and the Tropical Zodiac.
February 11, 2008
How do the newly discovered dwarf planets fit in the Greek model of the universe?
In the Greek model, most everything is tightly interconnected:
Degrees Time of Day House Sign Planetary Ruler
1 to 30 4:00 AM to 5:59 AM first Aries Mars
31 to 60 2:00 AM to 3:59 AM second Taurus Venus
61 to 89 12:00 AM to 1:59 AM third Gemini Mercury
90 to 119 10:00 PM to 11:59 PM fourth Cancer Moon
120 to 149 8:00 PM to 9:59 PM fifth Leo Sun
150 to 179 6:00 PM to 7:59 PM sixth Virgo Mercury
180 to 209 4:00 PM to 5:59 PM seventh Libra Venus
210 to 239 2:00 PM to 3:59 PM eighth Scorpio Pluto
240 to 269 12:00 PM to 1:59 PM ninth Sagittarius Jupiter
270 to 299 10:00 AM to 11:59 AM tenth Capricorn Saturn
300 to 329 8:00 AM to 9:59 AM eleventh Aquarius Uranus
330 to 360 6:00 AM to 7:59 AM twelfth Pisces Neptune
But what problem did the Greeks face? Look at the chart. There were twelve signs and only seven planets that were known to them. This left five house divisions of the zodiac without a planetary association. This also left some planets with double duty in the rulership department, Mercury taking on both Gemini and Virgo, Venus, Taurus and Libra, Mars, Aries and Scorpio, Saturn, Capricorn and Aquarius.
When Uranus was discovered in the 1781, the idea of a finite solar system was blown away. It took almost a hundred years for its present name to be officially assigned to it, and it association with Aquarius tentatively recognized by astrologers.
Ceres was next discovered in 1801 and promptly announced as a planet, then demoted to a planetoid. After that it was pretty well ignored by astronomers and astrologers. (How typical of a patriarchal society!) Neptune was discovered in 1846, and followed by Pluto in 1930. References to who affixed the rulerships of Neptune and Pluto elude research, though their mythology certainly led the way to fixing meaning in the chart. Eventually though, we sorted the issue of rulerships out, and Neptune was assigned to Pisces, and Pluto to Scorpio.
In 1977 Chiron was discovered: followed by a rush of discovery early in this decade. Quoaor was discovered in 2002, Sedna in 2003, and Eris in 2006. We have recognized Chiron’s effect in a chart from the pioneering work of Clow and others, but we are a long way to defining the new babies on the block in our charts.
If we were take all these planetary points we would have fifteen astrological planetary points and still only twelve signs. If we were to take Ceres and Chiron and assigned them as rulers we would have our nice and neat associations within the twelve sign zodiac, leaving the transplutonian planets on their own. This has a certain appeal, as they move so very slowly through our charts their effect is by aspects to planets in our chart or by residence in our houses.
Assigning Ceres, the goddess of the harvest, to Virgo seems like a natural fit, leaving Venus with Taurus, but we have a problem with Chiron. Clow assigns the rulership of Chiron to Sagittarius, but at least in my mind, though the symbol fits, the meaning of Sagittarius does not. And Chiron is not a permanent resident of of solar system at all. Eventually, it will leave the solar system, sort of a resident alien without a green card. And that still leaves Libra without an official planetary ruler of its own.
Does this leave us open to assigning new zodiac places as certain astrologer’s suggest? Or are we waiting for new planetary discoveries to help us define and redefine house rulerships? What do you think?
[tags] astrology, zodiac, horoscopes, new planets, tropical zodiac]
February 13th, 2008 at 5:09 am
[...] With all these baby and dwarf planets recently discovered, astrologers have barely had a chance to catch our collective breath. We are only beginning to scratch the surface on how these planetary bodies work in our chart. We [...]