Asteroid Goddesses

in the natal chart of
Marilyn

by Demetra George and Douglas Bloch
with Patricia White


Introduction:
The Asteroid Goddesses

The Discovery of the Asteroids
The asteroids are small planet-like bodies that orbit the Sun in a belt that lies mostly between Mars and Jupiter. They first dawned on human consciousness in the early 1800s. The first four asteroids to be sighted were given the names of four of the great goddesses of classical antiquity: Ceres (discovered in 1801), Pallas Athene (discovered in 1802), Juno (discovered in 1804) and Vesta (discovered in 1807).

Many more asteroids were soon discovered, so that by the end of the 19th century, over a thousand were known. The first asteroid ephemeris (a table listing planetary positions) was made available to astrologers in 1973 by Eleanor Bach, and it covered only the original four. Today astrologers have computer software that tracks the placements of over five thousand.

What the Asteroids Mean for the World
Astrologers have often observed the tendency for the sighting and naming of new bodies in the solar system to come at the same time in history as the activation of new centers of consciousness in the collective human psyche. Overall, the rapid discovery of so many new celestial bodies in such a short time mirrors the modern acceleration of human brain potential, and the recent exponential growth of information that has yielded so many thousands of new facts.

As to uncovering a more particular meaning for the asteroids, the names that become attached to newly discovered bodies always seem to be significant. Though many asteroids were given the names of gods, people, places, concepts and things, over three-quarters of the first thousand to be discovered were named after goddesses from various mythological traditions.

The naming of so many asteroids after female deities paralleled an awakening of a feminine-defined principle in women, men and society. Around 1973, when the first astrological asteroid ephemeris was published and astrologers began extensive consideration of asteroids, the women's movement emerged, and new aspects of feminine expression began to awaken in human consciousness. Women became imbued with the seed possibilities of feminine creativity and intelligence that expanded and transcended the traditional roles of wife and mother. This period also marked the rediscovery of women's ancient history, the growth of women's culture in creative and professional areas, and the rebirth of the Goddess in women's spirituality. The lives of men and that of society in general have also been affected by the activation and growing influence of a right-brain, feminine-polarity, holistic way of perceiving the world.

In the symbolic language of astrology, the goddess asteroids provided new archetypes that specifically addressed the current psychological and social issues that arose from this activation of the feminine principle. Only two of the usual planets, the Moon and Venus, represent feminine archetypes, and these are of the mother and the wife. Until the asteroids, astrology had to fit all other women's experiences into masculine- defined archetypes. What was needed was a set of symbols by which to describe the other avenues of feminine expression that exist today. During the years since 1972 when astrologers have observed the significance of asteroids in birth charts, they have uncovered a wealth of information that adds insight and understanding above and beyond that gained from the usual ten planets.

Astrology's Use of Asteroids
Clearly, it is impossible to include all the thousands of asteroids in a birth chart and then make sense of them. To select asteroids to look at, some astrologers note only the asteroids that are very closely conjunct important points in the chart such as the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Midheaven or a particular planet that is being considered. Alternatively, they look for asteroid names that suggest people, places or themes in a person's life, and then see where these asteroids fall in the chart. Using these approaches, astrologers such as Zipporah Dobyns, Jacob Schwartz, J. Lee Lehman, Nona Gwyn Press and Batya Stark (as well as myself) have come up with an amazing number of startling (and often amusing) synchronicities. Playing the asteroid name game is great fun, and it gives yet another comforting manifestation of the interconnectedness of all things.

Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta
Among the thousands of asteroids known, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta have a special place. While these are not necessarily the largest asteroids, they were the first to be discovered, and as such they have imprinted themselves on human consciousness in a major way.

They also complete the female pantheon of goddesses, rounding out the system of symbols begun in the usual ten planets. Of the six great goddesses of Olympus, only Aphrodite (Venus) and Artemis (the Moon) are represented in the conventional astrological symbol system. The other four great goddesses of Graeco-Roman mythology, Demeter (Ceres), Athene (Pallas), Hera (Juno) and Hestia (Vesta), were missing from astrology until they were re-invoked by their discovery in the early 1800s.

The Mandala of the Asteroid Goddesses
Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta represent four very basic feminine archetypes which amplify and particularize the more general energies of the Moon and Venus. Their relation to the regular planets and to each other becomes clear in a mandala.

The large circle in the mandala represents the Moon, the fundamental feminine principle that contains all the potential expressions of the feminine nature. Behind the Moon resides the Sun, the embodiment of the fundamental masculine principle. The union of the masculine and feminine, of the Sun God and Moon Goddess, give rise to what mystics have described as Oneness.

In the center of the mandala is Venus. As the essence of the feminine nature in her activated form, Venus embodies the feminine creative, magnetic, sexual, reproductive, vital life force. Venus is surrounded by Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta. Each of the four in its unique way uses the creative sexual energy of Venus to express the various functions and activities of the feminine principle as it operates in both women and men.

Note that these asteroids are placed at the four cardinal directions of the mandala. These correspond to the four "angles" of the astrological chart: the Ascendant and Descendant to the left and right along the horizon, and the MC (Medium Coeli or Midheaven) and IC (Imum Coeli or Lowest Heaven), at the top and bottom of the vertical meridian line. The basic symbolism of these four great goddesses is as follows:

Ceres, the archetypal Mother and the Goddess of Agriculture, gives birth to the world of physical form, bearing children and providing food for their survival. As the Mother archetype, she stands for the principle of unconditional love and nurturing support in both women and men. In the above mandala she is placed at the IC, the very bottom of the horoscope wheel, which in astrology is related to the foundation, the roots, and the family.
Pallas Athene, the daughter of Zeus, is the Goddess of Wisdom who generates mental and artistic creations from her mind. Sprung from the head of her father, she represents the principle of creative intelligence. Her place in the mandala is at the MC, the "head" of the chart, the uppermost point, which symbolizes one's ambitions and one's visible, socially useful accomplishments.
{Juno, or Hera, was the wife of Zeus. As such, she is the Goddess of Marriage who fosters and sustains union with a partner. More generally, she symbolizes the principle of relatedness and commitment to another over time. In the mandala, she is placed at the Descendant, which in the horoscope wheel is the point that signifies reaching out from the Self to another in order to complete oneself in a one-to-one relationship.
Vesta, or Hestia, was Zeus's elder sister who never married. In mythology she became the protectress of the hearth and the sacred altar flame. The archetypal Temple Priestess, she is a virgin in the original sense of being whole and complete in oneself. In the system of goddess symbols, she represents the principle of spiritual focus and of devotion to following one's calling. Placed in the mandala at the Ascendant, Vesta corresponds to the Self.

These asteroids represent the primary relationships of a woman's life: that of mother, daughter, wife and sister. The fertile sexual energy of Venus is used by Ceres to birth children of the body, by Pallas to birth children of the mind, by Juno to build relationships with others, and by Vesta to deepen a relationship with the Self or with the Divine.

The Asteroid Goddesses in the Charts of Men
Just as the planets named after male gods pertain to the lives of women, these asteroids named for female goddesses are also important in the lives of men. The recognition and honoring of one's contrasexual side completes and strengthens the personality, embracing the unintegrated energies that are often sources of trouble.

Ceres expands on the Moon's symbolism by further illuminating the relationship of a man to his mother and also to women and other nurturing figures in his adult life. In addition, Ceres signifies a man's own tender, caregiving side and the ways in which this part of his nature can find expression. Typical manifestations of Ceres energies in a man are teaching and mentoring, pediatrics and pedagogy, farming and gardening, cooking and nutrition, medicine and therapy, ecology and environmental protection, and, of course, his part in helping his own children thrive and grow.
Pallas, for a man as well as a woman, can symbolize his capacity for strategy, his quest for clarity and truth, his sense of justice, the acquisition of skill and ingenuity in useful arts, and the ability to channel life energy for healing. Just as she can in women, Pallas can signify either a man's rejection of the feminine within himself, or the drive to integrate the opposite sexual polarity into his psyche. The placement of Pallas can also suggest how a man perceives the strong, independent women in his life. This usually has to do with his sense of his own competence.
Juno can signify a man's style of dealing with marriage and other forms of partnership, including, in some cases, business partnerships. Her placement determines how the struggle between the self and the other plays out, and whether the partnerships a man enters into are likely to be equal or unequal. Juno may also show the sort of wife a man is likely to pick, and his attitude toward married women in general. This asteroid has to do with the man in his procreative role as husband and father, and, by extension, in any joint venture for the production of a new entity. Just as she does for a woman, Juno may also show how a man deals with the infidelity of a partner.
Vesta signifies a man's relationship to himself as a complete being, apart from relationships with others. Her placement can suggest to a man how he can best become still, look within, and tend to Deity or his inner spirit. Just as she does in women, Vesta can also signify a man's urge to conserve and preserve the home, the state, the culture and its institutions.

The Asteroids as Developmental Stages
When you combine the above basic symbolism of the first four asteroids with the order in which they were discovered, the four great goddess asteroids form yet another self-contained symbol system, one that defines four stages of human, and most particularly feminine, lives:

Ceres, the first asteroid to be discovered, governs the first stage of life, when the person's primary focus is the mother. This is the stage of the Child.
Pallas, the second to be discovered, suggests the time of life when the child starts looking toward the father to be initiated into the rules of the world outside the home. This period starts when many girls become tomboys and dream of their future careers. It continues into the period when young people are out in the world studying or working or pursuing a career but are not yet parents. In a woman's life this pre-reproductive stage is that of the Maiden.
Juno, the third asteroid to be discovered, was the archetypal wife on Olympus and was also a protectress of childbirth. She suggests the one stage of a person's life that is commonly devoted to marriage and reproduction. In a woman, this is the stage of the Matron.
Vesta, the last-discovered of the four, represents the final stage of life when a woman's focus commonly turns away from child-bearing and child-rearing, and she turns toward cultivating herself as a separate individual, apart from her family relationships. In women, this post-reproductive period is the stage of the Crone. This supplements the pre-reproductive or self-contained Virgin symbolism already mentioned in connection with Vesta.
Arranging the asteroids in this way gives further clues to their meaning. Naturally, however, a woman may embody the symbolism of any of these asteroids at any time in her life.
These life stages pertain to a woman's life in particular, something that has until recently been largely neglected. They of course have their analogies in the lives of men, but in a slightly modified form, since reproduction does not tend to be so central to men's lives and many men can reproduce well into old age. Like women, men typically have a Ceres stage in which their primary attachment is to their mother, a Pallas stage where they are initiated by the father into the outside world, a Juno stage when they are husbands and fathers working to sustain a family, and a Vesta stage when they are free to retire and cultivate their inner lives.

How to Use This Report
You could think of your birth chart as a play. The planets and asteroids are the actors, harmonizing with, clashing against, or ignoring one another, depending on the aspects that they do or do not make with the other points in the chart. The sign of the zodiac that the asteroid or planet is in shows where the actor is "coming from": whether he or she is at home or in foreign territory, and his or her style of operation. The house that a planet or asteroid falls into is like the scenery, showing the area of life in which that archetype is most likely to operate.

The house cusps, and the Ascendant, Imum Coeli, Descendant and Midheaven (which in most systems of house division are the cusps of the First, Fourth, Seventh and Tenth houses) are the fastest-moving points in the chart. Moving about one degree along the zodiac during every four minutes of time, they travel all the way around the zodiac every twenty-four hours.

These are what make your chart different from the charts of other people born the same day. They deliver the most personal, particular information in your chart, but for them to do so, your birth time must be given as accurately as possible, preferably within a half-hour of time. If you are uncertain of your birth time, it is best to ignore the paragraphs that deal with houses, or with conjunctions to the Ascendant, Imum Coeli, Descendant or Midheaven. If necessary, you can probably get your birth time from your birth certificate, obtainable from the Bureau of Vital Records in the state where you were born.

When You're Reading This Report
When you read about the sign and house placements of each asteroid, it is best not to draw any conclusions about that asteroid until you after you've read about the asteroid's aspects. For example, if you had Ceres in Cancer conjunct the planet Uranus, Ceres's Cancerian need for emotional security would be offset by Uranus's desire for freedom and change. Both indications may apply, but in different areas of life, or you may feel an ongoing sense of contradiction and tension between the two. Conversely, if several indications reinforce each other, their manifestation in your life will most likely be strong and obvious.

Also remember that when a planet is at the end of a house within a degree or two of the cusp of the next house, it starts to take on the meanings of the next house as well.

An Important Note about Aspects
The authors do not consider the "hard" aspects (squares, oppositions, semisquares and sesquiquadrates) and other traditionally difficult aspects (like quincunxes and sometimes semisextiles) as uniformly bad. Neither do they consider the so-called "soft" or "easy" aspects (trine and sextile) as always good. Practicing astrology from a mythic and psychological point of view, they find that the nature of the two archetypal principles being connected is more important than the nature of the aspect. Regardless of the type of aspect being made, most people experience the entire range of interactions between two planets (or between a planet and an asteroid).

We believe that people grow by integrating opposing polarities in the psyche (represented by the opposition aspect) and by resolving inner conflicts (represented by the square). We do not wish to give you the limiting suggestion that the issues depicted by difficult aspects are impossible to resolve, or give you a false sense of security that the so-called good aspects require no awareness and effort on your part. You will therefore find that the interpretations in this report cover a wide range of both positive and negative possibilities for each aspect.

Aspects do, however, differ in strength. Major aspects (particularly the conjunction and opposition) and aspects involving the Sun or Moon tend to speak louder than others. To help you spot the more important aspects in your chart, you'll see notations ranging from "Very strong influence" to "Slight influence."

You can get an even more precise idea of the strength of an aspect by looking at the aspect table at the beginning of this report. The values in the "The orb is" column show how far the aspect is from being exact. If you see an aspect with an orb of zero (that is, less than one degree), you can mentally "bump up" the aspect's rating a notch (for example, from "Strong" to "Very strong"). Conversely, if you see an orb greater than eight degrees, you can consider the aspect's importance diminished.
With this said, let us now explore the role that each of these four asteroid goddesses plays in your astrological chart.

Part One:
Ceres, the Mother

Appropriately, the first asteroid to be discovered was named after the Olympian goddess who most exemplifies the mother - the first human being with whom most of us have contact, the first relationship that we encounter in life. Ceres, the Mother, deals with all sorts of mother-child issues. Of the four stages in a person's life, she signifies the Child.

The glyph or written symbol for Ceres takes the form of a scythe. Besides signifying the goddess of agriculture, this tool for harvesting suggests both the roundness of a breast and the themes of separation and death that run through the legend of Ceres. As the mother, she brings us into life, and, like the Christian Mary who grieves over her crucified Son, she also lets us go into death, thus starting another cycle. For this reason she is associated with the IC of the horoscope, the very bottom of the day cycle, where, in the system of astrological houses, life begins and ends.

The Myth of Ceres
Known to the Greeks as Demeter, Ceres was the goddess of agriculture who worked unceasingly to bring food and nourishment to the people of the earth. One of the great classical myths tells of her daughter Persephone's ravishment and abduction by Pluto, lord of the underworld. Grieving, Ceres wandered over the earth in search of her missing child. In her grief, depression and anger, she caused a famine, withholding production of all food until her daughter was returned.

Persephone meanwhile had eaten pomegranate seeds, a symbol of sexual awareness, thus giving Pluto a claim over her so that she could not be returned permanently to her mother. A compromise was reached whereby Persephone would spend part of each year in the underworld with Pluto caring for the souls of the dead, but each spring would be reunited with her mother in the upper world as she initiated the dead into the rites of rebirth. For over two thousand years, this drama was celebrated regularly in ancient Greece as the initiation rites of the Eleusinian mysteries.

Ceres Within Us
Ceres represents the part of our nature that longs to give birth and then to nourish and sustain the new life. She represents the essential bonding or lack thereof that occurs between mother and child. She is the impulse not just to nurture, but also to be nurtured by others through the giving and receiving of acceptance and unconditional love.

The story of Ceres and Persephone speaks to the complex mother-child relationship, emphasizing the interplay of closeness and separation, of nurturing and eventual letting-go as the child becomes an adult able to function on her or his own. Once the letting-go is accomplished, the child is free to reestablish the bond in a different key by becoming a friend to the parent and by producing grandchildren.

The Ceres myth also contains the themes of major physical or emotional loss, separation, abandonment, rejection, and estrangement that occur between parents and children, and later in life with other loved ones. One example of this is the anguish we face in cases of divorce or adoption when we need to share our children with their other parent. Ceres symbolizes attachment to whatever we have given birth to or created, and also the agony of losing it. If her myth is one of loss, however, it is also one of return, of death but also rebirth. Reminding us that loss makes way for new birth, Ceres can teach us the lesson of letting go.

A central part of Ceres bonding is the giving of food as an expression of love. In our early experiences as children, this food and love may be freely given. In other instances, however, it is conditionally awarded, withheld as a form of punishment, pushed upon us, or simply neglected. Then the self-love and self-worth of the child are undermined and underdeveloped, causing a host of psychological problems.

The mythological Ceres withheld food in the midst of her grief and depression. Correspondingly, one typical kind of Ceres wound is an obsessive relationship with food, including the whole range of eating disorders and food-related illnesses. Related to this, there can also be problems with a poor body image.

In her grief, Ceres became immobilized. Thus another Ceres problem manifests as being plunged into depths of depression or despair, making us incapable of daily functioning, work, and all other forms of productivity. To the extent that depression is associated with incomplete mourning, working through the stages of grief (shock, anger, bargaining, depression, and ultimately acceptance) can help to promote healing in times of loss.

An additional theme comes from Ceres's daughter Persephone being raped by Pluto, her mother's brother. This points to fears that parents may have in protecting their children from similar harm. Certain Ceres placements in the chart may also point to one's having oneself experienced incest or other sexual abuse as a child.

In a desire to keep their children safe, parents with strong Ceres placements can become overly controlling and restrictive. In order to establish their own identity, their children may then struggle against the parental attachment. This, in turn, can bring up the Ceres theme of loss of the child.

On a transpersonal level, Ceres as the Mother of the World moves us to care about the homeless and hungry, and also about the destruction of the earth's resources. She urges us to take compassionate action to provide for fundamental human needs, and to care for the body of the earth which supports and sustains us.

Ceres not only gave birth to the living, but in her aspect as Persephone she received the souls of the dead back into her womb to prepare them for rebirth. Thus Ceres can also express as a vocation for either midwifery or hospice work, facilitating the transition from death to life and back again on either the physical or the psychological level.

Ceres embodies the great truth of transformation, that from death comes new life. This comes not just from the Persephone part of her story, but also from the nature of food, which always requires the taking of plant or animal life in order to sustain our own lives.
Ceres also teaches the wisdom that over-attachment and possessiveness can eventually bring loss, whereas sharing and letting go lead ultimately to reunion.

Ceres in Your Chart
Ceres's Zodiacal Sign
The zodiacal sign of Ceres shows the particular quality of nurturing that you experienced as a child. This sets the stage for how you presently nurture the child within yourself, and ultimately determines how you nurture others. The sign position of Ceres can alert you to possible problems with nurturing, and can direct you to the kinds of experience that you need to feel unconditionally loved and accepted.

These indications may be reinforced or contradicted by other factors in the chart such as aspects and (if you have given an accurate birth time) houses. Therefore, to get a rounded picture, be sure to read through the whole section on each asteroid.

Ceres in Leo
When you were born, Ceres was traveling through the sign Leo. For you, being nurtured meant basking in praise from your parents and being provided with frequent opportunities for self-expression. You especially needed your parents to foster a sense of pride and confidence within you, and to encourage you to develop your creativity.

If these needs were not met in an ideal manner, you may have felt unappreciated, unloved, and, worst of all, unseen. You may have reacted, (or still be reacting,) to this treatment with feelings of inferiority and lack of belief in yourself. This is often concealed behind a mask of conceit and self-importance, or behind a drive to show off and be noticed at all costs.

As an adult, you still desire to have this need for approbation and self- expression met by whomever you turn to for nurturing - whether it be a parent, partner or other loved one. You can nurture yourself or the child within you by allowing yourself praise and appreciation and by taking pride in your accomplishments. In turn, your natural style of nurturing your children or loved ones is by according them praise and recognition and by encouraging the full expression of their creative potential.

The House that Ceres Occupies
Assuming that the birth time that you have given is accurate within an hour or so, the houses of the horoscope give more particular information about the way the asteroids and planets operate in your chart.

Besides the Fourth House, which shows your earliest upbringing, the house that Ceres falls into shows where or in what department of life you may most directly feel the need for mothering and nurturing. The house that Ceres is in also suggests the areas in which you are likely to feel your profoundest losses. In addition, it can give a key as to what kinds of experiences will either foster feelings of self-love, or feelings of self-criticism and rejection.

Ceres in the First House
With Ceres moving through the First House at the hour of your birth, your role as a parent (or other kind of nurturer) is intertwined with your sense of personal identity. Also, others tend to see you as an earth-mother type who is ready to feed, comfort and provide emotional, physical or other kinds of support.

Part of this parenting or providing of energy may be directed toward yourself, especially if the needs indicated by the sign position of Ceres were not met in your early life. Thus you may find yourself wanting to find a balance on the one hand between the urge to take care of others, and on the other, your need to nurture yourself. To accomplish this, you may want to set aside a period of time each day or week when your only obligation is to tend to your own needs and give proper care to the child within you.
Among the many forms of loss that people are likely to experience, for you one of the more poignant can be the loss of your sense of yourself as a nourishing person. This may correlate to circumstances where the objects of your nurturance were taken away from you. This could come, for example, from the departure of your grown-up children from the home, or from a feeling that you have failed to do enough for someone. Again, the best way to regain your nurturing powers (and hence your sense of self) is to go back to the source and make doubly sure that you are attending to your own needs in a loving way.

The Aspects that Ceres Makes
The aspects that Ceres makes with other planets and asteroids show how her nurturing energies interact with the concerns of the other gods and goddesses in your chart. If her aspects reinforce the themes suggested by her sign and house, these themes are bound to be obvious in your life. If the aspects in some way contradict the themes of the sign and house, they may give rise to interesting tensions that take some creativity and practice to resolve. If an asteroid makes an aspect with the Sun or Moon, her importance for you is greatly magnified.

Ceres opposition the Moon. Very strong influence.
The nurturance and protection of Ceres combines with lunar matters such as your emotions, feelings and habit patterns.
Your aspect between Ceres and the Moon brings together the two mother archetypes in the chart. The Moon is the all-encompassing symbol for all that is yin or female in the chart, of all that gives form or contains, and of the earth itself. Ceres is a particular facet of lunar energies. Ceres deals specifically with motherhood, nourishment, and attachment, or the lack of it, to a loved one. When the Moon and Ceres are connected as they are in your chart, the more general lunar function takes on a Ceres-like character so that lunar issues in your life tend to assume Ceres's particular qualities.

As a Ceres-Moon person you have a deep longing to be needed by others and to bond with them. You may become intensely involved with your family, specifically parenting your own children or taking care of other people's. This could also manifest as taking care of your parents. By extension, you may be drawn to activities like growing or preparing food, feeding the homeless and hungry, protecting Mother Earth through environmental activism, or working with the dying.

Adelle Davis, who had Ceres opposition the Moon, is a classic example of one who lived out the Ceres-Moon archetype. A nutritionist and author of cookbooks which showed how to add maximum nutritional value to every meal, she produced many books, including Let's Eat Right and Let's Have Healthy Children.

With your Ceres-Moon aspect comes a strong degree of compassion, empathy and sensitivity. This sensitivity may cause you to become overly involved and identified with the problems of those for whom you care. If you become too enmeshed, you will inappropriately take on their pain. This will make you suffer, and will prevent them from having the opportunity to work out their own difficulties. Also, if you feel unneeded or that your efforts are unappreciated, you may become depressed.

Other problems that may arise with a Ceres-Moon aspect include experiencing a conflict between taking care of your loved ones and meeting your own personal needs. It is well to remember that when your own needs go unmet long enough, your ability to help others becomes impaired. You may think you are expending all your efforts taking care of their physical and emotional needs, when what they really want from you is an equal kind of companionship, or a role model that teaches them how to become happy, autonomous human beings themselves.

With this aspect you need to be on guard against smothering your children or other loved ones with over-protectiveness. Were you yourself overwhelmed by a domineering, controlling parent who eclipsed your own sense of individuality? If so, mentally putting yourself in the shoes of your child can help you refrain from this temptation. When an unconscious pattern becomes conscious, you are freed from repeating it.

Your protectiveness may, of course, stem from real-life concerns. In these times, we see the Ceres myth playing itself out through a child actually disappearing for a time into a kind of underworld: running away, being abducted by a stranger or the other parent, getting involved with drugs or other unsavory circumstances, or perhaps being confined in a hospital. It may be hard to find any solace for this heartache, but following in the footsteps of Ceres and giving oneself permission to grieve can help, as can the knowledge that in the myth the loss was followed by a return.

Refraining from too much protectiveness and giving children more freedom to go off on their own can often enable the Ceres-Persephone drama to play out on a less disastrous level. In order to grow up into autonomous individuals, during the teen years children need to leave their parents in some way. When this need is honored, they can accomplish the necessary distancing from their parents without straying too far into dangerous territory.

There is also a possibility that you guard your children out of an underlying fear that they may be sexually violated. In this case, you need to determine whether your fears are a projection or arise from a real situation. If the latter, your natural Ceres protectiveness is well-placed.

Because Ceres rules the mother-child bond and the Moon governs early childhood, this combination may suggest that your basic needs for emotional nurturing and love were not met as a child. You could be harboring separation anxieties, with fears (or actual experiences) of rejection and abandonment by your caretakers. This emotional isolation and alienation can lead to periods of depression. If you are feeling needy and unloved, it helps to extend love and nurture to others who are likewise in need. By being of service to others you can heal your own sense of emotional isolation.

A lack of early nurturing could also result in an inner emptiness that you try to fill up with drugs, alcohol, work, sex or other addictions. Part of this "filling up" process can involve an obsessive relationship with food which may turn into an eating disorder. Ultimately the void can only be filled with unconditional love that you receive from the Divine Mother and give to yourself.
To further understand this important aspect, we suggest that you re-read the story of Ceres. As you do so, you may find that many of the themes we discussed are reflected in your life experience.

Ceres trine Venus. Moderate influence.
Ceres's capacity to nurture and protect combines with Venus's urge to attract people and things that you love and value.
The goddess of love, beauty and sexuality can both reinforce and conflict with your nurturing instincts. With this aspect, you tend to care for others with a sensual tenderness that borders on the erotic. This can lead to extremely nurturing and emotionally fertile love relationships for you and your partner.

This is also an extremely beneficial aspect for physical and artistic creativity. Ceres's fertile productivity when linked with Venus's aesthetic nature enables you to create nurturing, life-promoting environments that are luxuriant, harmonious and pleasing to the senses. You may prepare beautiful meals, or turn other aspects of nurture into art. For you, nurturing may also mean introducing your loved ones to beautiful things or cultivating their artistic talents. Or you may nurture yourself with your own artistic endeavors or by appreciating art.

While these two energies reinforce each other to produce great fertility, the combination of the Great Nurturer with the goddess of sexual love can also produce problems. While love and beauty can add to the nurturing of children, when a parent's feeling of nurturing inappropriately combines with sexual attraction, seduction or incest can result.

This aspect may also mean a role conflict between being the nurturer of your family and being your partner's lover, or in your relationship with your lover playing the parental role too strongly. If this happens, the unconscious incest taboo may lead to a crippling of sexual intimacy. One danger of this is in children being substituted as the objects of one's erotic feelings. Or one of the partners may tend to project unmet nurturing needs onto the other, resulting in conflicts stemming from a perceived lack of nurturing.

Another way that this aspect could play out is simply in a conflict between your artistic endeavors and your family obligations.
Ceres-Venus problems can also include complexes that arise from the relationship you had with your nurturer over food. You may have been denied food, rewarded with it, or force-fed, such that in adulthood you may deny yourself food or overindulge. In extreme cases this can lead to anorexia or bulimia. The resultant shame around body image can lead to feelings of not being attractive or desirable to others, and can inhibit you in the expression in your sexuality. You could use food as a substitute for love and acceptance, or use being overweight as a protective mechanism to avoid intimacy. This situation is especially painful for those with a Ceres-Venus contact, because these are the people who most link their own self-esteem with being attractive and sexually desirable.

After Ceres's daughter, Persephone, was raped and violated, both mother and daughter starved themselves as a way of coping with the trauma. This connection can be seen in the fact that people with eating disorders often have a history of sexual abuse.
In all of the above cases, healing the wounds of your inner feminine can help you to magnetize nurturing and supportive sexual interactions.

Ceres opposition Jupiter. Strong influence.
Ceres's capacity to nurture and protect combines with Jupiter's urge to search for meaning, truth and ethical values.
This aspect intensifies Ceres's need to bestow love and unconditional acceptance. Jupiter's generous nature increases - even to excess - your desire to nurture your loved ones, and to provide for their well-being and domestic comfort. Jupiter also influences you to nurture your children by giving them the best of educational opportunities and by imparting a strong system of values and beliefs.

On the wider scene, you may nurture people's minds as well as their souls through teaching and publishing. Or you may provide for others by becoming involved in world hunger programs or with the large-scale production, provision, and distribution of food and other basic services.

Since Jupiter rules excess, and Ceres rules self-worth, there is a potential for grandiosity through an overinflated sense of self. This could be the result of a parent's overindulging you. When you left the nest, you may have felt shocked that the world didn't cater to your every need.

There is also a danger of over-identifying with the parental role and believing that you must bestow all good things, perhaps even the best, on your family and perhaps on the rest of the world as well. Remember that if you give too much, you deplete your own nurturing reserves. This can lead to personal overindulgence such as overeating or overspending. To keep this overweening hunger at bay, you must remember to balance generosity to others with generosity to yourself.

Ceres square Saturn. Moderate influence.
Ceres's capacity to nurture and protect combines with Saturn's urge to create structure, limit and form.
When it works optimally, this aspect shows that your primary caregivers provided a stable, orderly and structured environment for you. They strove to impart the virtues of discipline and self-responsibility, so that as an adult you are responsible, loyal and dedicated to members of your own family. Your nurturing relationships will then be characterized by respect, depth and enduring bonds.

On the other hand, since Saturn rules the concept of limits and scarcity, you may have experienced a lack of love and validation from your primary caregivers. Excessive punishment, rigidity or harsh discipline may have been administered. In your home setting you may have felt restricted and confined. Your caregivers may have been absent, or cold, or have demanded certain behaviors or expected you to live up to high standards in exchange for their approval. The result is that you may still feel that in order to be loved you have to perform.

Whatever the details, you did not feel unconditionally loved. Because you didn't get what you needed, it may be difficult for you to offer and express emotional support to your own loved ones. To break the pattern of feeling deprived and resentful, you may have to let go of blaming your parents and learn to give yourself the love you that were previously denied.

In other cases, your parents may have been overly responsible, doing everything for you and not allowing you to discover your own strength. In this case, as an adult the most nurturing thing you can do for yourself is to learn to be strong your own. This means developing self-discipline and independence.

Another scenario is that you may have had to take on the responsibility of parenting your siblings, or even your parents in some cases, if they were physically or emotionally debilitated. In your current role as provider, also, you may feel overly obligated and constrained by the responsibilities of caring for your children or elderly parents. Although taking responsibility can be a source of satisfaction and self- development and a way to express love, it should not be allowed to fill up your whole field of view. You may have to discipline your self to take time off to give yourself the nurture and pleasure that you need.

Ceres conjunct Neptune. Strong influence.
Ceres's capacity to nurture and protect combines with Neptune's urge to transcend the finite self and merge with a greater whole.
A combination of Ceres and Neptune like this can indicate a sensitizing of the nurturing impulse to create a depth of compassion and empathy for all beings.

The unconditional love you experience through your connection to Spirit inspires you to give selflessly to others. You may be involved in work to alleviate suffering in the world. Your psychic sensitivity to the emotions of others fits you well to serve as a healer and helper, or to nourish others through artistic creations.

Your primary caregivers may have been spiritual, artistic, psychic or involved in healing pursuits, and this may reflect in your own style of caregiving later in life. Alternatively, one or both of your parents may have had emotional problems, played the role of martyr, been involved in substance abuse, or had difficulty in coping with the material world. To the extent that you took on the pain of your parents, you may be struggling with the same issues yourself.

You may have been raised in an environment where the chaos of the family system made it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality. You may have idealized one or both parents and may therefore have unrealistic expectations of the type of nurturing that you can receive from others. When your needs are not met, you may feel disillusioned and let down. Your resulting emotional neediness may predispose you to seek nurturing by playing the victim. Or, unable to bear your emotional pain and isolation, you may seek refuge in some form of escapism such as drugs, alcohol or overeating.

To resolve such Ceres-Neptune challenges, you ultimately need to find your nourishment through Spirit, through experiencing the oneness that connects all beings. You can fulfill your innate longing for wholeness by ministering to the wounds of others, but you must guard against indiscriminately trying to rescue people in the hopes of fixing or rehabilitating them. Truly to help others, you must first find nourishment for yourself by contacting the Spirit within.

Part Two:
Pallas, the Daughter

Pallas, the second asteroid to be discovered, was named for the goddess who, instead of being born from the womb, sprang from the head of her father and in her later actions exemplified strengths that are often thought of as masculine. Befittingly, this second asteroid to be discovered represents a second developmental stage in people's lives, when they look to their fathers to provide them with the firmness and independence to leave the home and go forth into the world. This is the time of life when one acquires skills and a sense of competence, and starts to formulate oneself as an independent person. In societies where female children were expected to marry at the earliest possible age, this stage was largely neglected in a woman's development, but it is a stage as important for women as it is for men. For either sex, only when this stage is successfully mastered is one truly ready to embark on the next stage, wherein one becomes a partner in a relationship of equals.

The astrological glyph for Pallas pictures the spear that is carried by the goddess in many depictions. The spear points upward and outward toward the world at large. Like the suit of swords in the Tarot, the spear suggests the intellect, which probes and severs, seeking knowledge and separating one idea from another to achieve clarity. The glyph also suggests a head upon a body; signifying the goddess's origin, her associations with the intellect, and the movement from the womb center to the head, or from the bottom, or IC, of the horoscope wheel to the top, or Midheaven.

The Myth of Pallas Athene
Pallas was better known to the Greeks as Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom. She is said to have sprung full-grown, clad in a suit of gleaming war armor, from the crown of the head of her father, Zeus (Jupiter), and to have immediately taken her place at his right-hand side.

As patroness of Athens, she presided over military strategies during wartime and over justice in peacetime. She also fostered useful arts, including spinning and weaving, pottery, healing and other areas in which human skill and ingenuity improve the quality of life for all. Another art that she fostered was horse-taming (an interesting association in light of the "horse-crazy" stage that many girls go through in early adolescence).

Among all the goddesses, the classical Greeks held Pallas Athene in a unique position of power and respect. She walked easily and freely through the world of gods, heroes, and men as their colleague, advisor, equal, and friend.

She was idealized as Athene Parthenia, the virgin warrior queen, and took neither lovers nor consorts. In the myths she denied her matriarchal origins, claiming that no mother gave her life, as she arranged for the death of her sister Medusa. In all things except marriage, she upheld male supremacy.

The price that was extracted from her was the denial of her femininity. She severed her connection from her mother (Metis), her sisters, the community of women, and her sexuality, and lost touch with her feminine qualities of sensitivity, softness, and vulnerability.

Pallas Athene is mythologically related to an ancient lineage of goddesses from the Near East, North Africa and Crete who were associated with the serpent as a symbol of wisdom and healing. She affirmed this connection by placing the head of her dark sister, Medusa, the serpent-haired queen of wisdom, in the center of her breastplate. In the yogic tradition, kundalini energy is depicted as a serpent that is coiled at the base of the spine ready to rise through the spinal canal and emerge from the top of the head as cosmic illumination. This has similarities to the wisdom of Pallas Athene, who emerged from the head of Jupiter.

Pallas Within Us
Pallas Athene's association with both the serpent and the taming of horses suggests that her basic theme has to do with reason civilizing the forces of nature for the benefit of humankind. As a woman, she represents the force of nature that brings new life into being, the raw energy that underlies aliveness. As her father's daughter, she executes his will, using that force for the good of society. Administering justice, she is able to discern the truth amid tumultuous emotions. Healing illness, she diverts the life force back into the proper channels. As a weaver and potter, she uses cleverness and dexterity to turn raw materials into useful objects.
Through the ages, women have been major contributors to these arts of civilization. However, in some eras such as the one we are emerging from, many of the civilized arts including the law, medicine and manufacturing were largely taken over by men while the role of most women was limited to handmaiden and reproducer of the race.

In our culture still, women who are smart, powerful, strong, and accomplished are like Pallas in that they may not be considered "real women." They are often pressured to make a choice between career and creative self-expression on the one hand, and relationship and family on the other. We see Pallas Athene all over again in the high-school girl who is applauded for her victory on the debate team, but who is not asked to the prom.

The danger of the Pallas Athene archetype is one of severing our feminine side and encasing the wounds in armor. This may lead us to further our ambitions with a kind of cold, ruthless, calculating, expedient strategy.

To heal ourselves, we must remember that even though the Greek myths had Athene denying her female origins, they still made her not a god but a goddess, one whose unique strength has its roots in the feminine powers of nature. Her story enlarges the possibilities for women, telling women everywhere that they, too, are free, if they wish, to channel their womanly life-creating Venus energy not only through their procreative powers but also through their intellects. This is the Pallas way of enriching and enhancing life. Pallas Athene, that productive and powerful goddess, shows that women do not have to be men to be effective in the world. As women, they are able to impart a special kind of life-promoting energy to intellectual and professional pursuits.

As Zeus's favorite daughter, the archetypal "daddy's girl," Pallas Athene points to another issue, our relationships to our own fathers. In our birth charts she reveals the ways in which we emulate them, seek their approval, want to interact in their world, and give them power over our lives. A strong, well-placed Pallas in a woman's chart usually shows a girl who was cultivated by her father and who has learned valuable life skills from him.

As a woman dressed in the garb of a warrior, Pallas speaks to calling up and expressing the masculine within women, and the feminine within men. This movement toward androgyny balances and integrates polarities within the self and brings wholeness through reclaiming our contrasexual identity.

Pallas Athene's serpent symbolism also connects her to the healing arts. In one of her guises she was called Hygeia, goddess of miraculous cures. Her armor and shield can be likened to our immune system warding off attacks. She especially represents the power of our minds in curing disease.

To sum up, Pallas represents the part of you that wants to channel creative energy to give birth to mental and artistic progeny, children of the mind. She represents your capacity for creative wisdom and clear thinking, and speaks to your desire to strive for excellence and accomplishment in your chosen field of expression. The model of the strong, courageous, ingenious, artistically creative and intelligent woman, Pallas shows how you use your intelligence to seek truth; how you achieve in practical, mental or artistic fields; and how you work to attain worldly power.

Insofar as Pallas is the military strategist and the administerer of justice, her placement in the horoscope shows how you apply your intelligence to warding off attack and preserving balance and integrity in your body, mind and social interactions. This is not only a matter of self-defense, it is also a fundamental principle of healing. The placement of Pallas in your chart shows the healing modalities that are likely to work best for you, either when applied to yourself, or by you to others.

In addition, the placement of Pallas may suggest how you relate to your father and to what fathers stand for, and how you incorporate the qualities of the opposite sex into your own makeup. It may also suggest what life was like for you when you were deciding upon a career and setting out for yourself in the world.

Pallas in Your Chart
Pallas's Zodiacal Sign
The zodiacal sign in which Pallas was placed at your birth shows the style of perception through which your creative mind operates, and also your style of applying your creative intelligence and ingenuity to the affairs of life. It can therefore have a lot to do with your career and hobbies. It also shows the special kind of wisdom and skill that you offer to the world. In a sense, the placement of Pallas shows how you carry out the will of the Deity (or the light within you), and make it materialize here on Earth.

Pallas in Leo
Pallas is particularly at home in Leo because, of all the signs, Leo most governs creative self-expression. With Pallas here, your creative intelligence is best expressed through projects that impress your own unique vision upon the world. You are likely to have great charisma, and an ability to stand up in the public eye. If other factors in the chart support it, you may be drawn to positions of leadership - the sort of leadership where your presence attracts and gives energy to those around you.

For you, natural forms of expression include performing arts such as drama, acting, music and dance. Work with children either as a teacher or a counselor may also be especially satisfying, as you will instinctively understand how to help others express themselves, especially through their creative, playful side. Your healing talents would be best expressed through play modalities such as art therapy, music therapy or psychodrama. With your magnetic, theatrical way of doing things, you are likely to be an attention-getting public speaker and a skillful promoter of causes.

The House that Pallas Occupies
The house in which Pallas is found shows what departments of life are most likely to provide the outlet for your creative intelligence and ingenuity. Taken along with the Tenth and Sixth houses, which are the traditional significators of your calling and your daily work, the house that Pallas occupies can be an indicator of your career. Along with the Fifth house, the house in which Pallas is found can also indicate your hobbies.

Pallas in the Twelfth House
Pallas Athene in the Twelfth suggests that your creative intelligence draws energy from the collective unconscious, and that you have the capacity to draw upon its archetypal symbols in the work that you do. Your work could be with poetry, fiction, storytelling, film, visionary art, prophecy or Jungian sorts of therapy. You have a strong access to your dream life and other realms of the imagination, and can strengthen this connection by taking periodic retreats from the outer world.

Another meaning of Pallas in the Twelfth is that you may be strongly drawn to studying and practicing spiritual teachings. You might also do work in connection with prisons or hospitals, or with helping others to overcome their limitations.

Due to other lifetimes of persecution, you may be afraid of fully expressing your wisdom or have had experiences where you have been ostracized for speaking your truth. Because the Twelfth House rules confinement, you may experience limitations in the expression of mind and intelligence. On the positive side, however, this position very much depicts using your creative intelligence for the benefit of others.

The Aspects that Pallas Makes
The aspects that link Pallas to other planets and asteroids in your chart show how her intelligence and skill become connected with other drives such as your urge to nurture, to communicate, to create and to assert yourself.

Pallas square Venus. Moderate influence.
Pallas's creative wisdom combines with Venus's urge to create beauty and to express love and sensuality.
This relationship with Venus brings out the aesthetic qualities of Pallas Athene and indicates that you have a special ability to channel Venus's sexual energy into artistic or mental creations. You could be engaged in any of a number of artistic expressions, including the visual and tactile arts as well as the whole gamut of crafts. Since Pallas was known as the goddess who gave weaving and spinning to humanity, these may well be arts involving textiles.

Since mythical Pallas was also prominent in political and worldly life, your feminine nature can find successful expression these areas by being an advocate and protector of women's rights.

One example of an artistic Pallas-Venus contact is the avant-garde creativity of Yoko Ono, who had Pallas conjunct Venus. The political nature of this contact is shown by Eleanor Roosevelt, who with a Pallas-Venus conjunction in the Ninth House took on the role of a world ambassador of peace and good will.

There is also, however, an inherent conflict between Venus and Pallas. In the Homeric hymns, Pallas Athene was one of the three goddesses who was not pleasing to Venus Aphrodite. This is because Pallas was a virgin goddess who had no interest in sexual liaisons. A Pallas-Venus combination in your own nature may create a conflict between intimate relating and creative and worldly accomplishment, a conflict that leads you to sacrifice one for the benefit of the other.

In this culture, intelligence and worldly success are not seen as feminine qualities, and often women who develop this part of their natures are considered to be mannish, or not "real women." This may have been especially true when you were an adolescent. In that time of life, boys or girls who are identified as "brains" are often perceived as not being datable. On the one hand, you could have thought, "Since I am not datable, I might as well be smart." Or, "I am going to suppress my intelligence so as not to threaten men and so I will be accepted by them." The latter scenario specifically applies to women in this culture.

The healing of Pallas-Venus conflicts lies in the realization that creativity and wisdom arise out of the feminine principle, and you do not have to alienate yourself from your sexuality in order to express your creative intelligence.

Pallas's asexualization could also be interpreted as a movement toward androgyny. Women may find themselves more in touch with their masculine energies, and men with their feminine sides. Due to this depolarization of male/female stereotype roles, such people can feel equal and at ease as a friend in the company of both men and women.

However, there may also be a confusion over the nature of one's sexual identity so that these associations do not lead to sexual relations. The resulting buildup of frustrated sexual energy is often redirected into creative and mental accomplishments.

Pallas trine Uranus. Moderate influence.
Pallas's creative intelligence combines with Uranus's urge to express one's individuality and to deviate from the norm.
Uranus in combination with Pallas Athene signifies a mind that is out of the ordinary. You are probably original, intuitive and at times brilliant. Your tendency is to bring the avant-garde and experimental into your creative and artistic endeavors. You may be especially creative in science, or in using the latest technology. As a healer or artist, you may be drawn to using light or electricity.
This aspect gives you the ability to universalize the creative impulse by formulating ideas and projects of a visionary and humanitarian nature. Since Uranus is said to rule revolution and change, you may become involved in social reform, human rights struggles, or revolutionary causes.

When these two energies are not skillfully integrated, you may be high-strung or experience erratic thinking and an overloaded nervous system. This may adversely affect your ability to be creatively focused and disciplined. The need to be unconventional may also lead to rebellious ideas and behavior.

Since Pallas embraced her contrasexual masculine nature, this aspect often indicates a movement toward androgyny. Women may find themselves more than usually in touch with their masculine energies, and men with their feminine side. With Uranus's urge to break away from the social norm, in some cases this aspect points to a desire to break free from stereotyped gender-based roles, experiment with sexuality or sexual identity, and possibly behave or dress in ways that some find shocking or inappropriate.

Part Three:
Juno, the Wife

Juno, the third asteroid to be discovered, represents a third stage of life. After the Pallas stage of going out into the world, possibly to have a career, one is ready to encounter one's equal and embark upon the journey of partnership that usually takes the form of marriage.

The glyph for Juno suggests a scepter, befitting the queen of the gods, and a flower, befitting her femininity. In general form, the glyph for Juno resembles that for Venus; but instead of the circle denoting Venus's mirror, there are outward-pointing rays, indicating that the seductive femininity of Venus is about to turn outward, bearing fruit in marriage and children.

The Myth of Juno
In classical mythology, Juno, known to the Greeks as Hera, was wedded to Jupiter (Greek Zeus), supreme king of heaven and earth. As such, she became his queen and the Goddess of Marriage. In the myths of an earlier time, however, long before her meeting with Jupiter Juno was one of the primary great goddesses in her own right. As the only one who was his equal, Juno was chosen by Jupiter to initiate with him the rites of legal, monogamous, patriarchally defined marriage. As his queen, she became but a figurehead and was repeatedly deceived, betrayed, and humiliated by her husband's many infidelities. In the myths Juno was portrayed as a jealous, manipulative, vindictive, revengeful, and malcontent wife who, after tempestuous fights, would periodically leave her husband. However, she always returned to try to work things out one more time.

Juno Within Us
In the human psyche, Juno represents that aspect of each person's nature which feels the urge to unite with another person to build a future together in a committed relationship. This partnership is sustained over time through a formal and binding commitment, whether it be a worldly or a spiritual bond. Juno speaks to our desire to connect with a mate who is our true equal on all levels - psychologically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

When we do not receive intimacy, depth, equality, honesty, respect and fulfillment in our unions, Juno speaks to our emotions of disappointment, despair, anger and rage, which can overwhelm us. This is especially true when we have given up a great deal, such as a career, family, home, or religion, to enter the relationship. The Juno in us makes us confront the issues of submission and domination, fidelity and infidelity, trust and deception, forgiveness and revenge. In her realm we find ourselves in power struggles for equality as we attempt to balance and integrate ourselves with another person and learn to transform selfish desires into cooperative union.

Within a context of separation and return, Juno encourages us to take the vow of "for better or worse, in sickness and health, till death us do part." She brings the wisdom that conscious relationship is a path to spiritual enlightenment, and the knowledge that relationships allow us to perfect and complete ourselves.

In today's world, Juno is also a symbol for the plight of battered and powerless wives and minorities; for the psychological complexes of love-addiction and codependency; for the rise in divorce rates as people are driven to release unmeaningful relationships; and for the re-definition of traditional relationships in the face of feminism and of gay and lesbian coupling.
To sum up, Juno is the archetype of the wife and partner who maintains her marital commitment to her husband in the face of conflict and struggle. In the birth chart she, along with other chart factors such as the Seventh House, represents your capacity for meaningful committed relationships, your attitude toward such relationships, and the type of relationship experiences that you need in order to feel fulfilled. She represents both what you need and what you attract, and she also signifies the ways in which you act out your disappointment over broken unions. These relationships are usually romantic in nature, but may sometimes assume other forms such as business, professional or creative partnerships.

If you are in a relationship, you may want also to determine the element of your partner's Juno. In general, fire signs are most compatible with air signs, while earth and water seem to form a harmonious pair. However, if you and your partner's Juno's are placed in challenging elements (for example, fire and water), the relationship is still workable. It simply means that you will have to make more of an effort to understand each other's needs.

Juno in Your Chart
Juno's Zodiacal Sign
The sign that Juno was in when you were born describes what you are seeking in a long-term sexual partnership such as marriage, or, by extension, in a business partnership or enduring friendship. It can give clues about your most likely relationship problems, and can suggest ways to make your style of relating work more harmoniously for you.

Juno in Pisces
Through your committed relationships you seek to realize your highest ideals. You may be extremely romantic, longing to reach a mystical state of transcendence through union with your mate. Such a lofty ideal will not always be met in the reality of committed partnership, which demands daily work, struggle and the resolution of conflict. It needs to be tempered by the understanding that your partner is an imperfect human being and not a god or goddess.

If the gap between your ideal and the reality is too great, either of you may withdraw, become disillusioned, become a victim or martyr, or escape into fantasy or substance abuse. This placement of Juno may even work against forming a partnership in the first place, either because one is too shy or passive to go out and look for a mate, or because no earthly person can measure up to one's romantic ideal.

If the danger lies in Pisces, so also does the cure. As long as you don't seek complete perfection in a relationship, it will be all right. The strength of this Pisces placement is that, paradoxically, it can also give you an accepting, non-judgmental approach to your partner. With a Piscean ability to empathize, you can see the world from your partner's point of view and cherish your partner's foibles. This empathy and flexibility and ability to be "in tune" may also bring you a mate with very little effort. Also, rather than demanding that your partner be ideal, you can both strive toward a common ideal: by together pursuing a spiritual path, or by creating imaginative works of fantasy or illusion.

Another tendency of Juno in Pisces is a wish to become totally merged with the partner. As with all water signs, you want to know that your partner will always be there for you. If you lose your sense of self and give away your power and individuality, problems will arise. This is because Juno relationships require a certain measure of equality. For there to be a true partnership there must be two distinct selves. You need to balance devotion to your beloved with a similar devotion to your own selfhood. In this way your relationship is nourished and kept vital.

Your business partnerships will probably not be concerned so much with money and tangible products as with the dissemination of ideas, the spreading of faith, the giving of comfort, or the creation of works of art, glamour, fantasy or illusion. This is the perfect placement for a close, intuitive collaboration, but do be sure to keep all your agreements clear and above-board from the very start.

The House that Juno Occupies
In the birth chart, Juno's house position shows where or in what department of life you will experience your most significant relationship interactions.

Juno in the Eighth House
Dealing with life-energy in one form or another is likely to play a central part in all your important committed relationships. Whether it is a marriage type of relationship or a business partnership, you will find yourself merging some sort of vital resource with your partner, and will end up being changed in some fundamental way.

One very potent form of life-energy is your emotions. Your relationship may bring up issues like trust, power, jealousy and betrayal, which stir you to the very roots. Your relationships may act as catalysts to bring up repressed psychological material from the past, such that you are forced to confront hidden aspects of yourself that are painful to acknowledge. You and your partner may put each other through continual changes and transformations, thereby creating emotional peak experiences and intense catharses.

On a more physical level, sex may become the main arena in which the basic issues of your relationship are played out. Learning to negotiate your own sexual needs while honoring your partner's is another way that you can work out the true joining of equals that is symbolized by Juno.

This Eighth-House drama may also play out on a more mundane level having to do with joint finances. One of the partners may look to the other's resources for financial support, or you may have a joint business venture as well as a romance. Shared matters of finance or other ownership may determine the course of your relationship, and may even deeply affect your emotional life. If this is strictly a business partnership, the business may have to do with Eighth-House matters such as sexuality, death, taxation, or dealing with other people's money.

The Aspects that Juno Makes
Juno's aspects to other planets and asteroids indicate how her issues of attracting and keeping long-term relationships fit in with your other drives, as, for example, for self-expression, communication, creativity or the search for meaning in life.

Juno square the Sun. Strong influence.
Juno, archetype of the wife and partner, unites with the symbol of your basic identity and conscious purpose.
An important part of your life revolves around developing meaningful, committed long-term partnerships. Depending on other factors, such relationships may be easy or difficult, but they are an inescapable part of your life.

When Juno and the Sun are relating harmoniously, your partnerships tend to enhance the fulfillment of your life goals. Committed to your significant other, you feel merged or joined. You have a gift for developing intimacy and rapport in your relationship, and feel that together you make a team. Your partnership is able to stay in balance because you know how to maintain a sense of your own individuality.

Marie Curie provides an example of what someone with this aspect can accomplish. With Juno conjunct the Sun in Scorpio in the Eighth House, she had a fruitful collaboration with her husband, Pierre, to do important scientific work, which included the discovery of radioactivity.

When Juno and the Sun are relating stressfully, your life may instead revolve around a conflict between your need for a long-term committed relationship on the one hand, and your need for individuality and creative self-expression on the other. Getting stuck at one pole, you may feel that you are nothing without a partner, and may base your whole identity on having a relationship. Getting stuck at the other pole, you may expend much energy trying to push the relationship away. With this aspect, relationship is central to your life purpose. To achieve harmony in it, you may need to overcome obstacles such as jealousy, mistrust, infidelity, betrayal, and power struggles with the partner.

While your relationship may sometimes seem opposed to your own needs, it offers an essential experience that will make you a more complete and whole individual. Just as Juno took periodic retreats from her husband, you may feel the ebb and flow of separation and coming back together as you make a renewed effort to solve your problems. Even if a significant relationship does not work out in the end, you will most likely attract a new partner with whom to continue your learning process.

Juno-Sun individuals often select partners who embody the solar archetype. You may experience your partner as strong, self-assured, magnetic and magnanimous, a center of energy whose light shines forth on others. If these energies are not well- integrated within you, however, the telling symptom may be your attracting a partner who is egocentric, grandiose, and dominating. To experience the bright side of a solar partner, you need to look at how Juno and Sun energies combine within yourself.
To further understand this important aspect, we suggest that you re-read the story of Juno. As you do so, you may find that some of its other themes are also reflected in your life experience.

Juno square Mercury. Moderate influence.
Juno's desire for committed relationship combines with Mercury's urge to communicate and share ideas.
Juno's interaction with Mercury in your chart highlights the importance of mental and verbal communication in your relationships. It is especially important for you to articulate your ideas, concerns, and feelings, and then have your partner listen and respond.
When these energies work harmoniously, communicating with your intimate partner is clear and satisfactory. Conversation flows easily, and you feel heard and understood. This clarity in daily communication contributes to your sharing and intimacy.
How well you actually get your communication needs met will depend on other factors in the chart. Especially when Juno and Mercury are relating stressfully, there may be communication difficulties. These may result in arguments, disputes, and misunderstandings. Alternatively, you may feel unheard by your partner or feel that your partner is withdrawn and uncommunicative. Or there may be a difference in intellectual interests or educational backgrounds, such that you need to go outside the relationship to share mental interests and activities with others.

If you do experience these challenges, learn to understand your partner's point of view and do not depend solely on the relationship to meet all of your mental needs.

As a Juno-Mercury individual, you are often attracted to clever, mental or intellectual types, or to people with a youthful, asexual or ambiguously sexual quality. At times, you may experience your partner as inquisitive, bright, clever and verbal, but at other times your partner may seem to you overly rational, uncommunicative, detached, cold or flighty.

Juno trine Pluto. Moderate influence.
Juno's capacity for committed relationship combines with Pluto's urge to bring about profound transformations.
Pluto's intensity means that committed partnerships tend to bring out your deepest emotions. A passionate emotional and sexual intimacy with a long-term partner may well lead you to a peak experience.

The dark side of this is that Pluto rules the underworld, and with this aspect your relationship may bring you face-to-face with the deep, unconscious, destructive parts of the psyche. Emotions such as jealousy, rage, hatred and the urge for revenge have the potential to blow your relationship apart. The best way to deal with these emotions is to accept them, forgive yourself for having them, and simply feel them fully as they arise. It helps to breathe easily and deeply, and to try to pin down their exact quality and the images that arise, possibly by dancing or painting them. It's best not to turn them into imaginary dialogues, or locate the source of blame, or solidify them into theories. If you have been wronged, that is in the past. All you can do now is figure out what your rights really are, and take action to protect them so that they are not violated again. If you can simply let your ugliest emotions be without denying them or venting them on others, they will eventually lead you to a place of compassion and forgiveness. When treated with respect, the enormous power of these demons from below becomes a source of healing and renewal. In this way, your relationships become a vehicle for profound personal transformation. With Pluto, the depth of darkness to which you can descend is an exact measure of the heights of ecstasy to which you can reach.

The issues that provoke these storms are often ones of power and control. Pluto is the god who carried Persephone off by force. You may experience violent or compulsive power struggles with your partner that lead to abuse and domination. Deep-seated resentments may exist in the relationship and continue long after the relationship has ended. Other problems may include intense jealousy or sexual frustration.

Pluto also speaks to the fear of loss, and the compulsive attachment that results. Since such fears may be based on past losses or betrayals, you may have a deep-seated mistrust of your partner, leading to intense jealousy. The way out of this trap is to remember that the tighter you hang on, the more likely you are to lose. It's really the clinging, not the loss, that causes the pain. The lesson of Pluto is that nothing is permanent, and clinging only brings suffering and sorrow. As discussed earlier, the message of the Ceres-Persephone-Pluto story is that letting go of the old enables a new and vibrant life to begin.

With a Juno Pluto aspect, you may attract intense, powerful types, or your partner may experience you in this way. When Pluto energies are working well, the other partner may be seen as fascinating and magnetic; but if they are not working well, the partner may seem suspicious, dictatorial, obsessive, or abusive.

Part Four:
Vesta, the Sister

After one has been nurtured, gone out into the world, found one's life partner and borne children, the time comes to turn inward to reconnect with one's spirit. In women, the Matron becomes the Crone; in the culture of India, the householder sets out on his final spiritual journey as a monk-like wanderer; and in Jungian psychology, the active person of affairs embarks on an inward journey to find the Self.

Vesta, the fourth and final of the major Olympian goddesses to give her name to an asteroid, relates to this final stage of life. Although renowned for her shining beauty, she is in fact the eldest of the Olympian gods.

Like Pallas Athene, Vesta was known as a virgin. If Pallas Athene was the pre-reproductive Maiden, Vesta could be thought of as the post-reproductive Crone. After their thirty-year term of office was up, the Vestal Virgins of Rome were allowed to marry, but they were then often beyond childbearing age. In pre-classical times, the cult of the goddess who later became Vesta included sex as a sacrament. Thus Vesta, insofar as she is sexual, represents a rarefied form of sex that transcends the procreative function and aims to achieve spiritual union rather than physical children.

Vesta was related to Jupiter as his sister. This, too, expresses her non- procreative way of relating, and the fact that she is often thought of as the prototype of the nun, whom we also call "Sister."

Besides suggesting the letter V, which points downward and inward, the astrological glyph for Vesta represents a flame burning on either a hearth or an altar. This signifies Vesta's function as keeper of the hearth fire and the temple flame, but it also points to the cultivation of the pure spark of spirit within us. Fittingly, Vesta is the brightest object in the asteroid belt.

The Myth of Vesta
To the ancient Greeks, Vesta was known as Hestia, a name derived from the word for hearth, and it appears that she had to do with the domestication of fire for human use in the home and in sacrificial offerings. As the eldest of the Olympian gods, she was the most venerated, and was always given the first sacrifices and libations. There are few stories about her deeds, and the few depictions of her show her in repose, indicating an inward, contemplative nature. She refused the marriage offers of Apollo and Poseidon, and under Zeus's protection vowed to remain a virgin forever.

In Roman mythology, Hestia became Vesta, always veiled, but known as the most beautiful of the deities. In the home she was venerated as the protectress of the hearth and its flame. In public life, she was thought of as the protectress of the state, and her priestesses were the six Vestal Virgins of Rome. Dedicated to spiritual service, the Vestals were responsible for keeping the sacred flame burning which was thought to ensure the safety of Rome. They enjoyed great prestige, but if they let the flame go out, they were whipped, and if they violated their oath of chastity during their term of office, they were punished by a public whipping, and then buried alive.

Vesta became the prototype of the medieval nun. However, several thousand years earlier in the ancient Near East, the predecessors of the Vestals tended a temple flame but also engaged in sacred sexual rites in order to bring healing and fertility to the people and the land.

The original meaning of the word "virgin" meant not "chaste," but simply "unmarried." Whereas Ceres and Juno required relationship to complete themselves, Vesta's priestesses represent an aspect of the feminine nature that is whole and complete in itself.

When the old goddess religions gave way to those of the solar gods, sexuality became divorced from spirituality, such that a woman desiring to follow a spiritual path had to remain chaste. Earlier, however, a priestess, representing the Goddess, could enter into a state of spiritual transcendence through sexual union with an partner in a manner that did not call for marriage or commitment. In the later patriarchal culture, ecstatic illumination was experienced as the descent of the spirit of the god into oneself, and the now-chaste Greek priestesses became the brides of the god Apollo in the sense that the Christian nuns became the brides of Christ.

Vesta Within Us
In the human psyche, Vesta represents the part of each person's nature that feels the urge to experience the sexual energy of Venus in a sacred manner. This may occur in several different ways.

If we are a typical product of our culture's mores, we will most likely internalize this sexual energy. We may devote ourselves to following a spiritual, religious, or meditational path, even following in priestly or monastic footsteps. Or, in our lifelong therapeutic work, we may experience this union with the Self as the process of psychological integration. In one way or another, we turn inward to attain clarity, and in this way we energize ourselves. The vision that arises when we reach the whole and self-contained core of our being then enables us to follow a vocation in which we can be of service in the world.

Vesta the virgin speaks to us of the importance of the relationship we have with ourselves. This may lead to a single lifestyle. If we are married, we may not be comfortable with the total surrender asked for in the merging with another. In Vesta's realm we may find our most satisfactory sexual encounters in being our own best lover.

Alternatively, we may hark back to the earlier cults of priestesses in the Ancient Near East, and periodically find ourselves in sexual encounters with those who pass briefly through our lives or to whom we are not married or committed. These couplings are often marked by a sense that something special, healing and sacred has occurred. To the extent that our society has no context in which to validate sexual unions that do not lead to becoming mated, we may be left with a sense of shame, guilt, and incompleteness. To free ourselves from this burden, we must understand the inherent nature of Vesta's virgins and how they unified sexuality and spirituality.

Vesta protects not only the inner flame of spirituality and sexual energy, but also other precious things that ensure the continuation of human life. As "keeper of the flame" she preserved the state and the institutions of society. She also guarded the home and hearth, including kitchens and the preparation and purity of food. Today she could be seen as a librarian, museum curator, or other sort of worker who preserves the sparks of human culture. She could also express herself in an occupation that deals with housing or food.

Through Vesta, you integrate and regenerate on inner levels so that you can then focus and dedicate yourself to work in the outer world. In the human psyche, Vesta represents the process of spiritual focus that can lead to personal integration. In a broader sense, she signifies the ability to focus on and dedicate ourselves to a particular area of life. When our focus becomes too narrow, we can sometimes feel limited and hemmed in. When our capacity to focus is obstructed, we can feel scattered. This, too, may cause us to experience limitation in the area of life represented by Vesta's sign or house position.

To sum up, Vesta is the archetype of the Sister and the Temple Priestess, whose virginity signifies her wholeness and completeness within herself. Her sign, house and aspect placements in your birth chart show how you use the basic sexual energy of Venus to deepen your relationship to yourself.

Vesta in Your Chart
Vesta's Zodiacal Sign
The zodiacal sign of Vesta in your chart suggests how you can best cultivate the spiritual flame within, and then use it in service to others. It can alert you to ways in which the intense focusing quality of Vesta can become too narrow and hence counterproductive, and it can also provide a key to exploring the spiritual qualities of sexual energy.

Vesta in Cancer
Your path of self-integration involves exploring and learning to feel comfortable with your emotions. Once you nurture yourself in this way, your path of service can be to nurture and care for others.

Fortunately, in processing emotions and feelings, you have great power to engage in long-term, concentrated focus. Just beware of this concentration becoming too single-minded, for if overdone it can lead to too much subjectivity and to becoming hypersensitive and needy.

For you, service tends to take the form of being devoted to family members, or to the human family at large. In nourishing and protecting another being, you come home to yourself and feel whole. If you have not first tended to your own emotional needs, however, you may experience a conflict between taking care of yourself and meeting the needs of your family or calling.
In your spiritual life, you may be attracted goddess-based religions that embrace the feminine side of deity, or to religions such as Judaism which emphasize devotional acts in the home. If you do church or charitable work, it may have to do with fostering children or with feeding, clothing and sheltering the poor.

To bring the sacred dimension into your sexual or other intimate relationships, you will want to feel a deep emotional bond with your partner and have him or her understand and accept the wide range of your feelings. Rituals having to do with food may also enhance this sense of sacred sharing.

The House that Vesta Occupies
Vesta's house position shows the areas of life where you are most likely to experience your desire for self-integration and your dedication to a calling. This can be a place of dedication and commitment, and also a place where you experience limitation of some sort in order to realize that commitment.

Regardless of the house where your Vesta is placed, you might also like to look at other houses that have to do with Vesta themes. The Fourth and Twelfth houses show how you withdraw into yourself to do inner work. The Tenth House signifies your dedication and your calling. The Sixth House deals with service, the Twelfth House with where you experience limitation and blockages, and the Eighth House with inner transformation and your attitudes toward sex.

Vesta in the Twelfth House
Vesta in the Twelfth gives you a stronger-than-average need to pursue spiritual values and to dedicate yourself to selfless service. You may feel that in a past lifetime you belonged to a spiritual order, or you may wish to join one this time around. Based on a past-life experience, some people with this placement feel a subliminal fear of being persecuted or ostracized for a religious belief. This can give them a need for isolation and retreat when they are going within to find their true Source.

Following this theme, your path of service is likely to be in some way retired or hidden. It may lead you to work in institutions like hospitals, prisons or asylums. As part of your spiritual process, you may choose to experience periods of isolation and retreat. Or, feeling that your spiritual life is a private matter to you, you may be hesitant to share your beliefs and experiences with others.
Sometimes this position can mean deep unconscious sexual fears and inhibitions stemming from very early conditioning or even from experiences in previous lives. Tracing this sense of constriction to its source can be a pathway for spiritual liberation and growth. Sometimes this position just means that sex for its own sake, outside of reproduction, must take place in secret.
Your dreams are likely to be a rich source of spiritual guidance, and you may be receptive to psychic phenomena. You might also tap into the unconscious through prayer, meditation, trance work, shamanic soul retrieval or psychotherapy.

The Aspects that Vesta Makes
Vesta's aspects to other bodies in the solar system show how her drive to go inward and search for higher meaning either clashes with or finds an outlet through the other functions of your chart.

Vesta quincunx the Moon. Moderate influence.
Vesta, the sister and priestess, unites with your emotional and feeling nature.
This aspect suggests that your way of contacting your divine center is through work with your emotions, memories and dreams. Examining your habit patterns and automatic responses, or delving into your family origins (particularly the maternal side) are other likely subjects for your inner work. This Vesta-Moon combination speaks to the importance of understanding and handling your emotions so that they do not cause your life to be chaotic and prevent you from dealing with your daily routines and responsibilities. By working on these areas you become able to pursue the spiritual calling that is so important to someone with a Vesta as strong as yours is.

Your path of spiritual service may well have to do with nurturing. One example is the educator Maria Montessori who, with Vesta at the Midheaven opposing a Fourth- House Moon, dedicated herself to rehabilitating the lives of underprivileged children. Your calling may also have to do with other lunar themes such as serving your own family or the families of others, or with helping others integrate and heal their emotions.

A typical lunar path of spiritual service is to focus on women and their needs. You may feel a deep connection to other women and be drawn to participate with them in women's organizations, traditional religious institutions, or the many women's circles that are arising out of goddess-centered spirituality. If you are a man, you may feel an emotional connection to women and be drawn to support women's efforts to find a spiritual path that truly nourishes them.

Alternatively, with this important Vesta aspect you may simply express the Vesta archetype of the temple priestess, and be drawn to a religious or spiritual vocation.

If Vesta and the Moon combine stressfully, you may feel a tension between following a spiritual vocation and meeting your own emotional needs or the needs of your family. The strong commitment that goes with your calling may cause you to take time away from those you care about. Or in order to follow your true path you may need to disregard what your loved ones may think or say.
Another possible danger of this aspect comes from the fact that Vesta represents self-containment and the Moon governs the emotions. Instead of expressing them directly, Vesta-Moon people may hold back their feelings. In doing so, they may lose touch with this vital part of themselves. This can produce a fear of intimacy and may interfere with commitment to close relationships. Therapy can aid in releasing blocked sexual and emotional energies so that free and open self-expression may occur. At the opposite extreme, Vesta's tendency toward self-absorption may bring about an overinvolved focus on one's emotional life.
The virginity of the Vestals signified a psychological wholeness and completeness within the self that did not require a close committed partnership with another. With this Vesta-Moon connection, you may fear intimacy and have difficulty committing to a relationship for fear of giving up your sense of self. On the other hand, you may happily enter into an intimate relationship while at the same time keeping a certain sense of separateness and self-containment.

In Roman times if a Vestal priestess violated her oath of chastity and became pregnant, she was punished by being buried alive. Because of the Moon's connection to fertility, a Vesta-Moon contact may signify fears and inhibitions around sex and childbearing. You may need to deal with problems such as sterility, frigidity, impotence, miscarriages and abortions occasioned by a subconscious fear of pregnancy and childbirth.

Because Vesta rules sacred sexuality and the Moon rules emotional nurturing, you can be nurtured or nurture others through a meaningful sexual connection. You may, however, have confusion about the appropriate expression of your sexuality. With your inner assumption that sex is sacred, you may have difficulties with the modern world's divorce of sex from spirit. Exposed to the negative moral and religious attitudes that our culture has towards sex, you may be ashamed of expressing your sexuality outside the boundaries of convention, or may have simply repressed your sexual urges. The way through these various sexual difficulties is provided by the inner emotional work signified by the Vesta-Moon contact.

Looking once more at the story of Vesta will help you gain more insight into dealing with this important aspect.

Vesta semisquare Mercury. Slight influence.
Vesta's urge to deepen your relationship to yourself and find your true vocation combines with Mercury's urge to communicate and share ideas.

With Vesta connected to Mercury in your chart, your path of self-integration involves learning to think and communicate clearly.
A Vesta-Mercury aspect can indicate a highly developed mind that can powerfully focus and direct its thoughts. When you are in touch with your sense of mission, you have a strong drive to express your ideas or to dedicate yourself to the transmission of spiritual teachings. You have great powers of focus and concentration as they apply to the fields of research, learning and communication. You may be called to writing as a vocation, or you may use writing to communicate your spiritual ideals.

When the energies of Vesta and Mercury are not well-integrated, you may have poor concentration and be mentally scattered and unfocused. Even though it may be difficult at first, you will find that meditation will calm and still your mind. (You may also want to correct possible physical causes such as food allergies, reduce your level of stress, or cut down on distractions by simplifying your life to essentials). Also with Vesta-Mercury, your communication to others may come across as being either non committal or diffused and hard to understand. Alternatively, Vesta's extreme self-focus may cause your thinking to be overly narrow, obsessive or introspective.

To bring the sacred dimension into your intimate sexual relationships, you need to experience excellent communication and a meeting of the minds with your partner.

Vesta trine Mars. Moderate influence.
Vesta's urge toward spirituality combines with Mars's masculine principle of action and assertion.
This aspect indicates that your path to self-integration involves getting in touch with and expressing the full range of your masculine energies. It enables you to use the energy and drive associated with Mars in the pursuit of your vocation and the realization of your spiritual purpose.

The combination of Mars's masculine principle and Vesta's spirituality can produce the priest who functions in traditional religious institutions. Because of the patriarchal split between spirituality and sexuality, many modern-day priests and gurus are celibate, sublimating their sexual energy into religious devotion. In like manner, you may tend to sublimate your sexual drive.

Alternatively, this combination of Mars, the warrior, and Vesta, the priestess, may produce the spiritual warrior who fights for a cause or accomplishes an important work. You may also find a spiritual path or vocation in martial arts, competitive sports, physical fitness programs or the cultivation of the physical body as in the more active and dynamic schools of yoga. An example of a Vesta-Mars conjunction is the tennis champion Billie Jean King, who crusaded for women's equality in the athletic world.
If Vesta, the virgin goddess, rules sacred sexuality, Mars rules male sexuality. Their combination brings up the image of the male priest who participated in the Goddess's sacred sexual rites. Echoing this ancient memory, you may be in tune with the sacred dimensions of sex that is not necessarily carried on within marriage. If such sexual rites are your path, you may find yourself judged by a society that does not have a context in which to place them.

Since Mars and Vesta are both associated with sexuality, this combination indicates that your sexual desires are probably strong. If the Mars energy is neither expressed nor sublimated into work or sacred sexuality, the blocked and frustrated libido may produce psychological and physical problems. These could manifest as physical or psychological impotence, lethargy, depression, the inappropriate expression of anger, sexual violence, or difficulty in taking action and following through on commitments. When you are able to use the fiery energies of Mars to propel yourself along a spiritual or vocational path, however, the results are awesome.

Vesta trine Saturn. Moderate influence.
Vesta's urge toward spirituality combines with Saturn's urge to create order, form and discipline.
Your path to personal integration is a highly disciplined and practical one that involves tapping into the spiritual and bringing it into form.

When pursuing your spiritual path and your vocation, you show self-discipline and seriousness of purpose, and can actualize your goals and aspirations through dedication and hard work. Diligent in your efforts, you also have the patience to wait for the results. Once realized, your aspirations will be grounded in a solid and secure foundation.

You are dutiful and take your obligations seriously. You have the capacity to honor long-term commitments and follow through on them, regardless of how you are feeling personally. There may be times when your obligations to others seem to conflict with your focus on your own inner work. When your vocation and spiritual awareness are strong, however, the burdens of Saturn are lightened. When you know that discipline and hard work are part of your spiritual service, this awareness can transform mundane obligations into opportunities for discipleship.

As temple priestess, Vesta has a primary connection to the spiritual or divine. Saturn, on the other hand, sees material reality as all there is. When these energies are not skillfully integrated, you may doubt the existence of a higher spiritual reality and find it difficult to tap into that power to guide, inspire and uplift your life. Also, because Saturn rules limitations, you may go through many false starts and dead ends before you find your vocational path. With both Vesta and Saturn tending to concentrate your attention, you also run the danger of allowing your work to become the sole focus of your life.

The Vestal virgins in Roman times were punished by death if they broke their vow of chastity. This my be echoed in fears and inhibitions around the expression of your sexual urges. Because Saturn rules tradition and authority, your religious or societal conditioning may have convinced you that sex is sinful and immoral, and you may fear being punished if you break these taboos. This can lead to difficulties in experiencing intimacy and sexual or sensual pleasure. Healing can come through adopting new beliefs based on Vesta's pre-patriarchal nature, where sexuality was an expression of spiritual communion.

Vesta semisextile Neptune. Slight influence.
Vesta's focus on a spiritual path combines with Neptune's urge to transcend one's boundaries and merge with a greater whole.
Vesta's combination with Neptune in your chart doubly emphasizes Vesta's devotion to spiritual development, making it more idealistic, more intuitive, more compassionate, and possibly more artistic. You may be committed to a life-long spiritual path.

Neptune's clairvoyant nature may allow you to channel metaphysical information from other realms. Compassionate impulses may lead you to alleviate the suffering of others through some sort of healing ministry. To communicate your spiritual vision, you may use painting, poetry, music or dance, and you may create your art specifically for religious or spiritual purposes.

For you, personal integration means opening yourself to the subtle and transcendent dimensions of reality where you can have a direct experience of the Divine. Vesta gives you the impulse to focus strongly on your spiritual development, and gives you ample discipline to realize Neptunian goals. From sustained study of religion or consciousness-expanding techniques, or a daily practice of meditation, prayer and kindly service, you can eventually learn to transcend everyday feelings of separation and find a Neptunian sense of unity and bliss.

Though the early temple priestesses took part in ritual sex, the Vestal priestesses of Rome became oath-bound to celibacy, and thus had to sublimate their sexual energy. With Neptune combining with Vesta, you, too, may be inclined to do this. Neptune tends to flee from the physical in order to merge with the Divine. You may either entirely sublimate your sexuality into spiritual or vocational pursuits, experience sexual energies on an internal level as part of a mystical experience, or desire that the outer sexual unions that you do have lead to an experience of mystical unity with your partner.

When the energies of Vesta and Neptune do not work well together, it may be difficult for you to become clear about your spiritual path or vocation. If you have not established a firm foothold in the ordinary world, you may have romantic illusions or unrealistic expectations about the nature of spirituality. This could work out in several ways. You may use your spiritual quest as a way to avoid earthly responsibilities. Seeking the transcendent experience, you may become enmeshed in drug or alcohol use. You may be vulnerable to spiritual charlatans or cults. Lacking a sense of boundaries and an orientation in reality, you may inappropriately deny or sacrifice yourself for the sake of others. Later, when you see that you have been misled, you feel disillusioned or betrayed. If this happens, do not become discouraged or cynical. This is just a stage in your learning process. Though painful at the time, it is a reality check. If you let it, it will be a step forward on your spiritual path, teaching you the difference between illusory spirituality and a true, grounded connection with the Infinite.

Vesta conjunct the Dragon's Head. Strong influence.
Vesta is further distinguished in your chart by being conjunct the lunar North Node, known to the ancients as the Dragon's Head. As its old name implies, this point in your chart symbolizes your path forward, even as the Dragon's Tail, directly opposite it, symbolizes where you are coming from. The sign, house, planets and asteroids in the vicinity of the Dragon's Head indicate the direction in which you should be headed in order to evolve. They also suggest the skills and talents that you need to develop in this lifetime in order to go forward on your path.

With Vesta conjunct the North Node, your path in this stage of your evolution is to cultivate the spiritual flame within. It is now time to look inward and focus on personal integration and spiritual development. You are called on to develop the skills of concentration and introspection, restraint and discipline, and to stick to a consistent spiritual practice. You may also be asked to go beyond the procreative and ego-gratifying aspects of sex to explore its power to invoke divine energy and meld souls. Once you have done the inner work, you are asked to take what you have learned and freely use it in service to others.

On a more mundane level, this placement of Vesta can indicate close ties with others who express the Vesta archetype.

Conclusion:
Taking This Report Further
Now that you have read all about your asteroids, you may wonder which of the four goddess archetypes predominates in your nature. Having just immersed yourself in the symbolism of these four great goddesses, you most likely have a feeling for which of the mythical themes has touched you the most deeply.

But what does your chart say about this? Looking back at the lists of chart positions and aspects at the beginning of this report can give you some idea of which asteroid has the strongest position in your chart. Roughly in order of importance, the main factors that give a planet or asteroid strength are:

1. Being in aspect to the Sun, Moon or Ascendant. If there is a tie, you can consider the aspect with the smallest orb to be the strongest. In order of importance, the aspects are the conjunction, opposition, square, trine and sextile. The "minor" aspects such as the quincunx, semisextile, semisquare and sesquiquadrate are only considered if they are very close (say, within an orb of 2 degrees).

2. Being closely conjunct (within 5 to 7 degrees of) the Midheaven, Descendant or IC. If you have more than one asteroid conjunct one of these points, the one that has the smallest value in the "Orb" column is the strongest. If the orbs are approximately the same, aspects to the Midheaven are considered stronger than aspects to the Descendant or IC. Also, applying aspects are stronger than separating ones.

3. Having the closest aspect of any of the four asteroids. Run your eyes down the "Orb" column and find the smallest orb value. You might think of this as a sort of keynote aspect in your chart, especially if it is a major aspect such as the conjunction, opposition, square or trine.

4. Having the most aspects. This means that the asteroid is well-integrated into your chart and influences many functions in your life. If it is involved in a pattern of planets such as a cluster of conjunctions, a T-square, grand cross, or grand trine, this group of planets and asteroids will form a more or less self-contained complex that describes a recurring theme in your life.

5. Having an asteroid that is "elevated." Look at your chart wheel. Even if an asteroid or planet is not closely conjunct the Midheaven, if it is closer to the Midheaven than any other planet or asteroid, it gains some power because it tends to be more publicly observable than the other celestial bodies in your chart.

After all these considerations, do you feel that you are primarily a Ceres nurturer, a Pallas career person, a Juno partner, or a Vesta keeper-of-the-flame? We hope that these four great goddesses of antiquity have given you some new and useful perspectives on the major themes in your life.

If you would like to learn more about these goddesses and what they represent in your birth chart, we recommend the books Asteroid Goddesses by Demetra George, and Astrology for Yourself by Douglas Bloch and Demetra George. These are available at bookstores or through the authors.

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