The Asteroids

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The Asteroids

New Agents of Planetary and Personal Transformation

Artwork by Luc Bozzoli

From a historical perspective the discoveries, naming and recognition of planetary bodies has coincided with leaps in the evolution of human consciousness and corresponding cultural changes.

For example, just before and after the discovery of Uranus, planet of equality and freedom in 1871, man witnessed the American and French Revolutions. When Neptune, planet of mysticism and illusion was discovered in 1846, idealistic movements such as transcendentalism and spiritualism emerged. In 1930 with the sighting of Pluto, planet of mass transformation, the awakening of a sense of collective welfare and the Dawning of the Atomic Age brought humanity face to face with a choice of life or death. The discovery of each outer body indicated that humanity was ready to activate and integrate the archetypal principle inherent in the mythology of that planet. The same process is occurring through the discovery of the asteroids.

The asteroids, a belt of planetary bodies largely between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, were discovered in the early 1880’s. The first four sighted were named after the great goddesses of antiquity: Ceres, Pallas Athene, Juno and Vesta. Mythologically, these goddesses were co-equivalent in rank with the gods Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto as Vesta, Ceres and Juno were the three sisters of these gods. Pallas Athene was birthed from the head of Zeus.

Symbolically, these asteroids represent aspects of the archetypal feminine principle that are now emerging into mass consciousness. An archetype is a universal thought form, prototype, primordial pattern, deeply imprinted in the collective human psyche.

Before the use of the asteroids, the only significators of the feminine in traditional chart interpretation were the Moon and Venus. The socially acceptable roles for women were the Moon as mother and Venus as mate. Ceres, Pallas Athene, Juno and Vesta represent new voices of the dormant feminine recently activated and now demanding power, recognition, justice and equality in our society.

It is important to emphasise that this phenomenon is not solely limited to women. The awakening of new aspects of feminine expression has had an equally profound effect on men. As women are altering their traditional role expression, men are developing new responses to the transformed woman. Old patterns are no longer acceptable, and new sets of expectations and roles are now required of them.

In the past men had projected their feminine qualities of emotion, nurturance and sensitivity onto women. With the recent activation of the feminine centres represented by the asteroids, men have been pressured and encouraged to both ~own~ and develop these qualities.

On a level that goes beyond male and female, the upsurge of the feminine has become the foundation of the general consciousness-expansion movement that is reflected in the human grain. Psychologists define the mind as having left and right brain functions. The left brain organises and structures information within a linear conceptual frame of reference. This rational logical activity is the masculine or yang polarity and has been most prevalent in the analytical, technological intellectualism of modern times. The right brain, on the other hand, accesses and processes information which is based on experiences that have no causal relationship. It has been called the intuitive, artistic and relational part of the brain – the feminine or Yin polarity. During the last two decades we have witnessed an emergence of right brain functions in the disciplines of holistic health, healing, education and therapy, and increased psychic awareness.

On a global level the discovery of the asteroids points to the birth pangs that humanity is now experiencing with the arrival of the Age of Aquarius. Aquarius is the sign of group consciousness and planetary awareness. Just as the ocean has the cyclic rhythm of waves, history has cycles. As certain multiples of ocean waves are exceptionally large ones, so at certain periods in history, we get an ~extra big~ wave of change – known as a quantum leap. This shift in intensity is experienced by society as an increase in pressure, tension, and the rate of change until enough energy is generated to provoke a quantum shift in consciousness.

We are living in historic times of global transformation. With the Age of Aquarius, humanity as a whole will experience the opportunity to become reborn into collective awareness. During this time we can realise the Aquarian ideals of brotherhood, sisterhood and planetary family (or the Aquarian confusion of anarchy, chaos and headlong rush into the new without a sensible incorporation of the old; emphasis on individuality which denies the connection to others}.

Emotional transformative crises are changing our psycho spiritual vibrations so that we may attune our individual frequency to the spiritual core which resonates with the whole of creation. The positions of Ceres, Pallas Athene, Juno and Vesta in our charts describe a personal way whereby we can effect this change. The traditional planets simply do not and cannot fully explain the issues which are emerging – simply because they are new. (It is true that individuals in the past have gone through these issues in a limited way, but not on such a mass level as now). The very fact that issues about the balance between the feminine and masculine are important to many people now, makes the transformation both an individual and society issue. Not only do the asteroids relate to a new archetypal principles that are currently being activated and integrated into the psyche, but they also serve as active agents in the transformative process of individuals.

In the pages to follow we will explore in greater detail how we as individuals can use the asteroids astrologically as additional ~Agents of Transformation~ in our Life Journeys which then activates the Group Consciousness transformative experience.

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