Asteroid Goddesses - the undistorted Natural/Divine Feminine

[Elen]

Thanks Ellen for passing that on. I cannot get The Mountain Astrologer in my country.  If anyone would care to paraphrase the article on Eris/Xena, I'd be grateful, and I'm sure others would be too.  Thanks.

I just listened to Demetra and Kristin last night talking about Pallas. Putting together some notes very soon.

Hi Linda,

Bummer about not getting TMA in your country.  I'll try to read through the article tonight and see what I can do for a summary.  In the meantime I emailed the author asking if it might be possible to get a copy of the article that I could email to you.  Hopefully she'll respond and that will be possible.  It looks like the article was excerpted (at least in part) from a recently published book, so that might be something you want to look into.  The book is called, Finding Our Center: Wisdom from the Stars and Planets in Times of Change.  The author is Heather Ensworth.  She's an astrologer, psychologist and Shaman.  Her website is risingmoonhealingcenter.com.

Hope this helps in the meantime.

Peace,
Ellen

[Elen]

Summary of the TMA article, Exploring the Meaning of the Dwarf Planet, Eris (Or Is It Really Xena?)
Author: Heather Ensworth
TMA issue #154, Dec/Jan 2011
pp. 59-64
_______________________________
1.)   The dwarf planet Eris was originally named Xena.  The name Eris came about in response to the intense argument among astronomers about how to categorize Pluto, Ceres and Eris.  Ensworth says this:  “Characteristic of all these examples of men and women [she cites Lucy Lawless, Gloria Steinem, Joan Baez, Al Gore and Richard Tarnas] with prominent Eris/Xena chart placements is their tendency to challenge society’s mores and to follow a unique path as reformers.  Such people are frequently targeted with negative projections in much the same way that the dwarf planet was seen as the instigator of conflict among astronomers and was therefore named ‘Eris’” (p. 64).  Extremely interesting and insightful point.
2.)   Eris, like Uranus, was renamed.  And, like Uranus, the original name better reflects the energy of the archetype.  The accepted name, in contrast, seems to contradict the true archetypal energies.  Uranus, for example, being a god who resisted change where Prometheus was the bringer of change.  She says about the Eris myth (Paris, Helen, Troy, etc.): “In the end, the need to be the best, the one chosen from the field of competitors, led to the downfall of all the people involved.  Ironically, the astronomers – in their apparent need to avoid expanding the community of officially designated ‘planets,’ which would result from a more liberal definition of the term – may have set themselves up for ongoing conflict.” (p. 60)
3.)   She makes the really interesting point about the criteria established for planetary status (at the time that Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet and Ceres, Eris and Sedna were elevated to dwarf status) mirroring the isolated and individualistic ways of the dominant culture of these times.  The criteria are: a) “the planet has to be in orbit around the Sun”; b) “it has to have “sufficient mass so as to be nearly round in shape”; and c) sufficient mass [I think] to “have ‘cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.’”  She says this: “From a philosophical perspective, these new criteria for planetary status, formulated by the IAU, are significant.  In essence, this creates a definition of importance that is characterized by isolation and individualism.  To be a planet, it is important to be large and to so dominate your own field of movement that you are the only primary body in that area of space.  This may reflect our Western cultural idealization of separation and individuation, by which we also measure our human psychological functioning.” (p. 59)
4.)   Continuing on the above insight, she suggests that the dwarf planets, including Eris/Xena, serve the function of bringing us back to a sense of community.  She writes: “All of these planetary bodies are an integral part of a larger community of asteroids and planets; they perhaps bring into our collective consciousness a corrective to the idealization of individuation and a new perspective about connection and community. “  She goes on to write: “At the same time that many scientists are questioning whether our solar system may be part of a binary star system – and just as we are on the cusp of the Age of Aquarius, with its emphasis on collaboration and community – it seems fitting that these new planetary bodies are challenging our cultural over-emphasis on individualism.” (pp. 59-60)
5.)   Xena.  Named by Michael Brown, astronomer, after the t.v. character played by Lucy Lawless.  The archetype: witnessing the destruction of her village as a child, Xena raged through life, seeking revenge for the murder of her family until she realizes that she had become no different than those who destroyed her childhood community.  From this moment on she becomes a warrior for peace and justice.  In a sense, the reverse of the Eris archetype.  Here’s what Ensworth writes: “Xena’s journey represented a spiritual quest without allegiance to any religious institution or defined belief system, and in this sense, it was very Aquarian.  Accompanied by her friends, she roamed across the countryside and formed relationships with the diverse people that she encountered along the way, relating to them without regard to their status, power, or wealth – again, Aquarian traits.  She rebelled against authorities or laws that were not in alignment with what she felt was just and fair, which is also Aquarian.  As part of a modern myth, developed out of modern technology, Xena symbolizes many of the patterns characteristic of the Aquarian Age that we are moving into.”  She goes on to point out that, whereas western culture idealizes logic and duality, Xena “followed her own path, guided by intuition and life experience, in attunement with her body and the natural world around her.  Her spirituality was an embodied one, not one of religious beliefs or dogma….She represents a return to natural law…”
6.)   Ensworth suggests that, because of the eccentricity of her orbit, we should not consider the sign that she is in when interpreting her meaning.   Rather, we should consider the meaning of the constellation through which she is travelling.  Currently, that constellation would be Cetus.  Cetus is in an area of the sky known as “the Water” and is associated with Tiamat.  Tiamat comes from Babylonian and Sumerian mythology and represents the “primordial waters from which all life comes.”  Ensworth writes: “She gave birth to the dragons and serpents, which we know were the earliest images of the Sacred Feminine and the divine… Tiamat was the supreme goddess of the sea and of the source, the chaos, of creation.”  I will end with this final quotation: “So, our new dwarf planet, as she passes through this constellation, reminds us of the depths, the source of all life, and of the power of chaos, the cauldron of creation and destruction.  She heralds the return of the Sacred Feminine and the dissolution and transformation of our current patriarchal belief systems.  She encourages us to let go of our personal stories, to dive deep, and to return to right relationship with Source and with all life.”  (P. 61)  Pretty cool.
7.)   One final thing.  Whereas the official name of Eris’ moon is Dysnomia (“demon of lawlessness”), Xena’s moon is named Gabrielle after Xena’s companion.  Gabrielle “was known for her sensitivity, compassion, and love of mythology, the way in which stories weave meaning and connections in our lives.” (p. 60)

Hope this helps.  I thought it was an EXTREMELY insightful article.

Peace,
Ellen

[Elen]

One thing that is interesting to me is that the area of sky known as the Water is in the southern part of the sky.  Given that our current orientation in terms of isolation, individualism and dominance seems to be driven by a northern dominance, this southern location is interesting...

Peace,
Ellen

[Linda]

Thanks Ellen for that summary of the TMA article on Eris - it will be very helpful and useful to EA students.

[Linda]

PALLAS ATHENA

Kristin Fontana interviews Demetra George


“The most important goddess for modern women is unequivocally Pallas Athena.”
“She is a very poignant image for the emergence of the feminine consciousness
and power that is occurring in the last few decades.”  –  DG

Description
•  In the mandala of the asteroid goddesses, Ceres is placed on the IC and Pallas Athena on the MC.  
•  Ceres represents using the creative sexual energy to give birth to children, and to grow food in the seasons.
•  Pallas Athena reverses that direction.  She takes that sexual creative energy and, instead of moving it out through the genital organs, moves it up the central spinal canal so that it comes out of the top of the head – as giving birth to our mental and artistic children.
•  She represents the nature of our creative mind as manifesting and giving forth our realized accomplishments in the world.  
 

Greek myth
•  Born out of the top of the head of her father Jupiter as his brain child, goddess of wisdom, goddess of war.
•  Took her place at the right hand side of her father as his favourite daughter.  
•  (In classical versions of the myth) she was a virgin goddess denied having any consorts or lovers or children.  She was dressed in cold steel war armour to cover up any aspect of her womanly body.  
•  The myth denied her ever having had a mother at all, and that Jupiter was her only parent.  
•  There was a contest between her and Poseidon (Neptune).  Whoever could give the city the better gift would be awarded rulership of the city.  Neptune took his trident and stuck it in the rock on top of the Acropolis and out came a salt spring. Pallas Athena planted an olive tree.  It was decided that the olive tree was a much better gift because it provided food and shelter and shade.  She became the ruling goddess of Athens.  
•  Neptune got mad:  Women would no longer be able to keep their own names but had to use their father’s names. They were no longer allowed to own their property, and no longer allowed to give their names to their children.
•  Having won the contest, women were going to have to suffer and pay for it.  Here we see one of the transitions between the matriarchal and patriarchal perspectives.  
•  While all of the other Greek goddesses (particularly as the patriarchal period became more entrenched) were demoted and demeaned, Pallas Athena was the image of a women who was strong, smart, creative, intelligent, powerful, who had the freedom to walk as an equal in the world of men.  
•  “She had the freedom to walk as an equal,” but paid a very dear price for this privilege:  the denial of her femininity.
•  Protector of Athens, to protect and defend the people of her city, very strong warrior aspect.  
•  Was considered to be a better warrior goddess than Mars was god.  Was valued by the Greeks for her mind.  Mars used brute strength, she used her wit.


Kundalini – Serpent power
•  In earlier symbolism of Athena, she is depicted in statues with a huge serpent at her side.
•  Sacred serpents lived in the most holy temple on the Acropolis, were fed milk and honey cakes, and were part of the rites.
•  On her breastplate she wears the head of the gorgon Medusa whose head is filled with winding serpents.  
•  Her original nature is the goddess of the serpent power.  
•  The serpent that guarded the oracular temples was understood as the symbol of wisdom.
•  The serpent was always connected with wisdom and healing.  
•  Bible says, ‘Be ye wise as a serpent.’
•  Behind the cold, strategic, logical, rational goddess of war that the patriarchy projected her as, this is the goddess who holds the secrets of the kundalini serpent energy/power of wisdom and healing coiled at the base of the spine.
•  Her energy moves up through the chakras.  Associated with Scorpio energy, upper chakras, 3rd eye, crown chakra, very psychic.
•  Indian Yogic tradition, alternate nostril breathing, balances the male and feminine channels, awakens kundalini coiled at the base of our spine, it rises upward through the spinal canal, and comes out of the top of the head as cosmic illumination (Pallas Athena).
•  Serpents and the goddess were paired together from the earliest imagery in ancient Sumeria, 3000 BC:  images of the goddess with serpent heads or nursing serpent babies on their breast.  
•  Very popular images of goddess from Crete and Babylonia holding two serpents in each hand.
•  Egyptian goddess associated with wisdom and war, depicted with the cobra.  Skeletons of serpents found in the ruins of her ancient oracle city.  
•  Northern Africa, Libya, Goddess “Anassa,” the precursor of Athena, had 3 forms:  maiden, mother, crow, embodied women as wise, strong warriors.
•  Another aspect of this trinity was Medusa, the serpent haired queen of wisdom, associated with the 3rd phase of the trinity, magic, regeneration, sexual mysteries.  
•  In ancient arts, when serpents were depicted on goddesses, below the waist was associated with fertility, above the waist, especially on the head, was associated with wisdom.  
•  Worshiped in Crete, became known as Athena protector of the palace. Serpents would eat the milk and honey prepared for them.  
•  From the Mycenaean Greeks we get Athena’s birth story to Jupiter here.  Jupiter involved in war against his father Saturn.  Sea goddess Mentes (middle of this trinity) gives Jupiter a potion that causes Saturn to vomit up swallowed brothers and sisters.  They take up arms, and win the war.  Jupiter, as king, ordered Mentes to be his consort, she refused, he pursued, and she became pregnant with Athena.  An oracle told of Mentes pregnancy to a second child to supersede Jupiter, but in order to prevent it, he swallowed Mentes whole.  One day, walking along the shores of Lake Tritonis in Libya (lake of the triple queen), Jupiter gets a headache.  His head is axed open and out springs Athena his daughter dressed in full armour.
•  Robert Graves says she represents the ingestion and adaptation of the old feminine wisdom principle to the needs of the new patriarchal order.  
•  From this myth, in the level of yogic practice, we see that through internalization of the goddess Mentes pregnant with Athena, Jupiter, through him absorbing the contra-sexual polarity into himself, awakened the kundalini – and that consciousness came out through his head.  
•  Athena wears the Medusa serpent on her breastplate whose hair is filled with snakes and represents the awakening of the kundalini (pure electricity and power), her secret nature behind the logical strategic goddess of war.  


Modern message of the Athena archetype
•  Dilemma:  If you are a women and you want to be strong and powerful in men’s territory, they won’t consider you to be a real woman, and will deny you the validation of protection and relationship.  
•  Women who want to be as good as they possibly can in their chosen field often at the cost of intimate relationships and family.  
•  Girls at school whose intelligence is too threatening to the male ego.
•  What does it mean to be a modern Athena woman (and man)?  The movement toward androgyny (asexuality) that Athena represents, born of the androgynous condition of her father Jupiter, where he assimilated the feminine into himself.  
•  Not being polarized at the sexual extremes (“girly” woman or “macho” guy), but balancing the male and female energy within, calling up the contra (opposite) sexual polarity.  
•  Women who are smart, good in sports, warriors in the world.
•  Men, in their feminine polarity, who excel in the arts and other areas.  
•  Clever girls at school seen as too threatening to be asked on dates – or men being great friends but not dateable material – because they both don’t conform to the extreme sexual stereotypes.
•  Tremendous frustration of sexual energy puts pressure on the kundalini as the energy to be used for mind and art.
•  Prominent Athena useful and helpful in counseling:  “What is the individual relationship to the contra-sexual polarity within them?  “Has that created frustration in the early part of their life?” “What have they done in terms of that in their own creative process?”


Pallas Athena in the chart
•  Jungian psychology of the armoured Amazon, valuing of one’s rational logical strategic cold analytic qualities that help one succeed in the outer world, and seeing one’s emotions feeling and vulnerabilities as being weak and undesirable. And how that spills over into the issues we have with our fathers, the issues we have in rejecting our mothers or what the feminine represents.  
•  Healing our relationship to our own feminine.
•  Learning how to accept the feminine while in the outer patriarchal world.  
•  The essence of the feminine contains wisdom and strength (these are not only masculine qualities).  
•  The healing of the soul.


Afflicted Pallas
•  Squares or oppositions from Saturn:  the suppression of one’s wisdom nature.
•  Seeing a women as being less feminine or less womanly because of the expression of her wisdom.  
•  The repercussions to being smart, to expressing the pure Athena energy, to being as good as you possibly can be, as the feminine seeks to actualize that in the world.


Famous people with strong Pallas Athena
•  Amelia Earhart, PA on her Asc, “I can do anything a man can do, and I can do it better.”
•  Simone de Beauvoir, lover of Jean Paul Sartre, PA/Moon in the 10th, books on the new wave of feminine consciousness emergence in the early 1900’s.  
•  Marie Curie, winner of Nobel prize.
•  Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, both with PA conjunct Sun in Aquarius.

Many Thanks from EA students
to Kristin and Demetra
for a great informative interview!

[Linda]

Pallas Athena


Pallas is associated with the AIR element (Scorpio was mentioned earlier on).  Here's an excerpt from Demetra's book, "Astrology for Yourself" --


Associated with the element Air, the Suit of Swords and the Justice Key in the Tarot, and the yellow ray of intellect, she symbolizes getting into our heads.  As the prototype of the artistically creative and intelligent woman, Pallas mirrors our desire to strive for excellence in a chosen field of creative expression. 

Mythologically Pallas was made to deny her femininity in order to exercise her wisdom, courage and creative abilities.  The artificial separation between being intelligent and being a "real woman" lies at the root of the modern day conflict women feel in choosing between career goals and relationship needs.

In the birth chart, Pallas gravitates to working with holistic health techniques that integrate whole patterns of the psyche.  She also governs all mental healing techniques--visualization, meditation, affirmation, guided imagery and hypnosis.


The undistorted, natural Pallas enables us to reconcile the unnecessary separation between our love nature and our mental-creative wisdom. 

[Stacie]

hey kristin,

i have wolf's amazone @ 5 virgo in the 10th...is that what you meant to say?

speaking of the correlation to wolf's desire to help/speak out on behalf of the downtrodden:  i'm sure many here remember the fire in wolf's words when he spoke of the injustices/abuses of power that occurred in the GWB administration.  george w. bush has mars at 9 virgo..conjunct wolf's amazone. hmmm..

stacie

[kburgess]

If we look at the pre-Classical (ancient) Greek manifestations of Juno we find that she was a fertility goddess.  Many shrines to her have been found that pre-date those of Zeus indicating that she held great significance before he came along as a god of worship.  If we consider her relationship to fertility (nature) we can perhaps then consider her as our own relationship to our own fecundity/sexuality/creativity.  As time went on and Juno lost strength and became the somewhat demented, hysteric Hera, we see patriarchal energies enervating Juno and diminishing her to the jealous, seething wife of Zeus, pushed to the background while Zeus gets all the glory.   I believe it is necessary in our individual soul's journey to re-energize Juno and to ask ourselves what is it that we are committed to creating? Juno can reveal both our greatest weakness (our so-called patriarchal Achilles heal), as well as our path to commitment to the Divine.      Any thoughts?
-Kim

[Linda]

Hi Kim,

Good to hear from you again.  Juno is presently at 24 deg Virgo:  could this be describing the patriarchal Achilles heal suffered in sadomasochistic relationships?  Looking very deeply into the state of our relationships continues as Venus moves through Scorpio.    

Quote by Patricia Walsh in the Libra archetype thread:
.....for many who meet those they have unfinished business with, the relationship can have a trance like quality to it. There is something deep in the soul that is desiring completion, and that unconscious desire floods and takes over the consciousness. It's like being possessed by ones own unconscious complexes. But that is how these complexes become conscious... and then can be worked on. In EA we consider Libra to be the precursor to deep committed relationship that happens in Scorpio. To me Libra is more like flirting with the relationship (the worm on the hook) where Scorpio is where one bites and gets hooked). So in Libra (with Venus and Neptune's influence) a relationship can look and feel promising yet can turn out to have a very different reality.

Juno is associated with Libra and Scorpio.

Kim's quote:  
I believe it is necessary in our individual soul's journey to re-energize Juno and to ask ourselves what is it that we are committed to creating? Juno can reveal both our greatest weakness (our so-called patriarchal Achilles heal), as well as our path to commitment to the Divine.

Great quote Kim.  

I just hope that women are striving to make better choices in relationship for equality, balance, commitment, honesty and understanding.  My aim is to educate women to become conscious of their individual complexes and work on them.  Having Juno in Aquarius enables me to take a dispassionate look at my relationships, and gives amazing strength to make the right choices.  And perhaps the asteroid Amazone could be operating there too.

Quote from Kristin:
.....she [Amazon] represents fighting for the female race in her attempt to restore the natural balance, specifically restoring the divine right and power of the natural feminine.

Btw, glad this thread is still happening.  I had intended to return soon.  We'll be looking at Lilith next, unless you'd like to examine another asteroid?

[BrendaP]

Had to go digging back far for this one. Had  a question, while it is an overall evolutionary impulse to reclaim/integrate the undistorted archetypes--, if a person --looking specifically at the asteroid goddesses, if there were many retrogrades natally or by progression--would it be even more incumbent for that person to reclaim the undistorted archetype in this lifetime?

For a person dealing with this, would they perhaps be confronted with many crises and induce a more inward internalization until this is achieved?

Thank you.

Rad's quote (from an earlier page on this link)-

And, of course, the entire need, teaching, message for not only women to return back to their natural natures, but to rebel as fiercely as necessary against all the male dominated conditioning patterns as to what women are 'expected' to be as defined by unnatural men. And then to use themselves, each women, one at a time, to teach not only these unnatural men about what is natural and what is not, but also other women who continue to accept these patriarchal definitions of what a women is, and is not. The entire message of this natal Sedna chart is to utterly rebel against all that is unnatural. To throw it off, to oppose it. This entire chart is about how women has been used as men's scapegoats, of how they have been defined through the patriarchal distorted centuries as something dark, evil, the 'temptation' to man's spiritual downfall.

[Rad]

HI Brenda,

"Had to go digging back far for this one. Had  a question, while it is an overall evolutionary impulse to reclaim/integrate the undistorted archetypes--, if a person --looking specifically at the asteroid goddesses, if there were many retrogrades natally or by progression--would it be even more incumbent for that person to reclaim the undistorted archetype in this lifetime?

***********************

It depends on the evolutionary state of the Soul itself. From the individuated state onwards the answer would be yes yet the recovery would be an ongoing evolutionary process that could be finally realized within the 1st spiritual state.

************************

"For a person dealing with this, would they perhaps be confronted with many crises and induce a more inward internalization until this is achieved?"

************************

This depends, again, on the evolutionary state of the person and other evolutionary factors. This would be one of the ways until internal realization was achieved.

*****************

God Bless, Rad

[BrendaP]

Thank you for the clarification, can get tunnel vision here.

[Tory]

Hi All,

 My thoughts on Eris is that she does not correlate or symbolize anything about the natural feminine in the totality of what a what the natural feminine principle/ archetype is. To me, this creation of Eris comes out of, and manifested by, hopelessly distorted men who, in turn, have distorted the natural feminine because of their own distortions. Thus, the 'projection' of this manifesting as the 'creation' of that 'goddess' by them. In other words, there is no natural feminine to reclaim in this one.

God Bless, Rad

Dear Rad, Linda, Elen,

Thankyou for your insights into Eris
I have a minor question and comment regarding Eris on this previous thread, hope you don't mind?

Quote from wiki:
"According to science writer Govert Schilling, Brown initially wanted to call the object "Lila", after a concept in Hindu mythology that described the cosmos as the outcome of a game played by Brahma. The name was very similar to "Lilah", the name of Brown's newborn daughter. Brown was mindful of not making his name public before it had been officially accepted. He had done so with Sedna a year previously, and had been heavily criticised. However, he listed the address of his personal web page announcing the discovery as /~mbrown/planetlila and in the chaos following the controversy over the discovery of Haumea, forgot to change it. Rather than needlessly anger more of his fellow astronomers, he simply said that the webpage had been named for his daughter and dropped "Lila" from consideration."

Brown's personal web page about Eris still has the same URL
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/

How significant do you think this is? Could this actually be considered Eris's first name? If he changed his mind or didn't follow through i guess the answer is no. Discord and strife seem somehow inherent in the naming process of Eris, or at least confusion (so many different names) and avoiding more upset?

I was surprised when i discovered Brown first wanted to call Eris, sanskrit Lila. I have Eris natally exactly conjunct my sun/IC/ and within orb (couple of degrees) of chiron/mercury/north node. Last year i started a healing centre called "espace Lila", espace in french is another work for centre. Each time i look closely at asteroids in a chart there is this kind of synchronicity, it's amazing.

Light and Respect
Tory

[Rad]

Hi Tory,

Well, to me, this is similar to when we have a child and we go back and forth with this or that name which then leads to the name we finally decide upon for the child. That then becomes the name of that child for life of course. So, to me, this is why Eris is Eris.

God Bless, Rad

[Tory]

Hi Tory,

Well, to me, this is similar to when we have a child and we go back and forth with this or that name which then leads to the name we finally decide upon for the child. That then becomes the name of that child for life of course. So, to me, this is why Eris is Eris.

God Bless, Rad

Hi Rad

Right, that is a good analogy. My reflection on this situation leads me to think of EA's emphasis on "observation and correlation". Each soul's experience being individual, my experience with Eris leads me to Lila, when for another person it must be an altogether different experience.

Thanks
Tory