Asteroids, fixed stars, and comets (oh my!)

Asteroids, fixed stars, and comets have been gobbling up my attention lately. From the new comet ISON that is approaching perihelion (orbiting the sun) tomorrow and visible in our early morning skies (EST) beginning tomorrow or Friday -- IF she doesn't burn up in the sun's atmosphere, that is -- to learning more about Chiron, Nessus, Pholus, Sedna, and Karma (all asteroids and all very useful in chart analysis, especially synastry), to reading up on all the fixed stars - all very fascinating. I'm just wishing I could read faster, or at least just download it automatically into my brain. Good thing I have the long Thanksgiving weekend to dive into all of this.

Comet ISON photographed Nov. 15, Credit: Damian Peach

I am tempted to get up early tomorrow, Thanksgiving morning, to attempt to see ISON, but I may have missed the best window to see her. (Marina at Darkstar Astrology feels this comet is a she, and I agree. She gave an excellent write up in her Weekly Horoscope for November 25 - December 1.) As she begins perihelion, and thus only visible very close to the Sun - difficult and dangerous to view without the proper equipment - she may get burned up in the Sun's atmosphere while traveling around our beautiful home star. I hope she pulls through! Many astronomers and stargazers will be watching this one closely, as will I. Over the weekend I will attempt to see her just before sunrise. She is brilliant green with a long, dazzling tail and I hope she will be with us for a long time. Marina Darkstar calls her a "gorgeous, green witch" and likens her to be a harbinger of sacred feminine energy, a Lilith comet full of the power of healing feminine energy - something that our planet desperately needs to be cosmically sprinkled with right about now. If she pulls through after dancing with the extreme heat of the Sun what a gift she will be.

OK so check out these asteroids (the numbers are the official catalog numbers for asteroids/stars, go to astro.com and use their Free Extended Chart and plug the numbers in to the "additional asteroids and fixed stars" box at the bottom of your birth chart information form):


Love, Sexual and Relationship Asteroids:

Juno - Marriage, commited and bonded relationships, legal ties and protection of rights within the relationship.Marriage and commitment in relationships. Check synastry for connections. Transits and progressions can signify timing of marriage. Working through relationship betrayals, infidelity. Sharing power within relationships in a balanced manner

Vesta - Devotion and dedication to beliefs, tantric sex and passion for ritual; sex as a spiritual transformation. Becoming whole within ones self. Not needing outside validation to be who you really are. Finding sacredness within and without.  

Ceres - Mother, nurturing, feeding emotional and physical needs. Taking care of each other. Enhances the ability to nurture the self and others - also for those suffering from the loss of a loved one. Children who have lost a parent or other primary care giver.
 
103 Hera - Marriage, commited and bonded relationships, legal ties and protection of rights within the relationship. Marriage and
commitment in relationships. Check synastry for connections. Transits and progressions can signify timing of marriage.
 
447 Valentine - True love
 
1221 Amor - Love as felt idealistically and romantically. Unconditional love, how you express it.
 
763 Cupido - the look of love; Indicator of sexual attraction in synastry. Matchmaker, vain, romantic.
 
201 Penelope - represents devotion and fidelity
 
16 Psyche - Perseverance of love, connection of a psychic nature, awakening of intuition, soul seeking completion
 
433 Eros - erotic love. Represents what turns you on, sexual attraction.
 
1388 Aphrodite - impulsive love and attraction, love inspired by fated events, animosity turning to magnetism, charisma. Indicates attraction in synastry.
 
1943 Anteros - the brother of Eros, love returned or love avenged. The answer to love's longing, a place to finally meet.
 
2101 Adonis - spell bound love, sexual magnetism, the desire to arouse, please and fulfill the beloved. Potent tie. An attractive male. Your ideal male. What is your Adonis by sign and house?
 
4450 Pan - Seductive and earthy sensuality, creative, wily, and likely to instill "panic" to produce change or contact
 
4386 Lust - potent sexual attraction and connection. Sexually motivated, lustful. Lascivious personality or behavior. Non-committed sex. President Clinton has Lust conjunct his ASC, as does Gene Simmons of KISS.
 
7328 Casanova: A promiscuous male. Seducer of women. A player, uncommitted.
 
875 Nymphe: An overly-sexed individual. An indicator of sexual addiction.
 
2063 Bacchus: Sexual orgies, groupies, highly sexual and unrestrained. 

1036 Ganymede - An indicator of same sex attraction between men. Ganymede was the lover of Zeus.

And these are just a few! My favorites right now are Nessus (7066), Karma (3811), Sedna, and of course Chiron, mainly for healing purposes. Finding these in my own charts and those of my friends and family and how they interact with my own is fascinating to me. It really explains a lot about what we are all here to teach each other and how our journeys intersect and overlap. Doing charts will be much more interesting now - and more precise. This makes my Mercury/Mars conjunction in 9th house Virgo very, very happy!!  I will start posting about each of these separately soon.

As for fixed stars, these are a little different because, as the name suggests, they are fixed in place and don't roam around or orbit a planet or solar system like the asteroids, comets and planets in our solar system do. They show up in people's charts in pretty much the same sign and degree for long periods of time, often within 50-100 years or so, so people born in the same generation will have the same fixed stars in their charts, so the House placement is what really counts here, as well as what personal planets or other significant asteroids or chart points they conjunct. They really give a flavor to just, oh say, plain old Mars in Saggitarius. If it is now Mars in Saggitarius conjunct Lesath the intense fixed star of  "the nature of Mercury and Mars. It gives danger, desperation, immorality and malevolence, and is connected with acid poisons” and suddenly we're talking about a whole 'nuther Mars now. If that Lesath Mars is in the Eighth house, conjunct Uranus and square Pluto in the Twelfth, then we may have a psychopath on our hands! Or at least the tendency towards that type of behavior.

Honestly I'm so overwhelmed with learning about all these chart and synastry influencers that all I can say for now is, wow, 10-planet based astrology is like first grade math, and full-spectrum astrology that includes the fixed stars and asteroids (and lunar orbit points, like Lilith) as depth providers is like college calculus, psychology and astronomy all combined (actually quite literally). It really helps pinpoint details in charts, especially connections (for good or bad) in synastry charts. If only I had known this years ago!