If you’re familiar with astrology, you probably know about the basic planets and zodiac constellations. Did you know that some astrologers use asteroids when casting birth and event charts? Though these celestial bodies are much smaller than the planets in our system, several practitioners believe that they have major impacts on traits and potential outcomes. Knowing a little bit of astrological history and how they’re interpreted in charts can help you understand the important roles they play.
Building Blocks of Our Solar System
NASA Science explains that most asteroids are located in a belt between Jupiter and Mars, orbiting the sun just like the major and dwarf planets. These small, irregularly shaped rocks range in size from 33 feet across to 329 miles in diameter. While some asteroids travel their ellipticals alone, others have their own moons or exist in double or triple asteroid systems.
NASA refers to asteroids as “ancient space rubble” from our solar system’s formation. Meanwhile, a July 2018 Washington Post piece elaborates a recent theory that they’re left over from five larger planet-like objects. As some speculate, these bodies failed to form and collided billions of years ago due to their tangled orbits. Occasionally, gravitational effects from nearby Jupiter or Mars caused these objects to hurl out of orbit. This phenomenon may be linked to past impacts on Earth, such as the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs around 65 million years ago.
Important Asteroids and Their Meanings
Currently, NASA has counted 794,681 asteroids in our solar system. Astrologer Lee Coleman mentions at her blog Straight Woo that their cumulative mass would equal around 4% of our moon. Many people track and interpret a small collection of these objects when creating their charts. That’s because they’re the only ones regarded as having any major impacts, as Coleman clarifies. Most are named after people, places, and mythological figures. Four of these, also known as the “goddess asteroids,” are commonly used in the field today. At Mystica Astrology, Emma Wilson briefly breaks down their associated meanings:
- Pallas Athena: strength, fortitude, craft, wisdom, confidence, practicality, and the arts
- Juno: loyalty, leadership, royalty, union, conception, birth, and partnerships
- Ceres: harvest, Earth, nutrition, food, life cycles, seasons, mothers, and caretakers
- Vesta: priestesses, sisterhood, rituals, devotion, witchcraft, sexuality, hearth, and flames
In an archived Journal of Esoteric Psychology article from 1990, Mary Esther Andrews explains that these asteroids were first sighted in the 1800s. Coleman points out that nearly all the major celestial bodies are named for male deities except for Venus and our moon. Moreover, both Andrews and Coleman remark that many astrologers desire to incorporate more divine feminine aspects into their practice.
For these individuals, asteroids provide insight into significant events. They can lead to a more nuanced understanding when planetary positions in constellations and houses don’t offer enough details. While most chart the “goddess” asteroids, they also look at Chiron and Eris. Chiron stands for wisdom, medicine, wounds, and teaching, while Eris is linked to strife, discord, chaos, and drama. This is just a short list, and Leah Whitehorse documents many more at Lua Astrology.
Shared Knowledge, Individualized Practice
Classical astrology focused on the sun, the moon, and the five planets visible in our ancient ancestors’ skies. As some modern practitioners point out, this system left out feminine influences in favor of a mostly male pantheon. Asteroids help fill this void while giving astrologers additional details to work with when charting someone’s birth or an event. With several of these objects named for goddesses, the idea of divine feminine elements resonates with some practitioners. While there is a bit of debate about asteroids’ inclusion in astrological methodologies, they can uncover new insights when interpreting their positions and transits.