ASTEROIDS THE HIDDEN SECRETS
By Laurie Naughtin www.sublunar.co.za
Asteroids are like Saints, you could use them in meditation to inspire and ignite your own intuition and hidden strengths.
I have always been fascinated with the asteroids hence inclined to study their role in natal charts. Over the years I have found them useful to uncover deep hidden feelings and reactions to life. They are the psychology of the chart often uncovering deep hurts as well as strengths.
Asteroids are miniature planets in our Solar System; they orbit around the Sun as well as rotate on their axis just like Earth.
Asteroids have been called Planetoids, some astronomers say they were once a planet that exploded, and this is why they remain in the so called belt of debris, the asteroid belt. Their revolution around the Sun is between 3 to 6 years
Ever since the beginning of the 19th Century astronomers have been aware of the existence of asteroids, astrologers have only been using them as part of the horoscope since 1973.
Of all the traditional planets only the Moon and Venus are female, the asteroids balance the playing field as they are all Goddesses. The 24 Asteroid Goddesses make up the main asteroid belt found between Jupiter and Mars in the solar system.
They can bring a richer and fuller meaning to a chart. In a way they can fine tune the chart highlighting deep and hidden feelings. It is the Asteroids that can help us to connect with hidden personal strengths and weaknesses.
These deep feelings are highlighted in the sign and house where the asteroid is placed. The sign will describe the nature of the Asteroid and the house the area of life this Asteroid will play out.
For example Princess Di has Ceres posited in the 4th house of family, in Taurus ruler of her 5th house; this Ceres is about nurturing and taking care of people, mainly children, and being in Taurus will do so in a practical manner. Ceres is conjunct her Vesta where her focus, obsession and integration were all about family and children. As Ceres is associated with fertility Di’s Ceres is in a earth sign and the sign of her 5th of children. She will have children. It makes me suspicious that an astrologer was brought on board when selecting a wife for the future King.
The fifth is about being in love and how we love, in Taurus there is a need to be secure with a loved one, touch, and sensuality is important. Princess Di would be a sensual lover, so denial from her partner could push her into the arms of another who can supply the security and sensuality needed. A negative trait of Ceres in Taurus can lead to eating disorders especially when not been nurtured.

With this example we can see how asteroids each have very specific meanings that help you tease out the story behind a chart. Where the planets, Sun, Moon and houses will give you a wonderful overall picture, it is the asteroids that help connect with deeper chart themes that may otherwise be missed, as well as serve to accentuate the interpretation of a birth chart.
There many Asteroids found in the belt, in fact due to pattern recognition astrologers can find an asteroid for almost any occasion. This gets way too murky; my personal choice is to use those that serve me best is more efficient and less confusing. I normally look at the Asteroids if when the reading moves into an area best described by the Asteroid.
If a nurturing situation arises I would look at Ceres, health issues Hygeia will be telling, Vesta to find the deep unwavering belief, the inner fire. Pallas shows us our inner worrier, how we can fight our way through life’s difficulties and Juno the asteroid of marriage and relationships both good and bad will help us and our clients understand why they stay in a marriage come what may or leave at a drop of a hat.
A full understanding of how to delineate a chart, planet or asteroid is very telling, take Di’s chart again her Juno is in Pisces conjunct Juno in the 3rd house showing that part of her every day meaning is to fight for her King without boundaries. Romance will be very important for her but Pisces is a watery mute sign, a deep need for emotional support and understanding yet not heard. As Pisces is a sign of no boundaries she was able to have affairs.
By delineating further we see that her partner or 7th house is ruled by Mercury that Juno will find marriage partners that are in their detriment and fall of the marriage. She really tried to make a bad situation work, sadly her husband did not. As Mercury ruling husband and partners can harm Juno look deeper into the chart and see Mercury is debilitated by being retrograde, only interested in self as in the 7th house he rules and his own vales in the sign of the 8th house the turned 2nd house.
It would just be wrong to assume that someone has self worth issues preventing them from studying because Ceres is found in their 9th house. If the client asks why studying is almost an obsession, we can see that the underlining reason is that it could fill a need making the client feel more worthy. If the client wants to unpack it more we can look at aspects and times in his/her life that study became an obsession and see what triggered this need.
Asteroids placements are deep and powerful so need to be treated with caution. We are not trained psychologists, through Asteroids we uncover deep psychological issues, great care in handling the situation is vital. It is important to monitor the clients state of mind when working with the asteroids, if this is very distressing to them refer them to a psychologist who can help resolve this problem further.
FURTHER RESEARCH AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE 5 MOST COMMON ASTEROIDS
Ceres – The Earth Mother
Ceres was the first asteroid discovered and now is labeled as a dwarf planet, taking up about 1/3 of the entire mass of the asteroid belt. In astrology, to get an understanding of the nature of a planet the astrologers analyze the name given to it.
In mythology Ceres was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Demeter. She was the goddess of agriculture and when her daughter Persephone was kidnapped by Pluto in an attempt to force her to marry him, Demeter became so distraught looking for her daughter that she neglected the Earth which became cold and plants started to die. This was the first autumn and winter Earth experienced.
Zeus had to step in as Earth died and sent Hermes as his messenger to the underworld insisting that Pluto return Persephone to her mother for half the year, and so we get spring and summer that keep the planet alive and fertile.
Persephone and her mother Ceres refused to eat while Persephone was being held captive by Pluto. They starved themselves, and eventually Persephone ate the seed of a Pomegranate which made her Pluto’s wife forever.
Hermes negotiated that Pluto allowed her freedom from the underworld once a year so that Earth can sustain itself. She returned to him once a year and so winter comes but once a year.
Ceres is the roundest asteroid and resembles the Moon. This signifies that the placement of Ceres in a birth chart is said to show what the native needs to feel loved and nurtured.
It is not surprising that Ceres position in the chart is also related to a strong connection with food and eating habits. An afflicted Ceres will result in one or another eating disorder. It will highlight obsession to certain foodstuffs, diets and sacrifices for the love of our planet such as those that only eat organic food, free range proteins or even become Vegans and vegetarians.
Ceres blossomed for the 2/3rds of the year she was with Persephone, showing when people are emotionally content they are capable of producing their most valued masterpieces. They have a healthy self worth and working relationship with themselves. The position in the chart will show us where we can have self worth issues and where we can boost our self worth.
The sign and placement of Ceres influences mothering, hard work, parenting, and gardening. Ceres is associated with fertility, the uterus and stomach. The negative side of Ceres influences grief, work problems, eating disorders, custody issues as well as low self esteem, fear of abundance, feelings of abandonment or unworthiness, over-attachment, possessiveness, parent-child complexes and barrenness.
Ceres can affect one’s ability to create and maintain a healthy working relationship with oneself. When we are emotionally content we are capable of producing our best work and masterpieces. So too are we capable of loving and nurturing others.
The orbital rotation of Ceres is about 4.6 years.
Ceres’ Element* WHAT NURTURES ME AND HOW I NURTURE
Fire – Praise and encouragement
Earth – Stability and structure
Air – Relating and communicating
Water – Sympathy and understanding
Pallas Athena – The wisdom of the Warrior
The second Asteroid discovered is Pallas Athena. This asteroid is Jupiter’s daughter and knows how to use her intelligence. She is the weaver of patterns, linking of ideas, strategic, commanding warrior as well as being a peaceful general. Approaches life in a cerebral manner.
As the story goes Zeus made love to the Titaness Metis who was the goddess of the planet Mercury, her name meant council. She became pregnant and Gaia mentioned to Zeus that this child would be a girl who would give birth to a male child who would supplant Zeus.
Like his father Cronus Zeus took charge and swallowed Metis who continued to give council from within his stomach. Later as Zeus was walking he was seized with a major headache. He went to his son Hephaestus, who was a blacksmith and opened Zeus’s head. Out leapt grey-eyed Pallas Athene, daughter of Metis clothed in armor a spear in her hand shouting out in victory.
As she was a child from her father’s brain she is associated with wisdom and intellect. She is known to be the goddess of fertility, bringer of life and giver of rain. Her knowledge was useful and inventive. She has strategic skills useful in warlike situations, as well as weaver of baskets and master of mathematics. She preferred diplomacy and negotiation over butchering and conflict.
She prides herself in being the daughter of patriarchy having a paradoxical relationship with her father Zeus. A dominant Pallas in the chart shows a strong projection of father onto child in their early life. So we can get daddy’s girl or a child who rejects their father, also a desperate need to break the boundaries of a cut off father.
It often comes as a shock when a child comes to realise that their fathers image no longer works for them. They have to break out of their suite of protective armor or father’s shadow to get into touch with their own sense of inner wisdom.
She is known to shun sexual or fail to understand the sexual implications of a relationship, it is her weakest trait as the armor she wears is symbolic of the difficulty she has in establishing any type of close relationship.
Pallas has an orbital revolution of about 4.6 to 5 years, so we can experience a Pallas return every 5 years. It is a good time to get into touch with our inner wisdom, renew our skill or improve our skills. It may point to a period of new studies.
Pallas’ Element*
Fire – Becoming inspired and formulating visions
Earth – Creating new forms and structures
Air – Developing new ideas and theories
Water – Becoming psychic and intuitive

Juno – Socializing the Soul
Juno also know as Hera was the wife of Jupiter (Zeus) who was not simply taking a wife but incorporating a domain with the entire matriarchal world previously headed by Hera.
Juno was only one of the two Goddesses on Olympia who was legally married. Her marriage to Jupiter was stormy, turbulent and filled with quarrels. His frequent infidelities triggered her jealous rages and attempts at revenge against each other.
One wonders why Jupiter who could have any woman continued with this kind of relationship. But if he was not married to Juno he would not have been himself as Juno embodies the female polarity and Jupiter the male side in the relationship.
Juno’s position in the horoscope is said to be related to the marriage potential, in fact there was a study that showed long term marriages had one partners Juno aspecting the partners Ascendant or Descendant. This is why her position in the chart should be taken into consideration when marriage is on the cards.
Juno’s jealousy and anger towards Jupiter due to his lies and sexual escapades ended up in her humiliation and rage. She may have forgiven one or even two violations of the sacred marriage vow but time and time again this led to distrust and rage, she never forgave him his constant infidelities.
In modern charts similar patterns appear where one or the other may reach a point where anger turns to rage then disease. The individual becomes so consumed that they are either killed or kill their partner, this is where crimes of passion occur. The wrath or reaction when one partner deceives or even leaves the other is shown by Juno.
When Juno is dysfunctional, one type of Juno will sit around pining over a spouse’s infidelity refusing to do anything about it. The other will inflict rage and harm on the lover rather than on the spouse.
Juno being the queen of the God Jupiter found comfort in being seated on the golden throne next to her King. She was after all goddess of principles and needed to have something over which to rule and that was her husband’s kingdom. Juno will often be prominent as the ‘society wife’ or husband that accesses life according to the status of their spouse such as being married to a doctor, lawyer or person of fame.
They will hold onto the success of being the spouse no matter what. The spouse can be and alcoholic or even abuser, but the Juno complex remains. The man with a Juno complex may choose a beauty queen, society girl or even a cheerleader, all for the sake of looking good and successful in the social sphere.
The mythology shows how Juno’s love for her children was conditional. They had to meet her social expectations in order to be worthy of her motherly affection. Hephaestus was ugly so she cast him out.
We see this in the parent who just beams with pride when her son is a star athlete and chooses the path of his father to become a doctor, or even betters this role by becoming a president. Such parents may reject their children or show great disappointment when the child chooses a menial or service related career rather than a tertiary path.
Juno in the chart seeks love and shows the type of partner or marriage the individual desires. The placement, sign and aspect will show weaknesses and strengths. It is advisable to look at the Juno in a potential marriage partners chart as this will describe the type of marriage or partner they are looking for.
A weak Juno will show up feelings of victimization and jealousy, at its best a person will be confident, powerful and radiate charisma to all who come into contact with them.
Juno will take 4.3 years to complete her orbital cycle.
Juno’s Element*
Fire – Shared visions, independence, passion
Earth – Stability, consistency, sensuality, comfort
Air – Meeting of the minds, verbal exchange
Water – Emotional rapport and support, understanding
Vesta – Obsession, integration and self focus
Vesta is the oldest and most revered Goddess, she is considered as sacred. She is the fire that burns in the hearth of each household, the shaman who travels the world to find the tree of wisdom. Her name literally means – heart. The fire was never allowed to be extinguished as it is a source of inspiration and renewal.
There are few personifications of Vesta in mythology; this may be due to the fact that she represents an indwelling spirit. In the modern world she captures our spirit and is seen when a family gather around the camp fire and share totally different deep experiences.
She was the first born child of Cronus and Rhea and first to be swallowed up by her father. First born and last to be to be disgorged back into the world signifying the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end as well first and last.
She vowed to remain eternally a virgin choosing to remain distant from the quarrels of the Gods. When Dionysus became one of the Olympian Gods it was necessary to have another step down as only twelve Olympian Gods were necessary. Hestia or Vesta offered as her worship was so deeply established amongst the people that nothing could extinguish it.
It was Vesta who kept the hearth of the gods burning as well as taking on the role as priestess of the Vestal Virgins. The Vestal Virgins not only tended the actual fire which was the symbolic centre of the Roman Empire. They vowed to celibacy and were the direct connection to the divinity that mortals could experience. Interestingly enough the glyph of Vesta is turned inwards representing this virginal quality.
The Vestals reflected the light of the sacred. They had the power to set prisoners free and were the keepers of wills and important documents.
The Vestals threatened the Christian Churches and the early Church Fathers eradicated the worship of the Vesta until the 3rd century. The Nuns like the Vestals are virgins and consecrated to marriage with God.
If we look to the heavens she is the brightest of the asteroids which is fitting as she was the keeper of the fire. Her fire is our inner fire, the fire which ultimately pushes us to live out our passions. The position in the chart will reveal our most singular focus.
A healthy Vesta give the individual the ability to focus and direct his inner fire towards a specific cause, project or ideal especially spirituality. A dysfunctional Vesta will result in a lack of focus. These people can lack boundaries taking advantage of others; they cannot forge a path for themselves and are not able to stand alone or apart from the crowd.
A weak Vesta can also result in a weak immune system; the body cannot fight off organisms that can easily be passed from one to another. Sexually abused individuals often have Vesta in strong aspect to a malefic or even Jupiter who we all know has no boundaries when it come to sexual adventures. They will take what is theirs!
If Vesta is close to Mars there can often be a struggle between promiscuous behaviours like the whores of today. Then on the other hand the spiritual devotion where the Yogi is more focused on spirit rather than sex and body.
Vesta/Saturn contact can show a child that has been swallowed by their father; victims of child abuse and later spousal abuse are seen in individuals with a dominant afflicted Vesta. Though they may live in the shadow of someone they are able to eventually over time, strengthen themselves through discipline and development of their own inner fire. This way they break free from the tyrants trying to overshadow them.
In our charts Vesta will show us our spiritual direction. It defines our focus and intention, almost exposing our obsession in life. It is where we can find our greatest passion for life, projects and goals.
Vesta is often noted in Mundane charts as it indicate the area where financial obsession lies. It operates in unseen ways, with some they follow the path of the family and crowd, and with others it is the path of self discovery and passion.
Vesta takes 3.6 years to complete an orbital cycle.
Vesta’s Element*
Fire – Through becoming inspired to create
Earth – Through developing a physical discipline
Air – Through learning and sharing ideas
Water – Through meaning and bonding
Hygeia – The soul of health
Hygeia was the step daughter and attendant of the god of medicine Asclepius. She became the goddess of health, cleanliness and sanitation.
She was very close to her father often found grouped with her father and sister but always the closest to him. She always wore a mild expression of kindness and is seen with a serpent that she is feeding from the cup of life, this makes her the protector of mental health as well as goddess of physical health.
Hygeia was more concerned with natural, holistic and alternative medical systems, where Asclepius was focused in the modern area of medicine. The glyph of Hygeia represents a rod entwined by two snakes; it is the symbol of the caduceus.
The asteroid Hygeia has an orbit of 5.5 years.
In our charts it shows our attitude towards our health and wellness. It will show how we react to sanitation and cleanliness. In charts of people with health problems it will be conjunct or aspecting their ascendant or ruler of their ascendant.
If poorly placed it shows hypochondria and mental disease, a strong placement will show good health or an individual who is in a health profession of sorts.
It is often the aspects and transits to or from Hygeia that can trigger an operation or sudden onset of illness.
Hygeia’s Elements
Fire – Inspired by taking action, energy healing, self motivated
Earth – By being practical, building ones immunity and structure
Air – By sharing of ideas and trying new techniques
Water – By caring, understanding and nurturing emotionally
References;
This Article would not have been possible without the help of Mythic Astrology by Guttman and Johnson
NASA
Jeanette Martins a teacher who created the interest I have in Asteroids