Playing with Minor Asteroids

The great astrologer Demetra George has made a lasting contribution to astrology through her work on asteroids. Most impressively, she convinced the curmudgeons over at Project Hindsight that the use of asteroids fits into the theoretical framework of traditional astrology. Her argument centers around the idea that asteroids represent daimons, which people in ancient Hellenistic culture believed were invisible guardian spirits, numbering in the thousands, which guided human actions in ways large and small. Most famously, in Plato’s dialogues Socrates famously speaks about the voice of his daimon telling him when to refrain from certain courses of action.

Her most famous book on Asteroids is Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-Emerging Feminine. She explains how consulting astrologers can use the mythological stories related to the asteroids’ namesakes when those asteroids are found with personal planets or conjunct the angles of a birth chart.

I want to talk about a suggestion Demetra has repeatedly made in books, classes, and interviews, which is to take advantage of the thousands of asteroids that can now be added to charts through popular astrology software or through free online chart generators like the Extended Chart Selection feature at Astro.com.

Scrolling through the lists of asteroids, you are likely to find the names of people you’ve known, places you’ve lived or visited, the names of famous artists and philosophers, public figures, and even everyday things like beer. Believe me, what you find will be illuminating and uncanny. 

I just want to share and briefly explain a list of asteroids and their connections to my chart. 

Taiwan: This asteroid conjuncts my natal Moon by just over two degrees. It is where I moved with my wife after we married. It also conjunct the Descendant of my relocation chart for Taiwan.

Taichung: This is the city in Taiwan where we live. It is conjunct by 9th-house Uranus by about 1.5 degrees and squared to my Venus withins about 3 minutes (i.e., 1/20th of one degree). It conjuncts the degree of the Ascendant of my relocation chart for Taichung.

Jasmine: This is my wife’s English name, and it conjuncts the aforementioned asteroid Taichung, in my 9th house of foreign travel, by 26 minutes. Also, Taichung and Jasmine are on the exact degree of the Ascendant of my chart when relocated to Taichung. These two asteroids conjunct my natal 9th house Uranus by 1.5 degrees and square my natal Venus within one degree and oppose my Moon within 3 degrees.

Beer: I’m not sure how an asteroid got to be named Beer, but here we are. This asteroid is conjunct my MC by under 2 degrees and my Neptune by just over 3 degrees. I had long ago associated my Neptune/MC conjunction with my father’s absence after his alcoholism led to my parents’ divorce. (He recovered about 4 years later and didn’t drink after that.) This asteroid’s presence there is uncanny given that the 10th house is the house of the father and Neptune can mean absence. I remembered another uncanny detail recently: Years ago, a young man my dad worked with was curious about my dad’s earlier drinking days. He asked whether my dad drank whiskey or beer. My dad said, “I only ever drank beer.”

Prometheus: This asteroid conjuncts my MC within half a degree. Prometheus was the uncle of Zeus who stole fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to humans. This idea of bringing a source of illumination from heaven down into the earthly realm is a fitting asteroid to have within a degree of the MC in an astrologer’s chart. It also fits my father’s story of how he quit drinking. As he put it, he suddenly “woke up” and realized he had to quit. This awakening, incidentally, came after he had attended a sweat lodge with some elders from a local Indian tribe — men he had met through AA, and who were committed to becoming better role models for the younger generations. They were clearly role models for my dad too.

Freia (also spelled Freya): This asteroid is conjunct my natal Sun by 3 degrees. Syncretists connect her with Aphrodite and Venus, though her meaning in myth goes beyond Venus’ associations with love and fertility to encompass war and tending to the souls of dead soldiers. My chart has quite a lot of Venus significations. My Sun conjuncts Venus widely, and my prenatal new moon occurred on the day of the Venus retrograde cazimi, meaning that Venus was on the same degree as the new moon. Venus also is the dispositor for my angular Taurus Moon. So, lots of Venus. However, my retrograde Venus is in the 12th house and combust — so not a perfect Venus by any stretch. Aside from associations with Venus, I didn’t know what to make of this asteroid’s conjunction with my Sun until I read about Freia’s role in tending to the souls of the dead. Here is my story in a nutshell: I had a vision one day (not an everyday occurrence for me, I assure you). I will spare the details, but about a week later I had an opportunity to act out this vision while walking in the wilderness. Within 10 minutes of doing this, I came across the body of a young man who had died 3 months earlier. The next day, I couldn’t get the image of his body out of my head, so I went for a long walk. On that walk, I began to hear a voice talking to me. I thought I was going a little nuts, but I listened and remembered what he said. He thanked me for finding him, but then, very specifically, he asked me to tell his mother that he was sorry and that what had happened was his fault. I didn’t relay his message to his mother until months later, for fear of traumatizing her further, and also because I worried it would make me look crazy. But I knew that she had become obsessed with finding out what happened, suspected some of her son’s friends, and had hired private investigators. When I found all of this out, I decided to tell her. To my surprise, she heard what I had to say and seemed to believe me. The family also graciously invited me to attend a ceremony at the place where he had died. In that ceremony, the man’s Native American uncles sang traditional songs, I was told, in order to help release his spirit to heaven.

LeBlanc: This is the last name of a good friend of mine. The asteroid doesn’t make close contact to personal points in my chart, but its position in my chart conjuncts the degree of her Capricorn Ascendant. In her own chart, it sits in her 10th house of father.

Robinwilliams: Yes, this is the name of an asteroid. I was about 5 when Mork and Mindy was on TV, and he remained one of my favorite entertainers until his death. It conjuncts my natal Mars very closely. I had to think for a while about what this could mean. My Mars is in Taurus, a feminine sign and sign of Mars’ detriment. In Western psychological astrology, Mars is supposed to show how a man experiences and expresses his masculinity. I believe Williams’ did in fact represent a male role model for me at a time when men were either absent from my life or were displaying what people nowadays might call toxic masculinity. William’s persona fit his caring Cancer Sun and compassionate Pisces Moon. He could also be quite explicit and visceral in his stand-up comedy, which fit with his Scorpio Ascendant. His Mars was in Cancer, the sign of its fall. Williams’ timed birth chart is available online, so I looked up where the asteroid Robinwilliams is in his chart: it conjuncts his own natal Scorpio Ascendant by just over one degree.

Inge: I had a short but memorable relationship with a woman with this name, which is fitting given that the asteroid with her name conjuncts my 9th-house Uranus by 2.5 degrees and activates my natal Uranus/Venus/Moon t-square (Uranus/Venus often shows up as love relationships that begin and end quickly). Again, one of the significations of the 9th house is foreign travel and foreign people, and I had met her while traveling in Europe when I was quite young. Also, this asteroid’s position in my chart is on the same degree as her natal sun.

Arachne: I looked up this asteroid because I like spiders and found that it sits in my 9th house conjunct Vesta. It also trines my Ascendant within less than one degree. I consider spiders a totem for writers, and I tend to write about 9th house matters of philosophy, occult, astrological things. More in line with Arachne’s meaning in mythology, I also am a fiber artist, and have been knitting, crocheting and weaving for many years.

Simona: This is the name of another friend. It sits in my third house in close opposition with my natal Uranus. We have mainly communicated through email, and my feeling for her is like the proverbial sister I never had. Again, this asteroid’s place in my chart closely connects to her chart. In this case, it sits in the middle of her Venus/Mars conjunction, within a degree of both planets. 

Matthias: This is the name of one of my closest life-long friends. When we met, we were host-brothers in a high school foreign exchange. This asteroid sextiles my natal Moon by less than one degree. Its position in my chart is also within 3 degrees of his own natal Sun. In his own chart, it conjuncts his Mars by less than half a degree and opposes his Ascendant by 3 degrees. 

Malala: I am a big fan of Malala Yousafzai, the 24 year-old Pakistani activist, Oxford University graduate, and honorary citizen of Canada. She has been fighting for girls’ education since she was a teenager and survived a brutal assasination attempt by Muslim fundamentalists. I am a college teacher, and many of my former students were from countries where most girls and women aren’t allowed the same education opportunities as men. Malala’s story has impressed me ever since she came into prominence as a public person. This asteroid conjuncts my sun by 1 degree 17 minutes. 

Adam: This asteroid conjuncts my Venus almost to the minute. Adam is the name of my best friend through high school and much of my twenties. We later became estranged for reasons I’d rather not explain other than to say that they fit with many themes of my 12th-house Venus, which is at the apex of a t-square. 

Laotze: I got my hands on the Tao Te Ching for the first time when I was 14 or 15, and I immediately saw the wisdom there. This asteroid conjuncts my natal Mercury within 20 minutes. If there were an asteroid for I Ching, I’m sure it would conjunct something too. 

Brecht: This asteroid opposes my natal first-house Jupiter/Mercury conjunction. It is about 45 minutes from exactly opposite Jupiter, and 4 degrees from Mercury. While living in Germany several years ago, I translated about a dozen of Bertholt Brecht’s poems into English. I admired his populist vision, his ribald sensibilities and his poetic inventiveness. 

Demeter: This asteroid conjuncts my natal 9th-house Uranus by exactly one degree. I have never met the astrologer Demetra George, but I am enamoured with her books. They seemed to arrive in my lap at just the right time. Every page seems to answer another of my long-standing questions. I’m so glad she exists, and I’m so pleased to have the asteroid play a role in my chart. Incidentally, another asteroid with the similar name, Demitra, is conjunct my natal moon within two degrees. And Ceres, the asteroid bearing Demeter’s Roman counterpart, is in my first house conjunct my Venus by 50 minutes, square my Moon by 45 minutes, and conjunct my Sun by just under 9 degrees.