Today while weeding and watering my garden and my baby plants I started thinking about the Asteroid Ceres (Greek -Demeter) and how powerful she must currently be in my chart. Oddly enough, when I came back in to the computer, I only pulled my natal chart and took a quick peek. I intend to look at the transits and progressions because my urge to be digging in dirt and nurturing my little green babies is just so strong right now. A few months prior to this new experiment I was making almost all the food we were eating from scratch and we have moved further into eating more organically despite the expense. I spent hours each week making bread, pizza crust, muffins, homemade soups, peeling and dicing all veggies, etc...and yes, I LOVED it (wasn't the first time I've done this either). Unfortunately my life is so hectic and busy with so many demands, I have sort of drifted away from that but maybe I can get things in better balance over the summer. And my baking is GLUTEN FREE and CASEIN FREE...it's a challenge and I doubt just anyone can do it unless they are very patient and willing to experiment, but my son and I both need special diets. All of this cooking and nurturing is also ruled by Ceres, the All Nourishing Mother. So I know something is really going on for me, I just need to look! LOL Didn't you know that astrologers spend their lives pouring over everyone else's chart but their own?? Early on I spent much more time on myself, now I only tend to do it when something strikes me (such as thinking about an Asteroid while in the Garden...come on, is that what most people think about when they are weeding??) :D Astrology is one of my greatest loves but she seems to be moving over a bit and allowing other loves to come in now.
Ceres is a complex figure in mythology and the Asteroid named after her is complex as well. Her associated rulerships not only encompass Virgo (my sun sign) & Cancer (my MC) but also the Taurus/Scorpio polarity. I have a supercharged Scorpio Moon (conjunct Venus AND Jupiter in my first house) which all oppose my natal Taurean Ceres in the 7th house. So I guess we could say that the energy of this asteroid is strong in my life :) The polarites of Ceres are that of Compassion and Anger, which are very much a part of my life. It is interesting to note that Ceres is the Goddess of Agriculture and all growing cycles...she is a symbol of mothering psychology within us. As a side note, the asteroids do not always appear to function obviously in some charts/lives...my opinion is that a person must be AWARE and at a certain evolutionary level before the asteroids will make a significant impact on a Soul. For those of us impacted by the asteroids, it's important to note that the energy of Ceres as Mother and Nurturer, as our Food Goddess, can be destructive just as easily as sustaining. Not all of us have pleasant supportive mothers; indeed, some of us have mothers who would just as soon swallow us alive and spit us out than provide love and guidance. And here we have the energy as expressed as a need to adapt to our environment - no matter how destitute - and survive. This is Demeter in pain, 'losing' her daughter (Persephone) to Hades/Pluto (modern ruler of Scorpio) and making the entire world pay by bringing on a famine. We see her face as a Goddess of Death and Transformation in the Persephone myth...by cutting off her nourishment, Ceres can make or break us. When her daughter finally reappears, Ceres finds that her girl is now a strong woman and not just any woman, but the Queen of the Underworld! The mother-daughter bond is transformed forever, yet Ceres once again allowed the crops to grow...once again nourishing the world, albeit with new rules.
My other interests are leaning heavily toward medical astrology and becoming a master herbalist, which is very Ceres-Virgo in nature. Using only the traditional planets and luminaries and 'major' aspects, my Sun is 'unaspected'...I have a semisquare to Venus and a quintile to Neptune (both of these are very powerfully reflected in my life, which is why I do use so-called minor aspects in my work for others...but like the asteroids, the energy isn't always strong. Again, I feel it depends on the evolutionary status of the individual). Plug in Ceres and we see that my Sun is in trine, from the 11th (Sun) to the 7th (Ceres). I do feel I am growing into my Sun sign more and more each year. Although I am not aware of other astrologers thinking this way, I believe that the Moon Sign is much more 'who' we are and that we gradually grow into our Sun...in other words, we are already our Moon - it is our natural expression of energy from birth until we begin to learn the lessons associated with our Sun sign in a more powerful way. Whatever is striking my Ceres is certainly empowering my Virgo Sun. I'm sleepy now but if I have time over the next few days I will check out the transits and progressions.
If you are interested in reading my gardening blog, you can see it here: Garden of Light & Shadows
