On the Use of Asteroids in Astrology
Image: Pallas by Gustav Klimt
Earlier on in my astrology journey, I had a hard time considering why we would add asteroids into the natal chart. I would say to myself, “There is already so much information in the natal, how could it be helpful to add in even more points to be interpreted?”
This was until I heard Demetra George’s talk, “Daemons, Asteroids, and Fate,” in which she lays out a beautiful argument for why we should invite the asteroids into our practices.
She teaches that if we see the planets are the gods in the marcrocosmic "above," influencing us here on the microcosmic “below," we should remember that in ancient Greek cosmology, between heaven and earth, above and below, flitted tiny invisible spirits called daemons, who were responsible for carrying out the work of the gods. Interstitial go-betweens, minuscule in size, messengers in nature, daemons carried prayers and expiations up to the heavens from mortals, and delivering fated messages down from on high.
To consider the actual astronomical bodies of asteroids in space, they too are tiny clumps of space junk, which hover in the space between Mars and Jupiter in our solar system. If, in the natal chart, we are able to identify an asteroid that is tightly conjunct a planet, we can consider that asteroid as the daemon, or messenger figure, of that planet. Same goes for asteroids conjunct one of our fast-moving points (the four angles or the Part of Fortune).
Asteroids are named for mythic figures, they expand the imaginative landscape of the natal chart. There is often specific lore around these mythic figures, even more so than the gods, who have official status as deities.
In the eighth class in the Divine Art of Astrology, we’ll be diving deeply into the world of asteroids, learning how to interpret them in the natal, and I couldn’t be more excited.
If you wanted to join this fall’s session of the Divine Art of Astrology but were unable to, I’m happy to say I’ll be teaching this course again in early 2023. I’d like to invite you to join the waitlist, here, to be the first to know details of enrollment.
