I. Orbital Symbolism
From a primal astrological perspective, and since the most ancient times, planets are essentially points of light that move orderly and predictably against the background of the fixed stars. Movement is therefore part of their essence, and their symbolical attributions in classical Astrology are a reflection of the particular characteristics of their motion as seen from a geocentric point of view. For example, Saturn’s very slow motion placed it at the edge of the known world, as the last of the concentric heavenly spheres next to the inmortal world of the fixed stars, and from which came the symbolical associations with earthly wisdom and with old age.
From the observed planetary motions, the ancients derived abstract/geometric representations aimed at modelling and predicting each planet’s position at any moment of time, the so-called “epicycles” of the Ptolemaic system, which were later refined after Copernicus and Kepler and became the heliocentric orbits with which we are familiar today. Each orbit contains the essence of the planet’s astrological characteristics, putting in evidence what we may call “the orbital paradigm”, which implies that orbital characteristics are the mental model or the point of reference that we use for the elaboration of the different analogies and metaphorical associations that constitute planetary symbolism.
One of the best examples of the central role of the orbital paradigm in Astrology can be seen in the astrological attributions of the planet Uranus. At the core of its characteristics is always the fact that it “breaks” the ancient order signified by Saturn and opens the door to the new, challenging conventions and emphasizing individuality against the orthodox rules of Saturn. These characteristics are based on the position its orbit has in the solar system, one step beyond Saturn.
Orbital symbolism was used –for example– by Marc Edmund Jones exclusively to explain all the astrological characteristics of the principal planets in his “Astrology How and Why It Works” (1945), and also by Dane Rudhyar, who originally explains it in “The Astrology of Personality” (1936) and later developeded it in “The Practice of Astrology” (1969). It is the basis of the humanistic understanding of the roles of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in modern Astrology. This emphasis on orbital symbolism has also been present in centaur research since the discovery of Chiron in 1977. Unlike the main-belt asteroids (such as Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta), which have orbits circumscribed to the region between Mars and Jupiter and whose astrological meanings were heavily dependent on mythology, Chiron represented both to astronomers and to astrologers a challenge of definition due to its odd orbit: it was the first slow-motion asteroid that belonged to the outer solar system, and its orbit overlapped that of Uranus and Saturn, swinging between both. The name “Chiron”, half one thing and half the other, is a reflection of this.
It was Chiron’s astronomical oddity and the work of pioneers such as Zane Stein, who relied on orbital symbolism rather than mythology, what established a precedent in centaur research in which the orbit is “read” and interpreted as a model of the astrological characteristics found or confirmed by empirical evidence. When the other centaurs were discovered beginning with Pholus in 1992, it became evident that their orbits stood out and were dramatic when compared with those of the regular planets that they traversed. Centaurs dramatize the “orbital gestures”, their orbits are more eloquent, and in the future they will inevitably help us redefine the astrological role of the outer planets, such as Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto helped redefine the roles of Jupiter and Saturn in the past.
II. The Caracteristics of The Orbit
Every orbit is described by a set of numerical parameters that refer to its shape and its orientation with respect to time and space in the structure of the solar system. For our purposes, we can describe these parameters as an Imaginative tree with branches which are a set of numbers and quantities called “the elements of the orbit” describing the trajectory of the planet over time. A better metaphor is that of a musical score, made out of abstract mathematical proportions represented in space that describe something that happens in time. Like the flow of music, the imaginative representation of an orbital trajectory, when compared to the other trajectories, will speak to the imagination due to its relative placement in the whole and its particular shape and “gesture”; like the different themes in a large-scale symphonic movement, the orbital trajectory or gesture acquires meaning when it is seen (or “heard”) with respect to other themes or sounds of the composition.
The word “gesture” regarding an orbital trajectory can be better understood if we think on how we naturally “draw” images, emotions, and sounds with our hands when we speak to an audience. Hands make unconscious movements and gestures that describe shapes in the air which are geometrical analogies of what we are trying to convey; these movements of the hands produce strong impressions in the audience and are an integral part of the message being transmitted. When we interpret the orbital gestures of the planets, especially those with “dramatic” orbits like the centaurs, we are doing imaginatively the same thing that we do when we inadvertently contemplate the hand-gestures of a good story-teller. The gestures are intrinsic to the nature of what is being told, and to the personality of the teller.
The orbital characteristics are essentially of 3 types:
a-) those that describe the position the object occupies in the solar system, expressed in terms of distance from the Sun and the speed or frequency with which it moves (the semi-major axis and distance range, transformed into velocity by means of Kepler’s third law. Distant, slow-moving trajectories are like the low frequency sounds in music…
b-) those that describe the shape of the orbit (a combination of eccentricity and semi-major axis), which determines the type of gesture, the “curve” the orbit describes in space, the motion of the object from aphelion to perihelion, the changes and contrast in velocity, the perihelion “visitations” and the aphelion “stand-stills”, the coming and the going away.
c-) those that describe the orientation or “attitude”, the “perspective” of the orbit, its capacity to “dive”, to “hover”, to “plunge” or in general its vertical orientation in space, how much it can get away from horizontality, expressed in the orbital inclination and the argument of latitude of the perihelion. The orbital inclination is one of the least studied orbital characteristics so far.
In the case of the centaurs, the combination of a-) and b-) results in one of their main characteristics: their orbital crossing or interception, of which we have had in astrology for decades the example of Pluto crossing the orbit of Neptune. Pluto also made us aware of the possible meaning of orbital inclination, and is in fact the model and the fore-bearer of all centaurs, which are considered to have physically originated in the same region of space as Pluto.
III. The building of Metaphors
Trying to discover the astrological meaning of new planetary objects is not a simple question of playing with a name, beginning with the fact that many of them do not have a name yet Their orbital dynamics, the place they occupy in the structure of the solar system, their physical characteristics, they all establish a framework, a “niche” where they belong, a “gesture”, a way of acting. Then the astrologer fills this form with his or her observations. The most elemental principle of astrology is the foundation of this approach: “as above, so below”, except that the “above” is the abstract, heliocentric perspective, not directly observable. The whole of modern Astrology is based on this abstract and non-observable world of “above”, closer to mathematics than to what is physically experienced with the senses. There is nothing “magical” in this. It is a reason that follows its own logic based on concordances and different from the logic of mechanics and of “cause and effect”. This doesn’t make it “irrational” in any way. It is just more analogical and metaphorical.
All observations must be interpreted and given a meaning. To do this, the scientist uses paradigms and builds explanations based on premises and certain cultural assumptions about the nature of the object under observation and about the nature of “reality”. The astrologer doesn’t make anything different. He also follows paradigms. Symbolical association and metaphorical thinking is one of these paradigms, one upon which rests the whole corpus of classical astrology.
When we apply orbital dynamics to the study of centaurs, one thing that becomes clear is that they tend to be very dramatic. They speak stronger and with more poignancy to the imagination than ordinary, almost circular orbits. It is just a question of getting used to their orbital language and gestures, a language that springs from the “orbital paradigm”, which we can define as follows: the shape, place, and velocity of an orbit, the “orbital gesture”, corresponds to similar gestures –psychologically or in external circumstances– in the lives and cicumstances of people.
The distance ranges (outlined below numerically), describing orbits that intercalate across the regions of the slow-moving planets of the solar system, establish the main framework on which their orbital symbolism is based, defining unambiguously some basic dynamic characteristics. They provide the information necessary to establish the foundation of this symbolism, to which is added information furnished by the orbital periods and mutual recurrences, the angle of crossing, and the orbital inclinations and latitudes. For example, all centaurs share certain characteristics derived from the orbits that define them as a group. They all can be included in at least 3 basic categories:
1- Their sphere of action. They all work at the level of Saturn through Pluto; therefore their sphere of action is very different from the level at which the regular asteroids of the main belt between Mars and Jupiter work, much faster and closer to Earth. Their slow motion means that their transits can be used to map the great breakthroughs in the life of a person as we are used in the case of the planets from Saturn onwards. They are “visitors” from the trans-Neptunian, Plutonian world, which through them becomes more human, more compassionate, closer to us.
2- Their marginality. They are a clear minority among minor planets, less in number than all the other dynamical asteroid groups, and –because of their large orbital eccentricity– they are “marginal”, i.e., “do not belong” to a specific place but “wander” through the space dominated by the giant planets of the outer solar system, in many cases more or less aggressively crossing their orbits or “invading” their spheres. They are “renegades” that do not belong to an established, institutionalized world, which in turn they “intercept” or “break”, carrying a symbolism very similar to that of Cain in the Genesis story.
3- Their instability. The orbits of centaurs, because of the way they intercept the distance range of the giant planets, are subject to very strong gravitational attractions or perturbations that make them unstable and “precarious”, with a tendency to become chaotic or unpredictable in a few thousand years only. They are “crude” and “wild”, with a tendency to be aggressive, but –unlike Pluto– their orbits are “sick” and “tremble”, destined to be transformed or die as a result of their crossing the paths of the giant planets. They are therefore related to pain and to death, but also to rapture, unconditioning, and freedom.
As a well-established orbit-crossing category, centaurs tend to be dynamically unique, strongly differentiated astronomically from the world of the main-belt asteroids. They separate from the others by breaking the image of “a ring” or “a belt” usually associated with asteroids, in order to follow their own excentric paths. This singularity makes them “special”, and experience shows that they are intense and powerful, in concordance with the large sweep of their slow motion and high eccentricity, in a way almost inversely proportional to their small size.
In practical terms, as part of the mathematical-astronomical model, we use celestial mechanics (orbital behavior), as a metaphor that models or “screens” the astrological characteristics of the centaurs, so we concentrate on the orbits, which are perceived as an interplay (“music”) making the particular characteristics evident by differentiation or contrast in their movement, like a dance. I like to use the words “orbital gesture”, and compare it with the movement of the hands and arms when someone is speaking. It is not conceptual but similar to listening to music. From the effect the music produces on you, you “know” without knowing what it is. As I imagine this “orbital gesture”, a moving, living image appears in my mind which “whispers” to me. Then, it becomes a matter of identifying in the specific event or experience or feeling being charted, that same quality that the music or movement or gesture is producing in my imagination.
An example is the image of wings and of light that I often get from Pholus. It comes from its orbital behavior, the way I perceive it, and also from the sound qualities of its name, joined to my subjective perception of some of the people who have it focal. The centaur-myth is not in this picture. It is true that apparently, the “regular” orbits –rounder– would appear as “mute”, but this doesn’t happen when seen in comparison, in the interplay. It is a question of images: you can imagine the massive giants being crossed and “ringed” by the smaller and unstable asteroids, and this puts in evidence the characteristics of both. In other words, it is an imaginative language, like that of mythology. As an illustration, let’s consider imaginatively the main-belt (between Mars and Jupiter) asteroid named “Nemesis” (#128):
“Nemesis”: one utters the word and listens to it… a fast sound; a cycle of nearly 4 years and an orbit or way of moving , of acting, a physical gesture, that is wholly conventional, placid, circumscribed, with no highs or lows. Circumscribed to what? To one aspect of Nemesis, one “face” of the archetype which is necessarily limited by the particular nature of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Which face of the archetype? What is the nature of the asteroid belt compared with Uranus and with Pluto? What aspect of the archetype cannot be expressed in the asteroid belt and needs other bodies to do that?
But if we listen -for example– to the apocalyptic gesture of an object like TL66, with a period of 800 years (200 times slooooooowwwwwwer), going away from the solar system until it disappears in the remote darkness of the unknown, and coming again centuries later, travelling 7 or 8 times faster than when it is far away, breaking through the orbital realm of Pluto until it “kisses” that of Neptune, like the visitation of a dark giant comet, only to go away again and disappear soon after that, then we say:
“N E E E E E E E M M M M E E E E S S I I I I I S S S S S S S S!” … and the sound of a cosmic “N” and a cosmic “M” stays sizzling (“S”) and resonating (“M”), like the effects of a terrific wind that has just passed.
IV. Numerical Data
In the past, the heliocentric distance was conceived geocentrically, as a series of concentric “crystalline” spheres increasingly away from the Earth and ordered according to the planet’s velocity, starting with the Moon (hence the expression “the sublunar world” or “sphere” to refer to the Earth’s realm above the surface) and ending with Saturn, next to which was the sphere of the fixed stars. Man’s spiritual experience after death or during “initiation” was conceived as a journey of ascension through successively purer spheres, starting with the Lunar sphere next to the Earth (the so-called “astral world”) and ending in the spheres of Saturn and the Fixed Stars, which were the abode of the purest or virgin souls and the highest spiritual beings in the hierarchy of heavens.
Today the planetary “spheres” are no longer conceived as geocentric circles but as mathematical abstractions of the planet’s trajectory in space around the Sun (the heliocentric orbit), which describes an ellipse with the Sun at one of the “centers” or foci; but we can still speak of “realms” or “worlds”, i.e., the “realm of Uranus”, the “realm” of Saturn, etc. These realms result from the fact that the solar system is ordered or structured and are defined mathematically as “rings” established by the distance range of the planet from perihelion (the closest it can get to the Sun) to aphelion (the farthest it can get to the Sun).
Technically, the distance range or ring is determined by means of 2 orbital parameters called “semimajor axis” and “eccentricity”. The semimajor axis is equivalent to the mean solar distance and is defined as half the distance from the aphelion to the perihelion points. It is measured –as all distances in the solar system– in canonical units called “astronomical units” (AU), where 1 AU is equal to the mean solar distance of the Earth (at the time it was measured by Gauss in the early 19th century). The eccentricity is a dimensionless quantity which measures the distance between the 2 foci of the orbit; an eccentricity of “0” is a perfect circle, and an eccentricity of “1” is a parabolic orbit. All other values between “0” and “1” are ellipses. The eccentricity (the “e” parameter) is what gives the orbit its more (high “e”) or less (low “e”) elongated elliptical shape.
The semimajor axis of the principal planets are quantities that should be memorized by the astrologer. Given the semimajor axis of any centaur or asteroid, we can immediately know the “mean” or “average” place it occupies in the structure of the solar system, i.e., relative to the spheres or realms of the principal planets, which, astrologically, is the same as knowing the place the object has in the hierarchy, or the structure, of the solar system, the place a specific planet has in the whole, the level at which a planet is working in the structure of reality, its sphere or domain.
Let’s see the mean semimajor axis (the “a” parameter) of the principal planets, followed by the orbital eccentricity:
Mercurio = 0.39 (e=0.2056)
Venus = 0.72 (e = 0.0068)
Tierra = 1.00 (e = 0.0167)
Marte = 1.52 (e = 0.0934)
Júpiter = 5.20 (e = 0.0485)
Saturno = 9.56 (e = 0.0555)
Urano = 19.22 (e = 0.0463)
Neptuno = 30.11 (e = 0.0090)
Plutón = 39.54 (e = 0.2491)
With these numbers we can calculate the aphelion and perihelion distance range or “ring” with a very simple formula:
perihelion distance (the ” q ” parameter):
q = a ( 1 – e )
aphelion distance (the ” Q ” parameter):
Q = a ( 1 + e )
As an example, let’s calculate the distance range of Pluto:
e = 0.249
a = 39.541
q = 39.541 x ( 1 – 0.249 ) = 29.695
Q = 39.541 x ( 1 + 0.249 ) = 49.387
In other words, the “range of movement” or “distance ring” of Pluto reaches from 49.4 AU at aphelion to 29.7 AU at perihelion, putting in evidence how it “crosses” or “intercepts” the orbit of Neptune and is closer to the Sun than Neptune at perihelion. This means that Pluto, in the outer rim of the solar system, is historically the fore-runner or dynamical prototype of the centaurs. Although Pluto is a transneptunian object and not a centaur, the centaurs have originated in the same region that Pluto and have similar Plutonian qualities, like Pluto’s “offspring” expressing themselves at a different level, in the Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune world, closer to us and more “human” or “humane”.
Before going deeper into the possibilities offered by orbital metaphors we must consider the range and distance characteristics of the centaurs.
The word “centaurs” is used by astronomers to refer loosely to a group of asteroids that have their distance range somewhere between Jupiter and Neptune or Pluto. Here are some known examples with the semimajor axis (“a”), distance range (“r”) and eccentricity (“e”), the quantities we need for the theoretical and symbolical development that will follow:
Chiron a = 13.52, range = 8 – 18, e = 0.382
Chariklo a = 15.78, range = 13 – 18, e = 0.171
Pylenor a = 16.74, range = 11 – 21, e = 0.303
Asbolus a = 17.97, range = 6 – 29, e = 0.621
Pholus a = 20.26, range = 8 – 31, e = 0.571
Nessus a = 24.57, range = 11 – 37, e = 0.519
Hylonome a = 25.06, range = 18 – 30, e = 0.247
Typically, centaurs have orbits of high eccentricity, i.e., their orbits are very elongated, in contrast to the orbits of the major planets which normally tend to be circular. This means that dynamically and physically they are objects of a different nature even though they move in the same region of the outer planets. Like Pluto, their aphelion-perihelion distance range is enormous, and many of them traverse the region of several or all of the outer planets in a row, like homeless nomads or voyagers, crossing or intercepting the outer planets’ distance rings, linking what otherwise is forever separate, “jumping” from one level or step of the ladder to the next, moving directly towards the Sun –like many comets do, to which they are related in many ways– instead of around it.
Now let’s see the distance range in more detail, in terms of perihelion and aphelion compared with the “rings” of the main planets, so that what the numbers say about spatial distribution can be better visualized:
============> JUPITER 5.2
Asbolus 6.8
Chiron 8.4
Pholus 8.7
============> SATURN 9.6
Pylenor 11.8
Nessus 11.8
Chariklo 13.1
Hylonome 18.8
============> URANUS 19.2
This list was according to the perihelion distance “q”. The list according to aphelion distances (“Q”) is as follows:
============> SATURN 9.6
Chariklo 18.5
Chiron 18.8
============> URANUS 19.2
Pylenor 21.9
Asbolus 29.0
============> NEPTUNE 30.2
Hylonome 31.0
Pholus 31.9
Nessus 37.0
============> APHELION OF PLUTO 39.2
These numerical data show what we can see in the graphics of their orbits. For example, during its perihelion Chiron “penetrates” the sphere of Saturn and during the aphelion it approaches the sphere of Uranus without “crossing” it or intercepting its heliocentric distance. Nevertheless, if we take into consideration the concept of the “distance ring” of a planet, defined by the area or the ring between the aphelion and the perihelion distances, we find that it is possible for Chiron to intercept not the heliocentric distance of Uranus (the astronomer’s loose definition of crossing”) but its perihelion distance.
Let’s see a concrete example, using the data of the last orbital cycle of Chiron. On March 7, 1943, at the peak of World War II, Chiron intercepts Saturn’s heliocentric distance and goes “inside” of it, in the direction of the Sun. It reached its perihelion August 29, 1945, the same month of the atomic explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It then began its voyage back to his “home” (the aphelion) towards the Uranian region. It entered the Uranian ring (crossed the Uranus perihelion distance) September 17, 1965, and reached aphelion December 7, 1970, without ever having intercepted the Uranus true heliocentric distance.
V. The Main-Belt Asteroids
One cannot work with asteroids without defining their scope. This scope and their domain is delimited by the place they occupy in the solar system, which represents a ladder and is a function of the planet’s velocity or distance to the Earth or the Sun. To the scope and domain one must add the form of action, because an asteroid of very large eccentricity acts very differently from one with a very circular orbit. 944 Hidalgo –very eccentric– acts in a very different way from Ceres –almost circular. Very eccentric orbits become crossers between one planetary sphere and the other, or between several spheres or domains in a row. This is an astronomical fact. It is how an asteroid moves heliocentrically. From there one follows the paradigm: if this is how it moves in the solar system, if this is how it acts astronomically, then its astrological characteristics must be an expression of this movement in scope, domain, and form of action.
This does not contradict what people working with asteroids have found to be their astrological characteristics. It delimits it in order to be able to organize the information and integrate their function within the whole, avoiding the infinite expansion of meanings and associations, understanding in what way a Centaur or a trans- Neptunian (slow moving and/or very eccentric, crossing several planetary spheres in its motion) differs from those that are very close to the Earth and move very fast, or those that move almost in circles (the traditional main-belt asteroids). The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, considered collectively, establishes a clear and obvious separation between the world of the gas giants, the transcendences of existence (slow-moving), where by definition all the centaurs have their home, and the much faster world of the inner or terrestrial planets. The physical and dynamical differences between the two worlds are fundamental.
We have a set of small planets whose motion is almost totally controlled by the Sun, i.e. their mutual perturbations or gravitational interactions are small, then the asteroid belt, like a colony of the world of the fixed stars inside the Solar System, and then, beyond the belt, we are in a world of giants that are able to gravitationally push and pull the Sun enough to make it swing around the Barycenter of the Solar System. If we are to make the analogy between a human being and the solar system, we could imagine the asteroid belt like a sort of navel dividing the higher from the lower part of the body, or the higher brain and consciousness functions (the transcendences) and the bodily or vital functions (the terrestrial planets).
Of course, we can reverse this and say the slow planets represent our “unconscious” lower functions and the faster planets (Sun, Mercury, etc.) our “conscious” part, which is the more superficial or obvious way one would think. But this doesn’t matter. My point is simply that structurally the Solar System is clearly divided between inner and outer, and that this notion is important to understand the nature of the centaurs, whose sphere of action is the outer solar system.
The inner solar system, from the asteroid belt inwards (the terrestrial planets, the world of Apollo asteroids, etc.) is the “micro” scale, while the centaurean world is “macro” (and the transneptunian is a sort of “cosmic” or *historical* scale). Then, the “Jupiter group” is transitional, and the asteroid belt is the “meso” scale, like a sort of very open market of possibilities and multitudinous variations of centering, stabilizing, adaptive, assimilative activity, like a ring that holds together and at the same time separates the 2 worlds, like a barrier, a membrane, a protective ring which in society is represented by social institutions and the divisions of labor.
Let’s imagine for a moment that only the planets up to Jupiter exist. How would be the world without Saturn? If we answer this question, we may be able to understand the sphere in which fast asteroids move, where there is no Saturn and the farthest we can go is Jupiter. How would Astrology be if there were no slow-moving planets? If you make a reading that does not include Saturn, you will be approaching what it means to make an asteroid astrological reading based on fast-moving asteroids, excluding centaurs, and transneptunians, with innumerable details but without “weight or transcendence.
Frequently, I have come to see working with fast asteroids similar to shopping at the local market; a big open Sunday market in the main plaza is an excellent analogy of the meaning of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Another analogy is a street scene in a play: many people in different activities sharing horizontally a common place. This is an apt astronomical description of the asteroid belt.
Death is without a doubt one of the transcendental facts of life, together with birth, sexual initiation, and marriage (this last one not so much lately!). To understand the scope of the fast asteroids, let’s imagine the common social context of these experiences or events: the meaning they have is recognized by everybody, there are a series of rules of behavior or rituals expected from those that participate in them, giving and receiving support and solidarity, and society as a whole acknowledges their transcendence and contributes with social and religious ceremonies so that the individual can successfully go through them; there are public recognitions, celebrations and festivals (or parties); families get together with gestures of affection and generosity, and we are also given the right, the space, and the time for our intimacy.
Amidst this world of social cohesion maintained through a “pact” between the people, there are many elements, such as the thieve, the mentally ill, the poet, the person in love, the immature, the alcoholic, the prostitute, the car- racer, the diver, the rock singer, etc., that engage in “marginal” activities outside this order, as if wishing to break it: these are the orbit-crossers or interceptors among the fast asteroids (Phaethon, Icarus, Amor, Bacchus…), acting as “meteors” that passionately irrupt and dramatize the contingent and fragile, “chaotic” character of existence and of the supposed order, which actually is always living hand-in-hand with chaos.
But somehow order always seems to assimilate the chaotic forces, and society always keeps its cohesion, the pact remains.
Now let’s think in the world beyond Saturn, the world that opens forward and outward, expanding beyond this institutionalized universe, the world of the unconscious or the unmanageable that is not possible to assimilate and is similar to the great floods that sweep everything away: divorce, revolution (Uranus), proliferation of cultures and beliefs (Neptune), the psychological walls that kill individuality so characteristic of the XXth Century (Pluto). It is here where the centaurs move, slow and self transcending, like Neptunian-Plutonian misiles, intense and poignant, travelling trough the outer solar system , crossing space with “large wings” (very long orbital periods and very elongated “crossing” orbits).
VI – 1181 Lilit
To illustrate the orbital domain and gesture of centaurs, we can consider, for example, the sphere of action of 1181 Lilith, a normal asteroid of the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and compare it with that of the centaurs. We must make distinctions between the realm of the centaurs and the realm of the main-belt asteroids. One cannot talk of a slow planet the same way one talks of a fast-moving planet. Centaurs move 20 to 40 times slower than the main-belt asteroids, and this requires that we adjust the meaning we give to them or at least the way we interpret them.
1181 Lilith works within the bounds of present-day social values, which fits the characteristics of the orbit, similar to the many other “facets” and “divisions of labor” of modern-day living that I see relate to the main belt asteroids where 1181 is found. I would take any description of a main-belt asteroid like 1181 Lilith and try to accommodate it inside the limits of the asteroid belt: they must live in community; so asteroid 1181 Lilith could represent those aspects of the Lilith archetype that are expressed in their most “civilized” or mediated form.
This is where it becomes important to consider the centaurs *together* with the main belt asteroids to differentiate the qualities of one and the other, where one sees a division of labor and not a duplication. There are many asteroids (e.g. Hekate) with myths which do not match the orbits at all. That is why it is necessary to accommodate people’s experience with 1181 Lilith within the framework offered by main-belt orbits: a very large collectivity working together in community without breaking the social order.
The idea I am proposing is that all these archetypes have different ways or “levels” of expression. The level that corresponds to asteroids of the main-belt with regular-shaped orbits is everyday institutionalized living. That is why the 1181 Lilith aspect of the Lilith archetype finds expression in –for example– the social worker: it is bounded and institutionalized, and its aim is social integration: this is the dynamics of this type of asteroids. “Lilith” here brings the socially marginal or rejected into society’s institutions, and is more integrative.
But there are other aspects of Lilith that cannot be institutionalized. They are more primal and wild, “breaking into” or invading a person’s life (centaurs), or more instinctive and related to repressed sexuality (succubi and nightly demons, related to the lunar apogee). Of course words are very relative, but it is not difficult to see the differences when one keeps in mind the 3 realms: the lunar realm, esp. The lunar orbit and its dark side, the asteroids of the main belt, the centaurean-plutonian tabu-breaking and moral trespassing, etc.
If there are “rebels” and “wild” asteroids, then this has to show in their orbits. Normal main belt asteroids do not show this behavior. I’m following a paradigm that states that astronomical reality must match astrological symbolism. The orbit of 1181 Lilith does not belong to this category of “rebels”. There are bodies that enter the asteroid belt but do not belong there (like Hidalgo or the Damocles group) and there are others that travel from one extreme to the other of the main belt but never leave (like Hopi). We can always find an orbit that models the social behavior we are looking for or want to chart.
The orbits of most centaurs, almost by definition are “on the margins” of the solar system: they “cross” the orbits of others, they do not “belong” to a specific place, they are “in-between”, “out” of the mainstream, unstable, chaotic, precarious, “sick”, “resented”, wounded”, etc… The orbit of Lilith is not like this. 1181 belongs to very large community of orbits that are very stable, all bounded in the space between Mars and Jupiter… it never goes out like all the centaurs do… and it also moves much faster, 20 to 40 times faster than the centaurs…
Modern society’s institutions all deal with people who are “different” (the mentally retarded, the cripple, the deaf or the blind, the refugee, the very poor or very “ugly”, the minority…). I can see 1181 Lilith’s “integrative” work here. These people (or my fear of them) are all part of the community in which we live. They are given rights, protection by the law, social institutions to help them. There is a whole system instituted for them. They are not “wild”, they are not dangerous, they are just different and need special attention and care… the prostitute, the poor minority, the homeless, the mad, the widow, the very old… etc. This is all very much main-belt asteroids territory. They are all “bounded” and controlled, under the control of social institutions… so maybe Centaurs are not like this, they are wild and break everything, they trespass, and wound, and kill, and also bring ecstasy, redemption, un-conditioning, etc.
Centaurs reach well beyond these boundaries and make you “fall” into a crack that becomes a menace to the social order (the orbit-crossing). Female centaurs are in this respect less aggressive than the male ones, i. e., Chariklo never crosses Saturn and only gently crosses Uranus for a few years, although it stays between the world of Saturn and Uranus, leaning much more toward Uranus. For example, a married woman (Chariklo) who is very “independent” about her sex life… which of course most times means a crack, a division of her womanhood, a wound, a painful conflict with the rules of society: this is the centaurean paradigm. A (female) centaur, in this context, will transgress limits that 1181 never would.
Let’s take for example a social worker who deals with street prostitutes. His/her work is institutionalized, is “professional”… this is the Lilith part: the daily living, the values, the problems, the opportunities, the help they receive, their dealings with the police, their “humanity” and at the same time marginality, the prejudices, the abuses, the cruelty or indifference with which they are treated, etc. How I deal with all this is 1181 Lilith. But when you, as a social worker, “touch” the other person’s wound, or to put it differently, the other person’s wound touches you –which is the same as touching your wound– then you are out of it completely and you cannot handle it any more, It ceases being institutionalized and becomes primal and wild. It is a question of life and death, of agony and ecstasy, there are no answers available, only pain, and grace, and joy, and passion… then you don’t give a damn, you are “taken” by the centaur’s energy and you do a moral trespassing, and pay the price.
The father rapes his daughter, the married woman opens herself to her lover, the “door opens” and light and darkness come together and live in your wound, and in the wound you inflicted on others. This is the centaurs!
Of course, this is a hypothesis, based on the orbital paradigm: centaurs represent the wild and hostile (also ecstatic and redemptive) qualities, while main-belt asteroids represent the “civilized” and more gregarious and “tame” part of the archetype. This is necessary if we want astronomical symbolism to match the astrological use we make of it.
VII. The Sun
Masha’allah (8th Cent), in ‘On The Ascension of the Caliphs’ says: “Know that the Sun is the regent of the stars and the dispenser of time”. This same phrase with small variations is repeated in many other Islamic treatises. A more poetic or powerful version is found in Abenragel’s (11th Cent) ‘Libro Conplido’: “Scito quod Sol est lumen et candela coeli, gubernator mundi, factor temporum” which is a re-translation from the old Castillian: “Sepas que el Sol es lumbre del cielo, e su candela e governador del mundo e fazedor de los tiempos”:
‘Know that the Sun is the light of heaven, and its candle, and the governor of the world, and the maker of time’
This takes us to the cycle of the seasons with its equinoxes and solstices (or Sun reaching the zenith in the tropics), and to the calendar itself that rules the whole of human civilization.
What we have here is a reminder of the powerful direct “core”, raw and organic symbolism of the Sun in our lives. The ancients had this clear, and the symbolism has survived at least partially in the distinction made by classical Astrology between the planets and the luminaries. Even in the 17th Cent. Morin talked about the Sun and the Moon as “personal” significators (together with Fortuna and the Ascending degree) in contrast to the rest of the planets, even though the original solar and lunar symbolism was already diluted. A further blow to the original symbolism was given by theosophists and later new-agers who identified the Sun with their negative concept of “the ego” — a false or inferior self, an obstacle that needs to be vanquished or left behind like a carcass in order to reach the true essence of ‘Atman’.
But if we forget the abstractions of astrological tradition or religious doctrine for a minute what do we have? We have a direct, immediate experience of the impact of the Sun and Moon in our lives. It is from this direct sensual physical experience that the Moon and Sun astrological symbolism originated, and this is where I look for the symbolical role that I give to them when interpreting an astrological chart.
The Sun stands in importance above everything else. It is the driving force of everything that happens on earth. It rules the movement of the heavens, the alternation of day and night, the seasonal cycle of the year, the phases of the Moon, the movement of the planets, the patterns of the weather. It is the push of undifferentiated Life, what keeps the world together, it keeps the harmony of the spheres, whose music emanates from it, impregnating everything with its warmth, its life, its light, its purpose, its will to live and to move forward. The Sun is the primary focus of everything that exists, it comprises everything, everything comes from it, it is the meaning of everything, everything gravitates around it…
I know this sounds dramatic or exaggerated, like some sort of “solar cult”, but it is the truth regardless of Astrology, regardless of abstractions, regardless of doctrine or beliefs… it is a phsyical, observable reality that is within the reach of anyone willing to reflect on what can be observed and felt with the whole of being, body, soul, and spirit. It is so direct and basic that is taken for granted and often forgotten. If, from from our earthly perspective, one of the planets were to disappear, things will continue to be; if the Moon disappears, the Earth would be different, but Life would go on. But if the Sun disappears everything ceases to exist, like Abenragel says of the Sun leaving an astrological sign, everything “is left resembling a dead body with no spirit and no movement”.
As a planet gradually approaches the zodiacal position occupied by the Sun, it becomes an increasingly “omnipotent” focus in life. The “act of being” gradually becomes “the act of being the planet”. The planet absorbs the power and the glory of the Sun, and for a moment it feels or believes that it is the Sun. At this point the person is completely identified with the planet and the solar individuality is sacrificed for the planet’s sake: the person looses himself or herself in the planet, which is the complete center of everything. The planet overflows in power or in radiance, which is a “fake” radiance because it is stealing it from the Sun, from the total, unconditioned individuality or pure being, which seems to have ben absorbed by the planet, as during a solar eclipse.
But the eclipse cannot last. Beneath the apparent glory of the planet there is a tremendous and furious fight of the Sun to regain the individuality or the light that has been stolen from it. Nothing ever vanquishes the Sun for too long, and it always regains its radiance again, holding the planet under its control. This movement or fight for control between the Sun and the planet is always present in a solar conjunction: the tighter the conjunction the stronger is the inner conflict that dominates the whole of life. We will be able to see the glorious or more creative manifestation of the planet that seems to be harmoniously fused with Sun, but in the majority of cases there is not a fusion but a deep and very painful conflict between the planet and the Sun. The Sun can only accept dominance, it will never fuse with the planet. Once the Sun is able to dominate we can see the “enlightened” expression of the planet, but more normally one finds a Sun that is fighting to regain its freedom to breath and spread its wings, soaring free and unconditioned (like Jonathan Livingstone Seagull), and it can’t. During the first part of life it is the planet that soars full of solar power, at the price of robbing the person of his or her freedom or independence: the person becomes the slave of the planet. But after around 35-40, one can see how the Sun starts to stand up to fight, so whenever we see a planet very close (1- degree or less) from the “the heart of the Sun” we know that the purpose of life for this person will be learning to separate the two and use them independently.
Fundamentally, due to temperament and upbringing, the person doesn’t know how to do that, and will have a painful way into adulthood learning what it means to be absolutely and unconditionally independent from the planet. This will probably never happen in a complete form, but the result of the strife of the Sun to rise or resurrect above the planet throughout his or her life can produce oustanding results in terms of the person’s carreer. Essentially, what the person has is the enormous, almost infinite or “everlasting” gift of the planet, or in other words a tremendous talent to express the planet creatively, but this comes at a great and very painful cost: the sacrifice of freedom, of the Sun. It is as if the true individuality is hiding behind the great solar gift, where nobody can see it because they are dazzled by the power of the planet. Therefore an exact solar conjunction represents a constant, relentless dialog between the planet and the Sun which can be very creative but also very destructive, and which will occupy the center of life, the center of everything the person thinks, feels, and does. The person becomes “the master” of the planet, and the planet the master of the person. I call this “the incarnation” of the planet, and it always strengthhens the Sun considerably, often in an unbalanced, compensatory way, sometimes in exemplary and spiritually very beautiful ways.
Planetary angular relationships or aspects are dynamic. They gradually approach a point or moment of exactitude and then begin to separate until the aspect fades away, like the sound of an overflying airplane. An approaching or applicative aspect is not the same as a separative one: one is moving towards its culmination and growing in strength, the other is diminishing and being left behind. Orbs are dynamic in the same way: a tight orb is stronger than a wide orb, and a partile aspect is stronger than a “platic” aspect. When the chart is approached vertifically, the orb (partile or platic) and direction (applying or separating) of the aspect establishes its relative strength with respect to other aspects. Wider orbs mean more space for negotiation between the planets involved, while smaller orbs leave very little space for negotiation and are more compulsive. The aspects themselves are prioritized too: the conjunction and opposition refer to the same “plane” or axis, while all the others “come from the side” and can be considered external or secondary. The square is a stronger and more critical challenge than the trine or sextile, which are by definition less conflictive. Squares are “fulcrums”, “triggers” and deal more directly with action, decision, and resolution than the trine or sextile. Trines and sextiles are more comprehensive and cooperative, while squares are like a kick in the butt; trines can have the momentum of a surfer in the waves, while squares are like the ax chopping the wood. Squares, trines, and sextiles are introduced in the anlysis only to the extent to which the conjunctions and oppositions are not strong enough or cannot give us clear enough information.
The 1-degree rule can be considered arbitrary, but inasmuch as all angular relationships are measured in degrees, the degree is the fundamental unit in Astrology. In the case of the Sun the 1- degree rule acquires more significance due the relationship between the Sun and rotation. The degree is to the circumference like the day is to the year, and the Sun moves approximately 1 degree every day. This 1-degree rule serves 2 purposes: in the case of the Sun it limits the time- scope of the aspect to a little more than 1 day, and in a chart with asteroids it limits the number of factors that can be considered critical or compulsive enough to deserve our attention. These limits are of course flexible and can be adapted to each case, but in my opinion without them working with asteroids in the chart becomes so logically inconsistent that it cannot be taken seriously.
VIII. Geocentric Planets and The Moon
Geocentric orbital symbolism is fused with conventional symbols derived from synodic cycles. In the case of the inner planets (Mercury and Venus) and using Venus as an example we may start with “superior conjunction“, when the Sun is aligned between Venus and the Earth, and the planet is “outside” the Sun and travelling at full speed. The next point is called “maximum elongation” when Venus reaches its maximum angular separation from the Sun and its maximum brilliance in the sky. After this Venus goes “stationary retrograde” apparently giving its back to the Sun until it reaches “inferior conjunction“, with Venus retrograde aligned between the Sun and the Earth, “inside” the Sun. If the inferior conjunction happens when Venus latitude is minimal, the planet will be visually inside the Sun’s disk, called “a transit of Venus“. Since astrological convention is to ignore celestial latitude, when the planet’s angular distance from the Sun is less than the Sun’s apparent semi-diamater of 16 or 17 arcminutes the planet is set to be “in the heart of the Sun” or “Cazimi“. The last mark is after the inferior conjunction when the planet reaches maximum elongation again but from the other side (east or west of the Sun) and turns “stationary direct“. The same cycle can be observed in the case of Mercury, except that the maximum elongation of Venus reaches 48 degrees and Mercury’s only 18 degrees, due to the differences in the planet’s distance from the Sun.
The astronomical alignments between the inner planets Mercury or Venus with the Sun receive additional qualification when the planet rises in the East ahead of the Sun, called “Mercury Prometheus” or sets in the West after the Sun, called “Mercury Epimetheus“, and the same with Venus: when rising before the Sun she is called “Venus Luciferus“, and when setting after the Sun is called “Venus Hesperus” or Evening Star [ref.: Dane Rudhyar “An Astrological Study of Psychological Complexes“, 1976]. The distinction between Mercury rising before or after the Sun is an ancient tradition that found its way into modern astrology through William Lilly.
Venus and Mercury establish an additional distinction of orbital domain as inner and outer planets. For the outer planets beginning with Mars the defining points of their synodic cycle are 1) opposition to the Sun, which is the moment when the outer planet is brightest in the sky, but also slower and retrograde. 2) stationary retrograde, moving towards the solar opposition. 3) stationary direct when it starts to move away from the point of solar opposition and towards the solar conjunction, and finally 4) the solar conjunction itself.
We can illustrate the cycle using Venus as an example (calculations with Riyal):
1) Venus reaches superior conjunction 14 August 2019 UT 6:08 in 21,11 Leo.
2) Venus reaches max eastern elongation of 46,05′ 24 March 2020 UT 22:15 in 20,44 Taurus
3) Venus becomes stationary and turns retrograde May 13 2020 UT 6:46 in 21,50 Geminis
4) Venus retrograde reaches inferior conjunction 3 June 2020 UT 18:49 in 13,34 Geminis
5) Venus becomes stationary again and goes direct 25 June 2020 UT 4:49 in 5,20 Geminis
6) Venus reaches maximum western elongation of 45,42′ 13 August 2020 UT 0:15 in 5,01 Cancer
7) Venus reaches superior conjunction starting a new cycle 26 March 2021 UT 6:59 in 5,50 Aries.
If the synodic cycle is that of the Moon, then we have the Phases of The Moon. Also part of orbital symbolism is the use of nodes, lunar as well as planetary, and in the case of the Moon the use of the Lunar Apogee or Black Moon. Marc Jones idea of “mental chemistry” involving Mercury and lunar velocity is another application of the apogee/perigee lunar cycle: the Moon is fastest at perigee and slowest at apogee. [Ref.: Juan Revilla “The Astronomical Variants of The Lunar Apogee – Black Moon” and “Astrological symbolism of The Lunar Apogee – Black Moon” (2026)]
The different points of the synodic cycle establish distinctions related to orbital gesture. These gestures are like furrows left in space by each of the planets in their geocentric dance with the Sun, drawing their time-signature in an observable sky rather than the abstractions of heliocentric space. The defining points or marks are the planet’s living “time stamp” and have been extensibly studied by enthusiasts of Rudolf Steiner’s “Astrosophy” under the tutelage of Willi Sucher (1902-1985). He also did extensive work with the planetary nodes.
One hesitates to call all these “symbols” because in most cases they represent actual objective and organic experience that modern civilized indiduals no longer feel or are insensitive to and to a large extent they are no longer used in Astrology. The idea of words, of interpreting a symbol, is not to give a definition of it, but to describe in such a way that the mind and the imagination can “tune” or turn in the right direction and hear what the symbol has to say, without the words or without “translation”. The translation or the words are part of the astrologer’s training or learning process, but once learned, they are no longer needed… this is why –I think– all texbook interpretations become useless sooner or later for the astrologer who has learned to tune to the symbol itself (or to the principles). Likewise for the client: the astrologer’s words or interpretations are no longer needed once the reality to which they are pointing is “seen” or perceived in the imagination. After that point, astrological interpretations are no longer needed and actually become a nuisance or a hindrance in the way to knowledge.
We have tried to explain the symbolism of the Sun, and how it comes in its entirety from the direct experience we have of it. This direct experience is a consequence (or a reflection) of the place the Sun occupies in the “celestial aparatus”, or in other words, its orbit, and more specifically in terms of orbital symbolism, the Sun’s “orbital domain” or first type of orbital metaphor. We also explained that in terms or geocentric or visual orbital symbolism, the synodic cycle of the planets and the phases of the Moon are a reflection of the second type of orbital metaphors, the “orbital gesture”; but what is the orbital gesture of the Sun itself? The answer is two-fold: on the one hand the day and the year, pointing to the Sun’s steadiness or steadfastness, its complete regularity or sense of completeness and dependabilty on which human existence is based… and on the other hand the seasonal or declination cycle which is how the Sun leans in one direction or the other in the course of the year, dragging with it the whole of existence towards “a little more Sun” or warmth and light or life and “a little less Sun” or cold and darknesss or death (or in the tropics, towards dryness and draught or towards moisture and rain) and all the gradations in-between.
And what are the orbital domain and the orbital gesture of the Moon? By comparing them with those of the Sun we can understand them better both, the Sun and the Moon, since the Moon is the polarity of what the Sun represents. Before the “heliocentric revolution”, the world was ordered geocentrically in terms of the planetary spheres. This order was not an abstraction like heliocentrism, it was a direct experience that reached to all levels of the cultural and spiritual life. Distance, gravitation and mass had nothing to do with our relationship to celestial objects and motions; the world was a system of concentric “crystalline” spheres that represented a ladder from the lower sublunar world –our earthly condition– upwards through increasingly rarified or spiritualized substance, passing through the Sun at the center of the seven planetary spheres up to Saturn and the highest spiritual realms of the purely spiritual souls in the sphere of the fixed stars. The first sphere when man got out of his physical condition was the lunar sphere, the closest to the earth in terms of affinity of substance, where man went while he slept, or just before birth, or just after death: incarnation and life after death (as well as Initiation) were seen as ascension and descension through the ladder of the planetary spheres.
According to this we live in the “sublunar” world, where things are subject to decay: things are born, grow, reach maturity, decay, and die. This organic process is the Moon’s orbital domain and is the “fallen” condition of human existence, while at the level of the Sun “at the center of things” the conditions are similar to those before the Fall of Man: incorruptible and eternal, not subject to growth and decay. The Sun is an eternal present, pure essence, spirit and potentiality; the Moon is becoming and necessity, actuality instead of potentiality, substance instead of essence, flesh instead of spirit; the Moon is process and variation, growth, living instead of life, it is existence and circumstance, the things that happen, vicissitude, vulnerability, weakness, need, hunger and thirst, the person instead of the self, it is the “touch”, the animal contact, it is what makes us human.
But the Moon is one step above the Earth: in the sublunar, earthly realm things have an end and die, they become stiff and break and are left behind, while in the Moon everything is in constant change, it is always becoming something else, there are no frames or definitive contours, the past is always carried along with the present towards the future, nothing ever remains the same, everything is in constant metamorphosis, everything is always young, pliable, responsive, and tender, one thing brings the next, it is an imaginative world, the world of dreams, what modern astrologers tend to associate now with Neptune. In its purest, isolated sense, this lunar symbolism is contained in the Black Moon or apogee/kenofocus of the lunar orbit which is unfortunately limited by the maniac-obsessive identification of this point with the mythology of “Lilith”.
A long time ago I read an article on the astrological meaning of Neptune written by a well-known American lady and famous author. The article started by asserting that Neptune referred to the experience evoked in us while listening to Claude Debussy’s “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune”. But the truth is: this is and has always been the astrological domain of the Moon, where there are only 3 elements: air, fire, water, but no ground or earth beneath our feet. The Moon is the fire of the womb, surrounded by vivifying and warm water, by warm and humid light in whose bossom is found the promise of life and of rebirth: always close, always young, always warm, always virginal… This state of fluctuation or constant flux is today associated with Neptune, under a direct steal of the most basic and organic experience of the Moon, inextricably united with the phases of the Moon.
A Moon-to-planet aspect is also different from a planet-to-planet aspect, as with the Sun, although in a very different “lunar” way. The important point here is to distingusish between the planets and the luminaries, both of which I always take as representing 50%+50% of anybody’s personality, the planets and the angles being the specializations or ramifications of them like the colors of the rainbow. The difference between planets and luminaries is not only a matter of degree, they are a different type of symbol, they have a more direct impact on our lives, they reflect or dictate how human beings experience time and the world: the Sun is the projection, reflection, or focus of our self-consciousness or self-awareness, the Moon nurtures it. The symbolism of both is the result of our direct interaction with them, they shape our consciousness, and through the calendar which is based on them, they shape the totality of human experience.
The phases of the Moon are a symbol of the “organismic” process: conception or birth (New Moon), growth or gestation until organic maturity or fullness is reached (Full Moon), when the Moon –the organism– stands fully on its own in front of the Sun with the fullness of its “existential light”– and decay or recapitulation in preparation for the new cycle. This translates into the development of a life or biography, the development of a personality, of a work or activity, an experience, etc. The Sun dictates, he is the push of Life, but the Moon “suffers” or “lives” this life, adapts to it and develops structures through time, through cycles or phases. We can see this in the life of a plant: the Sun pulls from above or pushes from inside for the plant to grow upwards, while the Moon represents the growth of the roots and the branches, the growth towards the environment in search of “the other” for adaptation, survival, nutrition, reproduction.
Thus the Moon is the life we make for ourselves, our system of daily relationships thanks to which we are someone, we “have a life” instead of just “being”. This personal life is developed or “grows” from our relationships, and the first or seminal system of relationships that conditions our whole attitude towards getting involved with others is the family and childhood. The Moon is always eager, always in a state of need, always nurturing or providing others’ needs, always adapting, assuming the shape of the “solar other” or solar ideal of completeness that can never be reached (here is a key to the symbolism of the Black Moon); the Moon is always flexible, pliable and submissive, sharing its humanity through commonality. The Moon grows in things or things grow in the Moon like the branches and roots of a plant, it can become completely dependent, it grows its nerves and tissue around things so that the organism assimilates them, like the child that grows from the mother, the childhood that grows from the family, the wife that grows with the husband (or viceversa), the woman that grows from her motherhood… or the denial or distortion (“damage”) of all this.
Dane Rudhyar explained masterfully this solilunar geocentric symbolism in his book from 1944 “The Lunation Cycle”, one of his very best. The psychological symbolism of the lunar phases –based on Rudhar and on William Butler Yeats “A Vision“– was later expanded wonderfully by Marilyn Busteed, Dorothy Wergin, and Richard Tiffany in “Phases of the Moon: A Guide to Evolving Human Nature” (Shambhala, 1974). Don’t miss that book if you can find it and are interested in Rudhyar’s psychological approach.
Juan Antonio Revilla
San José, Costa Rica
June 17 2026