My New Facebook business page:

Yes, it has taken me a while to cotton on to the joys of connecting with people via a dedicated Astrology and Soul Work Facebook page but I have finally done it.  I aim to write more or less daily on matters astrological, books I’m reading, things I’ve heard, courses I’m running and teaching, both astrological and spiritual.  The page can be found here: facebook.com/skywatchingwisdom

I will be launching my Astrology Online Course soon in tandem with the same course here in Scotland with local students. It’s all very exciting. You can sign up to learn astrology with me via the FB page or this website.

I am already getting “likes” and invite you to find me on Dawne Kovan Astrology/Soul Work – then you can tick the “like “button.

Ceres – Earth Mother and Goddess of the Harvest.

Right now, as I write this article,  NASA’s Dawn mission is orbiting Ceres in order to characterise the early solar system and the processes that dominated its formation. And maybe assess if it is possible for humans to live there.

It seems apposite that I write about Ceres at this point in time, as the Dawn probe feels like a personal connection for me somehow. My name was originally Dawn – I added the ‘e’ because it made it easier for French friends to pronounce when I was living in Paris in the 1980s.

Ceres has been promoted to the status of a Small Planet from that of an Asteroid. This puts her on the same footing as Pluto who has been demoted to the status of a Small Planet too.  

Many of my readers will have not missed the fact that Ceres and Pluto share a history together, as I have written about them before when describing their mythology. Ceres was the mother of Persephone, whom Pluto abducted and took down into his realm in the Underworld. Such was the power of Ceres that in her grief of her loss, she caused the earth to live in perpetual winter until her child was restored to her. Thanks to clever, quick -tongued Mercury’s intervention mother and daughter were eventually reunited and life flourished on earth again.

In 2008 a report in New Scientist added fuel to the fire by suggesting that the planets Ceres and Pluto were once ONE, or at least came from the same place. This is in spite of the fact that there is a vast distance (up to 4 billion kilometres) and 4 planets between them! This report was mind-numbingly spooky since this is EXACTLY the case in mythology.

The New Scientist report entitled “Has Pluto sent us a message in Ceres?” asks: “Does Pluto have a wayward cousin lurking in the inner solar system? The dwarf planet Ceres…..may have been born in the same realm as Pluto, but travelled all the way to the asteroid belt.”

Apparently the 2 planets are made of the same stuff, and this doesn’t occur anywhere else in the Solar System.

I have long held the theory that the ancient myths contain coded information that has been transmitted down through the millennia. At a certain point in time the information thus contained within them can be made sense of in the reality of scientific understanding.

And so it is – it must have been the capturing of Ceres so close to Mars and Earth that created the long ice age that seemingly destroyed our planet for a time. And yet, how did they know, these “primitive” humans, and how did they survive to tell the tale? I leave you to ponder that question at your leisure.

Ceres in Astrology

The connection with nurturing and motherhood is obvious as the myth explains. Many will say that the Moon does this quite happily on her own but there is a strange anomaly in Vedic (Hindu) astrology: Indian astrologers teach that the Moon rules the Mind – not concrete thinking, that’s Mercury’s domain – but rather our perceptions and our emotions that fluctuate with the Moon’s phases. And they also suggest that Mercury is the child of the Moon, as he puts her thoughts and perceptions into words to communicate them. Make of that what you will.

Ceres seems to be associated with Virgo, the sign of the harvest and grain. In fact, we get the word ‘cereal’ directly from Ceres’ name. I wonder if she’s also associated with Taurus, as well, due to her connection with all growth on earth. She could also be associated with Capricorn as that is the sign of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. There is obviously a strong sense of environmental issues coming through as well. Ceres is a grieving mother, too, and powerful enough to withhold life until her child is given back to her.

To sum up: motherhood, nurturing in general, grieving, loss and restoration, the season of winter due to the snows and lack of growth that persist for  5 months annually. She symbolises the growth of the seed beneath the earth, its flowering, and its harvesting and then its withdrawal into the darkness of the earth through winter. So she is a symbol for birth, death and re-birth in the human experience. Even after loss, life re-emerges and recreates us.

Ceres has a 4.6 year orbit of the Sun – and us, as well. Right now she is sailing through Capricorn  and will be stirring up the Zodiac for the 4 Cardinal signs for a few more months yet.

More will follow as I get more information on this Dwarf Planet that seems to pack a big punch!

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