Astronomy & Astrology of the Asteroids
Centaurs & Dwarf Planets

INTRODUCTION

This page provides an introduction to the main asteroids, the Kuiper Belt asteroids and Dwarf Planets, objects in the Oort Cloud, and how to explore the astrological nature of a newly discovered planetary body.

If you wish to skip this page and find detailed information about individual asteroids or dwarfs, use these quick links:

Exploring the Astrology of newly discovered
Asteroids and Dwarf Planets

The rapidly increasing rate of discovery of new planets in our solar system and of other astronomical objects in our universe is a direct statement of humanity's rapidly expanding consciousness occurring on Earth. Life on any planet uniquely evolves in a harmonic environment created by the planets and their interacting orbital cycles occurring in a star system. Thus we are not separate from these planetary resonances, nor from their cycles, no more than we are separate from the environment of Earth herself. These resonances drive our biological rhythms and express through the very nature of our entire mental, emotional and physical lives. To explore the astrological nature of the astronomical reality in which we live is to explore our very own consciousness--and this is the nature of astrology.

The discovery of new planetary bodies in the far reaches of our solar system is a recognition of more transcendent facets of ourselves becoming consciously available for humanity to acknowledge, explore, work with, and be responsible for. To explore the astronomical and astrological nature of these planets is to seek to know our selves at a far deeper level then we have known possible. It was once thought by cosmologists and astrophysicists that our universe began first by expanding, then slowing, and and then contracting--a rational assumption from a gravitational model, just as if we were to throw a ball into the sky, watch it slow, and then reverse its direction as it fell back to Earth. However evidence now reveals that is just not true, that there is a mysterious force, some call "dark energy" that is not only driving the continued expansion of the universe, but also causing a continued increase in its rate of expansion. I tend to call this force the expression of Cosmic or Divine Intelligence. Some may call it the expression of God, of the Great Spirit, or by a variety of many other names. Either way, it is a force permeating through and articulating all things and all life. Thus, we are not separate from the Intelligence of this Great Body no more than our beating hearts are separate from our human bodies.

Like all planetary bodies, when discussing the asteroids and dwarf planets in astrology, we are exploring the synthesized mental, emotional, and physical facets of ourselves--our "astrology." Although it requires astrological research over a lengthy period to truly validate and hone in on the astrological nature of a newly discovered planet or asteroid, there are several things to explore that can give us significant insight into the astrological nature of any new astronomical body.

These are outlined in "Guidelines on How to Explore the Astrology
of Newly Discovered Objects in Our Solar System."

The Main Belt Asteroids

There are nearly 400,000 asteroids that lie in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Several thousand have been given names. The four primary asteroids are Ceres, Juno, Pallas and Vesta. Because there should be a planet in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter based on the harmonic distribution of the planetary orbits, it is believed the asteroids are either formative material that did not coalesce into a planet or they are the fragmented pieces of a destroyed planetary body once situated between Mars and Jupiter.

The primary asteroids are most often associated with how we interrelate in the world, our stance in life, and with emotionally fragmented areas of self requiring integration. The 2nd chakra (bio-energy, neurological centre) is generally the most fragmented and disintegrated bio-energy centre of humans. It is like a gyroscope creating balance in life. The energy pattern radiating from this chakra attracts and filters the type of relations we attract into our lives.

Asteroids always reveal issues at some level that need to be integrated within us all. Disintegrated asteroid issues fragment and scatter our energy outward in dysfunctional ways in the world. Integration of the issues embodied by the asteroids leads to the ability to interrelate in the world from wholeness, integrity and wisdom. The asteroids significantly fill in the missing pieces to the astrological chart, particularly when exploring aspects with other planets.

About Ceres, Juno, Pallas and Vesta

The Centaurs

In a category of their own, the Centaurs have wide eccentric orbits and tend to lie between the orbits of Saturn and Neptune.

The Centaurs, generally act as unique escorts from one planetary realm to another. For example Chiron links the realms of Saturn and Uranus. Pholus links the realms of Saturn and Orcus. Asbolus links Jupiter and Neptune.

The primary Centaurs are:

(2060) Chiron, discovered in 1977
(5145) Pholus, discovered in 1992
(7066) Nessus, discovered in 1993
(8405) Asbolus, discovered in 1995
(10370) Hylonome, discovered in 1995
(10199) Chariklo, discovered in 1997

About the individual Centaurs

Dwarf Planets & Asteroids & of the Kuiper Belt

A large number of planetary bodies are also found outside the orbit of Neptune, in an area of our solar system known as the Kuiper Belt. These objects have orbtial inclinations that cut through the plane of our solar system. This is a trait they have in common and one that makes them unique compared to the main planets in our solar system. This trait sugests they then to interceed in our lives and in the fundamental workings of our consciousness.

The largest of these asteroids so far discovered is Eris ( pronounced ee-ris), which is larger than Pluto. Due to the recent discovery of many new planetary bodies in the Kuiper Belt where Pluto resides, and which have sizes and orbits similar to Pluto, a new classification of bodies in our solar system has been created called the "Dwarf Planets," to which Pluto and Eris now belong. Ceres, although a main asteroid, due to its size, is also now a member of the Dwarf Planets--appropriately recognizing Ceres as the Mother of the Main Asteroids.

The Kuiper Belt is a vast circumstellar disk of dust that extends about 7 billion miles beyond the orbit of Neptune. Dust disks like this are also seen around other stars. This disc of dust is considered to be the formative material of our solar system. As such, it is of a primordial nature, giving us an additional clue to the astrological character of these objects.

The Kuiper Belt contains tens of thousands of asteroidal sized, frozen, fossil remnant objects that orbit our Sun. It contains as many as 10 billion objects at least one mile across. More than 400 of these objects have been classified. The Kuiper Belt is also the source of many comets. Pluto and its moon Charon were once the only known objects in the Kuiper Belt. There are many Kuiper binary objects being discovered that have a barry-center (they orbit around a common center of gravity)--much like the Pluto-Charon dwarf-planetary system.

Although the Kuiper Belt was theorized in 1951 by Gerard Kuiper after seeing that comet orbits indicated a vast nesting ground for their origin just beyond the orbit of Neptune, the first Kuiper belt objects were not discovered until the early 1990s.

The Oort Cloud

Lying beyond the Kuiper Belt is the Oort Cloud, where far and distant Sedna resides. When we think of our solar system and the planets in it, we generally think of it as a disc, with the primary planets orbiting the sun, and with a few orbits (like those of Pluto, the asteroids, and Dwarf planets) somewhat inclined (tilted) to that disc. The Oort cloud, however, is an immense spherical cloud surrounding our solar system composed of billions of cold icy objects. This is where long-term comets come from, those entering the inner reaches of our solar system only once in their lifetimes. They can enter the solar system plane from any angle, whereas comets coming from the Kuiper belt are short-term comets, which generally come in toward the sun from the plane of the Kuiper Belt. The Oort cloud is considered to be the outer limits of our solar system. The existence of the Oort Cloud was first hypothesized in 1950 by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort.

Notice in the above illustration how Eris' extreme orbit links the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt--one factor revealing the radical astrological nature of Eris.

Articles about the individual Dwarf Planets; Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud Objects