Asteroids

greek: ἀστεροειδής (asteroeidēs) · latin: asteroidea

Definition

Small celestial bodies, the largest of which orbit between Mars and Jupiter in the main asteroid belt. The first four — Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta — were discovered between 1801 and 1807; subsequent astronomical surveys catalogued thousands more by the mid-twentieth century. In late-twentieth-century Western astrology, a subset of these bodies entered natal practice as supplementary significators alongside the seven traditional planets.

In Tradition

Asteroid astrology is treated in the modern Western tradition as a late-twentieth-century extension of natal practice. Holden traces the genre's rise to the ephemeris infrastructure that made asteroid positions computable for chart work — without printed or computed ephemerides, no natal application is possible. The classical seven-planet tradition treats asteroid use as outside the canonical scheme; consequently asteroid significance varies widely by school.

In Practice

Practitioners working with asteroids commonly include Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta as a feminine-archetype quartet alongside the traditional planets, and add Chiron (discovered 1977, period ~50 years) as a healing-and-wounding significator straddling Saturn and Uranus. Some practitioners go further and ascribe meaning to asteroids bearing a name shared with the person whose chart is being read, or a topically resonant name, though Holden notes this practice skeptically as an artifact of ephemeris abundance rather than a doctrinally derived technique. Asteroid placements are typically read by sign, house, and aspect to the traditional planets, with tight orbs (1°-2°) preferred given the bodies' minor status. The first asteroid ephemerides — Bach with Climlas (1973), Pottenger (1977), Donath (1981) — established the technical infrastructure on which the contemporary genre depends.

Historical Origin

Asteroid astrology is a modern extension. The astronomical discovery of Ceres by Piazzi (1801) preceded any astrological use by over a century; the first significant astrological ephemerides appear with Eleanor Bach's *Ephemerides of the Asteroids Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta 1900-2000* (1973), followed by Rique Pottenger (1977) and Emma Belle Donath (1981). Chiron's 1977 discovery aroused particular enthusiasm among practitioners. Holden (2006) writes from the historian's perspective, situating the genre outside the classical Hellenistic canon.

Etymology

Origin: Greek. Meaning: Star-like.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading