Juno
JOO-noh
Definition
Juno is asteroid (3) — the third asteroid discovered (Karl Harding, 1804) — orbiting in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, about 247 km across, with an orbital period of 4.36 years. It takes its name from the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods. Juno is one of the four asteroids (with Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta) whose position tables reached astrologers widely from the 1970s on, and whose interpretation grew up mainly within the modern Western asteroid-astrology movement.
In Tradition
In modern Western asteroid astrology, Juno is read through her Roman myth: marriage, committed partnership, the conditions and strains of long-term coupling, and the imbalances of power that can run through a partnership. The asteroid-goddess school led by Demetra George treats Juno as the main asteroid marker for the marriage bond itself — a narrower thread than Venus, who speaks to love and attraction more broadly.
In Practice
Astrologers find Juno from a dedicated asteroid ephemeris, now built into most software. Its sign, house, and aspects are read for what you look for in a committed partnership, for the vow-based or contractual side of relationship, and for the patterns of jealousy, infidelity, and reconciliation a partnership tends to play out. When weighing relationship themes, astrologers most often look at Juno alongside Venus, the Descendant, and the ruler of the seventh house; transits and progressions to natal Juno, or to other relationship markers, are read for the timing of partnership events.
Historical Origin
Juno was the third asteroid discovered, in 1804, but its use in interpretation is a late-20th-century development. Eleanor Bach and George Climlas published the first dedicated *Ephemerides of the Asteroids Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta 1900–2000* (Brooklyn: Celestial Communications, 1973), which made the positions easy to compute. Demetra George's *Asteroid Goddesses* (with Douglas Bloch, 1986) set out the standard modern asteroid-mythology framework. James Holden views the wider asteroid movement skeptically — a byproduct of abundant ephemerides rather than classical doctrine.
Further Reading
- Demetra George, Asteroid Goddesses