Spotlight on Ceres – The Great Mother

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Crops by Flickr user Parker Knight
Crops by Flickr user Parker Knight

You have waxed into the fullness of life
And waned into darkness
May you be renewed in tranquility and wisdom.

Persephone speaking to the dead upon her voluntary descent to the Underworld

The first asteroids discovered were sighted in succession beginning with Ceres 1801. Ceres is the Great Mother’s Roman name; in Greek her name is Demeter — Da Mater, meaning Earth Mother. She is the goddess of the grain and the harvest.

In mythology, Ceres stalks about the earth refusing to allow anything to grow until her abducted daughter is returned to her from the underworld. She travels high and low, expressing her distorted pain through attempting to immortalize a mortal, in addition to ensuring the earth is barren.

In earlier matriarchal versions of the Persephone (Roman equivalent Proserpine) -Pluto abduction story, Persephone goes to the underworld willingly.

The early, earth-based goddess religions acknowledged the lushness of the dark. This is lunar consciousness that waxes and wanes inevitably, predictably. Persephone’s voluntary descent is about claiming the fruits that can only be found when the dark part of consciousness is willingly engaged. Having been changed by the encounter, Persephone returns to the overworld, prompting Demeter’s allowing grain and harvest to flourish again.

So, Ceres, Demeter, still goes batshit when Persephone leaves. This is the overbearing mother who does not know how to let go. The lunar consciousness who does not know how to exist rightly without the fruit of her loins. The moral of the story, if I may say so, is that if cycles are to be honored, the process of becoming acquainted with the dark is necessary, including the painful separation that is incurred to acquire that depth of knowledge.  Each part is undifferentiated and inextricably linked to every other part of the story.

The meaning of Ceres astrologically runs the gamut of the myth.

Ceres meanings in the natal chart, and by transit and progression:

Custody negotiation
Feeling empowered, empowering others
Loss and redemption
Compromise
Unquantifiable love
Rich creativity
The reaping of the harvest
Difficult mother daughter relationship
Growth associated with a new season in life

In a 1998 article for the Mountain Astrologer, Jessica Murray notes that “…historical ages and cosmological imagery are inextricably intertwined”. The four asteroid goddesses revealed themselves astronomically just as soon as humanity was ready to consciously receive the multi-dimensionality of the feminine. This raises a consideration about humanity’s participation in shifting existing archetypes or creating new ones. Can humanity will itself to be ready for a new archetype or dimension of archetype to reveal itself?

Warmly and with lots of love,

Ichrak

Resources:
Jessica Murray Article on Asteroid Goddesses: http://mothersky.com/1998/03/hidden-faces-of-the-asteroid-goddesses/
Judy Hall’s book in which she discusses Pluto-Moon at length: http://www.amazon.com/The-Hades-Moon-Pluto-Aspect/dp/1578630398

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Ichrak

Ichrak

California based astrologer in practice since 2014. Blending traditional astrology with Yogic/Vedic philosophy, and wisdom teachings, art, poetry, literature and spirituality.

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