Mars Meeting Makemake

UPDATED!

Makemake (pronounced maki-maki or mah-kay mah-kay) is the newly named dwarf planet 2005 FY9, discovered back in March 2005 and officially christened last month

Don't know that much about the astrology of asteroids or the new planets, as I tend to not see the wood for the trees when there's too much info in a chart, but was inspired recently to start looking, and especially at Makemake after JB left me a comment about it, and about it being at 23 Virgo at the mo. Uranus of course has been hanging around the opposition point in Pisces for a while now, and now Mars is heading for the 23 Virgo spot on the 8th.

So there's a good opportunity for some research into the meaning of this new planet by watching to see if you can spot some of the symbolism in your own experience at the moment... don't forget it's nickname was 'easterbunny' until the offical one came along, which to me packs it full of the pagan fertility vibe - eggs, hares, rabbits, etc - and the man who named Makemake chose it because his wife was pregnant. So if you notice any Mad Mars March Hares appearing or you have ideas about how the Makemake myth might relate to astrology, do share with a comment.

- Fabulous Makemake aspectarian is here (this whole site is fabulous, btw)
- Read about the easter bunny here
- And the symbolism of rabbits and hares here
- More on the planet Makemake here
- and on the new planets and Plutoids here

****I can add an update here, thanks to the ever sharp Scorpio perception of Kathryn at Collaborate with Fate, who pointed out to me that MakeMake was the creator god and chief god of the bird cult at Easter Island. On the day that MakeMake aligned with Mars/Uranus, the Olympics started in China, in the Birds Nest stadium, and the opening ceremony had hundreds of people in the formation of a flying bird...

...and certainly the Mars/Uranus opposition reflected the unrest and protest that accompanied the opening of the games.

...and there's more EXCELLENT in depth MakeMake research info from Tracy at Serennu here

Virgo New Moon Ends Planet Palaver

So it’s been decided, under the dark phase of the clear the clutter new moon - our solar system has undergone a much needed reclassification, and we now have 8 planets instead of 9. And Pluto, the cause of much head scratching and furrowed brows in science circles due to the is it/isn’t it debate, has been demoted to ‘dwarf planet’ status. Ceres and Xena are now also dwarf planets, with plenty of room for more to join them in the coming years… I might be missing something here, but didn’t we all already know that Pluto was a small planet? Anyway, apparently this fine-tuning of name-tags is part of a greater plan by boffins to ensure we can tidy up all that trans-neptunian clutter that has become such a problem over the last decade. Only on Virgo new moon, eh? I have cupboard in much the same state requiring my urgent attention.

And so what does this mean for astrology? Well, obviously I can't speak for everyone, but I suspect astrologers will probably give the same amount of time to Pluto’s demotion in status as your average scientist gives to astrology. And this is because astrology studies the apparent effects on us, on a personal or collective level, of planets in certain positions relative to the earth. Planetary mass (or distance) probably doesn’t have any bearing on why astrology works, as it seems to matter not how big or small the object is, it’s all in the effects, and Pluto’s impact in a chart is undeniable when studied for any length of time. However the new category means more status and fame for objects such as Ceres, and speaking personally as someone who didn’t really set aside much study time for such objects, this looks likely to change from now on.

astrology, pluto,