As previously discussed, the first 6 signs of the zodiac concern the personal, the individual, while the second 6 explore our relationship with the other, lover, friend and enemy, society at large.
Libra: Aphrodite Urania. Libra is given to Aphrodite of the Heavens.
Sappho, vase, 5thC BCE
Aphrodite Urania, the airy Aphrodite has a different, more cerebral experience of beauty than Aphrodite Pandemos. She adores poetry, music, the refined arts and abhors anything ugly, gross or uncouth. Beyonce is an interesting example of Aphrodite Urania. She has a Sun in Virgo, unaspected in the 11th house and Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Ascendant and Pluto in Libra. On stage Beyonce embodies the goddess Aphrodite with extravagant costumes and head gear, crowns and diadems, she is beauty. Her practical Virgo has created a persona, Sasha Fierce, who is sexy, aggressive and strong. This allows Beyonce to remove the mask when she comes off stage.
‘I don’t want to be off on my own diva planet…I don’t want to feel the void I see in a lot of celebrities…the unhappiness under the smile.’
Persephone rising from Hades. Seal, Boeotia, 1550 BCE.
I give Scorpio to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, who is ‘Mistress of everything which lives and moves’1. She is the dark sister to Kore the maiden who was kidnapped by Hades. Aphrodite is the female expression of Mars, a fighter, but in a more indirect way, she is Mars in a Water sign. Persephone, before she returns to her mother, is given a choice and she chooses power, a real Scorpio move. She ministers to the dead, a taboo and awful role, but then, she is Queen of her realm.
Georgia O’Keeffe exemplifies Scorpio. An early tragedy derailed her life plans. Several times she was forced to reinvent herself and discard her old life. She had Jupiter conjunct her Scorpio Ascendant as well as Fortuna, Sun, Moon and Mercury all conjunct. Her beautiful, evocative and sometimes shocking paintings burst into the art world. She always denied her flower close-ups were metaphorical studies of the vulva, but her astrology would suggest sexuality was central to her life and art. The warrior may be afraid, but continues on their quest,
‘I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life-and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to…I’ve lived on a razor’s edge. So what if you fall off-I’d rather be doing something I really wanted to do. I’d walk it again.’
Artemis as Mistress of the Animals. Etruscan vase, 6thC BCE.
Artemis is the goddess for Sagittarius. She is Mistress of the Animals who lives in the wild, liminal spaces, her temples were often in border areas and were places where only women worshiped. She is believed to have originated in Krete. Her home is in the wild, she rejects marriage, motherhood and urban living. Freedom is her watchword. She has fun, there is a Greek saying, ‘where has Artemis not danced?’ Artemis was the goddess who lead the dancing choruses of women and girls.
Jane Goodall, animal protector has the Moon rising in Sagittarius. She is famous for her sixty year study of Chimpanzees in Tanzania. She lived in the wild in Gombe Stream National Park. On her first trip her mother had to go with her as the colonial authorities forbade her to go alone (hats off to her mother btw!). Her passion for the animals and dismay as the wild areas shrink and disappear has made her become an advocate for the voiceless.
‘I don’t have any idea of who or what god is. But I do believe in some great spiritual power. I feel it particularly when I am out in nature. ‘
Hekate, Attic vase. 500 BCE.
I give Hekate to Capricorn. Hekate, according to Hesiod, ruled over the ‘earth and the unharvested sea, and in the starry heavens she received honour form the immortal gods who valued her especially’ and ‘she sat in judgement in the court’ 2 Hekate is the wise Crone who sees all and embodies the wisdom that comes with age. Hekate advises Persephone in her judgement of the dead. Hekate is often shown carrying torches, she helped Demeter find Persephone. Capricorn does know darkness, but without the drama of Scorpio. Hekate elects to stay with Persephone in Hades, because, as an older woman she is not afraid of the dark and lonely places, she has seen it all. Hekate is a Titan, the gods who preceded the Olympians, who survived their massacre by the new gods.
Helena Rubinstein shows the hardworking Capricorn who had a vision and brought it into manifestation. She has Saturn, Sun, Venus, Ascendant, South Node all conjunct in Capricorn and Mercury in wide aspect. The eldest of eight daughters, she took on the role of the eldest son, taking business meetings age 15 when her father was ill. She was sent to study medicine, but disliked it, her father chose a husband for her she refused him, she found a man but her father rejected him. She traveled the Australia and took 12 pots of Modjeska cream with her. The women loved it and she borrowed money to open a salon in Melbourne and soon turned her debt into a great profit. She left family to run the business and went to New York and started what was to become a multi-million dollar business. Taking her responsibility seriously, she gave over $130 million to charities for the arts, medicine and education.
‘There are no ugly women, just lazy ones.’
Gorgon mask, pottery, 525 BCE3
Athena is given to Aquarius. In Olympian mythology, Athena is the archetypal patriarchal woman, born from Zeus’ head. Other myths suggest she was born by Lake Tritonis in Libya and raised by nymphs. Athena is shown wearing aegis (the head of the Gorgon) which a hero cut off and gave to her. But in the older myth the Gorgon’s head was a magical goatskin bag which contained a snake, the Gorgon protecting it. Athene lives in the city and is concerned with fighting for justice, fair debate, revolution. She is an iconoclast, and is unmarried and childless.
Angela Davis is the archetypal Aquarian, the revolutionaries’, revolutionary. She has Sun, South Node and Moon in Aquarius in the 10th house. She has fought against racism, misogyny and for social justice her whole life. She is emerita professor at UCLA, despite being fired twice, was once the FBI’s most wanted, had songs written about her by The Rolling Stones and John Lennon, took her doctorate in communist East Germany at the time of the Communist witch hunts in the USA. My definition of a badass. She is the author of the groundbreaking ‘Women Race and Power’.
‘Our very survival has frequently been a direct function of our skill in forging effective channels of resistance.’
The Pythia, pot, 5thC BCE
Pisces gives us the Pythia, the Shamanic Priestess of Gaia the Earth Goddess. She presided over the oracle at Delphi long before Apollo appeared and took it over. The original Pythia came from Libya, the shrine at Delphi was founded by Kretans who brought their dance, music, ritual and calendar there. The Pythia chewed laurel leaves to go into a trance, and ethylene gas, which also causes trances, has been found escaping from the rocks above the rock cleft where she sat.
Sybil Leek the witch and psychic had four planets in Pisces. Sun and Mars conjunct and Moon and Chiron conjunct. Sibyl claimed she was part of a long lineage, her mother came from Irish witches dating back to 1134, her father’s family were occultists from Czarist Russia. Sibyl spent time learning from Gypsies in the New Forest, who, she claimed had lived there for 700 years. Sibyl worked with the Government in WW2 writing fake horoscopes for the Germans, she wrote one advising Nazi Rudolf Hess to fly to Scotland where he was captured. She buried the medal she was later awarded in the New Forest. Sybil moved to the US and became famous there and is credited with the witchcraft revival in the 1970s associated with feminism and the ecology movement, both of which Sibyl claimed were bedrocks of the Craft.
‘All human beings have magic in them. The Secret is to know how to use this magic.’
I will be speaking on Goddess Astrology at the Scottish Astrology Association September 11th, online. details here.
Elisabeth Brooke 