Astronomy and astrology look at a newly discovered object in space
“What’s bigger than an asteroid, smaller than a planet, red all over and far, far away? The answer — a mysterious planet-like body orbiting our Sun — has been discovered by NASA-funded researchers led by an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.”
That’s how NASA announced the discovery of Sedna on March 15, 2004. As the quote above indicates, Sedna is a bit unusual. The NASA press release further noted that “the extremely elliptical orbit of Sedna is unlike anything previously seen by astronomers.” This unusual orbit takes 10,500 years to complete as Sedna swings to the furthest edges of our solar system, halfway to the next nearest star. Also, the name bestowed on this trans-Neptunian object derives not from Greek and Roman mythology, as is the usual tradition in astronomy, but from Inuit myth. The planetoid’s discoverers compared its isolated position far from the sun’s rays to the frigid Arctic waters ruled by the ocean goddess of tribes dwelling in far northern Canada and Greenland.
Sedna’s Stories
There are many versions of the origin of this ocean deity. All of them have in common that Sedna angers her parents—perhaps through pridefully rejecting all her suitors or sometimes by disobeying her parents in some other way. In some tales she is forced to marry the family dog and gives birth to a litter of puppies. Some stories tell of her leaving with a strange hunter–perhaps being sold by her parents in exchange for fish, perhaps eloping or maybe being kidnapped. At any rate, the hunter turns out to be a raven or crow who mistreats her and whom she seeks to escape with the aid of her father in his canoe.
The element all of the tales have in common that Sedna is thrown into the icy water by her father—whether out of anger for her actions or in a desperate attempt to appease the vengeful magical creatures who stir up storms around the waters where the canoe travels. Sedna tries to climb back into the canoe, but her fingers and hands either freeze and fall off or are cut off by her father. Her severed body parts become ocean creatures: her fingers transform into seals and walruses while her palms shift into dolphins and whales. Sedna dies at the bottom of the ocean while her father escapes. As in many origin tales, dismemberment and death bestow divine powers and she becomes the Inuit Ocean Goddess, providing sustenance through her own body. Imagery of Sedna may depict her as part-woman and part-seal or as a mermaid-like creature.
Food from the ocean comes with rules and conditions, however. Inuit hunters had to show respect for Sedna by killing her creatures only in approved ways and seasons and honoring an animal’s spirit as well as consuming its body. When Sedna showed her anger at an infraction of her rules by preventing hunters from bringing back food, the shaman of the tribe had to undertake a spirit journey to visit the sea goddess and comb her hair, a task the fingerless deity cannot perform for herself.
Sedna and astrology
Most astrologers believe there is a form of synchronicity which results in the discoverers of a planet selecting a symbolically appropriate name for its astrological meaning. They also look to the chart of the moment of a planet’s discovery to read its meaning, and as well as at the world events transpiring at the time of discovery. For example, Uranus, the planet of sudden change, rebellion and liberation, was discovered around the time of the American and French revolutions. Sedna was discovered a few months before the NASA announcement, on November 14, 2003 at in mid-Taurus.
Sedna’s discovery coincided with a renewed awareness of nature in the news. Global warming began a prominent topic of conversation. The huge tsunami affecting southeast Asia took place occurred this period. The bird flu pandemic also took place during 2003-2004.
Astrologically, Sedna relates to issues relating to unevolved human interactions based on the triad of roles of victim, perpetrator and rescuer. It relates to the sense of having compassion for those who are abused without feeling hatred toward the abusers. People who have Sedna prominent in their natal charts—close to the Ascendant or Mid-heaven or conjunct a personal planet—may have had lives marked by an experience of betrayal which they need to assimilate and transform in order to grow spiritually. They need to claim their strength by both reclaiming their boundaries and releasing resentment. They may also have a strong sense of connection to the ocean and an involvement in issues relating to pollution of our waters and saving ocean creatures.
Astrologers’ understanding of this recently discovered planetoid continues to evolve as the affects of its transits are noted in the charts of nations and world leaders as well as other individuals.
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