Vesta conjunct Sappho in synastry

[aquariusrising2]

Hi Kim:

Boy, it seems like I'm just full of questions! I have Sappho conjunct my descendant in Leo which is conjunct a friend's Vesta and Midheaven at around 2 degrees. (Oh, also, opposite his venus conjunct my ascendant.) Can you, or anybody interested in this post, shed some light on how Sappho and Vesta may react with these aspects?

Thanks so much!

[Amoroso]

Be sure you read the thread on Sappho under "asteroids." It may help inform the light that Kim can help shed on your question.

My chart is very influenced by Sappho. (I'll be adding to the Sappho thread shortly on this.) Whatever effect is to be had in your personal life or in synastry with your friend is dependent on words--the way you use them, form them, write them, read them, sing or speak them , and also whether or not you think poetically. And a huge element is what the German poets called "sehnsucht"--romantic longing. It is a basic state of being in the psyche which totally colors your life view. It is very romantic, very passionate, and can often sublimate in work or devotion to a cause or the care of another person.

Hope this helps!

Amoroso

[aquariusrising2]

I will definitely read that thread! Thanks so much for your insight. I can certainly identify with her qualities, especially, thinking poetically, romantic longing, passion, writing, singing, etc. I'm just not sure how that hooks up with his Vesta opposite my ascendant, which conjuncts his Venus. I am guessing, from the little I know about Vesta it has something, perhaps to do with commitment or spiritual bonding. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[Amoroso]

Dear Aquariousrising,

I wish I were more eloquent in verbalizing the metaphors represented by our charts. It is something I am just learning to do, and your simple request to find out more about your Sappho conjunct your friend's Vesta has fired off a whole slew of thoughts within me. I totally defer to Kim to comment on a Sappho-Vesta connection, but I would like to add some thoughts on the fact that Sappho opposes your ASC.

I have the asteroids Terpsichord and Pan opposite my ASC and I am beginning to realize that to reap the energies represented in an opposition, I have to learn to "live" in the middle of paradox. I think one of Life's great lessons is learning to find the middle way between opposites. (Taking the strengths of each and and having them support each other.)

It's like the way our muscles work: each muscle exists as a pair of muscles that work against each other to create a state of balanced tension. There are 17 pairs of muscles in the tongue alone!

With Terpsichord and Pan, both physical, sensual and lusty energies, opposing my Neptune in Libra-airy and dreamy--I have REALLY had a balancing act to figure out. Especially because with surgery after surgery and many other losses over the past 3 years, Terpsichord and Pan went into rigamortis so the Neptunian assets also suffered.

Now, these asteroids at my DESC are conjunct my friend's Chiron, and there are mulitple aspects into my ASC/Neptune/Vesta conjunction, so it's almost as if the synastry doesn't physically ignite until these energies start healing and playing off each other. Everything started really healing and igniting this fall within me (let alone in the synastry) after I innocently started a belly dance class to heal from multiple abdominal surgeries! (Talk about waking up Terpischord and Pan!)

I had always loved to dance and move and had stopped after difficulties with childbirth and the rasing of children in a culture that really doesn't support families. We say we do, here in the US, but we don't.

Does that make any sense? Hope this stimulates your ideas in conjunction (pun TOTALLY intended) with Kim's response.

Amoroso

[aquariusrising2]

Thank you Amoroso for your reply and thoughts. It sounds like you have had a very rough time with surgeries and healing. I am glad to hear you are on the mend and I hope in the New Year you will have continued health and happiness! Keep dancing!

I like the way you likened an opposition to the way muscles work in our body. There can be no state of balance, or result if they do not work together. The combined energies seem to create a new force, or entity all together.

I find that when it comes to my descendant, I am never quite sure If I am projecting the energy of the sign and planets/asteroids or if I am looking to draw those energies in. Therefore, it is always a little unclear to me how one's descendant affects anothers planets or asteroids it touches. Or, vice versa.

Any thoughts?

A.R.

[anjica]

Hello dear people!

As I found this thread for Vesta, I just wanted to share with you a great article about this amazing goddess!

Vesta, the Sister


After one has been nurtured, gone out into the world, found one's life partner and borne children, the time comes to turn inward to reconnect with one's spirit. In women, the Matron becomes the Crone; in the culture of India, the householder sets out on his final spiritual journey as a monk-like wanderer; and in Jungian psychology, the active person of affairs embarks on an inward journey to find the Self.

Vesta, the fourth and final of the major Olympian goddesses to give her name to an asteroid, relates to this final stage of life. Although renowned for her shining beauty, she is in fact the eldest of the Olympian gods.

Like Pallas Athene, Vesta was known as a virgin. If Pallas Athene was the pre-reproductive Maiden, Vesta could be thought of as the post-reproductive Crone. After their thirty-year term of office was up, the Vestal Virgins of Rome were allowed to marry, but they were then often beyond childbearing age. In pre-classical times, the cult of the goddess who later became Vesta included sex as a sacrament. Thus Vesta, insofar as she is sexual, represents a rarefied form of sex that transcends the procreative function and aims to achieve spiritual union rather than physical children.

Vesta was related to Jupiter as his sister. This, too, expresses her non- procreative way of relating, and the fact that she is often thought of as the prototype of the nun, whom we also call "Sister."

Besides suggesting the letter V, which points downward and inward, the astrological glyph for Vesta represents a flame burning on either a hearth or an altar. This signifies Vesta's function as keeper of the hearth fire and the temple flame, but it also points to the cultivation of the pure spark of spirit within us. Fittingly, Vesta is the brightest object in the asteroid belt.

The Myth of Vesta
To the ancient Greeks, Vesta was known as Hestia, a name derived from the word for hearth, and it appears that she had to do with the domestication of fire for human use in the home and in sacrificial offerings. As the eldest of the Olympian gods, she was the most venerated, and was always given the first sacrifices and libations. There are few stories about her deeds, and the few depictions of her show her in repose, indicating an inward, contemplative nature. She refused the marriage offers of Apollo and Poseidon, and under Zeus's protection vowed to remain a virgin forever.

In Roman mythology, Hestia became Vesta, always veiled, but known as the most beautiful of the deities. In the home she was venerated as the protectress of the hearth and its flame. In public life, she was thought of as the protectress of the state, and her priestesses were the six Vestal Virgins of Rome. Dedicated to spiritual service, the Vestals were responsible for keeping the sacred flame burning which was thought to ensure the safety of Rome. They enjoyed great prestige, but if they let the flame go out, they were whipped, and if they violated their oath of chastity during their term of office, they were punished by a public whipping, and then buried alive.

Vesta became the prototype of the medieval nun. However, several thousand years earlier in the ancient Near East, the predecessors of the Vestals tended a temple flame but also engaged in sacred sexual rites in order to bring healing and fertility to the people and the land.

The original meaning of the word "virgin" meant not "chaste," but simply "unmarried." Whereas Ceres and Juno required relationship to complete themselves, Vesta's priestesses represent an aspect of the feminine nature that is whole and complete in itself.

When the old goddess religions gave way to those of the solar gods, sexuality became divorced from spirituality, such that a woman desiring to follow a spiritual path had to remain chaste. Earlier, however, a priestess, representing the Goddess, could enter into a state of spiritual transcendence through sexual union with an partner in a manner that did not call for marriage or commitment. In the later patriarchal culture, ecstatic illumination was experienced as the descent of the spirit of the god into oneself, and the now-chaste Greek priestesses became the brides of the god Apollo in the sense that the Christian nuns became the brides of Christ.

Vesta Within Us
In the human psyche, Vesta represents the part of each person's nature that feels the urge to experience the sexual energy of Venus in a sacred manner. This may occur in several different ways.

If we are a typical product of our culture's mores, we will most likely internalize this sexual energy. We may devote ourselves to following a spiritual, religious, or meditational path, even following in priestly or monastic footsteps. Or, in our lifelong therapeutic work, we may experience this union with the Self as the process of psychological integration. In one way or another, we turn inward to attain clarity, and in this way we energize ourselves. The vision that arises when we reach the whole and self-contained core of our being then enables us to follow a vocation in which we can be of service in the world.

Vesta the virgin speaks to us of the importance of the relationship we have with ourselves. This may lead to a single lifestyle. If we are married, we may not be comfortable with the total surrender asked for in the merging with another. In Vesta's realm we may find our most satisfactory sexual encounters in being our own best lover.

Alternatively, we may hark back to the earlier cults of priestesses in the Ancient Near East, and periodically find ourselves in sexual encounters with those who pass briefly through our lives or to whom we are not married or committed. These couplings are often marked by a sense that something special, healing and sacred has occurred. To the extent that our society has no context in which to validate sexual unions that do not lead to becoming mated, we may be left with a sense of shame, guilt, and incompleteness. To free ourselves from this burden, we must understand the inherent nature of Vesta's virgins and how they unified sexuality and spirituality.

Vesta protects not only the inner flame of spirituality and sexual energy, but also other precious things that ensure the continuation of human life. As "keeper of the flame" she preserved the state and the institutions of society. She also guarded the home and hearth, including kitchens and the preparation and purity of food. Today she could be seen as a librarian, museum curator, or other sort of worker who preserves the sparks of human culture. She could also express herself in an occupation that deals with housing or food.

Through Vesta, you integrate and regenerate on inner levels so that you can then focus and dedicate yourself to work in the outer world. In the human psyche, Vesta represents the process of spiritual focus that can lead to personal integration. In a broader sense, she signifies the ability to focus on and dedicate ourselves to a particular area of life. When our focus becomes too narrow, we can sometimes feel limited and hemmed in. When our capacity to focus is obstructed, we can feel scattered. This, too, may cause us to experience limitation in the area of life represented by Vesta's sign or house position.

To sum up, Vesta is the archetype of the Sister and the Temple Priestess, whose virginity signifies her wholeness and completeness within herself. Her sign, house and aspect placements in your birth chart show how you use the basic sexual energy of Venus to deepen your relationship to yourself.

Wish you all the best, and thanks for this wonderful forum, where I found so many interesting and enlightning things about astrology and life in general!

[3rdhousenorth]

Hi Castlegirl. Great find on Vesta! Thanks for posting it. Can you also provide a link to it, or tell us who wrote it?

3rdhousenorth

[anjica]

Dear 3rdhousenorth!

Isn't it great that article on Vesta! I'm so glad you liked it.
I accidentally bumped on this wonderful site with many many links on asteroids, and though some of them couldn't open, it's still full of great informations!
I can't remember exactly where the article on Vesta was, but I'm sure you'll find it there..
I don't know whether I would put it to some more more "obvious" place, so that others could enjoy it too..
Anyway, for now, not wanting to open another thread on this, already full forum lol, I'm sending you a link..(and just a hint..under the link"The Apollo Plus 13" you'll find so much)..

Here's the link
ephemeral.info/links/2002_minor.shtml

;D