Stephanie Austin & Asteroids

I was reading Stephanie Austin’s New (Pisces) and Full Moon (Virgo) reports in Mountain Astrologer today and my interest was piqued. I am a big fan of her analysis and highly recommend it. I think the gift of writing my own reports is that I appreciate other astrologers’ perception much because often we both look at the same aspects and have similiar takes but are still different enough to both be meaningful. One thing I noted with both the new and full reports by Stephanie was the fact that she highlighted the asteroids. With the New Moon she pointed out Pallas Athena and Vesta were an influence on the Sun and on this week’s full moon it is Mercury who is conjoined with Vesta and it is Pallas Athena who opposes the Moon in Virgo.

I love asteroids and have many books on the subject and studied them and can see how they work in my own natal chart. Periodically I do bring them up on my own reports but not frequently. However, I gotta say after watching some stuff go by this week, Stephanie was right to bring up those gal asteroids.

Pallas Athena is a female virgin goddess and a keeper of wisdom. As I mentioned last year when I posted about her she usually has an owl hanging out with her because she is just that smart. She is a warrior for the intellect. And then there is Vesta the keeper of the flame, vestal virgins are her gals. I have been to Rome and I remember roaming around in the Forum ruins and finding the area where the Vestal virgins kept the fires burning. A snuffed fire was disastrous for the community and even worse for the poor virgin who let it flame out. I remember walking and touching the broken marble and feeling a kinship for those gals. As a Sag I keep a lot of flames burning.

Anyway, I’m rambling but my point is that I can feel both smart ol’ Pallas Athena and her little owl standing behind Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke who was denied permission to speak at a hearing before the House committee on contraceptive services. Rush Limbaugh never missing an opportunity to weigh in with his brilliantly dickheadish observations enlighten his audience:

Never one to waste an opportunity to attack liberal causes, Mr. Limbaugh took after Fluke – calling her a “slut,” a “prostitute,” and – one of his personal favorites – a “feminazi.” He also suggested that she make sex tapes and post them online “so we can all watch.”

So, what happened? Well, talk about Vesta keeping the flames burning, women both liberal and conservative, took up their swords against Rush and pressured his advertisers to withdraw their ad buys. And so they did pull out. By the way, the advertisers included two mattress companies. There's that irony.

I will be the first to tell you that I actually don’t think Rush means much to the conservative party. I believe GOP elders consider him a clown. But what was also interesting is today I saw Peggy Noonan and George Will both die hard conservatives call out even Speaker Boehner for his passive response to Rush, George Will said something to the effect, “Boehner called the comment 'inappropriate'. No, eating dinner with your salad fork is inappropriate. Rush’s comments were atrocious.”

It was curious to see such a diverse group rally behind Fluke. And in a moment that could only speak to Pallas Athena’s powerful relationship with her father the head god, Jove/Zeus, Ms Fluke received a phone call from President Obama finding out how she was doing in all this firestorm. The asteroids are definitely in the mix this month. Stephanie was right to point them out. Please do yourself a favor and pick up Mountain Astrologer so you can read Stephanie's monthly reports.

For more on asteroids: