Family Trees

Post by Jane Lewis

Sun in Cancer

The Sun’s Cancer ingress turns our thoughts towards the divine feminine principle which is symbolised by Moon and Venus but also by the major asteroids Ceres, Juno, Vesta and Pallas Athena.  Lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, these first asteroids to be discovered in the early 1800s were were named after great goddesses of antiquity.  They are understood to represent different aspects of the archtypal feminine principle that are now emerging into mass consciousness, thereby helping to bring in the Aquarian Age by giving birth to the new type of individual of all genders who we might call the ‘John Man’.  This kind of person will have a greatly expanded consciousness compared to our own and that of our parents and ancestors.

Ceres symbolises the Great Mother and is the matrix from which the other asteroids operate.  Cancer, ruled by the Moon, sits at the foot of the natural horoscope and has kinship with the 4^th house of family, home, ancestors, the past, psyche and soul.   Having no light of her own but shining with the reflected light of the Sun, the Moon symbolises the darkness out of which the light is born at the beginning of creation.  Sometimes figured as a Dark Lady and sometimes as Black Madonna, she  is the archetypal mother from whose dark womb matter is born, in effect she generates the cross of matter that is surrounded by the circle of light.  She is the matrix of the eternal process of creation that was already going on in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.  As such she describes the process of creation that takes place within every cell of our being whereby the love contained within the darkness is made visible as light, so revealing and manifesting the love that is the light. 

In mythology, Ceres stands at the centre of the Eleusinian Mysteries and symbolises the process of birth, death and renewal in the rites of initiation.  Like many countries, the United Kingdom has undergone a number of deaths and rebirths over the last thousand years, the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland being the result of the gradual merging of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.  Several national horoscopes exist, the most recent one being the Union of Great Britain with Ireland on 1^st January 1801.  However, the chart set at the time of the coronation of William I on Christmas Day in 1066 following his success at the Battle of Hastings is still considered to hold some validity for our country even today.

It is interesting that Ceres presides over the 1066 chart, making a close conjunction with the Sun and midheaven.  Current transits to this chart may speak of the radical upheaval our country is currently undergoing as Pluto now transits Venus in 29 Capricorn in the 1066 chart.  From this we might expect to see fundamental changes to some of the oldest established values in society, these being inspired by new Aquarian ideals.  Far-reaching changes can be expected in the next 12 months as Pluto retrogrades over this degree before its final Aquarius ingress next year.  These could potentially affect the political landscape of Britain and involve a sea change in wealth and the political influence of those who have traditionally owned the money, land and property.

For the Aquarian Age to bed itself into society it will be necessary for solar and lunar principles to be rebalanced.  Cancer has a deep memory, and we must start to remember past ages when matriarchy was more equal with patriarchy.  As White Eagle has explained, the divine feminine principle within each person has to be balanced with the divine masculine.

The true nature of the divine feminine has been repressed, confused, persecuted and perverted over the last two thousand years of the Piscean Age, as manifested by the repression, persecution, misrepresentation and vilification of women and the soul aspect of humanity.  Although this process had been going on a very long time before 1066, and by no means in Britain alone, the Norman conquest did change the face of Britain, its nobles and ruling families.   Still today, rich and influential families pride themselves on being able to trace back their family tree to forebears who gained land, titles and privileges for supporting William I and helping to keep the conquered peoples at bay.  In the Harrowing of the North that occurred in the decades after the conquest, it is thought that about three-quarters of the indigenous population in northern England was murdered in an act of savage genocide as the barons laid waste to the land.   Inheritances passed through the male line and women were reduced to mere chattels and pawns as bargaining power for lucrative inter-marriages between the leading families. 

A further interesting observation about the 1066 chart is chart-ruler Mars in Aquarius in the 11^thhouse, holding promise for political campaigns to bring in a truly Aquarian society.  It makes a close semi-sextile to Sun-MC-Ceres.  Our nation’s work of service in the wider world can be to create governmental structures that actively promote the nurturing principle of Ceres, helping to create a society that cares equally for all, and hopefully ring the death knell for self-serving political leaders who put their own ego and personal interests first.  Pluto transiting 1066 Venus holds the potential for the power of love to work its magic by bringing about lasting transformations in respect of love, money and relationships.  In the next couple of years Saturn will transit the moon’s south node, forcing our country to face its past karma and sow new seeds for the future.    A period of pain and emotional insecurity can be anticipated as Neptune transits the Moon, and as Chiron transits the ascendant.  The progressed charts for the 1066 map in  2023-24 also show signs of major outward developments.