The Problem of the Use of Asteroids in Astrology

What kind of influence do asteroids exert in the solar system?

The use of asteroids in astrology presents us with a peculiar problem. For example, one cannot see Chiron in the sky at night. It emits no electromagnetic radiation, which Saturn does, which Jupiter does. Its diameter is the equivalent of Epimetheus or of Himalia, minor satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, and its mass may be less than that of these moons.

Asteroids are extremely small objects in the sky with orbits similar to the planets. They are called planetoids or minor planets. Most asteroids are primitive bodies, relatively unchanged since the birth of the solar system.

Parts of them are found on the Earth. For example, some meteorites known as eucrites (about a hundred are known today) have the same spectroscopic signature (one that differs from the Earth and the Moon) as does the minor planet 4 Vesta.

The asteroids are located in several different places in the solar system. Most are found in the Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This would include asteroids with semi major axes within the confines of 2.2 to 3.3 astronomical units (where the Earth has a semi major axis of one astronomical unit). Some asteroids pass within the orbit of Earth. Many of these grouped together are called the Apollo belt, the largest being 433 Eros, which has a diameter of about 20 km. Most of the Earth-approaching asteroids are 1 to 2 Km in diameter.

Some asteroids have orbits that go beyond the main belt. 944 Hildago has an aphelion (where its orbit is furthest from the Sun) that reaches beyond the orbit of Saturn; and 2040 Chiron, discovered in 1977 by Charles Koval, with a semi major axis of 13.7 astronomical units, has an orbit that touches Saturn’s at times and at other times almost reaches the orbit of Uranus. Chiron’s diameter has been estimated at somewhere around 200 kilometers. In 1989 astronomers detected a fuzzy cloud (coma) around Chiron. Because such a cloud is a defining feature of comets, Chiron was reclassified as a comet. Today it is classified as both, and accordingly it is also known by the cometary designation 95P/Chiron.

Asteroids leave trails on sky photographs, and so it is possible to estimate the number of asteroids in the main belt. The number of asteroids of one kilometer or larger found in the main belt comes to about 100,000. The largest asteroid is 1 Ceres, with a diameter of 945 Km; this is followed by 2 Pallas and 4 Vesta with diameters of 540 Km and 538 Km respectively. While some 30 asteroids with diameters larger than 200 km exist, their number increases rapidly with declining size.

Object Percentage of mass of bodies in solar system
Sun 99.85
Jupiter 00.10
All other planets 00.04
Comets 00.01 (?)
Satellites & rings 00.00005
Asteroids 00.0000002
Meteoroids and dust 00.0000001 (1)

The total mass of all asteroids in the solar system is about 1/2000th the mass of our Moon. Their total mass would not even begin to make up that theorized planet that was supposed to have exploded between Mars and Jupiter. If all those asteroids were compacted together into one mass, you would have a small body, perhaps the size of one of Saturn’s smaller moons like Tethys or Iapetus. That is only true if one uses all hundred thousand asteroids, including 1 Ceres, which accounts for almost a third of the mass of the asteroid belt.

The problem of planetary and stellar influence is a subject I plan to address in another place, but a few observations are relevant. It would seem reasonable in the application of the laws of physics that some sources of influence would be stronger than others. Saturn has a diameter of 120,660 km and a mass that is 94.3 times that of the Earth’s and a visual magnitude at opposition of +0.7. Doesn’t it stand to reason that it will exert more influence than an asteroid like 2040 Chiron, which compared to Saturn, is a pebble.

Use of Asteroids in Astrology: Chiron

Among some astrologers this pebble Chiron, is praised to the skies in long discourses about healing and the “unhealed healer”.  Asteroids, as percentage of mass in the solar system rate only a little above dust. To say that are the source of all these wonderful things, well, it all seems a bit silly.

Whole books are written on the pebble, Chiron, which does not even have 1/2000th of the mass of the Moon. And that figure, 1/2000th, is the mass of all the asteroids.

In physics and natural law, a theory exists called The Order of Importance. When the Sun projects an X-20 solar flare, this is like a giant finger reaching out and touching the magnetic field surrounding the Earth, sometimes collapsing it. It can burn out electric power transformers, and cause radio waves in the ionosphere to go haywire. In 1851, a solar flare destroyed every telegraph in America. Solar flares may even cause changes in the human physiology. Now, that’s something that we can feel and know—it’s real.

The Moon and Mars exert gravitational force on the Earth. Mars’ gravity is strongest when it comes closest to the Earth at the opposition. The line-up of the Earth and Sun and Moon, called the Full Moon, has traditionally been a time of powerful influence. These are all influences that exert a powerful effect on the human physiology, on the human mind, on the mass of humanity.

An asteroid like 3 Juno (having only 3% the mass of 1 Ceres) or 16 Psyche, (diameter 253 Km), cannot have the same power as a Saturn at opposition or a full Moon, or anyone of a thousand other configurations of the Sun, and Earth, Moon, and planets. The use of asteroids in astrology, giving tiny asteroids this power, well, seems a bit silly. Could gravitation or electromagnetic radiation, which are two of the four known forces, play no part in the influence of the planets and the Sun? It may be that the problem of influence may never be solved, because it is so mystical that the human intellect could never comprehend something so profound. It may be that 2040 Chiron exerts a far more serious and penetrating influence than do Saturn and Jupiter, whose mass is more than a million times that of 2040 Chiron. It also may be that all the meaning and philosophical truth ascribed to this pebble is derived from the Realm of the All-Made-Up.

Astronomical convention says that you must name asteroids for Greek and Roman gods. Yet with the asteroids, because so many exist, the gods and goddesses were quickly used up. Names of cities, wives, of flowers, of just about anything anyone could think up began to be used.

Charles Kowal, an astronomer at Cal Tech, discovered 2040 Chiron in 1977. What if he had chosen not to call it after the Greek healing god? What if, for example, he had named it after his pet Pomeranian dog who had a name, say, like Mr. Wigglie (many of the 3000 named asteroids are named after favorite pets)? Do you think an asteroid named 2040 Mr. Wigglie would have been taken with the same seriousness? Probably not. All that serious thought and philosophical speculation poured into 2040 Chiron would not exist today.

The other problem with the asteroids is that since approximately a hundred thousand of them have been counted, and if you feel that you have to use asteroids in your practice because “they work”, well, then how many of them are you going to use? All hundred thousand? Or maybe just ten thousand? Or maybe now we will winnow it down to just a thousand? The question is still: How many are you going to use?

You really must be consistent in this.

And please don’t forget that all hundred thousand of those asteroids put together weigh only 1/2000th of our Moon. So let’s say you are going to use a thousand (of course, incredibly complex software would help here). Are they going to be weighted equally with Saturn and the Moon? Or maybe they are more important? Or less?

The Law of Asteroids: Do not use asteroids.