Dear Friend and Reader,
Five years ago,В Sedna came into view as a distant spec standing at the edge of our galaxy, like a mysterious woman debating whether or not to join in on the shivaree. Her classifications range from being a relative of the Oort Cloud, a member of the Kuiper Belt, or as the impetus to begin a new classification of objects called Distant Detached Objects.
Because she is so far away (as in, it is estimated that her orbit is in the range of ten thousand years) not very much is known about her. Scientists have deduced that she is a solid, deep red color comparable to Mars. They suggest she may have been a part of another system which, as it was floating along in the darkness, passed ours, and was pulled away from her native swirl and inducted (or perhaps abducted would be a better word) by our stronger gravity. I have also read that Neptune is the culprit of her abduction because of his heavy gravity, which fits very nicely into Sedna’s myth.
Sedna is the first and only cosmic body to be named for a deity in the Inuit Native culture of the Arctic circle. According to tradition, Sedna was once a mortal girl who was beautiful and knew it. Many men from villages far and near sought her hand in marriage, and she turned them all down. Her self-proclaimed beauty was so great that not any normal husband would do. Finally, after a particularly hard year, her father told her that she needed a husband to take care of her. The village was running low on food, and so if she would marry the next hunter that came to call, she would insure food and a warm bed for herself; it would be the wisest thing to do. As her father instructed, Sedna continued to brush her hair and stare at her reflection in the calm water by the shore.
Sedna was so totally lost in the beautiful reflection upon the water, that she did not see the well-dressed hunter approaching the encampment. Nor did she see the deal this fur-clothed hunter made with her father. All she knew was that a new husband had come to call and she had to get into his kayak. She obeyed, though obviously was not the blushing bride her father perhaps hoped, and off she and the mysterious hunter went.
They paddled for a long time and came to a bare island surrounded by the icy sea. There was no trace of a home there and when Sedna looked up into the hooded shadows that covered her new husband’s face, he let out a laugh and unmasked himself. Cackling above her was the Raven. In his mirth, he seized her by the hair and dragged her to the top of the rocks where he had scattered bits of hair and fur: this was to be the conjugal bed. Sedna was so sad at this unfortunate turn of events, that she wept day and night, and called her father’s name over and over again. Finally, her voice drifted to his ears, carried by the Arctic wind. Wrought with guilt, Sedna’s father decided it was time to rescue his daughter. He jumped into his kayak, and began to paddle.
Their reunion was joyful and also fleeting. As they paddled back to Sedna’s home land, the Raven discovered his rock bed empty, and flew in search of his wife. From afar, Sedna spied the black shape of her husband growing larger as he came near, and her heart sank in forboding.
He overtook them soon, and whipped the sea into a storm with the beating of his wings. Terrified, Sedna’s father pushed her into the sea to appease what was obviously a force greater than himself. When Sedna struggled to hang on to the side of the kayak, her father severed her fingers with a knife. This happened twice. At last, and in agony, Sedna succumbed to the freezing water, and sank after her fingers to the bottom of the sea.
But the story did not end for the beautiful maiden. She had the magic of Raven flowing through her and did not die. Rather, her severed fingers became the whales and seals. She herself became the goddess of the sea Inuit Natives pray to at the start of hunting excursions. Her good favor is held in such high esteem that shamans dive into the spirit realm to comb her tangled hair and soothe her. Hunters after a kill will pour water into the mouths of their quarry in honor of the goddess. Their survival depends upon her.
Phil Sedgwick provides the delineation of Sedna as being conscious of consequence, having a forgiving disposition, or negatively, bitterness, history of betrayal and unconciousness. In the more mundane sense, Sedna correlates with sea animal products and diving bells.
Shanna, an excellent addition to the Planet Waves writing team, adds: If Princess Sedna of Inuit mythology had been allowed, she would have probably celebrated this day the way any five year old dreams: by greedily gobbling up all the cake and ice cream, leaving not one crusty little bright red icing rosette for us. It was probably this appetite for good things that annoyed her father, because every version of Sedna’s tale ends with her chopped into bits (usually by dad) and dumped into the dark, arctic depths of the ocean. But just as a slap is never the end of an argument, Sedna’s dismemberment isn’t the end of her tale. Sedna’s story is about what happens when we think violence has cut our connections to life. For in the depths of her watery grave, Sedna reassembles herself, takes on a new form and assumes dominion over the ocean creatures. In a 2004 Planet Waves post, Eric shares some thoughts about Sedna’s meaning from astrologer and astro-researcher Melanie Reinhart:
“Even in the face of unrelenting trauma and suffering, we can, indeed must, beat our drum and sing to life. This is not a plea for escapism, but rather an acknowledgement that the Work is about keeping our heart open in hell. Sedna’s story is about acknowledging just how bad things really feel, and starting from there. Radical acceptance is demanded. Allowing love and harmony into our lives (symbolized by the Star of David, or the Harmonic Concordance [a configuration noted at the time of Sedna’s discovery]) may mean opening to the frozen places inside where we are conflicted and feel unloving. To try and manufacture joy is to metaphorically cut off our own fingers.”
In my opinion, Sedna’s energy is that of detachment. It seems to me that she is about the detachment a person adopts in order to survive abuse, or on the more positive side, detachment as a form of forgiveness, of being able to rise above differences that would otherwise make partnership impossible. Since Sedna was discovered in Taurus (where sheВ still resides) and she is red in color, I feel that she is closely linked to the relationships and bonds we form with animals, especially mammals, and how that relates to the relationships we have with ourselves.
Thanks for joining us, Sedna and as Shanna so eloquently put it: we’ve saved the biggest piece of cake just for you!
Merry Met,
Genevieve and Shanna
“Perhaps she relinquishes her fear of being more powerful than the father thereby releasing her creative power.”
:). Hm. There’s an insight. Except for the part about chopping off her fingers and throwing her in the ocean, I peg her Dad as sort of a normal father, aside from the gig he’s got ferrying the dead. Hey, at least he didn’t make her wear a Promise Ring.
Raven is a trickster god, but they there’s no two alike. He’s the Lightbringer. He dragged the sun into the sky and brought light to the Arctic, which was a pretty happy occasion considering. He’s not the same as Prometheus though: Raven had just had it with bumping around in the dark.
~j
It was very easy for me to get distracted by the brutality of the physical descriptors in this myth.
As relates to the feminine principle, I see as another tale of the journey into womanhood.
Sedna’s awareness of her beauty is her own. The myth does not state that she was rated as a beauty. Her attractiveness to males could merely be her elusiveness making her challenging prey. I believe her sense of this beauty is a sense of her innate power.
Sedna, has agreed to take the journey, to provide food for the village. The hair combing ritual has a meditative quality to it, like a prayer or preparation for battle.
The journey is fraught with struggle. She cries, she screams, she cries out, she runs. Father comes to the rescue but he cannot save her from the powerful thing that she is. He cuts her loose. And she makes food for the villagers.
The father figure adds potency to this myth but I do not have a good enough sense of the masculine principle to make a correlation on that part of the psyche.
Perhaps she relinquishes her fear of being more powerful than the father thereby releasing her creative power.
I am curious about the raven as power figure. That would probably be a regional thing.
One thing about Sedna: her story doesn’t come from Greek myth. The cultural information comes from aboriginal culture — aboriginal culture from a cold, hard place. You have to turn it and squint a little to see that women and girls from this part of the world lived in unforgiving landscapes and what they won in their lives were hard bargains.
The way I see it, this story is about a refusal to give power away and a refusal to prostitute for survival. Everything she is offered in these deals cheapens and traps her. The males in her life see her as an end to their own self interest. She combs her own hair, she looks in the mirror and communes with herself (By the way, there’s a LOT of Neptune imagery in this story.) Why shouldn’t she? Doesn’t seem to be anyone else around worthy of attention. These guys are hellbent on destroying her identity and her independence.
Look, this is a *tough girl*. This isn’t Persephone, going pale and limp and sneaking little red seeds, although both girls endure some outrageous fuckarounds. Ultimately she wins, because what exists in her is the power to create or withhold life. Someplace deep the awareness of Woman as Creator is still there, back in the still pools of the brainpan. This is very important information to hold in collective consciousness. It’s there to tell girls what they are, and it’s there to tell boys not to get so cocky so fast.
So to me this story is about the formidable power of the Feminine Principle to create or destroy. Yin doesn’t do hand to hand combat. Yin refuses. Yin ignores. Yin goes chaotic, changes her mind, gives and withholds. Yin says no, and if you beat the hell out of her she is still so totally going to say no, and then she’s going to *especially* say no some more because remember? You beat the hell out of her last time. You can chop her up in little pieces and throw her into the sea but you can not take her power.
Just like the story of Ceres, this is a Food Story, a story about how the bread gets buttered. Sedna is the *Ocean*. And one day those boys are going to need a full net and a wet spear and the assurance that there will be a next generation.
~j
It does seem a bit like random projection when it comes to the delineations of planets and other cosmic bodies, however, astrologers assign certain characteristics to objects based on things like orbital patterns, color, how many years it takes to journey around the solar system and extensive study of charts.
For example, before Uranus was thought of as the planet associated with liberation and eccentric characteristics, astrologers placed Uranus in people’s charts and derived meanings from that. They were able to recognize patterns and a story came forth.
Interestingly enough, people such as Richard Tarnas are of the belief that Uranus is misnamed. Based on its charateristics and what it brings to a chart transit- and natal-wise, he has proposed that Prometheus would be a better name for it.
Lots of study and application is involved in trying to figure out what each object means in a chart. For the newer discoveries, it takes some time, and it also changes.
I hope this helps answer your question.
g*enevieve
astrodem,
“. . . . .seems like this story of Sedna has a great deal to do with the concept of exploitation and/or being a victim thereof.”
I think you are on the mark here and have personally seen this behaviour experienced with Sedna’s placement in the chart. I don’t think this was mentioned so far, but yesterday’s Full Moon at 21+ degrees of Taurus is conjunct Sedna!
When I first heard about her (discovery in the sky), I Googled her. Most of what I read about Sedna never mentioned her vanity, only her distaste of getting married. Perhaps I should have read further, because I was surprised to learn of this character flaw.
Happy Anniversary Sedna. .. we owe you much.
i’m a bit curious …. a planet ‘appears’ / is ‘discovered’, and then someone chooses to name it, after whatever they feel like naming it after … and then the planet takes on the qualities of what it was named after?
is that how astrology works? it sounds a bit like projection, and maybe the planet isn’t really about whatever we think it is … how would we ‘objectively’ go about determining what the planet is really about?
Just free associating here, but it seems like this story of Sedna has a great deal to do with the concept of exploitation and/or being a victim thereof. Both men in the story (her father and her Raven husband) treat Sedna as an object to be used and abused at their whims. Even when she falls to the bottom of the sea, Sedna’s body is then used as a vessel for the sea creatures to emerge, creatures which have their own will and existence. As the Inuit goddess of the sea, Sedna is again worshipped not for her own sake but to provide good fortune and bountiful hunting to those who make offerings to her. As Immanuel Kant might say, this woman is being used as a means to other peoples’ ends rather than being treated as an end in herself.
I have not used Sedna in anyone’s chart, so I am speaking from a position of ignorance here, but there seems to be strong themes of exploitation in Sedna’s story. I would urge practicing astrologers to consider this theme where Sedna is concerned.
And in light of that, let’s honor Sedna for her own sake and offer her a measure of the dignity she never received in her myth, not for our own benefit or good fortune, but because she merits reverence for its own sake.
Genevieve, thanks for this great piece. The watercolor you included immediately reminded me of The Whale Rider! Now there’s a fascinating connection…