As one of our contributors mentioned below, a vast new ring has been discovered around Saturn. The first thing most astrology readers are going to ask is: what is the implication for astrology? My reply: the solar system, which makes up most of our symbolic set of references for the astrology we do, is a work in progress. We hardly know anything about it, and most of what we know we learned from looking rather than visiting; or visiting with a space probe.
Sending your camera on vacation to France is not the same thing as going there yourself.
It’s remarkable that this discovery is announced just as Mercury is making a conjunction to Saturn, in aspect to the Galactic Core (see today’s daily astrology post below Dani’s photo). This is a message from Saturn. And it’s about the galactic nature of Saturn (for eons, thought to be the outermost planet): this ring has the distinct image of a galaxy, a far-flung plane of dust.
The ring also does something a little like Pluto or a Centaur planet: it intersects the plane of Saturn’s traditionally referenced rings at an angle. Pluto’s angle of intersection the Sun’s equator is about 11 degrees (and I can’t find that data for Chiron, stay tuned and I’ll turn it up). This ring intersects at about 27 degrees. So there’s a mystery. If some force is holding the other rings in place where they are, some other previously unknown force is holding this one in place. That raises more questions than it provides answers, though one implication is that this is how Saturn works in astrology as well. It has another influence than the one we think it has.
In any event, the synchronicity of this discovery with a major Saturn aspect (and let’s not forget Saturn opposite Uranus, still unfolding) is difficult to miss. I will do my best to hunt down an actual discovery time. Here is the full text of the article from Times Online (the Times of London).
A huge ring of dust has been discovered around Saturn that is about 50 times farther out into space than the planet’s known rings.
The faint hoop, the largest-known planetary ring in the Solar System, is believed to be made up of debris from one of Saturn’s moons, Phoebe.
According to the study, published tomorrow in the journal Nature, this dust is disturbed by minor impacts on Phoebe and drifts towards the planet where it is picked up by another of Saturn’s moons, Iapetus.
The dusty hoop extends about 8 million miles (13 million km) from the planet, and would be twice the size of the Full Moon if it were visible from the Earth, Previously, the largest-known planetary rings were Jupiter’s gossamer rings and Saturn’s E ring — broad sheets of dust that extend to about five to 10 times the radius of their planets.
The new ring is extremely faint, made up of a thin array of ice and dust particles. In a cubic kilometre of space there are only about 20 particles. “It’s very very tenuous. If you were standing in the ring itself, you wouldn’t even know it,” said Dr Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia.
The ring was discovered using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to scan for infrared signals near Phoebe’s orbit. The telescope, which is currently 66 million miles (107 million km) from Earth in orbit around the Sun, picked up a faint glow of the ring’s cool dust particles.
The enormous ring may solve a longstanding riddle in astronomy: the two-tone colouration of Iapetus, which was first spotted by the astronomer Giovanni Cassini in 1671. The leading hemisphere of the moon is significantly darker than its trailing hemisphere.
Dr Verbiscer and colleagues calculate that, over the history of the Solar System, material from the ring could have supplied Iapetus’s front face with a blanket of dark dust. “It’s basically been sandblasted by small particles from the ring,” she said.
Eric,
i’m interested in why you would use the angle of intersection to the Sun’s equator as opposed to the angle of intersection to the ecliptic, given that Astrology is fundamentally geocentric.
In addition, thank you for your perspective. Yes, as in science, as the ability to observe improves, paradigms are subject to change (and sometimes wholesale replacement). Since your return from Burning Man i have made Saturn an emphasis in my further studies. This message from Saturn (as you put it), synchronous as it is with an important set of aspects, has an almost Jupiter feel to it in that expansion seems to be implied. Expanding Saturn’s reach of continuous influence on matter. Expanding the analogous perception of Saturn’s local neighborhood. Adding to the complexity of an already large and diverse collection of objects sharing the same gravity well.
Note to Jere: i would never run you down, i brake for poets!
This, in turn, gives me hope that humans will acknowledge the vast indifference they have with bodies in nature. A very saturnian theme. Saturn is here to wake us up. It’s pressure beyond pressure. It’s the pathway that says hey, you can’t ignore me, so deal with me in the capacity that you’re able. And, it will show how this reality expands, and contracts, within itself and upon itself, within you, and upon you.
We’ll work this sheisse out as we go along…
Just had to throw some shit out, I’m with ya, run me down if you need.
…as always, Love Peace Happiness (only for those who make it)(although it’s for everyone)
Funny, and disturbing, (honestly, Humans are cool. This reality is a cool trip!)
Luv ya,
Jere
Absolutely Fascinating! I feel, ah – ‘Gleeful’ somehow. 😉 Can’t wait to read more of your word on this, Eric!