The library · The other points and bodies

Ceres in Leo

the dwarf planet Ceres in tropical Leo, in modern Western asteroid astrology

What the tradition reads

Ceres in modern Western practice shows how nurture is given and what registers as nurture received, and in Leo both delineations consulted answer with recognition. Bob Marks reads Ceres in Leo as nurtured by attention, respect and admiration: a show put on for its benefit works, and a show it is made part of works better, while the sign's preference for nothing but the best can make the nurturing expensive, so he offers being placed at the centre of attention as the cheaper route to the same effect. Astrology Club calls this the sun figure among the twelve, whose light and appetite for life encourage others to believe in themselves, building sound confidence, dreams and inner faith, teaching leadership and self guidance; the same page notes that this placement enjoys being cared for and receives nurture gracefully, returning its pleasure to whoever gave it. Cafe Astrology, which groups Ceres by element rather than sign by sign, has the fire signs nurturing first by moral support and encouragement, which is close to both readings. Wikipedia notes that the four asteroids only began to be used by astrologers in the 1970s, so this reading carries no ancient authority.

The story

The public festival of the goddess belongs with this sign. Wikipedia's article on Ceres records that her main festival, the Cerealia, was held from the middle to the end of April, that her seven day April festival included the popular Ludi Ceriales, the games of Ceres, and that it was organised by her plebeian aediles and included circus games; from about 175 BC the Cerealia also carried theatrical religious events through the twelfth to the eighteenth of April. The same article records a stranger rite kept there, in which foxes were released into the Circus after the race, their tails ablaze with lighted torches. The article attributes the practice to nobody and offers, hedged with its own perhaps, that it may have served to cleanse the growing crops or to add warmth and vitality to their growth. A grain goddess honoured with games, theatre and spectacle rather than with quiet is a fair background for a sign the tradition reads through display, and it matches a Ceres delineation in which nurture arrives as applause, admiration and a part in the show.

Written from

• Bob Marks, Ceres, Astrology Lesson 21.1, archived copy
• Astrology Club, Ceres in the Signs
• Cafe Astrology, Ceres
• Wikipedia, Ceres (mythology)
• Wikipedia, Asteroids in astrology

Corpus key point:Ceres:sign:Leo.