The library · The other points and bodies

Pallas in Leo

the asteroid 2 Pallas in Leo, in modern Western asteroid practice

What the tradition reads

Pallas in Leo is read as strategy carried out in the open, on behalf of those under one's protection. Astrology Club's delineation calls this the regal warrior of the set, leading those she loves towards light, love and joy, and defending the right to shine with individual talents and strengths. Problems, on that reading, are solved by willpower and leadership rather than by analysis, and the creative intelligence is described as radiant, generous and brilliant. The page holds that the honour and dignity of those cared about is defended as fiercely as one's own, calls such a person a formidable opponent in any contest, and notes a tendency to measure oneself by the condition of those nearby. That last line is the qualification the reading carries in this sign. The frame around it is modern: Wikipedia's page on asteroids in astrology dates the use of asteroids in charts to the 1970s and offers Pallas as an indicator of effort, of wisdom and of intelligence, while Astrology King gathers the fuller modern reading of courage, just warfare, strategy, skill, creative intelligence and pattern recognition. Pallas itself, discovered by Olbers on 28 March 1802, was considered a planet when it was found, as other asteroids were in the early nineteenth century. Leo is the sign the Western scheme gives to the Sun.

The story

Athena was a public goddess as much as a clever one. She was believed to lead soldiers into battle as Athena Promachos, and in the Iliad she is the divine form of the heroic martial ideal, personally attended by Nike, the goddess of victory; the qualities said to lead to victory were figured on the aegis she wore to war, named on that page as fear, strife, defence and assault. Her main festival at Athens was the Panathenaia, celebrated in midsummer and described as the most important festival on the Athenian calendar, and she was especially worshipped in her warlike role at festivals that prominently featured displays of athletic and military prowess. The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is dedicated to her, along with numerous other temples and monuments, and her temples were usually set atop the fortified acropolis at the centre of a city. The Greeks are said to have regarded her with much higher esteem than Ares, since she represented the intellectual and civilised side of war and the virtues of justice and skill, whereas Ares, in that page's words, represented mere blood lust. Spectacle in the service of a city, rather than spectacle alone, is the Leo note here.

Written from

Corpus key point:Pallas:sign:Leo.