The library · The other points and bodies

Pallas in Libra

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

What the tradition reads

Pallas in Libra is read as strategy spent on holding a balance. Astrology Club's delineation has the warrior of this sign protecting equality, justice and harmony, and creating beauty through imagination. The wisdom described is that of the partner, a calling that can be given to helping others work together towards common ends; the page reads a healing grace of movement and an eye for artistic vision and talent, and locates the strength in a disposition at once strong and gentle, together with a willingness to set one's own needs aside for the good of the group. That willingness is stated as a strength and left there, not recommended. The general reading Astrology King collects sits well with this sign: besides wisdom, courage and just warfare, that page quotes Eric Francis to the effect that Pallas Athena represents political and negotiating skills, having been transformed into a kind of modern lawyer-like warrior, and notes the diplomacy and tact ascribed to the asteroid before any contest begins. Wikipedia's page on asteroids in astrology keeps to the plainer version, Pallas as an indicator of effort, of wisdom or of intelligence. The body was discovered on 28 March 1802 and is the second asteroid to have been found, after Ceres. Libra is the sign the Western scheme gives to Venus.

The story

The Athena story turns on a judgement. Wikipedia describes her as the goddess of war, good counsel, prudent restraint and practical insight, and says that in this capacity she became the guardian of the welfare of kings. In a founding myth reported by Pseudo-Apollodorus she competed with Poseidon for the patronage of Athens; the two agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and that Cecrops, the king of Athens, would decide which gift was better. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and raised a salt water spring, which gave the Athenians access to water; Athena created the first olive tree, and the city went to her. The contest is settled by an arbitrator rather than by force, which is the part a Libra reading leans on. Her later reputation runs the same way. She is said to have favoured heroes who used cunning and intelligence rather than brute strength, and her superiority to Ares is explained on the same page by her standing for the intellectual and civilised side of war and for the virtues of justice and skill, while Ares represented mere blood lust.

Written from

Corpus key point:Pallas:sign:Libra.