Almagest

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Pallas in the tenth house

the asteroid 2 Pallas in the tenth house, in modern Western asteroid practice

What the tradition reads

Pallas in the tenth house sets the strategist in the house Alan Leo gives to profession, business ability, fame, honour and material reputation, the house he also calls the Mid-Heaven, and by which he reads all worldly activities and moral responsibilities. AstroFix's list reads this placement as holding a strategy in business and a battle plan for recognition and awards, as understanding how small actions bear on a reputation as a whole, and as taking a holistic view of one's standing in the world. It reads wisdom about one's place in society and about authority and its uses, a plan for becoming an authority oneself, and, at the end, understanding the patterns of one's father. The tenth house is also where the modern literature puts Pallas of its own accord: Astrology King reports that Demetra George links the asteroid with the Midheaven, as symbolising ambitions and visible, socially useful accomplishments, and quotes Michael O'Reilly that a prominently placed Pallas can make one exceptionally skilled as a political strategist. Wikipedia's page on asteroids in astrology keeps to the cautious reading of Pallas as an indicator of effort, dating the astrological use of asteroids to the 1970s; the body itself, found on 28 March 1802, was taken for a planet at first.

The story

The father is unusually prominent in this asteroid's modern literature. Astrology King reads Pallas as signifying a close bond between father and daughter, since the goddess was born from the head of Zeus, and reports that Demetra George bases this on Pallas being the maiden, the second developmental stage in people's lives, when they look to their fathers for the firmness and independence to leave home and go out into the world. The same page notes that Athena did have a mother, Metis, the goddess of crafty thought and wisdom, whom Zeus swallowed after she conceived. The goddess herself was a figure of public office. She was known as Polias and Poliouchos, both from polis, meaning city-state, and her temples stood atop the fortified acropolis at the centre of a city; the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is dedicated to her, her main festival was the most important on the Athenian calendar, and Athens is most likely the city that gave her her name.

Written from

Corpus key point:Pallas:house:10.