The library · The other points and bodies

Vesta in Taurus

the asteroid Vesta in the sign Taurus, in modern Western asteroid astrology

What the tradition reads

Read by modern asteroid astrologers rather than by any older authority, Vesta in Taurus is given as the steadiest of its placements. Always Astrology reads it as fixed in its routines, following its path steadily, artistically gifted, persistent, practical, and connected to fertility and to the planet; it notes that such a person takes time to gather focus and then finds it hard to stop, and calls this a comfortable position, one that produces results by settling in. Astrology Club reads the same placement as dedication to the assets of the earth, to stability and to patience, with commitments that compel a person to protect resources both in the wider world and those of personal value, and an immense reservoir of focus and discipline that yields staying power and tolerance. Its reading holds that what is protected is also what gets renounced, so that material rewards and possessions are what a person is likely to deny themselves in search of spiritual truth; the same page records an earthy, grounded sexuality that may equally be ignored or repressed during that search. Cafe Astrology's keyword list for Vesta, dedication, focus, structure and tradition, underlies both readings without distinguishing signs.

The story

Vesta's own festival was agricultural before it was anything else. Wikipedia's account of the Vestalia places it from 7 to 15 June, a women's event honouring the goddess of the house and, with the Penates, of the spirits of the storechamber. On its first day the penus Vestae, the inner sanctum of the temple, was opened for the only time in the year, and while the curtain stayed open mothers could come barefoot and dishevelled to leave offerings in exchange for a blessing on themselves and their families. On 9 June the donkey, the animal consecrated to Vesta, was crowned with garlands of flowers and bits of bread. Grain ran through the priesthood's duties as well: Wikipedia's account of the Vestal Virgins records that the three youngest Vestals reaped unripened far, a wheat, which the three senior ones parched and mixed with salt to make the mola salsa used to consecrate the animals offered in public sacrifice. The festival closed on 15 June with a purification called stercoratio, the temple swept out and its sweepings carried by a set route to the Tiber, after which ordinary court business could resume.

Written from

Corpus key point:Vesta:sign:Taurus.