Almagest

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Vesta in the sixth house

the asteroid Vesta in the sixth house, in modern Western asteroid astrology

What the tradition reads

Vesta's reading in the modern sources is about devotion and focus rather than about any one area of life. Wikipedia's account of asteroids in astrology says astrologers use it to determine what a person is devoted to; Cafe Astrology's asteroid pages list dedication, focus, warmth, devotion, a sense of purpose, hard work, structure and tradition among its themes; Always Astrology calls Vesta the keeper of the hearth, focus and dedication, mental clarity and self respect. The sixth house, in Alan Leo's account, is sickness, servants and work: the service required, those who render it, and what he calls the attachments arising from the expression of the tenth house. In the chapter he gives it he connects the house with the mid-heaven and the second, and assigns to it work, servants and the condition of the physical body; his summary of the twelve places sickness here as well, and names it the house of ceremonial or phenomenal magic. He counts the house cadent and assigns to it the bowels and the solar plexus. Of the sources consulted, none gives a reading for Vesta in the sixth house: the two delineations that treat Vesta placement by placement, Always Astrology and Astrology Club, work by sign only, and Cafe Astrology's asteroid pages give Vesta's keywords without any delineation by house, so no reading is offered here.

The story

Vesta's cult was above all a rota. Wikipedia's account of the priestesses records that the Vestals took turns supervising the sacred hearth so that at least one of them was stationed there at all times, that a Vestal who let the fire go out was punished with whipping, and that the beating was carried out in the dark and behind a curtain to preserve her modesty. The fire could then be relit, the same page says, using the correct rituals and the purest materials. Around that watch ran the rest of the work: Wikipedia's account of the sacred fire lists the ceremonial sweeping of the temple on 15 June and the preparation of sacred food for major festivals among the rites the Vestals performed, and its account of the priestesses describes the three youngest reaping 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. Thirty years of service, on that account, were spent mostly in repetition.

Written from

Corpus key point:Vesta:house:6.