House enters Taurus

Asteroid House was discovered on December 7th, 1988 by E.F. Helin, who apparently was hanging around Palomar Observatory at the time, doing what astronomers do – inspecting the wonders of the universe.

In this case, the segment of universe in question is solar systemic: House is a main belt asteroid (meaning it orbits between Mars and Jupiter) and as asteroids go, it’s a pretty mainline main belt asteroid, considering it’s 2.74 away from Ye Olde Sun at it’s farthest and 2.250 at its nigh-est from Old Man Sol and that means – the difference between these figures being in all consideration so minor – that it’s orbit is rounder than most, meaning House is pretty much at home where it is…right there in the middle of the gigundo pack of asteroids which liberally liters local space between Mars and Jupiter.

(I keep wanting to type You-piter, but that just seems too flippant…)

With an orbital period of 4.56 years, House pretty much keeps company with some of its asteroid neighbors such as clever Kleopatra and platonic and friend-oriented Amor. And hey, if you’re an asteroid out there wandering around you probably want a few friends, so Amor and Kleopatra aren’t that a bad choice for celestial neighbors.

However, looks (of orbits) can deceive. Granting that the data base this astrologer uses is only several hundred entries (out of thousands) long, at its farthest from our most yellow Sun (and therefore little blue marbled Earth, too) House keeps company with Kleopatra and Amor as closest neighbors. But beyond Kleopatra cycles Arachne (entanglement, patient stealth) and She Who Should Have Kept Her Mouth Closed – Echo.

Remember Echo? Oh, how dangerous it is to lie for the boss when the other boss is his wife and she doesn’t know that he’s going out on her!

But I digress. The point I’m trying to make here is that when we look at asteroid House’s perihelion point (it’s closest orbital point to us and the Sun) we find it’s running in a somewhat different crowd. Instead of friendship (Amor) and cleverness (Kleopatra) we find House’s orbit “closely” linked with Lust (fixation), Byblis (defense of the indefensible), Arachne (entanglement – as above) and Hel (use your own favorite description).

So “close up,” House seems to be fraught with issues where from “far away” it’s nice and respectable.

Gee…does that remind you of anything? Maybe all those many human constructs – be they families, marriages, communities, companies, religions – which have these nice white picket fences or glossy covers or spinky-spanky reputations…but look under the proverbial rug and what do you find?

All those human uglies.

But in celestial terms, let’s remember – though the inner solar system (and therefore, the ‘close in’ aspects of cycles, even if they don’t pass mars and technically enter the inner solar system…) though that inner system is where we may feel ‘at home,’ the metaphysical ‘growth’ of life is to be powered by life (the energy of the Sun) in moving out through and into the unknown.

Which may actually be some good news, seeing that when we look at House in that light we see where while yes, we can put on that false front of friendship and/or cleverness with others, we could also grow in that direction. We can master asteroid attributes – we just have to want to!

Another idea this dichotomy of positions would seem to suggest is how (and in a sense, why) we are so hard on ourselves. We see our ‘Hel’ish’ points. We get where we’re all Arachne/tangled up in our heads or histories. We know how we want to have things the way we want them to be even when we know that’s wrong, wrong, (Byblis) wrong.

(Though yes, Byblis covers a lot of ground here – as do all these points, actually!)

As the saying goes, sometimes we are just our own worst enemies. And even when we succeed, we come back to realizing there’s still more to do, things to grow, accomplishments we can tackle.

Yet…there is some comfort in coming home to that slouchy shoe which just feels good. Sure it’s ugly. But it’s comfy.

And what does that say? Maybe that we are capable of being at home in a life which is filled with entanglements and fixations and ridiculously wrong things being defended?

That would make us out to be some pretty resilient beings, no?

Given all this, what does it mean that House is entering Taurus on April 5th at 5:52pm (UT/+0)?

Well…like anything in any of the first three signs (the first zodiacal quarter), objects in Taurus define both the starting place and the object. The object would be to feel at home…to feel safe and secure. That’s pretty much a no-brainer. But that’s the Taurus end product, not it’s genesis. The Taurus genesis point is self worth and abilities: those things with which we create a life which generates security and satisfaction.

Especially with Neptune having just moved into Pisces, House’s transit of Taurus is likely to show up both where we feel okay and what we feel insecure about. It would actually seem ‘apropos’ to have reservations about a lot of things at the moment.

But let’s remember: life’s object (if I may be allowed to put it this way) is to get us to do things. And in order to get us to do things, life has to make us either uncomfortable or dissatisfied. Even distressed or insecure.

So you tell me – with all the upheaval and uncertainty going on, is this the best of times or the most bizarre of times?

And especially now with Neptune in Pisces asking us to embrace the integrity of acceptance, is House in Taurus perhaps really a call, a challenge and question about whether we feel ‘at home’ in our own skin - no matter what is going on?