What does Ceres mean in Astrology? Dark goddess Ceres was discovered in Sicily in 1801. The new planet was named after the Roman grain goddess because of her close mythological and cult connections to this Mediterranean island. Enna in Sicily was said to be where Proserpina was abducted by Pluto, who apparently flew out of the volcano, Mount Etna. (The Greek versions are Persephone, her mother Demeter and her nasty uncle Hades, god of the underworld.)
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There are some very interesting synchronicities. When Ceres was discovered she was exactly, and I really mean exactly in alignment with fixed star Algol by 0 degrees 00’! The Algol connection with Ceres is all the stranger because Medusa’s head is also found on the Sicilian flag.
Ceres Discovery
The Sicilians have mixed Ceres symbolism with Medusa by entwining the snakes with sprigs of wheat. Therefore there must be some esoteric connection between Medusa and Ceres. Later we will see the snake symbolism again with the stars involved in Ceres’ discovery chart.
Ceres was discovered at 8pm on the very 1st day of the 19th century. [1] For 50 years Ceres was actually classified as the 8th planet until the rest of the asteroids started to be discovered in 1851. The discoverer of Ceres, a Sicilian monk and astronomer, Giuseppe Piazzi wrote in his notes that Ceres was sitting on the shoulder of the bull (Taurus).
Algol was at 23º Taurus in the 1800’s. Ceres has a great affinity to the sign of Virgo due to the Virgo constellation’s brightest star Spica being the chaff of wheat in the hand of the Virgin. As we have seen in my rundown of the Virgo decans, the Persephone theme is very strong.
Darling Persephone is Ceres’ beloved daughter Kore, as she was known before Pluto ‘took’ her. Ceres’s themes are far more complex than simply ‘Earth Mother’. Unfortunately, this expression is so over-used that it just conjures up images of hippie chicks with buggies full of babies and organic vegetables. Ceres is far more social than that (Like Jupiter and Saturn).
Remember Ceres comes between Mars and Jupiter so it’s not really a personal planet, nor is it just another mummy moon. Another problem with the ‘Grain-goddess’ brand is that it seems very one dimensional. I mean it’s bread right? How complex can buns get?
You cannot look at Ceres in isolation because she really comes in a trio with Pluto and Eris, both mythologically and in the story of her reclassification as a dwarf planet. But I will come back to the simplicity of the Earth Mother because it’s so simple and obvious that we can overlook its importance.
Ceres & The Persephone Myth & Kore
Ceres/Kore = Maiden
Eris/Persephone Sotiera = Saviour maiden/mother
Pluto/Ceres = Crone
So Ceres is not just sun kissed, golden fields of corn. In fact this being Darkstar of course we must look at Ceres’ dark shadow, and like all the planets she has one! The Persephone myth is integral to Ceres’ meaning, as Robert Graves believes Persephone is the younger self of Demeter (Ceres). Before Persephone’s abduction she was the maiden/virgin Kore and after her abduction she was named Persephone. In terms of astrology we can say that that Ceres could signify the maiden Persephone and Eris the post-abducted Persephone. We could also play around with the triple goddess and say that;
Ceres is about natural law and the cycles of life. The three dwarf planets are really a transformation based on the seasonal changes. The mourning that Ceres suffered at the loss of her daughter Persephone (or her own childhood/virginity) is mirrored in the infertile winter season.
Hades for the Greeks was also the god of riches and deep in the underworld we find gold if we go deep enough. It is interesting death is associated with these buried treasures, whereas life is Ceres’s territory. Above ground, the ‘wealth’ is the land and our energising connection to it. (Check out ‘Earthing’.)
In ancient Greece, sometimes when a couple wanted to marry, but the parents wouldn’t allow it, the suitor would ‘kidnap’ his beloved and they would spend the night out in the country somewhere. After that it was assumed the virgin had been deflowered and they would now have to marry in order to save the girls honor.
On a personal note this happened in Sicily too where my grandmother aged just 15 eloped with my grandad who was in his 20s I believe. Huzzie! Only kidding Nonna, but my dad was the result. This is quite a quaint story, but by today’s standards, my grandad would have been considered a pedophile.
P3d0philia and Abduction
100 years ago women were probably more mature by aged 15 as life expectancy was a lot shorter. Women became parents earlier and therefore learned responsibility. Teenage abduction may not have been such a shocker in the past because Sicily was under Muslim rule for a good 500 years. Mohammed had a 9-year-old wife, so this mentality might have rubbed off on the Sicilians.
The earlier you get the girl, the better she is groomed into the obedient slave characteristic of Ceres/Pluto relationships. It’s important to understand some of the culture behind Ceres as she really is a product of the front line where East meets West. Ceres cosmic birth in Sicily means she must have absorbed some of that front line, edgy culture.
So the dark side of Ceres brings themes of abuse, rape, abduction and in the worst cases, p3d0philia. There is very definitely a Svengali influence too seen with young singers in the entertainment industry, like Miley Cyrus or Britney Spears.
These starlets were groomed from a young age by their Hollywood handlers/producers. These producers will be Pluto, while Ceres can be the stage mother or the daughter herself. To make things more complex, there is another Greek god named Plutus or Ploutos (the Greek word for wealth) who was actually the son of Demeter (Ceres).
This represents the aspect of Ceres that is extremely materialistic, for in Dante’s inferno it states that “Plutus is the demon of wealth who guards the forth circle of hell ‘The hoarders and the wasters’ Dante likely concluded that Plutus symbolised the evil of hoarding wealth.” – Wiki.
I Have TWo YOUTUBE VIDIOS ABOUT CERES
Ceres & Narcissism
There a lot of bleed between Ceres and daughter Persephone. This confusion also occurs with Hades (Pluto) and Plutus. Hade’s mother-in-law Ceres, has a son (Plutus) who is also an aspect of Hades himself! This complicated scenario really mirrors the phenomenon of enmeshment found in Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Narcissistic parents often create triangulation between siblings.
One child will be designated the ‘Golden Child’ while the another ‘the scapegoat’. Persephone shows all the symptoms of being the scapegoat, while her half-bother Plutus (wealth) is certainly the golden child. Of course these roles can flip around now and again, just to keep the children on their toes.
Persephone may start off as the golden child in the shape of Kore, while she is still very attached to her mother. Kore is groomed to be the little star, a mirror of her mother’s unfulfilled fantasies of fame. This is a lot to live up to and if Kore/Persephone fails she then becomes the scapegoat. Persephone can also become scapegoat by pairing with a badboy Pluto.
The Plutus sibling can be the golden child by being Ceres’ substitute husband her real husband has failed in some way or has left the home. This, of course, is a very incestuous type of relationship. Either way, this negative Ceres is engulfing her children and becomes the devouring mother.
The Dark Traid
Ceres, Eris (Persephone) and Pluto are a triad. In psychology some of the cluster-B personality disorders are grouped together and called the “Dark Triad”. They comprise of Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy. These mirror quite well the negative manifestations of Ceres, Eris (Persephone) and Pluto. So we get:
Negative Ceres = Narcissism as defined by Wikipedia; “ Grandiosity, pride, egotism and a lack of empathy.”
Negative Eris = Machiavellianism; “ Manipulation and exploitation of others, a cynical disregard for morality, and a focus on self-interest and deception”
Negative Pluto = Psychopathy; “ Enduring antisocial behaviour, impulsivity, selfishness, callousness and remorselessness”
Being brought up by a narcissistic mother can force the young scapegoat Eris/Persephone to become Machiavellian, just in order to survive. Eris can feel so unloved that she resorts to manipulation in order to gain the love that she does not believe will be given unconditionally. I will go into this much deeper in the Eris post once I rewrite it. But there are overlaps between innocent Ceres as Kore and Persephone as Eris.
The way out of this character malfunction (as a result of Negative Ceres’ emotional abandonment), often does come in the shape of an abduction by Pluto. This forces Persephone to see her dark side and accept that she has indeed been abused by her own parent(s). In this way she goes through the dark night of the soul and starts to re-member her shattered ego. Her journey to the underworld and back shows this transformation.
Narcotics & The Cave Man
When negative Ceres experiences the loss of her narcissistic supply from her daughter she becomes distraught. Like the myth, she withdraws her material support (the abundance of nature’s bounty) and falls into a winter of depression. Her massive pride is hurt, how could Persephone leave her for that bad boy Pluto?! Another association with Ceres is the poppy, so Ceres may take to numbing her pain by taking narcotics.
Note the etymology, narc-issism, narc-cotics is interesting to say the least! Narkotos is the Greek verbal adjective of narcoun “to numb, to make unconscious.” Now I know this all looks very bleak, but Ceres rules cycles and all is not lost here. This mourning period is just a stage. All mothers go through this stage when their children leave home and also when they go through the menopause. (so Ceres can describe this stage in a woman’s life too.)
A man will experience Ceres through his relationship with his mother or rubbing up against feminists! It might also manifest as the typical mother-in-law problem, where the mother Ceres feels threatened by her son’s new wife. Again the risk of triangulation comes into play, where the wife is seen as being manipulative and seducing the son away from loyalty to the mother Ceres. Men can have addiction problems too obviously which can bring problems of zoning out with porn, video games as well pain-numbing chemicals.
Men have a natural need, however, to quietly contemplate, as primitives they would go to their caves (Modern day shed.) or chop wood, or stare into the fire (Modern day BBQ.) so they are naturally more inclined to be hypnotised by the computer screen. However in some ways this is fairly normal behaviour for men and a balance is what’s needed as always. So when I say ‘she’ in this post I mean the part of both sexes that is earth-connected, our pagan self.
