TNO Watch: Ceto

NEW TNO TIME!!! YAYYY!!!!

ahem. Now that we got THAT out of our system...

The Astronomy: Ceto is a binary TNO, the other part of the pair being Phorcys, her brother/husband. Ceto is way out there, even farther than Varuna, and has an orbital period of 998 years. She is too small and not dense enough to be considered a dwarf planet, and is considered to be the second binary centaur system, using an extended definition of a Centaur as an object on an non-resonant (unstable) orbit with the perihelion inside the orbit of Neptune. She reached perihelion in 1989. It is assumed that this object has a frozen core of methane ice.  

The Myth: In Greek mythology, Ceto was a primordial deity, a hideous female sea monster, daughter of Gaea and Pontus. She was the personification of the dangers of the sea, unknown terrors and bizarre marine creatures. Her name came from the neuter noun kētos, "sea monster", which gives us the term cetacean today. Her husband was Phorcys and they had many children, collectively known as the Phorcydes or Phorcydides.

Why She Matters: The way I use Ceto in astrology, She represents the monster lurking in the depths of your unconscious mind that you seek to hide. Almost all of the TNO's are tied into psychology in one way or another, and are deeply involved with the subconscious. With Ceto however, She seems to go even deeper than Sedna, and tends to be so prevalent that it is in the background all the time, and when it comes to the surface it surprises everyone. 

Mark Andrew Holmes says Ceto is involved with pictures, and photography, and specifically monsters rearing their heads (I love that description for this object). I agree, but add in monsters rearing their heads to strike. Add in the monster element, and i draw the conclusion of the celebrity who lets the fame go to their head, and destroys everything they worked so hard for.

What I find interesting about Ceto-Phorcys is how it ties into my generation. I was born in 1990 (during another Cardinal Crisis, but that's another post), right as Ceto was making her perihelion. Interestingly enough, this all happened when she was smack dab on the South Node, with Orcus (an extremely interesting and mysterious TNO, also another post), and squaring Pluto-Ixion. Now if there is one thing I hear all the time about my generation, it’s how foul and nasty we are. Either that or we’re some sort of magical heroes who are supposed to fix all the problems in the world. These are both extremely stupid. We are no more foul than the ones who came before us, but the difference is we are much more open about it.

Ceto has an irregular orbit, spending 300 years in Aquarius, her aphelion, while taking only 5 years to go through Leo, her perihelion. Zane makes an extremely interesting point that this could in fact be related to the breakneck pace at which our lives have changed in the last century or so. I bring up the idea again of Ceto lurking in the depths, then coming out of nowhere to strike you when you have your back turned, in regard to technology. As more people regularly use social networking, more and more companies are using this new media to screen potential hires, and ax employees who behave in a way that dosent quite fit the companies ideal. As my generation grows up to become adults, this is going to be more and more of an issue. Tying in with Mark’s idea of pictures, the fun night you have tonight may lead to you looking for a new job next week.

Caution and foresight are the watchwords here, as is vigilance. I chose the image above because it not only illustrates the point I’m trying to make, but also highlights another issue: the pure spiritual person fighting against powerful monsters, using underhanded tactics and being taken by surprise. Too often, spiritual people make a mistake that derails them and they go into depression, often abandoning the ideals they held dear and coming out the other side as the epitome of what they hated.   

Be careful, be smart, and protect yourself, and you'll be all right.

Image courtesy of http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Ceto