The early asteroids studied by astrologers were named after mythological fig-
ures, and an exploration of the relevant myths provided a preliminary clue to the
nature of these tiny planetoids’ influence. When researchers began shifting away from
explicitly mythological asteroids and began examining asteroids named after concepts,
they continued to follow their previous line of exploration by finding initial clues to
the astrological influences of such asteroids in the concepts after which they were
named. Pax, for example, is the Latin word for peace, which is a clue to the presum-
ably “peaceful” or “pacifying” influence of the asteroid Pax.Sources:
Kowal, Charles T. Asteroids: Their Nature and Utilization.Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Ellis
Horwood Limited, 1988.
Room, Adrian. Dictionary of Astronomical Names.London: Routledge, 1988.
Schwartz, Jacob. Asteroid Name Encyclopedia.St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.CONCEPTION(CONCEPTIONCHARTS)
Although genethliacal, or natal, astrology has settled on the birth time as the moment
for casting the horoscope, astrologers have long felt that it would also be desirable to
cast charts for the moment of conception. Ptolemy, for example, asserted that gender
as well as certain other prenatal events could be deduced from the planets at the time
of conception. However, the obvious difficulties involved in determining precise con-
ception moments have effectively frustrated astrological research in this area. For the
most part, the observation that Nicholas deVore made in his Encyclopedia of Astrology
still applies: “The entire subject of prenatal cosmic stimulation is a welter of confused
theorizing, which yet lacks confirmation in practice sufficient to bring about any una-
nimity of opinion.”
Some contemporary thinkers, nevertheless, have been intrepid enough to
explore this largely uncharted domain. Of greatest significance has been the work of
Eugen Jonas, a Czech psychiatrist who developed a system of astrological birth control
based on the discovery that women have a cycle of fertility beyond the normal ovula-
tion cycle—one based on the phase of the Moon. Jonas found, among many other
interesting things, that the sign the Moon (which rules the principal of conception
and motherhood) was in during conception determined the offspring’s sex—male in
the case of masculine signs and female in the case of feminine signs.
In an effort to construct usable conception charts, some twentieth-century
astrologers have picked up on the trutine of Hermes, an ancient principle for casting
conception charts ascribed to the legendary Hermes Trismegistus that asserts that “the
place of the Moon at conception was the Ascendant of the birth figure [i.e., conjunct
the ascendant of the natal chart] or its opposite point [conjunct the descendant].” If
Hermes was correct, then the trutine could be used to determine the precise time of
conception in cases where the date and time of conception were known approximate-
ly. Prenatal charts relying on the trutine were seriously proposed in the early twentieth
century by Walter Gornold (who wrote under the pen name Sepharial) in The Solar
Epochand by E. H. Bailey in The Prenatal Epoch.Conception (Conception Charts)
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