MANTO
Manto, asteroid 870 (the 870th asteroid to be discovered, on May 12, 1917), is
approximately 16 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of 3.5 years. It is
named after a Greek prophetess. If prominent in a natal chart (e.g., conjunct the Sun
or the ascendant), Manto may show a person able to intuit the future or someone who
is always seeking information about the future. Manto’s location by sign and house
may indicate how and where one best intuits the future.
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.
MANTRAS
Mantra refers to freeing oneself from the mind. The Sanskrit roots of the word mantra
are manas,meaning “mind” and trai,meaning “to protect or free from.” Therefore the
purpose of mantra is to take the mind out of the relative and into spirit. Mantras are
used in a variety of ways. Many forms of meditation use mantras as the vehicle to lead
the mind from the conscious thinking level and arrive at the source of consciousness
itself. Other mantras are used verbally to create an impulse or influence that subtly
shifts energy in the physical world.
MARS
Mars, named after the Roman god of war, is one of Earth’s closest neighbors, the next
planet from the Sun after the Earth. Because Mars is farther from the Sun than the
Earth, it can appear anywhere on the ecliptic, rather than staying close to the Sun, as
Mercury and Venus appear to stay when viewed from the Earth. When Mars is at its
closest point to the Earth, it is a mere 35 million miles from away and appears as
bright as Sirius—the brightest star in the sky. At its farthest point from Earth, the
eccentric orbit of Mars may place it approximately 250 million miles away. Mars’s
orbital period is 686.98 days which is somewhat less than 2 terrestrial years.
In 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote in Gulliver’s Travelsof the discovery of two Mar-
tian moons. This occurred 150 years before Asaph Hall actually discovered the two
moons that were named Deimos (terror) and Phobos (fear) after Mars’s sons. This
seems appropriate since Mars is often associated with impulsive or precipitous actions.
In traditional astrology, Mars rules over the signs of Aries and Scorpio and is exalted
(a place of special import) in the sign of Capricorn. In Hellenistic astrology, it is con-
sidered to be of a nocturnal sect, that is, it operates at its best in charts of night births.
In the Mesopotamian astral religion, Mars was associated with Nergal, the god
of the underworld. Nergal was also the god of the noonday Sun and said to spread
plagues, pestilence, forest fires, fevers, and wars. Robert Powell thinks the Babylonians
connected the planet’s eccentric movements along the ecliptic—often said to reach
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Mars