The Astrology Book

Considered an ideal time for many reli-
gious ceremonies, this sign usually sees people
being more charitable and ambitious, while
being more aggressive and overly self-seeking.

—Pramela Thiagesan

DIANA

Diana, asteroid 78 (the 78th asteroid to be dis-
covered, on March 15, 1863), was named after
the Roman goddess of the hunt and the Moon.
Its orbital period is a little over 9 years, and it is
144 kilometers in diameter. Diana is one of the
more recent asteroids to be investigated by
astrologers. Preliminary material on Diana can
be found in Demetra George and Douglas
Bloch’s Astrology for Yourself,and an ephemeris
(table of celestial locations) for Diana can be
found in the back of the second edition of
George and Bloch’s Asteroid Goddesses.Unlike
the planets, which are associated with a wide
range of phenomena, the smaller asteroids are
said to represent a single principle. George and
Bloch give Diana’s principle as “survival and
self-protection.” J. Lee Lehman finds that
Diana’s position in a chart “shows the place and
area of life in which a person expects absolute
respect and obedience, as if s/he were divine.”
She also observes that individuals with a promi-
nent Diana are intolerant of those they regard as
“lesser types.” Jacob Schwartz gives the astrological significance of this asteroid as
“attunement to animal-nature, hunter-prey and conquest behaviors and attitudes; pro-
tector of whatever is contacted.”

Sources:
Dobyns, Zipporah. Expanding Astrology’s Universe.San Diego: Astro Computing Services, 1983.
George, Demetra, with Douglas Bloch. Astrology for Yourself: A Workbook for Personal Transfor-
mation.Berkeley, CA: Wingbow Press, 1987.
———. Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology and Astrology of the Reemerging Feminine.
2d ed. San Diego: Astro Computing Services, 1990.
Lehman, J. Lee. The Ultimate Asteroid Book.West Chester, PA: Whitford Press, 1988.
Schwartz, Jacob. Asteroid Name Encyclopedia.St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.

DIGNITY

The term dignity is part of a traditional schema for classifying certain sign placements
of planets. A planet is said to be in its dignity (or in its domicile) when in the sign it

THEASTROLOGYBOOK [201]

Dignity

An image of a crowned Diana of Ephesus by James

Harris, c. 1765. Reproduced by permission of Fortean

Picture Library.