NERTHUS
Nerthus, asteroid 601 (the 601st asteroid to be discovered, on June 2, 1906), is
approximately 43 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of 5.5 years. It is
named after a Scandinavian goddess of fertility. When prominent in a natal chart,
Nerthus may show an exceptionally productive, “fertile” individual. By sign and
house, it may show an area of great potential that need only be “cultivated” a little to
produce results.
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.
NEWPLANETS
New planets are Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which were not part of traditional
astrology.
NEWSPAPERASTROLOGY
The simplified astrology found in newspapers, magazines, and other popular publications
emphasizes sun signs as well as a rudimentary form of solar astrology. While there are
many different influences in every individual’s natal chart, the single most important
astrological influence on personality is usually the sign of the zodiac the Sun was in at
birth. Sun-sign astrology has the advantage of simplicity—a person’s birthday is all that
must be known to figure out her or his sign—but this simplicity is purchased at the price
of ignoring all other astrological influences, and hence is rarely 100 percent accurate.
Solar astrology is a system that is often used when an individual’s birth time
cannot be determined. Rather than beginning the chart’s houses from the ascendant
(which cannot be calculated when the birth time is unavailable), a solar chart uses
the position of the Sun on the day of birth as the place to begin the first house, and
then calculates succeeding houses in equal arcs of 30°. Newspaper astrology further
simplifies this system by using the 30° arc of the sun sign as the first house, the next
sign in order of the zodiac as the second house, and so forth. In other words, for a
Scorpio (i.e., a Scorpio sun sign), all 30° of the sign are regarded as the first house, all
30° of Sagittarius (the next sign of the zodiac after Scorpio) as the second house, all
30° of Capricorn as the third house, and so on.
These highly simplified houses are used to determine the influences of the
transiting planets that are generic to each sun sign. As a concrete example, the planet
Jupiter embodies a principle that expresses itself variously as multiplicity, expansion,
joviality, and good luck. When transiting Jupiter is in Capricorn, it is in the solar third
house of all Scorpios. The third house represents travel, relatives, communication,
and related matters, so the presence of transiting Jupiter in this area indicates a period
of time during which one experiences more trips, as well as more communications,
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Newspaper Astrology