In mainstream astrology, you will hear a lot about the planets and the signs. What do the planets in each sign mean? What aspects do the planets make between each other and what do they mean as well? Yet there are so many more heavenly bodies that bring a richer interpretation to the field and our charts too. I will be blogging more about these in future blog posts but to begin with, I want to talk about the asteroid Hygeia.
Hygeia, a major asteroid in the asteroid belt, was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on 12th April 1849 in Naples, Italy. The director of the Naples observatory named the asteroid after the Greek goddess of hygiene, Hygeia. Hygeia was one of four daughters of the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius. It takes Hygeia 5 years and 7 months to orbit around the Sun, spending about 5.5 months in each sign.
As the fourth largest asteroid in the solar system, this asteroid represents prevention rather than a cure. Hygeia features prominently in the astrological charts of medical practitioners, healers, doctors, and medical researchers.
Where this asteroid sits in our charts can show health vulnerabilities depending on its sign, house, and aspects it makes to other planets. Research around this asteroid and its influences are unfortunately limited as I write this blog post. Medical astrologers use this asteroid on and off in their work. Some are keen on it and others, not so much.
It was at the start of July this year, I found this asteroid was playing a significant role in my life. My youngest child started childcare in May this year. She was picking up every microbe and its mutations known to science and gaining natural immunity from them. As we are in winter in the Southern Hemisphere, she was getting sickness after sickness until the end of June she caught influenza-A for the first time. She came through it like a champ and got her older brother sick soon after. And as their primary carer, I also got sick. Hubby is still immune but my elderly mother caught it as well and has recovered I write this post.
Usually, I get better within a week from the flu but this time took me THREE weeks to recover! I thought to myself, OK I’ve been feeling burnt out of late, my immune system is compromised which makes sense. But why did it take me so long to get better? Of course, I had to look at my chart, and guess what I saw...
Hygeia had returned to its exact spot where it was when I was born! I looked back in time to see if the other times it had returned to that exact position, had resulted in any illness. I couldn’t remember. I would have needed to have kept an accurate diary of my health to be certain. However this return, this year, Hygeia was together (conjunct) with my Sun (life force) and Mercury (voice). It was opposite my Chiron (asteroid of healing on a spiritual level), sextile Saturn (teacher), square Mars (war), and trine Jupiter (big).
You will notice I put adjectives after the planetary names in the previous paragraph about what each planet can represent and how they play a role in my interpretation of events. I did this because it is in hindsight, I realised that I could have prevented this illness that shook me and took me down for a bit. As I write this I can still feel its effects. And yes three negative RAT tests confirmed it wasn’t covid.
Before I got sick, I felt run down and there was something that was bugging me that I kept to myself. I didn’t speak my truth as a Libran and kept quiet to protect the peace instead of speaking up (Mercury). My anger raged inside of me (Mars) at what resulted and instead of speaking up, the more I kept it in, the sicker I got (Jupiter). I learned my lessons very slowly (Hygeia sextile natal Saturn) and my life force was waning (Sun). It wasn't until I realised where I made my error, was honest with myself, and admitted it openly, that the healing began (Hygeia opposite natal Chiron). It was healing I needed to experience on a soul level that once I acknowledged, did the healing on the physical level begin.
So what does a simple yet long bout of the flu mean with this asteroid? Hygeia shows us where we have health vulnerabilities and if we don’t prevent them, then illness at those health points can occur. I didn’t speak up, which drained my life force and in turn, made my tired immune system susceptible to the virus I had caught while nursing my children.
Would having washed my hands better prevented it? Of course! I washed my hands very well yet the bug was all over the house as my kids were coughing and sneezing like tanks exploding warheads everywhere. It was unavoidable, yet I tried the best I could. The lesson I learned in prevention is that we need to be true to ourselves, true to our bodies, and true to our souls as our weak points will be the first to be afflicted. At the end of the day, prevention is better than cure.