Dione in mythology was the mother of Aphrodite and Dionysus.  The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a fennel staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thrysus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature describes him as womanly or “man-womanish”.  In its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession is made up of wild female followers and bearded satyrs with erect penises. Some are armed with the thyrsus, some dance or play music. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a bearded, drunken Silenus. This procession is presumed to be the cult model for the human followers of his Dionysian mysteries. Dionysus the God of fertility, grape vine and arts is originally a foreign God to the Greeks, he is barely mentioned by homer.  A number of his stories are tales of how Dionysus moved into a city, was resisted, and then destroyed those who opposed him. The most famous account of this is that of Euripides in his play the Bacchae.

Aphrodite too was foreign in origin, Astarte – the Greek name for Ishtar.  Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war.  Coins from Beirut show Poseidon, Astarte, and Eshmun worshipped together.Poseidon was Originally an earth God and consort of Gaia, Eshmun was a healing Deity.  Poseidon is the closest Greek deity to Sin or Nanna the Moon God of Sumeria and Father of Astarte.  Eshmun is very close in characteristic to Enki, grandfather of Astarte.  Dione could be a reference to Ningal (Great Lady), Mother of Astarte daughter of Enki.  As such Zeus assuming the importance of Poseidon / Nanna / Sin his rarely mentioned consort Dione, the feminine version of his name would relate to Ningal.

Asteroid Dione is a large main-belt asteroid with a composition similar to Ceres, and has a 2:1 resonance orbit with Jupiter.  Ningal was the daughter of Enki, God of wisdom and fertility and Ningikurga, lady of the reeds.  Ningal most probably represented the goddess of the home,  seeds of reeds (Ningal) were planted and watered until they had grown long enough to be tied together to form a roof for reed houses.  As a representation of the home and probably marriage bed, she also had powerful connotations of fertility and eroticism. Her children seem to reflect certain aspects of this erotic side of her nature.

Ninkasi is a Sumerian Goddess, daughter of Ninti (Lady Rib / life) famous as the Goddess who became the biblical eve and Enki the God that became Adam. ‘ A hymn to Ninkasi’ gives the ancient Sumerian recipe for  beer:

Hymn to Ninkasi

Borne of the flowing water,
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,
Borne of the flowing water,
Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,

Having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished its great walls for you,
Ninkasi, having founded your town by the sacred lake,
She finished it’s walls for you,

Your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.
Ninkasi, your father is Enki, Lord Nidimmud,
Your mother is Ninti, the queen of the sacred lake.

You are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with sweet aromatics,
Ninkasi, you are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel,
Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date] – honey,

You are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,
Ninkasi, you are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,
Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,

You are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,
Ninkasi, you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,
The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,

You are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,
The waves rise, the waves fall.
Ninkasi, you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,
The waves rise, the waves fall.

You are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes,
Ninkasi, you are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,
Coolness overcomes,

You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort,
Brewing [it] with honey [and] wine
(You the sweet wort to the vessel)
Ninkasi, (…)(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

The filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on a large collector vat.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on a large collector vat.

When you pour out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.
Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat,
It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.

Ninkasi in the natal chart can indicate problems with alcohol if it is in aspect to Neptune or Chiron.  Otherwise Ninkasi represents our ability to brew up new schemes and ideas in life. Ninkasi can brew up storms too if we start to stagnate.

The land of Chaldea lay between the Euphrates and Tigris, Chaldean became synonymous with astrologer or astronomer, because the Chaldeans were thought to be very learned in these arts.

Asteroid Chaldaea in the natal chart when it aspects natal planets and midheaven or ascendant confers the gifts of the Chaldeans to become learned in these arts too.

 

Lamia is Greek but her origins go way back into the Sumerian era, to understand Lamia we need to take a trip back in time.

The Edimmu, were in Summerian mythology the ghosts or spirits of the dead who had not had a proper funeral rite and so could not lie at rest.  They were thought to be vengeful of the living especially those breaking social / religious taboos.  They also preyed on the young and weak those sleeping or ill, the Edimmu sucked out their spirits and carried them with them on the wind.

Dimme (Summerian) or Lamashtu (Akkadian), was a malevolent Goddess daughter of Anu the sky God.  Lamashtu menaced women in childbirth and would try and steal the suckling child to feed on its bones. At some point the myths of the Edimmu and Lamashtu were mixed up with the Goddess Lilith (Ninlil) perhaps as she was the Goddess of the wind and the Edimmu carried souls of children on the wind she was associated first with the Edimmu and then Lamashtu.  Lamashtu was the prototype Goddess of Vampires and demons.  Lamashtu means she who erases, as such she would also prey on young men making them sterile by sucking the life blood from them.

Lamia of Greek mythology also preyed on children and young men, however this time Hera (Ninlil) queen of the Gods is depicted as causing Lamia to devour children by having abducted Lamia’s own children.  In other myths she forced Lamia to devour her own children too. Lamia starts her story as a queen of Libya until destroyed by the grief for her children turning her into a monstrous demon.

The grief of a parent for a child runs through all of these myths, losing a child changes people.  The death of an innocent is perhaps the most shocking and disturbing event we face.  In the Greek myth Lamia is unable to sleep until Zeus gives her the power to remove her eyes.  This corresponds to playing over trauma, a common theme of grief and post traumatic stress disorder.  Lamia position in the natal chart indicates an area where we have experienced trauma, and where we are most likely to have difficulties moving on from that situation.  This asteroid is also significant factor in night terrors etc.

Save me from drowning in the sea
Beat me up on the beach

What a lovely holiday
There’s nothing funny left to say
This sombre song would drain the sun
But it won’t shine until it’s sung

No water running in the stream
The saddest place we’ve ever seen

Everything I touched was golden
Everything I loved got broken
On the road to Mandalay
Every mistake I’ve ever made
Has been rehashed and then replayed
As I got lost along the way

There’s nothing left for you to give
The truth is all that you’re left with
Twenty paces then at dawn
We will die and be reborn

I like to sleep beneath the trees
Have the universe at one with me
Look down the barrel of a gun
And feel the Moon replace the Sun

Everything we’ve ever stolen
Has been lost returned or broken
No more dragons left to slay
Every mistake I’ve ever made
Has been rehashed and then replayed
As I got lost along the way

Save me from drowning in the sea
Beat me up on the beach
What a lovely holiday
There’s nothing funny left to say

Road to Mandalay

There have always been religious people who did not conceive of the deity as the Lord or as the heavenly Father, but as the Great Mother or the Divine Lady. Not all female gods belong to this type…. Many times they may be counted in the category of the great Mother-Goddess. However, some of them are not only mothers, but at the same time virgins. Sometimes the virginal nature is even strongly or wholly predominant….

There is no danger of confounding the goddesses in question because all of them show individual features. Nevertheless they belong to the same category, i.e. that of the Divine Lady. She is an exalted goddess…Her nature is impenetrable. This is particularly manifest when she is called the Virgin-Mother. This term indicates the mystery of birth which she causes to take place. The heavenly Lord creates out of nothing. The Virgin-Mother brings forth without impregnation. Both occurrences are equally mysterious: the origin of the world and of life is a secret. The people of antiquity realized that woman is inscrutable by nature and virtually inaccessible.
Even when she has become mother she remains virgin in a certain sense..

For I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin….
I am the barren one, and many are her sons….
I am the silence that is incomprehensible….
I am the utterance of my name.

The Mother goddess cult of Anahita is symbolically linked both in India and the middle East with the fish, The Great Fish into who’s mouth the water of Aquarius flows and the twin fish of Pisces. It is also linked to Virgo, with figurines holding corn, wheat or rice. With Anahita standing apon a Lion we have two oppositions representing her, Leo, Aquarius and Pisces, Virgo.  This Goddess is the Virgin and the mother, the moist one purifier of all, wisdom and fertility.  Anahita in the chart symbolises how we connect to the divine feminine within us all.  Anahita gives birth to Mithra the solar deity deep from within the cavern of earth in a yearly cycle. She rules fertility the cycle of birth and death.

All things have an opposite birth, death, night and day. The polarities are set like the transit cycles within our natal chart. What is not set in our chart is the waters of Anahita the space between Yin and Yang, our birth and death may be set but between these two outcomes lies us our choices and decisions. Transit Saturn will square our Sun before it trines it, these points are set however our actions between these two points are not, the road we take between these points is our choice.

Anahita in the chart shows where we gain this awareness of natural cycles of our part in the cycle of life and our ability to choose the path we walk. Our ability to be reborn through out the cycle of life.