posted July 24, 2011 03:21 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Moonfish:
Cancer is known as "mother zodiac" being caring, loving, & nuturing. According to astrologer the Ceres asteroid has the same traits as the Cancer sign.

So if one person's natal chart was full of cancer placements and another person's chart had a lot of harmionous aspects to the ceres asteroid which person would be more Mothering?

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My experience of Ceres has been pretty different from my experiences with Cancer's energy. Cancer is an archetypal mother energy. Like the moon, it deals with light and gravity. I experience the Moon as an emotional foundation, built from event-imprints, collected from genetic and experiential lineage. This foundation psychologically manifests as an individual's “personal space”, or our habitual instinct to reinforce that which we feel will sustain one's person. Cancer energy utilizes the Lunar Dynamic, because it relies on the magnetic pull between it's emotional foundations and external experiences to express it's own personality. Cancer identifies with it's environment personally, and maintaining that which is considered “Personal” is of paramount importance. Like the Moon, Cancer is also about shining light into the darkness, or creating a true haven of "known" from the dangerous "unknown".

Cancer's energy (on the high end of it's spectrum) is a personal, safe, and nurturing experience of closeness, very much like the experience of breastfeeding. Cancer is about establishing a nest and fattening up, it is the result of Aries's explosion into individuality; Taurus's desire to taste, value, and experience the quality of individuality through objectivity; and Gemini's desire to define, quantify, classify, rearrange, and communicate what Taurus discovers. Cancer is the moment when the universe realizes some of those qualities feel very far from the center, and some of them are quite close (regardless of the fact that they all originate from the same point). The closer qualities more immediately reflect an understanding of self, and are therefore considered “personal” or “within one's area of individual care”. This is why I would liken Cancer to the Maternal Archetype, it's the first time the universe begins to relate and nurture constructs within it's own belly.

Ceres on the other hand seems to manifest more as “providence through process”. In this way, it is also a nurturing energy, however it seems to be more of a “nurturing as a service” rather than “nurturing as a survival instinct”. The most popular story of Ceres is the often known story of Persephone's abduction, where (regardless of the work done by farmers) Ceres withholds the growth of crops. The result was starvation, death, and Hades finally giving up her daughter from the underworld. Because Persephone ate some pomegranate seeds offered to her however, she was bound to return to Hades every year for a period of time. This is the classic story of winter, when Persephone descends to the underworld, Ceres withholds providence and winter comes. When Persephone returns each spring, the world becomes fertile again.

In the chart, I have experienced Ceres to manifest as “one's ultimate service or providence”. My Ceres is in Sagittarius, and I love learning for the sake of being able to better teach others. Because this feels like “my personal providence” or “what I have worth giving”, I can find my self offering advise, optimistic wisdom, experience stories, and lessons even in cases where people don't want them. I also have dealt with the feeling within myself that “if I am unable to produce stories about personal learning experiences relating to the topic, I am not contributing to communication” (conversely, when I am withholding out of anger or sorrow, I refuse to share experiences, optimism, help people spiritually, or travel with others).