I mentioned Ceres already several times on this blog, but the ex-planet hasn’t got yet an own article, so it is the last of the six ex-planets to do so. Ceres was the first discovered asteroid, hence is the asteroid #1. It was first accepted as a planet because there was nothing else known between Mars and Jupiter. There had seemed to be a gap, where the orbit of a planet would have fit in. So the discovery of Ceres wasn’t a big surprise after the discovery of Uranus had shown that not all planets were known since ancient times. When there were already five accepted planets between Mars and Jupiter while Neptune was discovered, questions were raised about how to define a planet. The “planets” between Mars and Jupiter were all “demoted”. So also Ceres lost her “status”. But when Pluto was “demoted”, Ceres “gained” the new “status” of a dwarf-planet. Ceres is now the only accepted dwarf-planet, that isn’t a plutoid. This is only because the radius of the orbit of Ceres is shorter than that of Pluto. A quite arbitrary definition. Ceres comprises about a quarter of the total mass of the Asteroid Belt! Ceres is now orbited by the meanwhile inactive space probe Dawn, which “serves” Ceres as an artificial satellite.

Ceres is named after a Roman goddess of agriculture. But Saturn is the god of agriculture in Roman mythology and Ceres exists there only because she is the sister of Jupiter and Juno and Pluto and Neptune and Vesta as well as the mother of Proserpina. This makes Ceres also the mother-in-law of Pluto. Ceres is often seen (in modern times) as a nurturing mother goddess, but many other mythological characters would deserve this title much more.

In order to determine the astrological force, that Ceres represents, should be looked at what was done with Ceres. This is the same method, that was applied to Astraea before. Ceres was “demoted”, then again “promoted”, but has still a strange status as being the only dwarf-planet, to that the “status” of a plutoid is denied. It’s questionable whether this is better or worse. Ceres should show the ups and downs in a career. But Ceres is so seldom observed that there isn’t practical evidence. Some astrologers argue from their experience for Ceres representing entrepreneurship. But this isn’t very common, while the Magi School of Astrology wants Ceres similarly to represent success in business.