Asteroid Mnemosyne

Meet Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Inspiration & Memory, mother of the nine muse goddesses (from nine nights sleeping with Zeus or – some say – Apollo) and keeper of a sacred pool in Hades. The latter element of her story makes me think of the Star tarot card, which has a pool of memory in it, kind of like the collective subconscious.

She is asteroid number 57 and you can see where yours is here – I have her rising in Aquarius! Asteroids, as always, exert a subtle – if any – influence but they are fun and poetic to think about, no?

And she reminds me of one of the most beautiful love poems ever by (like the Mnemosyne painting below) Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He was Moon, Fortuna, Mercury, Sun and Ascendant in Taurus. The last two were trined his Midheaven in Capricorn (note the enduring renown and resonance of his work) and he was also a Mars conjunct Neptune man…In Capricorn!

Sudden Light is the realization that you have utterly known someone before. Reincarnation & the transmigration of the soul between lives makes more sense than a hell below and patriarchal heaven above, does it not?

Sudden Light

I HAVE been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,—
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow’s soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall,—I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time’s eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death’s despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?

87 thoughts on “Asteroid Mnemosyne”

  1. LOVE this. I feel I’ve been waiting for her. Mine is 7th house in Pisces (yes totally resonates) but is conjunct SATURN. Why? What?

  2. All my life, people have been telling me that i have out-of-the-scales levels of high memory power coupled with the capacity to think way-out-of-the-box. And that my memory is my greatest asset etc.
    After i studied astrology i figured this could be due to my Mercury-Uranus conjunction which is a part of a natal grand square with Chrion, Saturn and Pallas.

    Mercury is ruler of SN,2H and 5H while Uranus is ruler of MC.
    Now i run Mnemosyne…..and what do i find, she is conjunct that Mercury.!

    Soon after reading the article i looked up the chart for the ‘moment’, to know if there is link..Lo and behold…. Transiting Moon, Uranus and Mnemosyne herself in a T square on my Grand square with my natal Mnemosyne-mercury-Uranus as the fourth corner.

    Amazing…

  3. WOW I have her at 20 degrees Libra conjunct my Sun (18 degrees) in the 5th house. Any ideas about what this means for my self?

  4. She is exactly conjunct my Scorpio moon in the 4th house – made me go a little wow. I love that poem, am working on a piece of writing about a woman and her past lives, one of whom is a German poet, so that really resonated with me and was tres spooky too. Synchronicity strikes again, love your work Mystic, you are the channel to all our stars x

  5. Rache(Aqua/Tauri)

    Mnemosyne at 9 degrees Capricorn closely conjunct Neptune and loosely conjunct Venus (in the 8h house), exact sextile Pluto in Scorpio also at 9 degrees and more loosely sextile natal Mercury in Pisces.

    I AM a systems thinker, and I CAN keep up with my colleagues in formal logic… but I am an undercover artist in my soul, and it’s hard for me to admit this because it’s kind of like the Ronda Rousey quote the other day. Formalism makes me feel safe, I don’t have to feel the emotions. But I think I need to come to terms with this, sooner rather than later, or I will not be a fulfilled person in this life.

  6. She’s conjunct my Pallas in Aqua, quite a stellium happening there with Venus conj Ceres.

    How’s everyone’s Venus retro going? I stupidly chose this time to reactivate my online dating profile 🙂 It’s been very odd to say the least. Blokes flitting in and out of orbit in seemingly random fashion. Made what I thought was quite a significant connection then just as quick, he cools off. I am new to this so perhaps it’s normal. Then WBV made a brief reappearance – dealt with that and sent him packing.

    Trying to play it all very cool a la Venus retro but it’s difficult. I think I might be too sensitive for this stuff.

    1. i think start with the assumption that those guys are there looking for sex and work up from there. i.e. it’s not you x

      1. Thank you that is good advice. I think I am mostly shocked at how much I hurt at the slightest hint of rejection. I suppose I thought all my bandages were off by now but maybe not. x

        1. Odd but I think when you least look for this, that’s when you find unbelievable attraction with someone, most often ulike what you would anticipate? A person who is a complete departure from the past.

          I’d be suspcious of sites, because even if you were honest, another does not have any compelling reason to be honest…Not many do I think, even in realtionships as you know. And I have never been on a website…I’d be too afraid of someone recognising me LOL…

          1. I used to believe that, and I’m not going into this for great love…tbh I just need to get out of the house and flex my flirting muscles if that makes sense. So far it’s proved a disaster, but I am stubborn, lol… my T square Neptune-Jupe-Venus likes to believe in the impossible 🙂

            1. I don’t think it’s impossible Chris, I think it’s a numbers game.
              I also think toughening up re the dating scene, becoming less romantic and more realistic is good practice for many of us (even typing that makes me slightly sad) but as women we are just so conditioned to be good and hold out, hang on, etc for “the one” and honestly I don’t believe men are raised that way. Of course I’m generalising but I do find guys more pragmatic when it comes to getting their needs met. It’s a shame about WBV. apologies for conspiring/ colluding with the sentimentalists here but I kinda liked the sound of him. Mostly the affectionate way you described him and our same Sun and Venus placements but even just WBV conjures up adorable images.
              I’m not brave enough for online dating right now. Too much personal transition happening atm to be dealing with random mating/ dating strangers but kudos to you and best of luck xx

              1. Thanks hon’ you make really lovely observations as always x
                So true what you say about the differences between men and women. All the pretending face to face that nobody is dating other people, that it’s a chance meeting and not an interview. It’s so odd. Giving it until the end of the weekend then will make a decision about continuing. Meeting a Kataka dude tomorrow wish me luck xx

              2. We all do wish to be pragmatic! maybe most of us here are a bit too porous…permeable…inclined towards possibility, dreams…Maybe attempt to manifest dreams through visual clues, keys…the book by David Fontana is good for this.

              3. I think guys on this site are by definition exceptions to the above gender generalisation. I don’t meet many blokey bloke type blokes who are into astrology. I sort of wish I hadn;t said that tho as all generalisations are dangerous and partly untrue, always unfair. ho hum..

            2. Well you can be fairly sure of the intention being clear, at least why be online if not pursuing…

              LOL my fairytale mutual clandestine crush on the seductive health practitioner is pretty nebulous, neptunian to say the least…in the end I didn’t have the courage to risk the unexpected attention, too dangerous, but really am disappointed it happened the way it did…

              You never know what might strike you! But I do wish you all the best, what will the universe present, that will be fascinating…

    2. Rache(Aqua/Tauri)

      I am LOVING life after Saturn direct and the Venus retrograde… I quit my job with a very strategic but professionally worded letter and they are paying me through the end of the month to not Lilith out and sue them. 😀 Excited about career options and education options… boys of days past coming out of the woodwork and it’s nice to know I’m still thought of but I don’t take any of it seriously. I’m scared to date actively and just working on revamping my life so there’s more social and networking activities, maybe something happens but if not I’m making other things happen at the same time.

      I’m 28 but I feel too old for online dating? This is an insane thought, right? I did it when I was younger for the lulz, I am scared of the idea of doing it with a goal of a relationship in mind

      1. That’s so cool Rache! Really pleased stuff is working out for you xx

        I have to agree with you about “revamping life.” Rapidly coming to the conclusion that it’s the best thing for me to do right now. I’m so not cut out for being cruised which is what the online environment feels like to me. And WAY too easy for me to LZ out at the slightest provocation… Neptune on my Pisces sun stellium is proving quite problematic in that regard.

  7. I have Mnemosyne at 5 Virgo conjunct my Jupiter at 3 Virgo…….fitting to the story, aye? Ha ha! 😉
    Both are in my 3rd house. I have met lots of people during my life who I felt I knew before. Mostly lovers, but sometimes just people in general. I seem to attract a lot of past life experiences. I also have a really good memory this lifetime so maybe it’s good enough to remember through to past lives….

    Anyway………………heck of a crappy week!!!! I don’t know if it’s the Venus retro, the Jupiter Saturn square or what?!!!
    Communication and relationships are strained, on all fronts……home, work, friendships…….Lots of postponements too, Iike my hair appointment…..haha, fitting too….my colorist has been ill…..
    I’ve postponed seeing lover guy until next week and he’s the only one I’m not having problems with right now. We had good communication via text the past week and it just turned out logistically that it’s better for us to hang out next week……perhaps the universe is protecting us from this crap astro?!
    It all feels like a Mercury retrograde, except somehow worse, more severe manifesting consequences and more cloying somehow……Ugh, I’m in a horrible mood!

  8. So I walked past a small block of apartments in a certain city recently and had this feeling that I needed to live there. “This is where I live”. It was a bit strange, I wasn’t cast to my knees in a vision or goosebumps or anything, it just felt very simple and natural and good. I walked past another day and it still felt the same. I’m not sure if it was a combination of familiar architecture to my home city, with a lingering thought of a conversation with the ‘crush’ from previous weeks (more on that maybe later) , but there it was. Maybe mnemosyne is in my 4th house… Will check

    1. When I read “An Unstill life”, by Juidth Pugh, this happened to her…She knew she would reside in the house on the hill, but not with whom. Then she was introduced / offered to Clifton Pugh, who took her home, to his house. When she woke up the next morning she realised his home was his house…The next few days after, he came and collected her, her possessions and she went to live with him…

      She always spoke of the intuition, arriving before…

      1. Meant to add this is EXACTLY conjunct ascendant virgo 3 degrees…conjunct jupiter (2 degrees 12th) sextile ceres scorpio (2nd, which my husbands jupiter is almost excatly conunct to my ceres, so he’s power and money trips are nicely enabled by my own LOL), sextile cancer moon (10th…But opposite a misty mercury retrograde in pisces, so reminiscence…is a disease, a visionary guide…

        So the saturn in saggitarius square is going to be a real thriller…NOT, I reckon…Even if it does stop sitting on my natal scorpio neptune 3rd.

        Oh and at 26 capricorn (transiting the 5th) the asteroid is trine to pluto conjunct uranus my 1st, sextile mars conjunct chiron 7th…So does this mean that my insights on love, erotic desire over this other emtional power status seeking man have any validity? LOL, I am as guilty as they are…I am addicted to the concept of cartharsis, by open liberation from trauma..

        Btw, should apologise for the spontaneous capricorn moon comments, as tactless as they are I cannily and sheepishly realised I might as well be saturn afflicted, as moon is in 10th…LOL, and venus is in capricorn…And Saturn is square moon LOL, no wonder I’m attached to a strict, taciturn parental partner, in love with a wise, rich old man…(more for his lovely bones, eyes full of pain than any restrictive money games…)

        Pain, that is another issue…insights and inspirations I have a plenty on that. All my partners, loaded with beautiful pain…Just saw brutal independent film “Nothing Personal”…My instructor is teaching us about this, marrow washing, etc…

        If you want a good book on saturn, Liz Green’s Saturn, a new look at an old devil…

    2. Hey Pi
      That’s happened to me too. In San Fransisco and New York.
      In unremarkable streets but I heard it distinctly. It -kind of happened again last night in East London but it was more like a voice from the future, or even just a wish, like “you will move here” I’m not sure if it was because I’m enjoying the vibes way out East and find it so much shadier and cooler than the more gentrified parts of London but I had a strong sense of wanting to live there…The times in NY and SF tho were much more surreal and obvious. Like, “you have lived here, you belong here.”

      1. I never made the effort to follow through with those instincts and I have to say I regret that. How is the travelling going? Are you wandering, vagabonding and globetrotting?
        xx

    3. This happened to me about 10 years ago in Bondi (don’t laugh) – having coffee staring out across the beach, this one building stuck out almost into the ocean. I took it to be more of a symbol of other changes that were going on as the building and the location were the antithesis of how my life looked at the time.

  9. I LOVE this poem!!!

    Reminds me very much of an old song called *Where or When*. My fave version by Bryan Ferry. Been playing it non-stop the past week.

    Yes – i’m having a doozy of a Venus retro and return. Can barely keep the tears at bay sometimes …. fuqin memories.

    And now Mnemosyne! at 27 Cap, conjunct IC, opp my Moon-MC! No wonder i’m having RETRO FUQIN MANIA!! Mnemo return as well!

    Leavin you with my poison:

    *Where or when*

    “When you’re awake, the things you think
    Come from the dream you dream
    Thought has wings, and lots of things
    Are seldom what they seem

    Sometimes you think you’ve lived before
    All that you live to day
    Things you do come back to you
    As though they knew the way

    Oh the tricks your mind can play

    It seems we stood and talked like this before.
    We looked at each other in the same way then.
    But I can’t remember where or when…
    The clothes you’re wearing are the clothes you wore
    The smile you are smiling you were smiling then,
    But I can’t remember where or when…

    Some things that happen for the first time
    Seem to be happening again.

    And though it seems like we have met before,
    And laughed before, and loved before,
    But who knows where or when…”

    Also, if you want more torture:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNGgSTW0q0

    1. I love Jackson Browne too, Running into the Sun, and I think Linda Ronstadt sings backing vocals…But I think he beat up his lover which is totally out there…

      1. Sorry to know your retro venus is tough going, mine is self inflicted so I brave it with the martial arts at the moment, to learn good lessons, but appears as though you gave your softer self genuinely, with no caprice so I hope you can gently let the pain of disappointment wash over, away…

  10. Amphi and Mnemo in Pisces chillin’ right next to each other in my shockingly empty 8th house. I say shockingly because I have an affinity for sex and the occult yadda yadda and my Scorpio Moon was the only thing I could directly point to. I enjoy their watery vibes and I think they complement my Cancer north node. More pretty asteroids please. 🙂

      1. No–they are all by themselves in that 8th house. Just them. My neptune is in sag in my 5th house…next to my sag lilith. 😛

        I put my name in as an asteroid and it showed up in my Venus heavy 10th house! (venus in taurus, taurus midheaven, chiron in taurus) very interesting to say the least. One time a psychic said I would become successful only if I put my own name on everything I do…that placement seems to agree.

  11. I have her in 13 Virgo and trines my NN in Taurus. Maybe i should get a statue of her or something for inspiration in my work. I am currently moving towards using my words as a way to fulfilling my destiny (NN), so it fits.

    Its currently in a trine with my natal Mercury too, that explains some things ive been writing too 🙂

  12. Poem is such gorgeousness!!!
    I have her on my 11th h Aries SN. I wonder if this reinforces my 12th house everything feeling that my pool of memory is not mine alone, but that of the collective? Something like that.

    1. OMG maybe this is why, although I feel the crushing weight of history and 50,000 lives, I can’t remember any of them. Huge blankness towards individual/personal past identities.
      Also conjunct Kassandra and Charliko. Must ponder.

  13. Hello Everyone, I have her conjunct my Leo sun and Leo Mercury in the 11th house. That’s as far as my astrology knowledge goes at this point. What this might mean or how to interpret it I don’t know but I feel she’s in good company. Love your site Mystic!

  14. ok, what does this mean? my 9th house mnemosyne is conj exact my husbands 7th house vertex……He has had dreams where he’s one of my children (he has a lot of work related pain that i reiki, rub, baby him for)

    1. holy crap…i just checked synastry with kids…My mnemosyne is conj exact to my son’s sun and daughter’s jupiter…HOW COOL is this!!!!

    2. super cool!
      You were probably his mother in a previous life.
      I’ve had a similar experience with a guy.
      He had a dream that I was his mom and I had a flash of the same thing during a NC session. I even saw the reason we met and the stuff we needed to work out in this life.
      I had abandoned him as a baby cuz there was no food and got crushed by a snake which he witnessed as an infant. He had this obsession with me but was sure I would leave him if we hooked up and that it would be too much for him to cope with, that it would kill him. I had an emotional obligation, as though I owed him something in this life and couldn’t escape from the debt I owed him. Past life connections are freakishly intense.
      I prefer North Node connections personally. They are not as addictive but a lot more fun IMO. Especially if you don’t become a couple but if you married each other that is awesome! Enjoy!

      1. I’ve always felt it was ‘meant to be’…. after my parents divorce my mother moved us back to her hometown….then we met in school, married young. Recently my brother was doing genealogy research and found that my scottish ancestors came to america to this small town(coal mining) in the early 1900’s and lived across the street from my husbands grandparents and his dad (who was 2yo at census)

        1. No, the opposite. I have absolutely no fear of snakes whatsoever. Wait, I USED to be deathly afraid of snakes but weirdly after a year of weirdness and unfulfilled longings dreams and emails between me and this dude, he made the insane decision to marry someone “safe” because he said he couldn’t handle the feelings about me and he thought doing this would make them go away. I was really hurt and emotionally traumatised and after 3 days of sobbing indoors went for a walk where I met a man on a bridge holding a pet snake. I guess I had a death wish or something but for whatever reason I asked if I could hold his snake. This thing crawled all over me and I felt so grateful. Yes it was scary, very but it felt cleansing. Like the snake was taking away my pain. The next day I went out and found the man with the snake and spent most of the day holding it and petting it. Now I actually want a pet python myself. At the time I didn’t realise that pythons are constrictors and their tongues don’t carry venom. The snake was putting it’s tongue out at me and I thought, “ok then, just bite me, I don’t care.” It just squeezed me really hard when it got scared, which ironically is how I died in that life.

          1. curiouser and curiouser crab

            Oh, i held, properly held, a jungle python yestetday and it felt soooo amazing. I have gingerly touched snakes in the past and have had some live in close proximity but never held one before. It felt sooo solid and right somehow. I would love to hold one again. Something very centring about it, a connection.

  15. Mystic you write so beautifully and the images you post are always so timeless and profound. Sorry, this is blatant fawning but I just fuqing LOVE this site soooooooo much.
    This post is an example of why.

  16. LiberatingVenus

    Conjunct Urania & MOON! Jesus – that sure would explain why I’ve been accused of having a memory like an elephant!

    Re: The Urania end of things, I’m pretty sure I’ve done this astrology thing in more than one life. Keeper of a pool in Hades (death) makes me wonder if she might not possibly help us access/connect consciously or unconsciously to past-life memories…now I’m toying with the idea of having a past life regression done just to see what comes up.

    1. I’ve been thinking about past life regression as well. I’ve read that Scorpio ascendants remember all of their past lives, which I can attest to, not on a literal level but on a feeling/emotional level. I have Uranus & Urania on my ascendant, opposed Mnemosyne & Chiron.

  17. “Mnemosyne also presided over a pool in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe… Dead souls drank from Lethe so they would not remember their past lives when reincarnated.
    Initiates were encouraged to drink from the river Mnemosyne when they died, instead of Lethe”.

    Maybe she is the Goddess of the Pineal Gland!
    In my pranic healing studies we looked at the pineal gland which was called ‘the blue pearl’ and apparently contained the myriad past lives.

    I had a trippy experience doing the self healing meditation where I felt myself flying back through millions of body’s pineal glands to my original soul’s pineal gland. She was so small and pure and I cried as I realised how roughed up and sooty and tainted she was by all those lives experienced, all those hardships endured..

    She is exactly conjunct my Pluto. 🙂
    4th House. Yes, I do (‘Past Life’) Regression or Trance work, lol.

    A small blue pool of water? A blue pearl?
    The eye of the peacock’s feather on Krishna’s turban?
    “And shall not thus time’s eddying flight
    Still with our lives our love restore”
    Yes!

      1. Yes.. I am fascinated at the idea of Mnemosyne’s Pool mirror of the soul’s memory?
        Which by the way seems a very lunar thing to me, so very pertinent to you with it on your Moon.
        (I recall reading that the moon is the memory of the people collectively according to B. Hand Clow?).

        The Greeks were (really lovely) dwarves standing on Egyptian shoulders though. And of course Osiris is the first collector of a group of Muses talented in various ways.

        Well to drink of Mnemosyne’s pool is to drink of memory not normally consciously stored in the human data bank anyway.
        In Egyptian tombs there were always depictions of people drinking water in the afterlife on the walls. And in Sumeria, the religion which was like pre-dynastic Egypt were buried with a cup to drink with in the next life.

        So this idea of a thirst we have for memory stays with me.. I know it seems a very natural thirst to me!

  18. 16″ Leo in my 3rd house…sextile Pluto (Libra, 5th house) and trine Neptune (Sagg, 7th). Also squaring Mercury in Taurus (12th) and Uranus in Scorpio (6th).

    Have no clue what any of it means but I’m always down with showing Taureans love ;D <3

  19. Very interesting indeed! The Sun,Mercury, Venus conjunction is on my natal Mnemosyne! I think it might be on my ascendant which I have been trying to pin down. I’ve always loved Rossetti’s work but I have never read that poem – it’s beautiful. I love the arts – painting and writing in particular, so I’m always on the lookout for inspiration – thank you Mysticxx

  20. woo asteroids!
    she’s virgo in my 8th house, exactly trine cap uranus, square gem moon, and quincunx aqua nn. will have to ponder how to interpret this one.

  21. Wow. The goddess of inspiration is currently on my Saturn. And I’ve been desperately wondering why I haven’t felt inspired to write my poetry & fiction in the last 2 years or so. (I’ve been writing since I was a child. Lack of ideas and even not wanting to write is NOT normal for me.) I’ll go see where I have her natally. Thank you so much for this piece of info!

  22. CONJUNCT my natal Jupiter 28 degrees Gemini, 12th house–ON asteroid ROCKNROLL which I just happen to have been looking at lately.

  23. How wonderful to be the Mother of Muses!

    It fascinates me how I can just tell from reading your description of the asteroids whether they are placed prominently in my chart somehow.

    (I have 57 on my NN conjunct Vesta also.)

  24. Venusian_Liaison

    Also, how Venus Rx is this poem? Reviewing love. The past rebirthing itself through the power of reincarnation. That linger of knowing within.

    1. yes!
      I have her in my 7th too. In Kataka, very close to my DC
      Just peeked at verboten crushes chart and she is conjunct his moon in the 12th.

      He just emailed me saying “I am your locked dwarf ”

      We were geeking out earlier to a photo of Pluto and Charon
      part of an article

      my Plutonic obsession continues unabated.
      see below..

      Our First Binary Planetary System

      By far the coolest title Pluto has earned isn’t a solo title, but a joint honor shared with Charon. Charon is Pluto’s largest moon: at half the diameter of Pluto and 10% of its mass, Charon is the largest moon in relation to its primary world in our entire solar system. Charon is big enough that if it weren’t orbiting Pluto, it’d be a dwarf planet in its own right.

  25. Ha ! I have her at 27 Cap , so currently having a Mnemosyne return.
    She’s certainly got strong shoulders in that image. Must be all that rowing on the Styx 🙂

  26. I’ve found that if you put the asteroid name of someone you know – if there is an asteroid of that name – into a chart, and esp a chart of some important date in your/their life, the correspondences are quite uncanny.

    Sadly, the most gifted interpreter of the asteroids I’ve encountered – who lived in Australia btw – disappeared from the internet a few years ago. I continue to hope she reappears one day: my Mnemosyne in Pisces 6th will never forget her wondrous works.

    1. Hey I think I know who you are talking about, and I miss her too. I talked to her just after she took her site down, I know she wanted some privacy, so we should not name her and draw unwanted attention. But I am glad you reminded me of her. We have some mutual friends and I will make some discreet inquiries.

    2. Hey Sabina, i searched my sister’s name in the asteroids list, and it turns out that i have Carolina (asteroid 235) in 18° Pisces: the same degree of her sun! I am beyond words at this point lol, im freaking out.

    3. Just for kicks i put in my partner’s named asteroid and mine in my chart, and with my Sun, they form a grand water trine. :-O

      1. I’m pretty new on the knowledge of asteroids. Can anyone help me out? e.g. good links to go to where I can find out this awesomely freaky things you speak of? I’m an absolute astrology geek who just keeps wanting to learn more and more.

        1. To generate a chart, go to astro.com. Once you get your login done and enter your birth data, if you click on the drop down link in the Free Horoscopes section ‘Extended Chart’ you can select a chart with just about anything – progressions, different house systems, etc. The very large file of minor asteroids is near the bottom of the page on the left side, and you can select whichever asteroid you wish. 🙂

    4. ah ah ahhhah ha. My mothers name is almost exact conjunct my Pluto. I can’t even….

      My sister has my name asteroid at the degree of my Chiron? Interesting. and the other has my name conjunct HER Pluto. Uh oh 😉

    5. If you can’t find a perfect match to the name you want to check, feel free to go phonetic. The synchronicity is in the sound, the vibration, not the spelling.

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