Basic Resources | Martha Lang-Wescott

Getting Started with Asteroids

See below for ways to receive asteroid charts or look up asteroid positions online

Imagine having more precise astrological points in a chart; imagine having very definite placements to refer to events both past and future! This is exactly what adding asteroids and the transneptunians do. Their meanings often parallel the exact wording you or a client uses to think of and describe experience. For this reason, they are easier to learn than beginning students think they will be.

Click here for the Glyphs and Keywords PDF file

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So how can YOU get started using asteroids?

First of all, remember that all the things you already know about signs, houses, aspects and planets in astrology will just be applied to the new points. All you have to do is learn the range of meanings of the additional points.

Take the bite you can chew. Maybe you have a brain that can easily tackle adding 60 or more factors to charts, but probably it will be easier to work with a few at a time. After you review the following list of TNPs and asteroids, pick four or five that feel really important to you. Jot down their key words and names; refer to the reference texts or to the glyph key on this site for their glyphs; and find where those four or five are in your chart and in the charts of a couple of people who have given you their permission to study their charts.
Take a copy of your chart (just as you usually use) and enter the asteroids you’ve chosen at the sign and degree of their place in your chart.
Then write their key words beside them. Later, when you add more asteroids and TNPs, you’ll have a more complete picture of what your initial four or five asteroids are describing, but, at this early stage, work with the fragment of a story that they’re telling you. Sometimes it’s immediately apparent. Other times, it will take more information to make the story complete.
Then repeat the exercise with those same asteroids in your other study charts. Please remember to approach the charts (lives) of others with respect and reverence. Asteroids can reveal very honest and very private information—and ethics require that when you ask to use someone’s chart for study that you tell them that. This applies to your chart too. Working with asteroids can graphically sketch parts of your past and Being, so you need to be kind and gentle with you (and with what you do and don’t want to know about who you are!)

In the beginning, your phrasing may feel stilted or awkward. Okay. As you work with the new points and gain experience in a variety of charts, you’ll be better at it. And it does take working with and studying actual charts.

Surfing the Internet is no substitute! You will need to review enough charts to see the full repertoire of a point (as it aspects other factors in a chart) to develop confidence in the point—and in your ability to interpret it.

When you’re ready, review the list of key words again and select a couple more to add. Then proceed as you did with your first group. With some effort on your part, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’re “speaking the language” (and hearing asteroid key words whenever others open their mouths!)

Do you have to be an advanced level astrology student to do this?

Definitely not. In fact, some who are virtually brand new to astrology find that adding the asteroids speeds their learning curve. The accuracy and detail of the asteroids also speeds that important, crucial step of Believing the Chart—trusting that what the symbology indicates has Truth (on more levels than most of us want to know!)

“But Wait,” you say. “How can a person use that many points with transits (and directions or progressions)?” Systems. Techniques. Information management. Later you’ll learn methods to find WHICH points are in high focus for a given time period, and it’s only those you’ll delineate.

Until you develop a confident interpretation of asteroid aspects, you can refer to delineations in my texts such as "Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids," "Angles and Prediction," "Orders of Light," or "Architects of Time." Also consider subscribing to the Research Access section of the website where you would be able to quickly look up aspect combinations between planets, asteroids and the 8 transneptunians. There are over 4400 aspect combinations so it's a fabulous resource!

For now, let’s get started! Read through the following list and find four or five (or six) “ideas” that seem especially relevant in your life:

Asteroid and Transneptunian Key Concepts

THE TRANSNEPTUNIAN or URANIAN POINTS:

THE ARIES POINT: Contact with public events or the world at large; being brought to public attention; interaction & comparison with “the man on the street;” awareness of public sensibility; reaction to the external world; (00 Cardinal: Action point re natural angles)

ADMETUS: Facing blockages; biding your time; encountering delays, frustrations, complications or the need for something else to happen BEFORE success or progress; dealing with raw materials (including stone, lumber, etc.,) packaging, inventory and storage; having cramps or other indications that reveal a tightening to endure/persevere/hang in there; issues with self-containment, shunning; literal and behavioral “cold.” Narrowing or specialization.

APOLLON: Multiple interests and developments; many irons in the fire; more than one; combining; career opportunities; travel or study associates; long distance/cosmopolitan connections; divided interests; business situations; science.

CUPIDO: Issues in the family history; group unity or dynamics; comments on the home, residence or household themes; decor; artistry; sense for art; partner or family members.

HADES: Disgust/distaste; debilitation or deterioration; interest in the past (inc. past lives)—thus history and primitive origins; handling highly detailed work, chores or drudgery; “messy” situations; depressing emotions; research; investigation into the root cause of problems; bowels; vermin or toxins. [Blog posts about the TNP Hades]

KRONOS: Authoritative positions; questioning of competency; having differences of opinion; dealing with “red tape,” timing or jumping bureaucratic hoops; laws; police; legislators; the father; executives; governmental leaders; events through people in the public eye; measurements (especially of height;) rising, altitude, flights; overhead/above. Assessment of your own competency. [Blog posts about the TNP Kronos]

ZEUS: Restrained or creative fire/energy; enthusiasm; controlled & directed forces (thus both planning and controlling strong emotions;) guns, power tools, machines, motors, fireplaces, fuels; excitement; to incite; military; blood pressure; inflammation; ability to harness energies for accomplishment.

VULCANUS: Surge of power/strength; feeling forced to associate; compulsion; awareness of invisible power & the power of influence; periods of burn?out alternate with a “whatever it takes” attitude.

POSEIDON: Uplifting people/ideas; psychic vibrations; persuasion; intellectual or spiritual influences; ideological or moral stances; spread of ideas; advertising; interest in business practices/ethics; inspiration; religion; mediums; clarity; enlightenment; receptivity to The Force; reactions to the media; windows, mirrors, refraction of light. [Blog posts about the asteroid/transneptunian Poseidon]

ASTEROIDS

These are the asteroids that are presented in the reference texts: “Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids,” “The Orders of Light,” and “Architects of Time.” Hundreds of pages of delineations of asteroids in aspect to planets, angles, TNPs and other asteroids occur in the first two volumes.

Chart conditions (such as interceptions, retrograde status, the full aspect pattern or complex aspects) can alter or challenge the base essence of a factor; refer to the texts until you develop the experience to feel confident of your delineations.

ADMETE: Use as you do the TNP, Admetus.

AESCULAPIA: Contact with physicians (including the internal healer) and belief?systems about the health, symptoms and medical conditions. See aspects of “in need of or contributing to Healing.” Use also: Asclepius and Askalaphus.

AMOR: The “conditions” one places on unconditional love—the understanding of what LOVE is/means; what interferes or blocks the love and acceptance (of self & others); figuring out whether you can (or should) “remain loving” (whatever that means to you;) can you/ should you “set boundaries” or limits on what happens in the name of “love”? Conditions on whatever occurs in aspect.

APOLLO: Being a slow learner—attraction of recurrent and familiar crises; going against the odds; “banging your head against a brick wall;” provocation; doing it again...and again.

APOLLONIA: Use as you do the TNP, Apollon.

ANUBIS: Wolves; coyotes; coy dogs; feral dogs; dingoes; black faced or black dogs; death.

ARACHNE: Intricate detail; creation of intrigue and entanglement; layered complications/meanings; entrapment; contact with weaving, knitting, macrame, woven fabric/thread, spider webs, network.

ASTRAEA: Blocked closure; staying to “the end” (the sometimes bitter end;) believing that “it ain't over 'til it's over”—even if it already is; an inability to read beginnings and endings or to “let go” of things, people or events; the witnessing of events.

ATLANTIS: Sense of impending doom; belief in deserved punishment/negative karma; invasions of privacy; access to inside or confidential information; abuse of resources, talents or information; importance of confidentiality/use of knowledge; water disasters; warnings. [Blog posts about the asteroid Atlantis]

ATROPOS: Endings, completion, conditions at the finish, what is needed to conclude.

BACCHUS: Excess; addiction; attempts to manage feelings, people and situations through substitution or avoidance; contact with orchards, pine and fir trees, vineyards; intoxication.

CERES: The need for nurturing; food; the relationship between mother & child; issues of “taking care of” people, plants and animals; growths/cysts; herbs and grains. [See also Demeter]

CHILD: Aspect pattern relates to one’s own experience as a child and to attitudes toward and events with children; childish reactions (ranging from innocence to immaturity.)

CHIRON: Expression of unique or individualistic views and behaviors; refusal to conform with parental or societal expectations and standards; effecting turning points or changes in status; accentuation of differences from categories, norms; adolescent crisis; exceptions/exemptions to the rule(s). Note that Chiron has been classified a comet, not an asteroid.

CIRCE: Helping, being of assistance & coming to the rescue; acting as a facilitator; understanding the motives for help.

CUPIDO-A: Vanity; concern about appearances (inc. the idea of “keeping up appearances” and doing things “for the sake of appearances;”) art and beauty interests; relationship concerns; attraction; the face or complexion; the “look” of something.

DAEDALUS: Architecture; design; cleverness; “the artful dodger;” escape of consequences that then fall on others; jealousy; instances of feeling like an honored slave; creative; affinity with metals.

DEMETER: Mother-Child or care-taking relationships and efforts; growing things; food, diet, nutrition & meals. [See also Ceres]

DIANA: Attunement to animals and nature; belief in hunter-prey dynamics; feeling “chased;” elusive, hard?to?find or difficult?to?pin?down behaviors and reactions.

EROS: Sexuality; reproductive organs; the heart & cardiac system; the history, experience and behavioral repertoire of eroticism; joie de vivre; what “turns you on;” the Will to Live (the “passion” for life.)

EURYDIKE or Eurydices: Dependence on people, issues or behaviors of aspects feels like a matter of life and death; adds the drama of dependence & reliance (on others or aspecting energies) to axis or aspect pattern.

GRIEVE: To grieve or mourn; grievances. [Blog posts about the asteroid Grieve]

HEBE: Service personnel (waitresses, secretaries, receptionists, bartenders, etc.;) service attitudes; waiting?on others; enabling (facilitating the egocentric, emotionally immature or demanding behaviors of others); codependency.

HEKATE: The inner sense—women’s ways of knowing—and whether one can trust that; night; dreams; whether the mother acted as a protector; to act as a protector or guardian; “crone” stages of life or positions; intuitive wisdom; Hekate is sometimes important at or in connection with childbirth, and can show what wisdom is gained at other life passages.

HEPHAISTOS: Problems with the limbs (usually the legs;) lameness; crippling; parental abandonment (most often by the mother;) to be “an issue” of contention between the parents; tendency for an unlikely match in relationship (ie., variations on The Beauty and the Beast!;) contact with metals.

HERA: Issues of “rights” between people; relationship dynamic and parental model; jealousy; maintaining fairness in dealing with others; events through partners & partnership. [See also Juno]

HIDALGO: Standing on principle & saying what's on your mind (but challenging aspects can = secrecy & expedient disclosure); watching what you say; contact with Latin American, Mexican or Spanish peoples, foods and cultures; revolutionary governments (or those based on an ideology).

HOPI: Native American peoples, culture, memories and behavioral inclinations; indigenous peoples; minority groups; contact with knives/cutting, corn?based foods, feathers, snakes and ambushes (inc. of the psychological variety); territorial claims and disputes; attack or ambush perceptions; deep-seated defense (of points in axis or aspect.)

HOUSE: A useful point when “place” is important in predictive work; also refers to the residence and to what is experienced “at home.”

HYBRIS: Expectation, glass?ceilings, limits—what one future?paces as their fate, their slot in life—and what can be expected of others; what others, parents, you see as “your fate;” conditioned limitations.

HYGIEA: Medical concerns and health (especially issues related to FITNESS;) “hygiene” and cleanliness.

ICARUS: Escapes that are careless of consequences; desire to “get outta' here;” the fast break impulse; attraction to speed, danger or risk; desire to get away from restrictions (of aspecting points).

INDUSTRIA: Facilitates identification of career and work interests, abilities, and matters.

ISIS: Sibling relationships; issues involving “scattered” locations, ideas, people and things; fragmentation; sense of needing to “get or put it together;” desire to make things whole.

JUNO: Partners; marriage/relationship; maintenance of one's rights or position with other; question of “rights” and fairness/compromise; enforcement of fairness; potential for score?keeping, jealousy, fears of abandonment & infidelity; tallying ($$$ & fairness).

KALYPSO: That which is concealed or hidden.

KASSANDRA: Wasted breath! Advise & consent roles—offering advice or prophecies; questions about whether to believe what others say (whether to follow advice); offering counsel; broadcasting ideas; lecturing; auditory sensitivity; hearing difficulties.

KLOTHO: Conditions (fate and expectations) at the beginning; initial understanding, what is apparent at the start, origins/beginnings in general.

LACHESIS: Intervention, assessment mid?way into a sequence, what “interrupts” an evolving sequence from going as one would have expected (from the way it began or is underway.) [See also, Lachesis for the middle and Atropos for the denouement or ending]

LILITH: Triangulation; competing; selection & rejection; decisions (regarding angle or aspects;) divided loyalties; favoritism; gender stereotypes; use of sex or rejection for dominance.

MINERVA: Broad perceptual skills; strategies to deal with situations and people; “calculations” (whether dealing with math or public relations); figuring things & people out. (See also Pallas Athena)

NEMESIS: The Undoing, the Achilles Heel, the bete noir; seeking to place BLAME; “scapegoating;” finger-pointing; identification of “the enemy,” fault, or source of a problem. [Blog posts about the asteroid Nemesis]

NIOBE: Humbling lessons through excess pride in one's children, fertility, virility or creativity (including creative products).

ODYSSEUS: Exile, extended trip or absence, long journey, expatriate, to feel rootless or homeless—a stranger in a strange land; estrangement; to be sent away from “home.”

OPHELIA: A point of over-reaction and counterproductive reactions (linked to mistrust of one’s value to others and concern about deception.)

ORPHEUS: Sad, sweet or haunting music, lyrics or poetry; dirges; sense of mourning and loss; grief (for what you don't have—what has gone out of your life-- “might have been” or what was); contact with death.

PALLAS ATHENA: Approval seeking; strategies of relating; perceptual skill; whether one is willing and/or able to do those things that will please another. [See also Minerva]

PANACEA: What you believe it takes to find solutions, cures or remedies for problems (and not only those related to the health.)

PANDORA: Encountering unexpected consequences; getting “more than you bargained for;” being enticed by a curiosity, new idea, person or situation—and finding that it has set you on a whole new path; agitation.

PERSEPHONE: Attitude toward “leaving” or “being taken or sent away from¼home, family or familiar conditions;” memories of what separated you from mother/family (even emotionally); how you handle transitions and the rites of passage in your life (going to school; the adolescent crisis; separation for marriage or career; mid-life, etc.,). [See also Proserpina]

PHAETHON: Instances that involve cars, transport, driving; other forms of recklessness—feeling out of control—as though you’ve taken on more than you can handle; having trouble keeping to the middle of the road!

PHOTOGRAPHICA: While useful for showing the importance of photography and visual images, Photographica also relates to the brain’s ability to retain and interpret visual imagery.

POSEIDON: (The asteroid) Use as you do the TNP of the same name. [Blog posts about the asteroid Poseidon]

PROSERPINA: Separation anxiety; leaving; going away; what you believe will happen if “mother's not there to take care of you;” the conditions you attract as you approach a transition or separation.

PSYCHE: Recognition of childhood trauma; raw wounds psychologically; vulnerability; memories; insight; psychic impressionability; psychological recovery; the state of your “mental health;” head wounds; brain states.

REQUIEM: As well as a connection to the ceremonies of death (and the formalization of grief,) Requiem stands for a place of acceptance, a cessation of struggle. Whether one should be AT PEACE with the people, actions and events shown by aspecting points is the issue!

SAPPHO: Friendship; bonding; feeling close to or the same as others; kindred spirits; having things in common; artistic interests; shops/galleries. Sappho as “pairs” assumes another importance in medical astrology.

SISYPHUS: Starting over; the “uphill climb;” feeling like you're runnin' against the wind! It’s having to “go back to the beginning;” getting the rug pulled out from under you just as you thought you were getting somewhere; dogged rejection of defeat.

SIVA: also SIWA: Episodic, catabolic (breakdown/through) process that precedes insight; destruction of density/fixated beliefs (relative to aspects); crisis of death (stagnation) or regeneration; The Far East (inc. Vietnam, India, China, Malaysia, Japan;) periodic occurrence; ascetic; attention to sound.

SPHINX: “Unsolved Mysteries!” Enigma, paradox, questions, missing information, lack of answers and understanding (about points in axis or aspect.) [Blog posts about the asteroid Sphinx]

TANTALUS: Teasing; temptation; times when what is wanted is just out of reach; excessive hunger or thirst; failures of gratitude; problems with giving the right thing to the right person; feeling as though one is “tested on whether they know” about aspecting or axis factors.

TERPSICHORE: Dance, aerobics, exercise that increases flexibility; coordination, agility, grace and mobility; flexion muscles; body image/ego; gestures; body language.

TISIPHONE: Seek justice for "crimes against kinship, family;" dose of one's own medicine; fairness; just desserts; how and where and if one gets “what they deserve.”

TORO: Machismo; bullying; intimidation; doing hard, physical work; strength (muscular); muscle flexing—psychologically or physically; challenging others; rough treatment; competitive; football; prizefighting; toughness.

URANIA: Astrology; astronomy; handling theoretical, hypothetical or abstract principles and information; logic and rationality; ability to “see the big picture” and not be dissuaded by instant details; an intellectual framework; apperception—intellectual “context.” Bias and distortions to rationality and conceptual ability.

VALENTINE: As with Eros: passion, intimacy, the heart and the reproductive system.

VESTA: Commitment to work; using work as a compensation; dedication to accomplishment or goals; emotional distancing; hard work and career demands; impersonal; sublimation of other interests into the career or vocation; sacrifice/denial of self (by others/self for a “greater goal.”

VULCANO: Use as you do the TNP, Vulcanus.

ZEUS: (The asteroid) Use as you do the TNP, Zeus.

For a great many detailed examples of asteroids and TNPs in aspect to angles, planets, luminaries, and other asteroids and transneptunians, see the texts, “Mechanics of the Future: Asteroids,” “The Orders of Light,” “Architects of Time” and the new, big book (548 pages) of delineation, “Angles and Prediction.” Each features natal and predictive chart and delineation examples in both 360 traditional and dial techniques.

ASTEROID CHARTS: For a printed and/or email copy of your chart in 360° and 90° dial format please send an email

For a comprehensive listing with print ability and ease of using directed or progressed asteroid positions, the program of Mark Pottenger is highly recommended.

The new upgrade of the astrology program, Janus 5, will allow asteroid glyphs on charts, easy access to asteroid meanings and the ability to add ideas to the asteroid delineations. Check their website for more information: Astrology-house.com