Gather round and look skyward, folks.
Ceres, our asteroid of loss and deliverance, is moving into the infernal heart of Aries this weekend.
On Friday, May 16th, Ceres enters Aries at 2:16 PM EST, where she will reign and remain until March 2026.
What is Ceres in astrology?
Named for the Roman goddess of the maternal, fertile, and agricultural, Ceres is technically a dwarf planet but is regarded by astrologers as an asteroid.
Demeter is the Greek equivalent of Ceres, and as the myth goes, the goddess of the grain endured the abduction of her daughter Persephone by death daddy Hades — who took his new bride to the underworld.
In her devastation at the loss of her daughter, Ceres ceased the growth of everything on earth — leaving the world all but barren.
Brokered by Zeus, a deal was struck to satisfy both deities.
Persephone would eventually come to spend 1/2 of the year above ground with her mother and 1/2 below — giving rise to seasons.
This myth and this asteroid illustrate themes of maternal devotion and surrender.
In addition to indicating what and who we create and protect, Ceres helps us alchemize lessons of loss and sacrifice. Ceres in the birth chart helps us unlock our unmet needs — and serve as better stewards of our own self-care and inner children.
Ceres shows us what we need to be nourished.
This transit feeds us (Ceres) the fire (Aries) we need in order to begin again — and build ourselves stronger, fuller, and freer than ever before.
Ceres asteroid astrology
The brilliant astrologer and tarot reader Elise Wells of Planet Poetica tells The Post, “Ceres represents the protective mother and the ways we guard anything near, dear, precious, and fleeting to us. Ceres indicates how we allow the thing we hold to grow and flourish while under our care.”
However, while the Ceres archetype can coddle to the point of stunting, a smother mother if you will, Aries energy understands that to empower, we must initiate separation.
“Inevitably, every child, seedling, or burgeoning project has to come out from under the nurturance of the mother and fend for itself.”
Beyond protection and letting go, Wells explains that Ceres invokes the power of negotiation, even and especially when all hope appears to be lost.
Ceres asteroid
“Ceres becomes an agent of fate when she realizes she has the power of negotiation. She did not ‘play nice’ or give up when her daughter was taken; she was ‘at a loss,’ and the grief of her inner landscape was mirrored in the barrenness of the earth.”
However, in her moment of deepest sorrow, Ceres found another layer of herself, a capability born of catastrophe, someone “so in touch and aligned with seasons and cycles that she was sought out to restore order.”
As cardinal fire, Aries equals reckoning.
In the spirit of this transit, Wells argues, “Maybe it’s time we forget asking for forgiveness or permission from the systems of oppression, and instead claim ultimate sovereignty and exalted survival.”
Wells explains that while Ceres may not have been satisfied with the terms of the agreement, she knew how to work with them, how to alchemize both action and acceptance.
“We do not like having to live with grief, but we make room for it and in turn are delivered closer to our essential, eternal selves, which live in the dark and the deep where grief becomes power and loss, form.”
Ceres in Aries meaning
Ceres in Aries teaches us that nothing is ever lost, only transformed — blood into bone, ashes to earth, grief into power — and asks us to honor the process of beginning again and again.
As the first sign in the zodiac, the unrivaled beauty of Aries is that it has no past. In this sense, Wells believes the transit of Ceres through Aries is about the experience of being born.
“The process of birth marries the blood of the mother (Ceres) to the blood of the newborn (Aries), wherein the nutrients and energy of the mother are transferred, strengthened, renewed, and individuated in the
new person.”
Ceres in Aries is the fire of creation, the need to break free, and the responsibility to forge on, the energy of taking on new forms fortified by what came before but not defined by it.
“This is the will to finally let go, not in a terrified and forceful way, but in a bold and powerful way, with a blank slate, without looking back.”
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.
