Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta are the first four asteroids ever found, and modern astrologers read each through the goddess it is named after. Enter your birth details and the tool gives the Western (tropical) sign each one was in when you were born, the dates it entered and left that sign, and whether it was moving direct or retrograde. Without a birth time it still names the signs, and on the rare day one of them changed sign it shows both.
How it works
The four were discovered in quick succession, as NASA JPL’s Small-Body Database records: Ceres on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo, Pallas on 28 March 1802 and Vesta on 29 March 1807 by Heinrich Olbers at Bremen, and Juno on 1 September 1804 by Karl Harding at Lilienthal. Each takes between about 3.6 and 4.6 years to go round the Sun.
The tool reads a table of the exact moments each asteroid changed sign, and turned retrograde or direct, from 1899 to 2075. We made it with the Swiss Ephemeris asteroid file, which gives positions as seen from the Earth, and found every change to the second. We then checked it two ways: against NASA’s JPL Horizons, where 80 sign changes agree to within the time the asteroid takes to move one arcsecond, and against the Swiss Ephemeris itself at 80,000 random moments, with no disagreement. Your birth time is turned into universal time with the time zone and daylight saving in force at your birthplace on that date. Births from 1900 to 2074 are covered.
Seen from the Earth, each asteroid turns retrograde on average every 15 to 17 months, though the gap from one retrograde turn to the next can be anything from about 14 months (Pallas) to about 18 (Juno). Between 1900 and 2074 a stay in one sign lasted anything from about a week, when a retrograde turn happened close to a sign boundary, to just under a year.
Reading the result
The tool names each asteroid’s sign and says what tradition links it with:
- Ceres, named after the Roman goddess of grain and the harvest, is read as nurture and care: how you look after others and like to be looked after.
- Pallas, named after Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom and craft, is read as practical wisdom and pattern-seeing: how you think problems through.
- Juno, named after the queen of the gods and goddess of marriage, is read as committed partnership: what you need from a long-term partner.
- Vesta, named after the goddess of the hearth and its sacred fire, is read as focus and devotion: what you give your full attention to.
The sign describes the style in which that theme shows itself. If an asteroid changed sign within a day of your birth, the tool gives the exact time so you can check it against your birth time.
Where traditions differ
The asteroids are a modern addition to astrology. Astrologers began to use them after Eleanor Bach published the first ephemeris of the four in 1973, Ephemerides of the Asteroids: Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, and the readings above follow the approach made popular by Demetra George and Douglas Bloch in Asteroid Goddesses (1986). Writers differ in the meanings they give and in how much weight they put on the asteroids. Some astrologers use many more asteroids, and Chiron is often read alongside these four: our Chiron, Lilith and North Node calculator gives its sign.
What it does not do
It gives the sign, not the exact degree, so it does not place the asteroids in houses or work out their aspects. It covers only these four asteroids, and births from 1900 to 2074. It does not predict events: like every placement, an asteroid sign is a theme to reflect on.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Which asteroids does the tool use?
Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta, the first four asteroids found, between 1801 and 1807. They are also the four that astrologers have used longest.
↳ Do I need my birth time?
Usually not. These asteroids stay in a sign for weeks or months, so the date is normally enough. On the rare day one of them changed sign, the tool shows both signs and the time of the change, and a birth time settles it.
↳ What does retrograde mean for an asteroid?
Like the planets, an asteroid seems to move backwards against the stars for a while each time the Earth overtakes it. Nothing changes in its real orbit; it is an effect of watching from a moving Earth.
↳ Where do the positions come from?
From a table made with the Swiss Ephemeris asteroid file and checked against NASA's JPL Horizons. It holds the exact moment of every sign change and every retrograde and direct turn from 1899 to 2075.
↳ Are these Western or Vedic signs?
Western (tropical) signs, like the other astrology tools on this site. Vedic astrology works with its nine grahas and does not include these asteroids. To see how your Sun sign differs between the two zodiacs, try your sign in both systems.
↳ Why does the tool not give the degree?
It keeps a compact table of sign changes rather than full positions, which is enough to name the sign exactly. That is why it does not place the asteroids in houses.