Borasisi ~ 30 September 2007

Saturday, the Minor Planet Center posted the naming of one of Pluto’s neighbors, minor planet 66652, as Borasisi. Quickly, a scouring of mythological resources comes up dry and the realization closes in: astronomers named this Kuiper Belt Object as the Sun from Bokononism, the fictitious and whimsical religion set forth by Kurt Vonnegut in his novel, Cat’s Cradle.

Hmm. Still, many strong mythological names remain for resurrection/creation deity. This body, given its cubewano nature (a fairly round orbit and more distant than Pluto) and 290.32 year orbital track qualified for such a name. It’s hard to know what the astronomer’s were thinking especially considering the recent, traditional hard line protocols applied to the naming of Eris.

Bokononism’s religion relies upon a series of texts, the contents of which are all lies. Yet, if a person complies and follows the tenets, a happy life can be lived.

To gain an astrological assessment of a new body, barring solid mythic roots, the placement of the north node of the body establishes a purpose theme, while the perihelion degree helps determine what the body deems urgent. For Borasisi, we find its node at 24 Gemini 48 and the perihelion at 11 Capricorn 39, both those positions heliocentric.

The Gemini node creates the agenda of communication and all aspects of it. Mercury, ruler of Gemini, knows how to spin, twist words and in accord with Bokononism could easily conjure fabrications. Capricorn as a placement for the body’s fastest moving orbital pivot point assigns the qualities of authority and leadership.

Combinations of these concepts can be woven to create some preliminary keywords:

Positive: sense of authority, dominion, mandates, confidence to declare personal power, open-minded, captain-like attitude, quick orders and delegation

Negative: dictatorial or an imperial attitude, the emperor's clothes, distortion of data, cherry-picking facts, opinionated, blind one's own bigotry, solipsism

Mundane: relations with offspring, propaganda, mandates, lobbying, political appointments, crony-ism

Ceremonial: Enacting affirmations, declarations, setting one's rules of soulful communication and cosmic law

Borasisi now retrogrades through 6 Pisces 45. Pisces can be a sign that invokes the highest of inspiration or the lowest of deception and the tendency to bury one’s head in deep in the sands of denial. As an interesting preview, Borasisi in 2012, and at the time the Mayan Calendar expires, shall form a tense, challenging square to the Great Attractor. Another hmm. Either the world will have ended and we’ll all be dead with those who opposed the doomsday attitude of the Mayan prophecies (like myself) proved wrong and silenced once and for all, or the world will continue onward, hopefully more enlightened with one more fear-provoking episode behind us. One way or the other, the false precepts will be revealed. Presently, Borasisi makes one of those squares to the birth placement of Borasisi of President Bush. Either he’s lying or he’s not. I’m not intending to go political here, since the majority of readers of the GT seem to seriously oppose my doing so (some slack please, I fought two combat tours for this country in Vietnam... don’t I get to speak out?), but the astronomers certainly have invoked an interesting archetype at an interesting time.

Two Borasisi “generations” stand out in my mind as groups that might just come up with “sacred texts” that may be hard to sniff out for factual content, but certainly aspire to create lives of happiness. Those born between late 1950 through early 1952 have Borasisi aligned with the enigmatic Great Attractor. Those born between late 1959 through early 1961 have Borasisi directly on the inspired and innovative Galactic Center. You guys, write those sacred texts, realizing that the factions will have strongly polarized opinions as to the merit of the work. Some say B.S. and some say Brilliantly Superb!

How does Borasisi affect a person? Since I’ve not had time to study hundreds of cases yet (the information sharing between astrologers on this one has been brilliant so far - check out Zane Stein as a great source of centaur and TNO information), I’ll cite my own experience. My Borasisi is roughly 12 and a half of Sagittarius, recently squared by Jupiter. During this time I received an unprecedented number of critical comments to the GT in the vein of “Who do you think you are?” and “What gives you the right to make up things?” and “What makes you think your body eliminates ice cream?” - Borasisi kinds of things. Hey, the newsletter’s free and there’s an unsubscribe link at the bottom of each edition... sorry, there’s no subscription money to be returned for these. Like everyone else, I’m doing the best I can during very challenging times. Conversely, I posted a set of entertainment industry-themed webpages regarding writing I have done for film and television, a long term passion in which it doesn’t matter if content is fact or fiction. The response to these pages, posted in the same interval, has been extremely positive.

There’s a lot more about Borasisi to follow, ranging from “they can’t name it this; that’s just not sacred!” to the filtering of mainstream media, propaganda and those rock solid theologies, unquestioned for a long time.