Beneath the Surface of Sedna ~ April 29, 2004


In a recent Galactic Times, I promised a look at the newly discovered, reasonably large object, and possible planet, Sedna. This turned out to be more complex than I had initially imagined. As mentioned before, the orbital elements have not been conclusively refined. This makes all known orbital positions to contain some possible error, and technically, this body is not officially named. Astronomers also cannot agree as to whether it is a Kuiper Belt Object or Oort Cloud object. It’s present classification is Scattered Kuiper Disk Object. There’s all that, then there’s the mythological references. In reading the background Inuit stories of Sedna, it takes a little doing to get to the gist of this glacial region resident.


The polite myth largely circulating observes that Sedna refused all marriage suitors until her father intervened and forced her to marry a mysterious suitor promising all sorts of good things. As it turns out, this suitor was a sea bird/raven who had capture and containment in a dismal environment as his agenda. Sedna’s father ultimately got wind of this and decided to rescue his forlorn daughter. He managed to do this while the bird man was away. But alas, as Sedna and her father fled, the powerful bird man flew after them and launched a full on assault. Sedna’s father was so scared and freaked that he threw her into icy cold ocean. She grasped at the kayak, clinging to any hope of life. Her father battered her hands with the oar until she sank into the sea. She thus, became the goddess of the oceans, as she made her descent to the bottom.


Now the impolite version adds some necessary twists and turns. Once a great hunter came to Sedna’s village and appealed for her hand. She rebuffed him. Shamed, he sent his dog to be with her as she “only deserved to be with a dog,” or so the wounded hunter claimed. One night the dog “visited” Sedna and she conceived a dog child. Shamed again, the hunter isolated his canine child on a remote island. Finding out that the dog husband/father often swam to the child to provide supplies. One day the hunter, aware of this devotion, filled the dog husband’s pack with stones so he sank and drowned.


As this version continues, Sedna was approached by a handsome hunter, who was in fact the bird man as indicated previously. Her father attempted her rescue, but here the hunter/bird man witnessing the escape cut off Sedna’s fingers as she clung to the kayak. One finger became a seal, another a walrus, another a bearded seal and as it went on, the mammals of the sea were created. Sedna sank to the bottom of the sea where the Moon Spirit and Air Spirit rewarded her suffering with reunion with her faithful dog husband.


The father did escape, and lived in shame and remorse thereafter. One day he laid down on the oceanic shore and begged forgiveness. The sea swept him out to be rejoined with his daughter once again in the depths of the arctic oceans.


Perhaps it would be easy to proclaim that Sedna stands for the subjugation of women by their fathers, and/or the defiant independence of women. In view of the upcoming Venus occultation/alignment in June, we are all charged with finding a more useful symbolic modality. The bottom line truth is: Sedna is a powerful shamanic figure.


Imagine a woman agreeing to mate with a dog. If taken literally, this can be perplexing. In native cultures the dog symbolizes faithfulness to one’s own spirit on the inner plane, and fidelity, trust and unwavering acceptance on the outer. So, from the nonliteral level, Sedna realized that the only acceptable mate was one who would honor her spirit. All the rest simply would not do. This issue is not about defiance in the face of relationship to preserve independence. The issue is the selection of a mate who can sustain and honor the inner essence of one’s nature. This image is brought forth by the North Node (whose position should be secure) at 24 Leo 30. Add in the closest contact to the Sun now perceived to be 6 Cancer 20 and the soulful preservation agenda evolves nicely seeking only support for the spirit.


It seems that Sedna’s journey is about the inner journey to soulful depths. The ocean does symbolize the great unconscious and its great depth the unending journey to ones most vast inner dimensions. Most to all women have Mars in their charts, just as most to all men will have Sedna in theirs. It would seem that the receptivity to one’s greatest depth (potential and feminine creative talent) for both genders comes to light with Sedna’s influence. Consider the brilliant New Zealand film, “Whale Rider,” as an example of this spiritual, shamanic process. In this film, the protagonist, Pai, must overcome insurmountable cultural odds in life and ultimately gains tribal respect by leading beached whales out to sea with complete disregard for her life.


The purest essence of feminine power exists in both women and men, and if accessed, provides the warm-blooded response to even the iciest situations (sea mammals familiar with frigid conditions). A receptivity to this essence queues all persons to what truly serves their spirit and what does not.


Soon, the powerful and reasonably rare Venus alignment will be upon us. She will slip out of sight as she crosses the disk of the Sun demanding conscious attention of the obvious stellar brightness that lies before each and every one of us. There is no gender bias here. It is simply a matter of each and every person diving into the journey of the soul, despite the barrenness of the journey. It is essential and cannot be avoided. Like Sedna, in space, this journey takes one way beyond previous ascribed dark dimensions of space and time. Healing and inner harmony prevail causing a person to be in the powerful position of never having to defend the nature of one’s spirit. And, this goes beyond all previously known dimensions of ego into the purest form of soul-based essence. Finally, an enormous breakthrough granted by what goes beyond all we have previously revered in astrology and our view of our solar system’s cosmology.