In the Name of Love: the asteroid Psyche

This asteroid is intimately linked to the planet Venus, just as the character of Princess Psyche is in the myth of Psyche and Cupid.

Psyche unknowingly committed an unforgivable offense: because she is as beautiful as Venus, humans abandon the goddess to worship her mortal copy. The princess is therefore pursued by Venus’s vengeance, who imposes four impossible tasks upon her. Psyche nevertheless succeeds in accomplishing these four tasks, thanks, it is true, to providential help. At the end of the myth, Jupiter grants her immortality so that she may marry Cupid on Mount Olympus, and she wins the favor of Venus, who dances at their wedding. This myth thus shows us how we can gain the favor of Venus—that is, attain the joy and fulfillment promised by the planet of love, beauty, and also self-worth.

When we encounter the asteroid Psyche, we are required to undertake our own Venusian labors, each task corresponding to a Platonic virtue: wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. I first examine in detail the passage of the progressed Sun in aspect to Psyche and the relational issues it raises. Thus, when the aspect between the progressed Sun and the asteroid became exact, Paul McCartney took John Lennon to court, Friedrich Nietzsche broke definitively with Richard Wagner, Gérard de Nerval lost his great love when she married, and Maria Montessori discovered with horror that she was pregnant but could neither marry the father nor keep the child.

After exploring Psyche in the different signs of the zodiac, as well as its transits and the effects of planetary transits to Psyche, I conclude the book with a final chapter on natal aspects involving Psyche: first Sun–Psyche aspects, then Moon–Psyche aspects, followed by aspects with Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, which are found with striking frequency among psychoanalysts (which is no coincidence), and finally synastry aspects. In the section on synastry, I again discuss psychoanalysts (notably Jung and Freud), as well as the British royal family, and finally the men of the Kennedy family.

In summary, the asteroid Psyche is a catalyst—an activator of other planetary transits—giving concrete form, through a relationship, to the issues currently at play. Its activation always aims to lead us to accomplish our Venusian labors, that is, to develop within ourselves the qualities necessary for a better expression and integration of the planet Venus. These qualities are symbolized by the sign of Psyche and by the four Platonic virtues: wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. This asteroid thus holds the key to establishing healthy and fulfilling romantic and friendly relationships, and therefore has the power to offer us our own form of immortality—that is, wholeness