In the early 1800s, a belt of planetary asteroids were first sighted, and named after the great goddesses of antiquity - Ceres, Pallas Athene, Juno and Vesta. Mythologically, these goddesses were equivalent in rank with Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. Ceres, Vesta and Juno were sisters to these three gods, all born from the union of the Titan god Saturn and Rhea. Pallas Athene was the favourite daughter of Jupiter - conceived by him and birthed from his head.

Symbolically, these four asteroids represent aspects of the feminine consciousness that is now emerging into mass consciousness, and their placement in the BodyGraph is indicative of these aspects of yourself.

Both men and women have feminine aspects. They are usually more evident and easily discovered in women, but more and more men are becoming conscious of their feminine characteristics.

It is traditionally Venus that we look for in the design when we want to find what you are longing for in a relationship. By looking at the placement of Juno, the Divine Consort, we can hone in even more closely on your perfect partner.

If we look at the design of Brad Pitt, we can see that his two Venus activations are in Gate 61 - the Gate of Inner Truth in the Head Centre (conscious in black) and Gate 18 - the Gate of Correction in the Spleen Centre (unconscious in red).

This tells us that Brad is likely to be attracted to women who offer him the opportunity for a spiritually based relationship (Gate 61 in the Crown Chakra). Gate 18 offers Brad the opportunity to use his relationships to heal unconscious family based beliefs about the way men and women relate. However, because the unconscious activations are often what we project out onto other people, he will probably resist looking at the possibility that his underlying beliefs are creating a problem, and put all his energy into trying to 'correct' his partner. Another possibility is that he may use his relationship as a way to repair what he felt was wrong with his own upbringing.

Let's see where his Juno placements are. Brad's conscious Juno is in Gate 1 - The Creative - in the G Centre. This is the gate of the creative artist, and the most yang gate in the design. It is pure primal power, lightgiving, active and strong. His unconscious Juno is in gate 57 - Intuitive Clarity.

So, what we know now is that Brad craves a spiritually fulfilling relationship but has problems facing his own imperfections within that relationship. We also know that he longs for someone with primal creative power who can live powerfully in the moment.

Jennifer Aniston has three out of four of these gates, but it is interesting to see that they have very little else going for them as a couple. It looks to me like this was a relationship that thrived on what each one projected onto the other and that the projections were getting a bit too thin to be sustained any longer.

I have no idea what Brad and Angeline Jolie were (or are) up to, but with Pluto in Gate 18 - Correction - Angeline offers Brad a wonderful opportunity to get real about his tendency to project his own imperfections onto the relationship and his partner. In her design, Angeline would be having none of that game.

The gorgeous Marilyn Monroe. Why does she continue to fascinate? She has her Venus in Gate 19 - Approach (conscious) and Gate 3 - Difficulty at the Beginning (unconscious). Immediately we know that she had difficulty approaching or being approached by lovers. She was attracted to those who needed her and was likely to be needy in relationships (gate 19).

She loved to flirt. Once asked by a reporter what she wore to bed, Marilyn Monroe replied "Chanel No.5". When someone responded to her flirting, she would instantly want to follow the trail of attraction (gate 19 again). She had a desperate need to find someone who could keep her safe from the world (gate 19 in an undefined Root Centre means she felt she has no control over her own survival).

Alongside this neediness and fear was a desperate need to become her own person (gate 3). But again, being in an undefined centre (the Sacral Centre) she felt she had no control over her ability to be her own person and was strongly conditioned to believe that she could not survive without the support of others.

Marilyn's Juno activations are in Gate 19 (Approach) again! and gate 37 - Family. Since Juno represents the emotional and psychological needs we want met in a marriage type relationship, and Gate 19 is in the channel that represents marriage, it isn't suprising that Marilyn was married three times.

Anyone with a strong Gate of Approach will be constantly looking for the next (or additional) lover, and Marilyn was known to have had, in addition to her marriages, at least 4 significant relationships with men, and at least one with a woman.

Having her Moon and Jupiter also in the Gate of Approach made it a heady mixture of emotion, sex and good times. Underlying it all was a craving for a partner and a family where she would finally feel safe and protected, and where she would be able to connect with a sense of her own identity. Her line placements in both Juno gates indicate a complex relationship with authority figures and this complicated her ability to be her own person in a relationship - always a struggle in Gate 19.

In Melissa Etheridge's best selling autobiography, The Truth Is, she talks about her need for love, and her early addiction to sex to ease her emotional pain.

Melissa has the Channel of Emotional Desiring, running from the Root Centre to the Solar Plexus Centre. This is a very powerful energy and with the amount of open space in Melissa's design, has the potential to be highly destabilising. She also has Gate 59 - Gate of Sex, coming from an undefined Sacral Centre, which tends towards experimentation with sexual expression.

Can you see that she also has a channel in red running from the Solar Plexus Centre to the Heart Centre? This is a channel that makes the "designee" (I just made that word up, could you tell?) seek recognition within her family and community.

Acceptance into the gay community was extremely important to Melissa, because it helped her deal with her difficulties in being accepted by her birth family. All of these issues affect our adult relationships. It seems that during her long term relationship with Julie Cypher, Melissa learnt how important family is to her and she was finally able to come to terms with this part of her design - she has her Sun in the Gate of Family.(37)

Melissa's Venus activations are both in Gate 42 - the Gate of Growth. It is unusual to have both Venus's in one gate, indicating that Melissa has a big lesson about relationships and her expression of the feminine in this gate. Whenever a gate is coming out of an undefined Centre, we know we are looking at a feeling of being out of control. Gate 42 brings an ability to persevere with the goal in mind, and to learn from her experiences. She is attracted to women who also have this ability. In her autobiography, Melissa talked about being continually frustrated by Julie Cypher's inability to get beyond a few basic underlying issues and move into a deeper relationship. As it turned out, Julie's movement was out of the relationship rather than deeper into it. She was probably always headed in a different direction to Melissa.

Her current partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels has the other end of that Channel, Gate 53, which would be a strong bond between them. We call this an Electro-Magnetic Connection in Human Design speak.

So what about Juno? Unconscious Gate 13 - Gate of Fellowship of Man. This gives Melissa the ability to relate equally with everyone. In a relationship she would be looking for someone who didn't judge her, would listen and give her clear feedback to help her get a sense of herself.

Conscious Juno is in Gate 22 - The Gate of Grace and Openness, bringing her a natural ability to relate openly with others and to share a sense of her own spirit with them.

The thing that strikes me about Melissa's 'relationship' activations is that they are not particularly private - they are all concerned with the bigger picture, how she relates to others generally. It would explain why she has such a strong desire to write and perform her own material and why her music touches so many people on such a personal level.

By the way, Tammy Lynn doesn't have any connections with Melissa's Juno gates, but they do share the Channel of Family & Community, and if we add in their one strong Electro-Magnetic connection, it's enough to sustain a great relationship.

You can find your own Juno astrological position by clicking on the link below. Remember you can do it a second time with your Design birth details off your BodyGraph, to get your unconscious Juno activationasteroid ephemeris

© Kim Gould. Dec. 2005

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