Okyrhoe (also spelled Ocyrhoe) (52872) was discovered on September 19, 1998 at 24 Pisces 35. This is quite significant, because it was conjunct the fixed star 51 Pegasi at that time.
Astronomers have discovered several stars that have one or more planets of their own by now...so we know ours is not the only solar system in the universe. But the very first sun-like star (similar to our own Sun) to be discovered with a planet was 51 Pegasi, which opened up a whole new field of astronomical research, and verified that our solar system is not unique. (Before its discovery, the only planets convincingly observed were forbidding worlds orbiting pulsars.) So it is a pretty important star...and makes Okyrhoe's discovery all the more significant.
The planet around this star has been given an official name, Bellerophon. I will talk more of this shortly.
Oh...you can see this star in the night sky with the naked eye, if you know where to look. It's that bright.
When Okyrhoe is closest to the Sun (perihelion), it almost reaches Jupiter's orbit, while when furthest from the Sun (aphelion), it goes well out beyond the orbit of Saturn. Thus, it could be viewed as a bridge between Jupiter and Saturn.
It has the shortest orbital cycle of any Centaur, only 24.3 years. It's eccentricity is 0.309, with an inclination of 15.6.
MYTHOLOGY
OKYRHOE MYTHOLOGY
In Greek, Okyrhoe means "swift running" or "fast flowing." Her father was Chiron, wisest of all Centaurs, while her mother was the water nymph Chariklo.
Okyrhoe had the gift of prophecy. For example: Chiron was entrusted by Apollo to care for a baby named Aesculapius, and so brought the child to his cave. As Chiron arrived, Okyrhoe came out to meet him, and...upon seeing the child...burst forth into a prophecy:
In this, she predicted that the baby would grow up to be one of the greatest healers ever known, able to bring even the dead back to life. But in doing this, he would eventually anger the gods, who would strike him down, and yet, he would be reborn as a god himself, taking his place in the pantheon.
Okyrhoe had a gift, it is true. But she was also entrusted not to reveal some things the gods wanted kept hidden, and when she broke the rules, she suffered for it.
One day, she predicted that her father, an immortal, would be granted death by the other gods because the pain of a serpent's venom would torment him. But she only was able to speak part of the prophecy.
With this, Apollo turned her into a mare as punishment for revealing the plans of the gods to humankind.
PEGASUS AND BELLEROPHON MYTHOLOGY
The myth goes that Bellerophon wanted to ride the winged horse Pegasus, and sought Athena's aid. He spent the night in her temple. offered her many gifts, and she repaid him with a special golden bridal and instructions on where to find Pegasus. Bellerophon succeeded, and soon was off on Pegasus doing marvelous deeds, such as killing the dreaded monster, the Chimera.
Bellerophon had one success after another, getting braver and more aggressive with each, until one day he decided to ride up to Mount Olympus to visit the gods themselves! Zeus, angry with Bellerophon's arrogant attempt to scale Mount Olympus' heights, sent a gadfly to punish the mortal for daring to ascend to the home of gods. The fly stung Pegasus, and so startled the horse that he suddenly reared, and Bellerophon was hurled off of his back. He plummeted to the ground.
Athena spared his life by causing him to land on soft ground. But for the rest of his life, Bellerophon traveled, lonely and crippled, in search of Pegasus, but never found him again. No man would help him because of his offense to the gods.
Bellerophon provides a lesson in the proper relationship between a mortal hero and the gods. When he was young he honored the gods and won their favor but, then his pride got the better of him and led to his downfall.
ASTROLOGY
The Sabian Symbol for the degree of Okyrhoe's discovery (and the star 51 Pegasi) reads, "The purging of the priesthood."51 Pegasi is located in the shoulder/wing of the constellation Pegasus (The Flying Horse). In Greek mythology, Pegasus is the winged horse that was fathered by Poseidon with Medusa. When her head was cut of by the Greek hero Perseus, the horse sprang forth from her pregnant body. Pegasus represents the warrior spirit, bravery, courage, heroic deeds, creative inspiration, universal love. The desire for acquiring knowledge and the ability to present it in dramatic and fascinating ways.
Okyrhoe's cycle is only a few years shorter than that of Saturn's, which produces a very interesting result. I searched for aspects between these two bodies between 1800-2006, and in all that time there was only one exact conjunction: August 24, 1863, at 3 Libra 59. And yet, in that same time interval, the two bodies were exactly square 40 times, and opposition 19 times.
It is reminiscent of Chiron, which only had one conjunction with Chiron in the 20th Century. But in Okyrhoe's case, there was only one conjunction in over 2 centuries.
- Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863. Okyrhoe was 29 Virgo 55 conjunct Saturn at 1 Libra 30. Not surprising that a person who had such an impact on history would also have Trans-Neptunians involved: Chaos 29 Sag 09, Varuna 29 Sag 15, and Sedna 29 Pisces 53.
- Henry started his Ford Motor Company, proclaiming, "I will build a car for the great multitude," and he did just that, offering the Model T for $950. In the Model T's nineteen years of production, its price dipped as low as $280, and nearly 15,500,000 were sold in the United States alone. The Model T heralds the beginning of the Motor Age; the car evolved from luxury item for the well-to-do to essential transportation for the ordinary man. And this, in turn, irrevocably altered American society. As more Americans owned cars, urbanization patterns changed. The United States saw the growth of suburbia, the creation of a national highway system, and a population entranced with the possibility of going anywhere anytime.
- Ford revolutionized manufacturing, setting up an assembly line manufacturing procedure that could turn out a complete car chassis every 93 minutes. But he didn't stop there...eventually, his mass-production techniques would eventually allow for the manufacture of a Model T every 24 seconds. These techniques were not unnoticed by other industries, who followed Henry's lead and revamped their manufacturing along the same lines.
- W(illiam) W(ymark) Jacobs was born September 8, 1863. He was an English short-story writer best known for his classic horror story "The Monkey's Paw." In the story, the paw of a dead monkey is a talisman that grants the possessor three wishes, but the wishes come with an enormous price, and is one of the great classics of literature. William's chart shows Saturn 5 Libra 43 conjunct Okyrhoe 6 Libra 44. The conjunction was part of a T-square with Neptune 5 Aries 14 and Ixion 5 Cancer 56.
- Margaret Alice Murray was born July 13, 1863. Margaret was an eminent and respected Anthropologist, Archaeologist and Egyptologist. In the 1920's she began writing about her theories on the origins and organization of witchcraft predating Christianity. At the time many of her colleagues ridiculed her work, but that did not stop her from continued her research and writings. She is often called the "Mother of Wicca," since her writings were the inspiration used by Gerald B. Gardner and others when shaping the reformation of the modern day Wicca/Witchcraft movement. Margaret had Okyrhoe 27 Virgo 36 conjunct Saturn 0 Libra 12. But the conjunction was part of a much larger picture, including Orcus 27 Sag 22, Chaos 28 Sag 24, Varuna 29 sag 32, Sedna 29 Pisces 56 and Elatus 0 Aries 21.
- Andr�-Eug�ne Blondel was born August 28, 1863. He was a Fench physicist who is best known for two things. First, he invented the oscillograph, which led the way to the oscilloscope. Second, he developed a system of photometic units of measurement, which is still used today in astronomy for the measurement of the brightness of galaxies, stars, planets...and of course, Centaurs. His chart included Saturn 4 Libra 27 conjunct Okyrhoe 4 Libra 44, opposition Neptune 5 Aries 30, making a T-square to Ixion 5 Cancer 46.
- Alexandre (-Emile-John) Yersin was born September 23, 1863. This Swiss-born French bacteriologist was co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague or pest, which was re-named in his honour (Yersinia pestis). He was also able to demonstrate for the first time that the same bacillus was present in the rodent as well as in the human disease, thus underlining the possible means of transmission. This quote of his may best sum hup his Okyrhoe connection: "You ask me if I appreciate medical practice. Yes and no. I have a lot of pleasure in taking care of those who come to ask my advice, but I would not like to make medicine a trade, in other words, I could never ask a patient to pay me for care that I can give him. I regard medicine as a priesthood, as much as a pastoral one. To require money in exchange for providing care to a patient amounts to demanding from him his money or his life." He had Saturn 7 Libra 32 conjunct Okyrhoe 9 Libra 35, and right between them, Venus 8 Libra 25.
- Mary Eliza Church Terrell was a US writer born September 23, 1863, the same date as the above bacteriolgist. Her parents had been born into slavery, but through hard work became one of the wealthier families in Memphis, Tennessee. Mary, therefore, grew up in an affluent family, but one thing she discovered that money could not buy was an end to racial predjudice...she and her family still had to sit in the 'colored' section on trains, in restaurants, etc. She grew up believing that racial (and all other) forms of injustice must be fought. She was one of the first Black Women to graduate from college, and after being a teacher for awhile, she spent rest of her life as a lecturer, women's rights activist and leader of the Black women's club movement.
While I was reading up on the history of the year 1863, I noticed that the Red Cross was founded that year on October 29. While there is no close Okyrhoe conjunction to Saturn at that time, the chart for the Red Cross has Okyrhoe closely conjunct Mercury.
And Charles Ringling, founder of the Ringling Brothers Circus, was born December 2, 1863, with a very close Venus Okyrhoe conjunction.
On Amable's blog, Transneptunian Astrology, there are some interesting observations about Okyrhoe: "Okyrhoe was a female centaur that was transformed into a mare: Okyrhoe allows speed action like Marty Mc Fly at the end of the movie "Back to the Future" (1985), or like Anakin at the podracing tournament (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 1999), like the final movement of Mulan at the end of the movie (Disney, 1998), or the movie "The Peacemaker" (1997). The danger of Okyrhoe is to make a false move because of its strong ability for anticipation."
Benjamin Adamah has written an interesting blog on : Okyrhoe in astrology
Since Chiron and Chariklo were his parents, I thought I would next check out the frequency of conjunctions Okyrhoe made with each of those. We should definitely explore these dates in history:
- Okyrhoe conjunct Chiron
- May 16, 1835
- April 28, 1882
- May 18, 1930
- June 7, 1978
- December 23, 1978
- Okyrhoe conjunct Chariklo
- September 9, 1817
- May 15, 1857
- January 6, 1893
- May 20, 1934
- April 14, 1977
And here are the dates of conjunctions Okyrhoe has made with the other outer planets:
- Okyrhoe conjunct Uranus
- 22Pi53 April 6, 1925
- 22Pi19 October 18, 1925
- 22Pi05 January 5, 1926
- 15Le08 September 30, 1958
- 4Cp40 December 13, 1989
- Okyrhoe conjunct Neptune
- 15Ca19 January 21, 1909
- 14Ca26 April 15, 1909
- 13Vi36 August 19, 1935
- 13Sc06 July 1, 1962
- 12Sc05 May 4, 1962
- 11Sc03 August 28, 1962
- 14Cp02 March 2, 1990
- 13Cp29 June 24, 1990
- 12Cp44 November 22, 1990
- Okyrhoe conjunct Pluto
- 23Ge18 May 1, 1908
- 23Ca46 August 15, 1933
- 3Vi58 August 28, 1959
- 6Sc52 December 30, 1985
- 5Sc48 May 2, 1986
- 4Sc51 August 17, 1986
Mark Andrew Holmes has written that Okyrhoe "seems to indicate being criticized or attacked, being able to cope with attacks or unpopularity, ability to stand up for one's beliefs or principles." Check out his Okyhroe page: markandrewholmes.com/okyrhoe.html
Click here Okyrhoe, to find out how to discover where your Okyrhoe is.
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