The distant planetoid Sedna appears to be covered in a tar-like sludge that gives it a distinctly red hue, a new study reveals. The findings suggests the dark crust was baked-on by the Sun and has been untouched by other objects for millions of years.
Turning inwardly, astrologer Maria Rodreguiz of the New York Open Center has suggested that Sedna may come to be seen as the ruling planet of the sign Virgo. Virgo is currently considered under the rulership of Mercury – which jointly rules both Virgo and Gemini. Some have long detected an unsatisfying contradiction in this. A feminine sign, Virgo is sometimes considered to connote fussiness, methodicalness, yet also dependability. Is this sign compatible with the expansive, communicative Mercury? Consider: the vain young Sedna, who prized her beautiful hair, becomes a suffering immortal unable to brush the detritus of the sea from her matted locks. This is a predicament suggestive of what is experienced by the overly meticulous Virgo. Is this distant planet perhaps a more fitting ruler for the barren, feminine sign that Virgo is sometimes considered?
Virgo is often associated with the Greek myth of Demeter and her ill-fated daughter Persephone – a story that bears striking resonance to that of Sedna’s. Consider: Persephone is a beautiful and carefree young woman who is kidnapped by Hades, who forces her to live with him in his subterranean world. Stricken with grief at her daughter’s disappearance, Demeter – goddess of the harvest – withholds the fruit of the earth until a bargain is struck in which Persephone is free to roam the Earth part of the year, but is condemned to live in the underworld the other part. During Persephone’s absence, Demeter again withholds the harvest in her despair.