Focus On: (26) Proserpina - The Evening Star Café

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.33 years
Discovered: 5th May 1853 (time unknown), from Düsseldorf, Germany, by Robert Luther
Notes: This object has a cross-section size of around 90 km.

Events at time of discovery:

May – The world’s first public aquarium opens at London Zoo.
May 4 – Birth of Marie Robinson Wright, American travel writer
May 12-October 31 – The Great Industrial Exhibition is held in Dublin, Ireland.
May 23 – The first plat for Seattle, WA, is laid out.

Naming information

Name origin: Roman goddess and queen of the underworld.
Mythology: Equivalent of the Greek Persephone, with virtually identical mythology. She was combined with, or replaced, the ancient Roman fertility goddess Libera: the female expression of Liber Pater, protector of plebeian rights, god of wine, male fertility and liberty. Ceres, Liber and Libera were part of a triad of patrons of Rome’s commoner citizens.

Detail of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's eighth and final version of Proserpine (1882). A pensive-looking young red-headed woman, dressed in green and holding a tasted pomegranate, stands by an incense dish. The verse at the top-right of this painting, written by Rossetti, reads as follows: Afar away the light that brings cold cheer / Unto this wall,- one instant & no more / Admitted at my distant palace-door. / Afar the flowers of Enna from this drear / Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here. / Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey / That chills me: and afar, how far away, / The nights that shall be from the days that were. / Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing / Strange ways in thought, and listen for a sign: / And still some heart unto some soul doth pine, / (Whose sounds mine inner sense is fain to bring, / Continually together murmuring,) / Woe's me for thee, unhappy Proserpine!

I don’t think I’ve ever met a Pre-Raphaelite painting I didn’t like. Detail of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s eighth and final version of Proserpine (1882), now in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Astrological data

Discovery degree: 29+ Libra
Discovery Sabian: Three Mounds of Knowledge on a Philosopher’s Head
Discovery nodal signature: Taurus–Scorpio
Estimated orbital resonances: Mercury 1:18, Venus 1:7, Earth 3:13, Ceres 15:14, Jupiter 11:4
Discovery chart details: Noon chart with massive presence in Aries and Taurus. Mercury sextile and Saturn semi-sextile North Node. Venus-Chiron-Neptune minor grand trine. Vesta-Juno square Neptune; Jupiter sesquiquadrate Uranus; Venus semi-square Sedna; Mercury semi-square Eris.

Summary and references

Suggested meanings include connection to the inner self and personal values; receptivity and devotion; assertion or lack thereof^[1]; feeling alone or not belonging^[2]. Dane Rudhyar reportedly said of Proserpina: “In that name lies hidden the symbol of all resurrections.”

References:
1) Amable: (26) Proserpina
2) Martha Lang-Wescott: Basic Resources

Noon discovery chart for (26) Proserpina: 5th May 1853, Düsseldorf, Germany.