Focus On: (100) Hekate

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt, Hecuba group
Orbit length (approx): 5.43 years
Discovered: 11th July 1868 (time unknown), from Ann Arbor, Michigan, by James Craig Watson
Notes: Large asteroid, diameter approx 87km.
Events at time of discovery:

• July 4 – Birth of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer
• July 9 – The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
• July 14 – Birth of Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator
• July 18 – The Navajo people begin their long march home.

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Naming information

Name origin: Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy.
Mythology: One of few deities who could move in and out of the underworld; a denizen of both upper and lower realms, and therefore with experience and knowledge of both, she was valued in myth for her guidance. The asteroid's name also commemorates it as the hundredth to be discovered, as ἑκατόν (hekaton) is Greek for 'a hundred'

Persephone, Hermes, Hekate and Demeter, Athenian red-figure terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water) ca. 440 BCE, attributed to the Persephone Painter. Hekate is shown carrying her twin torches, heralding or guiding Persephone's return from the underworld. Held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

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Astrological data

Discovery degree: 15+ Aquarius
Discovery Sabian: A Big Businessman At His Desk
Discovery nodal signature: Leo-Aquarius
Estimated orbital resonances: Ceres 11:13, Jupiter 11:5
Discovery chart details: Hekate was semi-square Chiron and Sedna, conjunct on the Aries Point, and square Juno. Venus was semi-sextile the North Node; Jupiter square Uranus-Chariklo; Pallas conjunct Pholus; Vesta trine Jupiter and Saturn trine Chiron.

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Summary and references

May signify far-sight, prophecy, ceremonial magic, protection and guidance^[1]; helpful counsel^[2]; the night sky and its use in divination, the astrological arts, intuition^[3]; torchlight, portals, crossroads and passages^[4]; dreams, nocturnal hours, inner guidance^[5]; meeting of three ways, witchcraft, Triple Goddess, transitions, liminality^[6]. Smiljana Gavrančić notes that "Hades, Persephone, Hermes and Hecate are the only beings who could go in and out of the underworld"^[7].

References:
1) Alex Miller: Hekate 100
2) Amable: (100) Hekate
3) Neptune's Aura Astrology: Asteroids Hekate 100 & Sampo 2091
4) Darkstar Astrology: Asteroid Hekate
5) Martha Lang-Wescott: Basic Resources
6) TAKE Astrology: Asteroids in Astrology
7) Smiljana Gavrančić: The Road to my Dedication to Hecate

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Noon discovery chart for (100) Hekate: 11th July 1868, Ann Arbor, Michigan.