The Full Moon on May 18, 2019, is at 27+ degrees of Scorpio. The Sun in Taurus is in strict conjunction with Sedna, one of the most distant icy bodies in our solar system, named after the Inuit goddess of the Arctic Ocean. Sedna represents the utmost edge, both in the solar system as well as in our consciousness.

Sedna’s orbit is exceptionally long and elongated, taking approximately 11,400 years to complete. Sedna never comes inside Neptune’s orbit, not even when it is nearest to the Sun in its orbit, which happens next time in 2076. Sedna is possibly the first known member of the inner Oort cloud. In the astrological chart it moves so slowly that it works almost like a fixed star.

Sedna was discovered in 2003. It has given its name to a group of distant bodies, the sednoids, of which only three including Sedna are discovered so far, but scientists suspect that there are a lot more of them. The sednoids belong to the category of ETNOs (the extreme trans-Neptunian objects), whose orbits could have been disrupted by an as-yet-unknown planet beyond the Kuiper belt, the hypothesized Planet Nine, a body at least ten times more massive than the Earth.

In astrology we observe planetary cycles and when we try to define the nature of a certain transit, we find it helpful to study events in history. We don’t know much about the life 11,000 years ago, when Sedna last time was this close to the Sun and Earth. The climate was warming up, as the Earth was coming out of the ice age. People were hunter-gatherers. The last woolly mammoths were dying in extinction. Why this happened is not quite clear, but a climate change alone was probably not the reason, because mammoths had survived similar changes previously. Advanced hunting might have had something to do with their extinction.

Amazingly some concrete things have stood the test of the millennia up till our time. Göbekli Tepe, located in southeastern Turkey, is one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever. It was built around the same time that the last ice age ended. It is presumed to be a ceremonial site, perhaps for shamanic practices. There are various temples and massive stone pillars at the site. Hundreds of people and massive efforts have been needed to erect the structures. The site proves that at least some humans created permanent settlements long before farming practices started. For unknown reasons the site was then abandoned.

One of the world’s oldest art pieces is a wooden sculpture found in Siberia near Yekaterinburg. The radiocarbon dating has showed that the Shigir Idol is approximately 11,500 years old, carved from a trunk shortly after the end of the ice age. It is about five meters tall and its decoration resembles that of some stone sculptures found at Göbekli Tepe. Scholars think it is possible that the culture which emerged after the ice age and which created big symbolical artifacts, possibly having to do with religious rituals, did not originate in one place, but in several centers in different parts of the world.

The world’s oldest living tree is a 9,550 year-old Norway spruce growing in Sweden. The discovery of this spruce in 2004 coincides with Sedna emerging into our awareness. The tree has survived by pushing out another trunk as soon as the old one has died. It is rebirthing itself.

Astrologically Sedna has been associated with the climate change. We are damaging our planet and civilization dramatically. It is estimated that a million species are at risk, and one third of world’s nature will be destroyed by 2050. The extinction of plants and animals threatens also us humans. We Finns are at the forefront of destroying the planet. This year’s overshoot day of the Finns – the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate – was on April 5, a week earlier than last year. If people all over the world were consuming like us, we would need almost four Earths to sustain it. Immediate actions for better are required from each and every one of us.

In mythology Sedna was a beautiful Inuit girl, who became betrayed first by a suitor in disguise and then by her own father. Through a powerful transformation she became the mighty goddess of icy waters. She wants to be heard. If she is happy, she allows the humans to eat from the bounty of the sea. If she is not respected, she sends storms and starvation. The myth gives us hope.

In spite of the dreadful state of our planet, there is still hope. Our youngsters have taken the lead in the combat against time. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish schoolgirl, has initiated the School strike for climate, an international movement of students, who are not attending classes and instead are protesting for immediate action to prevent further global warming. Greta Thunberg was born in 2003, the same year when Sedna was discovered.