Pallas

Pallas is one of the largest asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was found in 1802, the second asteroid ever discovered, and takes about 4.6 years to travel once around the zodiac. In astrology, Pallas describes how you think, plan and solve problems: the kind of intelligence that spots patterns, sees the whole design and turns it into skilful action.

What Pallas describes

The name comes from Pallas Athena, a Greek goddess of wisdom and craft, and astrologers use it as a symbol of practical, creative intelligence. Mercury describes how you think and talk in general. Pallas is more specific: it shows how you put ideas together into a plan, and where your craft and strategy come through.

Common themes include:

• spotting patterns and seeing how the pieces fit
• strategy, planning and finding a clever way round a problem
• craft and skilled hands-on work, from design to repair
• wisdom, healing and justice: protecting what is right

Pallas in a sign and a house

The sign of Pallas shows how you think and plan. In a fire sign you may decide fast and learn by doing, in an earth sign you plan with real materials and budgets, in an air sign you think through words, data and people, and in a water sign you read patterns through feeling and instinct. The house shows the area of life where your strategy shows best, such as work, money, home or friendships. Natalora gives a reading for Pallas in each sign and each house.

Aspects

Aspects show which other drives your thinking works with. A close contact between Pallas and a personal planet such as the Sun, Moon, Mercury or Mars, or with the Ascendant or MC, makes its themes much easier to notice. Natalora explains the major contacts of Pallas to the ten planets, the Ascendant and the MC. A conjunction turns the other body into a thinking tool, a trine or sextile makes clever solutions come easily, and a square or opposition can bring overthinking or arguing to win, which practice can turn into sharp judgement.

How to use it

Pallas works best as a prompt for reflection. Notice when you feel clever and capable, and what you were doing at the time. Notice too when your head argues with your heart, and which one you tend to follow. Use the sign and house as hints for where your planning skill can help, at work, at home or among friends. If a reading does not fit, set it aside; the planets carry more weight than any asteroid.