Ceres is commonly associated as being the quintessential Earth Mother, and rules over food, cooking, nutrition, animals, and has coined the keyword of ‘nurture’, and has been strongly associated as the modern day ruler of Virgo in Astrology.
Upon my own astrological study of the asteroid, I aimed to seperate her ‘nurture’ in relation to the nurture and care provided by the moon. Upon several chart studies and samples, it became clear the role Ceres plays within ones chart.
Ceres rules the action orientation of nurturing: What needs to be DONE to give and receive nurturing. It shows what you experienced in the nurturing environment and how you learnt how to care for yourself, hence her association with the sign of virgo - she is the practical nurturer.
Moon in ones chart is much more personal and has to do with your inner world and how you internally identify yourself and also describes your automatic reactions to external situations
Ceres focuses primarily on the ACT OF NURTURING ITSELF. It doesn’t contribute to ones identification, nor does it dictate the way nurturing affects our overall emotional wellbeing - it primarily shows what makes us happy in terms of comfort and physical care.
Ceres is the external manifestation of nurturing that primarily looks at your physical environment, while the moon is about your emotional wellbeing
With Ceres, there is also a reflection of the conditionality of nurturing and lack thereof. What was commonly found throughout the chart studies is that Ceres seems to be a manifestation of what we ultimately LACKED during childhood, and how we choose how to nurture others by how we learnt to care for ourselves. This sense of nurturing stems from what we wanted, though wasn’t adequately received.
Upon reflecting on the research and study from Professional Astrologer Steve Judd (who has 35+ years of experience reading natal charts), he indicated an afflicted Ceres in the natal chart commonly shows that as the native reaches their 30s/40s may develop a processed wheat intolerance or digestive complaint.
Harsh aspects to Ceres could also show issues of abandonment, grief, eating disorders, over-attachment, custody issues and parent-child complexes.
Check your Ceres sign and House placement
As a child, you experienced an environment where you had to essentially learn to care for yourself. Either the parental figures were not present to give you proper nurturing and therefore you had to learn how to be independent and fend for yourself. If you had siblings, you may have taken the role of caring for them by taking most likely indicated by the house area Ceres is located. If Ceres is afflicted, you may have experienced a form of violence or aggression in the home life.
You may tend to be quite self reliant in caring, and may not want to allow others to take much care for you since you feel best when you do it for yourself. This may include cooking and cleaning for yourself, and you may get somewhat agitated if people do your tasks for you -especially without your say-so.
You may tend to care for yourself quite physically by being quite active, not necessarily going to the gym or exercising regularly but also just general movement throughout the day.
You take care of others through action - strictly doing things for another. You help improve other’s sense of independence, and as a parent, you may show your child how to do things so they can learn. Once you’ve shown them, you expect them to take the initiative to do it for themselves from then on.
You also care for the needs of others by encouraging their inherent sense of bravery, and to be bold and fearless of any hardships. You may become impatient with those who don’t attempt to care for themselves. You also establish yourself as ‘THE’ nurturing figure in your household, placing yourself as the leading care taking figure.
As a child, you experienced an environment that revolved around material possessions and resources. You may have grew up in a home life where money was a great focus by one or both of the parental figures. One parent may have been quite a hard worker and/or a big spender. If well aspected, you may have experienced the pleasure of being able to access a lot of material possessions and/or resources and possibly an abundance of good food.
However, if Ceres is poorly aspected, you may have experienced and environment where the opposite was true. Money may have been limited, and you may have witness your caregivers working relentlessly to obtain a sustainable income to support you. Your parental figures may have done their best to provide you with care through means of physical affection, though if afflicted, this can indicate the LACK of physical affection from the care giver(s).
This could show a parent who was un-demonstrative to you, and ended up ‘buying’ their way out of giving you the physical affection you may have wanted.
You may have been given the excuse “I work hard to give you food and clothes and you should be grateful!” - though what you may have wanted most was a display of care and affection through something as simple as a hug.
You aim to care for your body quite well through soaps, creams and food, though you have to make sure not to overindulge with this placement.
You now give care and nurture through providing for them materially. You want to give people (and especially your children) the best you can afford, and you will work hard to obtain and give them what they want the most, buying gifts you know they’ll love and appreciate. You may also enjoy giving care through cooking for them, and also giving a bountiful supply of hugs and physical affection.
You also wish to care for yourself through the means of eating good (rich) food, and also shopping and being able to have items in which are only owned and enjoyed by you. This can be even more valuable for you if you purchased items using your own money you’ve earned yourself. Having a well balanced bank account (or perhaps even a little excess) can make you feel quite happy and grounded. You may also simply enjoy lazing around the home environment, watching movies snuggled under your favourite blanket.
Gardening or engaging in artistic endeavours such as painting or craft, and this can also improve your sense of wellbeing.
As a child, you experienced an environment where the parental figures may have been quite erratic, often coming and going from the home environment. This may indicate that you also experienced frequent local trips with your care givers, whether that was simply a quick journey to the local super market than home or to see other family members close by. You may have experienced one of the parental figures as being quite emotionally detached and perhaps not as physically expressive of their affections towards you. Instead, they nurtured you by simply talking to you, and engaging in conversation or saying “I love you” rather than showing it. You may also have learnt to speak quite early in youth.
You may have been entertained by books and also other self-learning toys and games.
You may have also experienced much interaction with your siblings (or cousins/people in the neighbourhood if you’re an only child) growing up.
If afflicted, you may have had your thoughts and ideas rejected by the parental figures. You may have had difficulty verbally expressing how you felt towards the care giver(s) as you may have simply been ignored or most often, the parental figure spoke over the top of you, which left you feeling like your ideas and opinions were rejected. You may also have had some sort of learning difficulty which caused you frustration and left you feeling intellectually insignificant in comparison to your peers. This could have involved an inability to solve simple maths problems, difficulty spelling or speech problems when it came to the pronunciation of words.
You may tend to want to care for your mental health and wellbeing more so than your physical. Getting out of the house regularly may be quite beneficial to you.
You may find your sense of wellbeing is improved when you feel educated on a variety of topics, and knowledge is a source of comfort for you. this can include knowing what’s happening in the news, to being able to use technology well. You feel cared for when people simply ask how you are, and specifically about your wellbeing. You appreciate your health being recognised, and you feel even better when you are able to talk about how you’re feeling and are listened to. Text messages, comments and phone calls are also another way you feel most cared for, as well as writing, journalling and even blogging. Taking trips to your local area is also a great way to improve your sense of wellness, (whether thats taking a bus trip to the other side of town to a cafe than home or simply going for a walk).
You care for others through talking to them about how they are feeling, while also perhaps giving advice as to how they can improve their own health and wellbeing. You may also check in with loved ones daily through text or phone call, simply to ask how they are. You may also enjoy caring for others through teaching them something, especially on a topic you are well versed in. You may not feel the most comfortable dealing with intensely emotional situations, as you tend to like to provide care through rationalising things and putting them into realistic context.
As a child, you grew up in an environment where you may have experienced a parent/child complex with the mother figure. If well aspected, the relationship with the mother could have been quite beneficial, though their may still have been a subtle sense of tension in relation to the mother figure.
With this placement, if ill aspected or inspected in ones chart, the mother figure may have been absent in the nurturing environment, and/or you may not have gotten the love, care and affection from your mother as you would have liked. Your mother figure may have spent more time concerned about your siblings growing up (if you have any), leaving you to care for yourself. On the flip side, you may have experienced a parental figure who was overprotective of you and/or quite clingy.
If Ceres is heavily affected in the sign if cancer, you may have experienced an unsafe Homelife or may have a had issues with setting secure home foundations. This could have included frequently changing home locations.
If well aspected however, you may have experienced the nurturing environment to be quite warm, secure, comfortable and safe, whereby you had a good relationship with your mother and other female figures in the family.
You may find your sense of wellbeing is improved when you have an established and secure home where you can take refuge in from people in the outside world, you may feel most comfortable when at home and/or with your own family members. You may also be a strong and protective caretaker over your Homelife and family, and will especially pay great attention to the care and nurturing of your own children (if you have any or decide to). You may tend to put your emotional wellbeing before your physical.
You may find yourself quite protective and defensive over your child, especially if you felt neglected in that area in childhood. You may also find comfort in cooking and perhaps even home maintain. Every now and again, crying as an act of emotional release and stress can also be quite beneficial to your overall sense of wellbeing. Physical affection and close body contact with a trusted loved one will also greatly improve your sense of comfort and security. If you have a good relationship with your mother, you may find comfort in confiding in her or perhaps other female figures in the family.
You provide care and nurture for others by giving them emotional support, and you may also enjoy having your home place as a site of refuge and security for others. You tend to want to coddle and fuss over those you care for, and if you enjoy cooking, you may enjoy offering them food, or perhaps even supplying them with food, snacks and treats to lighten their spirits. You may also enjoy caring for others by simply holding them and maybe even cry with them in times of distress.
With this placement, you may have experienced a nurturing figure who may have been loud, bold and perhaps quite bossy.
If possibly afflicted or un-aspected, This parent may have tended to ‘steal your spotlight’ during childhood, and you may have felt like their shadow, or played a secondary role in their ‘performance’. One of your parental figures may have been quite loud and obnoxious, making you feel small in comparison, especially if they presented themselves as being quite self centred in their actions.
The parental figure may have tried to make you feel special, but you may not have received their excess attention well as you may have found it to be ‘too much’. On the flip side, you may not have felt like you got enough attention or your sense of individuality, self expression and sense of ‘specialness’ may not have been nourished during childhood, as your parental figure may have been too involved in themselves and what they’re doing.
You feel most cared for when your self expression is acknowledged, and when people are taking notice of you, making eye contact and really engaging with you. Your sense of wellbeing may be heightened when you engage in play and activities you find fun and entertaining. Sincere compliments from others can really boost your sense of happiness, as well as being given gifts or any expression of true generosity. Physical affection such as hugs and kisses also make you feel very happy and warm inside. As a parent, you may be quite fun and playful with your child, and encourage them to express themselves and be who they are, and not to feel pressured to ‘fit in’. You strongly encourage them in whatever they do and will make an effort to remind them how special they are to you.
If Ceres is well aspected, you should have a strong vitality and heart health, and you aim to care for your self-esteem and self confidence more so than your physical body (which may be relatively fit if the rest of the natal chart supports this)
You take care of others by acknowledging them and making them feel special as an individual. You praise the individuality inherent in people and compliment them on their talents. You shine a spotlight on others and elevate them in anyway you can. You give much praise and compliments and aim to enhance their sense of self confidence, reminding them that they are a powerful individual. You may also care for others by being playful and humorous, not to mention expressing your sense of generosity towards them by giving them gifts as well as bountiful physical expressions of love and affection.
You may have experienced a home life where you were assumed a lot of responsibilities at a young age. You may not have got to experience a true childhood due to responsibilities being assumed to you, or perhaps you experienced excessively hard working parents that never got to pay much attention to you. You may have had a caretaker that was incredibly perfectionistic and fault finding. They may have been too critical of you and/or the way you do things.
On the other hand, your caregivers may have been rather ‘sloppy’ or ‘lost’ in life, so you had to learn how to care for yourself which included learning how to do day-to-day tasks alone. The alternative could be that the parental figure taught you how to do things then expected you to take care of yourself from then on.
There is also a possibility with this placement with being micro-managed as a child, and if Ceres is harshly affected (by Saturn or Pluto), there may have been a development of an eating disorder later in life due for the need to have some self - control, which came from the ability to control what you ate.
Ultimately the way you tend to nurture and care for yourself is by having your own established routine which illuminates any stress for you. You also may also aim to keep a clean and balanced diet, and keeping your health in check - perhaps using natural medicines and naturopathy. Keeping your environment neat and clean can also enhance your sense of wellbeing, as well as possibly having a job or some kind of task where you feel like you are being productive. This placement (depending on other factors in the chart) may have the hardest time relaxing and finding calm in ‘doing nothing’, so keeping stimulated by doing daily chores and activities will enhance how you feel.
You may enjoy making lists, keeping calendars and reading self-help or self-improvement books also.
You care for others by providing them structure in their daily life, helping them when they are in need, either by showing you how to do a task then moving on or assisting them doing a task (virgo has a bad habit of doing things completely for people anyway!).
You may also care for others by giving them constructive criticism on how they can improve something or themselves. You’re quite happy to help them in the process if they are willing to do the work.
As a parent, you may be the type to do things for your child regularly, including cleaning their environment and keeping them quite clean and hygienic. You may be meticulous about caring for their health, making sure they are getting a variety of vitamins, preferably through their diet alone. You may have their health checked quite regularly also. You may teach your child early as to how to care for themselves and also work very hard in your job to support them, while also teaching them the value of hard work.
As a child, you may have grown up in an environment where there may have been a constant fluctuation in the home environment. You may have experienced constant highs and lows, especially with a caregiver, which may have involved constant ups and downs - either emotionally or their personality.
There may have been a separation of the parents at a young age, or perhaps the parents were never together at all. You may have witnessed the more negative aspects in relationships between your parents/caregivers, including arguments, conflicts and perhaps an imbalance of fairness between the individuals.
One parent may have put too much emphasis on your appearance, whether that meant physically or the way you acted in front of others. This may have made you feel more like an object rather than their child.
There may have also been issues around fairness, perhaps you were often blamed for something a sibling had done, of even the parent blaming you unjustIy for something.
The way you care for yourself now revolves around having your opinion heard and valued as an alternative perspective. You want you ideas to be taken into account and judged fairly. You may wish to care for and nurture your own appearance and beautify yourself for your own happiness and pleasure, not to impress others or to fit their external ideals of you. You may also enjoy engaging in music or arts as a way of expression your sense of aesthetic joys instead of revolving around your appearance. You may also enjoy having the company of another to give you a sense of support when it comes to your ideas, opinions and feelings about things.
You aim to achieve a balanced diet, though may tend to lean more towards eating sweets if you’re not paying attention. If in good health, you should have a steady and balanced weight.
You care for others by listening to their and valuing their viewpoint and opinions. You make sure you give another your attention and engaging in one-on-one conversations, fully taking in their perspective and ideas on things and helping them find a balance and/or a compromise to their problems. You’ll defend for those you care for, not afraid to stand up for them in times of dispute.
With regards to your children, you may be quite a permissive parent, allowing you child to do and have things if it will please them and make them happy. You may like to spin your child and take care in their appearance and teach them how to behave politely. You will be quite affectionate to your child and may want them to be quite social with other children. You listen to what your child has to say and if they have siblings, you aim to not let one child have more affection than another, timing to love them both/all equally.
You may have experienced a home life where there was a high level degree of intensity experienced by one or both of the care givers growing up. You may have witnessed a parent go through emotional extremes, typically over a traumatising event in which you may not have much recollection of. This may have put you into a position where you had to learn how to deal with the extremities of the parent/caregiver, and be able to handle their energy by protecting yourself with your own personal power, while also trying to aid and heal them.
On the other hand, one of the parental figures have been quite overbearing in the home life, and their personality type may have been quite potent to you, to the point where your true emotional reactions and feelings were suppressed - either out of fear of the parents reactions, or that your feelings were rejected because the caregiver was lost in a void of their own emotional extremes.
What you desire for self-nurture and care is a place where you be reside and be in solitude for a while, not allowing the emotions of others to interfere with you. You may feel safe when you keep your darkest secrets buried in yourself, and you greatly dislike the probing of others who try to dig it out. You may also feel cared for through intense emotional and physical connections with others, and this can include the act of sex though intimate cuddling with another can be just as satisfying for you also. You may have a laser focus on your health and well being, and you may care more about your psychological health than your physical one.
With this placement, you also have a tremendous capacity to heal others. You understand the dynamics of trauma and the out pouring of suppressed emotions. Your unshakable stature in the face of the extremes of others gives you the ability to take on their intensity and help guide them to transform it into something thats beneficial and healthy. You’re passionately caring for others and fiercely protective. You are able to completely rejuvenate others, but be aware you don’t take on their emotional trauma in and exchange of your healing with this placement.
As a parent, you may be ruthlessly protective over your child, and will certainly not tolerate bullying or harassment from other children. You may at times be quite overbearing to them and want to protect them from the harsh outer world, because you know how frightful the world can be sometimes. You want to encourage your child not to be fearful of anything, because you want them to understand that while life may be difficult at times, you want them to always be strong and come out the other side stronger than they were before.
Ceres in Sagittarius (9th)
You may have experienced a home life where one (or both) of the parental figures were frequently absent from home. They may have travelled long-distances, been living in another country, or just distant in general, perhaps on a more personal level.
You may have been given too little or too much freedom in your home environment (perhaps one parent was too restrictive while the other was too placid) and you may have become irritated by the parent who tried to pin you down when the other gave you all the freedom in the world. One of your caregivers reckless behaviour may have allowed you (or deliberately put you into) risky situations that may have put you in danger.
You may have also experienced a lot of travel as a child, or perhaps simply a variety of cultures which allowed to see the world around you in a more expansive light.
The carefree sense you experienced in childhood now may have made it difficult for you to except and express any intensely emotional situations, which now may result in you becoming quite ‘flighty’ and you’d rather avoid a situation where you have to take on responsibility. You may be quite careless when it comes to caring for your health and wellbeing, and you may tell yourself that “I’ll be fine no matter what I do (eat/sleep times ect).
You may ultimately want space and freedom to care for yourself, and not feel responsible for anyone else but yourself, nor do you enjoy other people fussing over you. You may also enjoy getting outdoors quite often, whether that includes going for a long drive or a hike, to simply getting outside and lounging around on a hammock. You may also like to be quite active, whether this is playing sports or generally moving around a lot.
As mentioned previously, you tend not to want to have the personal responsibility for caring for others, so you may encourage them to be independent and learn how to do things for themselves. You may prefer to care for others through teaching, and especially opening their minds to other possibilities and ideas when they feel stuck or set in where they are and what they are doing. You’re quite happy to encourage people by inspiring them to be more optimistic about their situation, and describing your vision of their future if they may take your guided advice.
As a parent, you’ll encourage your child to have high morals, and not to do anything to the detriment of others. You want to teach them things about life and to open their mind to broaden their perspectives, encouraging them to not be judgmental of others.You may have a lot of faith in your child/children, and encourage them to be optimistic when things get tough. You may also be quite a playful and fun-loving parent.
Ceres in Capricorn (10th)
With this placement, you may have been pressured to growing up too fast during childhood. You may have had many responsibilities implemented on you at a young age, or perhaps something occurred where you had to learn to grow up fast and become responsible for yourself. With this placement, there was a possibility whereby you had to swap roles with a parental figure, and you may of ended up taking care of them instead of them carrying out their duties as a caregiver.
You may have also had a very stern and workaholic parent, who’s own personal duties and responsibilities made you feel neglected. They may not have been an emotionally demonstrative parent, rather caring for you by simply providing for you. They may have aimed to teach you the importance of work and goals, and expected you to do the same as you aged.
You may now be quite independent when caring for yourself, and prefer taking the authoritative role as the leading care giver in the household. You like to structure your own routine and way of doing things, and you are quite disciplinary to your children if you have any. You don’t typically enjoy others doing things for you unless you ask and/or give them direction of exactly what you want done. You like to make sure your bank account and workalike is completely in order, and you need to be aware of neglecting your physical health if you become too focused on your goals and work life (eg, skipping meals or neglecting sleep because you’re too busy working late nights at work or on a project).
If Ceres is harshly aspected, be aware of the development of restriction diets as you may be more susceptible to these which are greatly detrimental to your health.
Make sure you get plenty of calcium to and take care of your bones, joints and teeth.
You may provide care for others by being a leader and showing them how to take care of themselves, and encouraging goal setting and structuring a self-care routine or plan. Because you enjoy being a leading care taker, careful not to hold yourself responsible for the care and wellbeing of others too much and especially do not try to push people out of the way and reap them of their independence when caring for themselves. You may not be entirely affectionally demonstrative when caring for others (unless other chart factors contribute), and would rather show care and nurture through doing tasks for another.
You may have grew up in a home life where you may have experienced a lot of chaos around you and/or had a caregiver who was unpredictable in their emotions and personality. One minute they may be calm, and then yelling and screaming about something the next. You may not have felt like your sense of individuality and ‘specialness’ was cared for as a child, and you learnt how to become emotionally detached from situations and observe what was going on around you. This was essentially a defensive mechanism for yourself due to a parent(s) unpredictability.
On the other hand, you may have had a parent or caregiver who was quite emotionally detached and unexpressive themselves. They may not have given you the closeness or demonstrated love and affection towards you as much as you would have liked. You may have felt more like ‘friends’ or ‘buddies’ with this parent, and although you may have enjoyed that, you may have felt left out on some of the true emotional connection found in other parent/child relationships.
You now care for yourself by not becoming too attached in relationship situations with anyone, not just romantic (depending on other placements). You tend to feel best when with a large group of friends, where your sense of ‘individuality’ is nurtured in a larger group or community. You may prefer to care for yourself and have the freedom to do your own thing when you want to.
You may not wish to care for others directly, rather letting people have the freedom to be themselves and to do their own thing. You encourage peoples eccentricities and to express themselves however they want to with you without judgment.
As a parent, you want to be able to be your child’s friend and companion. You may encourage a sense of independence in thought, and doing things and you may not be the type to concentrate so much on disciplining your child/children. You approach care taking in a relaxed and detached manner from your child, and may tend to ‘hand the child over’ to the other parent if they decide to have a temper tantrum of an emotional outburst.
With this placement, you may have grown up in an environment whereby you didn't’ really ‘know’ one or both of your caregivers. This doesn’t mean they were absent from you in childhood (though thats possible with this placement), but you may not have fully known the personality and/or anything about one of your caregivers. They may have been present with you your whole life, yet you never seemed to really ‘know’ them, and only saw them in your home as an extra figure in the family. There may have been an illusive sense about this caregiver, whereby you felt like you couldn’t really understand them.
If afflicted, one of your care givers may have been an escapist from reality, either by hiding in the confines of the home not doing much, or indulging in something to avoid the everyday reality (this could be from as simple as movies to something such as drugs and/or alcohol).
You may have also experienced a home environment where you became the victim of a situation. This could have been something rather extreme such as violence if Ceres is harshly aspected, or something such as being bullied by another sibling, where you had to run to the parent to ‘save’ you.
You may have felt quite alone and secluded at times, where you were left with your imagination to keep you occupied, possibly playing pretend games, playing as a character or with toys. In some cases, you may have felt quite close to spiritual beings and guides to keep you more company that living people.
The way you wished to be cared for is by having your alone time to recharge your energies. You may feel quite happy and nurtured by spiritual beings when asking for channeled healing energies. Music, art and spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation and crystals may also be a form of self care for you. You wished to be cared for by others by having them take care of the practical side of things for you (depending on other placements in your chart). You also wish to receive unconditional love and care from others, and feeling emotionally and spiritually connected to someone can bring you a great sense of healing. The company of pets and animals can definitely help you feel comforted, as they are all compassionate beings which can always provide you unconditional love you desire to feel cared for.
You have a great capacity to energetically heal others. You may be interested in things such as reiki and/or remote healing, crystal therapy and so on. You can also give people copious amounts of unconditional love and affection, attending to anyone and need from the ill, to the elderly, children and the homeless. You can completely understand the emotional wounds of others, and can provide compassionate care and nurture to help aid them in anyway you can. With this placement, note to keep yourself energetically protected when healing someone in this way, as you can transmute their energies to yourself.
As a parent, you may encourage your child to engage in artistic ventures and creativity. You will encourage your child’s fantasies and play along with them and their games of pretend. You may quite lack disciplining them, being to forgiving of the things they do. You will listen to them with understanding and empathy, and will provide a close sense of emotional and spiritual connection to your child.
©ellie-mae-astrology on Tumblr
(Note* There was much more I could have written about Ceres and the nurturing environment including more positive associations with this asteroid + this post was written in the Mercury Retrograde shadow period - may be subject to be altered over time)
