A deepwater oil rig off the coats of Louisiana has burned for more than a day.  Eleven workers are missing and it is thought that over a million liters of crude oil could be released from the damaged rig every day.  The oil slick that has resulted is now eight miles long.  This calamity will destroy the delicate ecological balance of this area that is home to a variety of shellfish and fish including the rare bluefin tuna.

Ceres, the former asteroid that was elevated to dwarf planet status when it was reclassified with Pluto, is the planet that rules our relationship to the environment and the planet that we live on.  (For more information on Ceres listen to the first half of this recent podcast.)  Ceres is currently traveling in the early degrees of Capricorn, the sign of rules and structures and facing up to difficult realities.

Pluto is retrograde right now in Capricorn, and is currently just one degree from a conjunction to Ceres.  In its role as destroyer and rebuilder, Pluto often creates destruction as a precursor to regeneration, and in association with Ceres it is deeply connected to the myth of Persephone/Kore, the daughter of Demeter/Ceres who was abducted by Pluto and taken into the Underworld.

The elevation of Ceres has brought about a new global awareness about the needs for environmental balance.  Perhaps this explosion (Pluto) will facilitate even greater awareness about our tenuous ecological balance (Ceres).