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Galilean Moons (Moons of Jupiter)
GALILEAN MOONS (MOONS OF JUPITER)
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, has, as one might anticipate, a large
number of satellites —16 at last count (Saturn holds the current record of 17). Four of
these, called the Galilean moons because they were discovered by Galileo, are large
bodies—Ganymede (3,270 miles in diameter), Callisto (2,980 miles), Io (2,260
miles), and Europa (1,950 miles)—all larger than Pluto (estimated diameter, 1,457
miles). These moons orbit between 262,000 miles and 1.17 million miles away from
Jupiter. Their orbital periods range from less than 2 terrestrial days (Io) to more than
16 (Callisto). All the non-Galilean moons are less than 120 miles in diameter, clearly
distinguishing them from Jupiter’s Big Four.
The moons of Mars constitute the most useful starting point for the new field
in astrology of planetary moon studies. The Jovian moons are also useful for this purpose,
however, particularly in the ways they contrast with the Martian system. Next to
Phobos and Deimos, the Galilean moons have attracted the attention of human
beings more than the moons of any other celestial body (indicating that their astrological
significance should be relatively easy to retrieve from the collective unconscious).
To begin with, they were the first nonterrestrial moons to be discovered, and
their discovery (in 1610) was an important factor in overturning the medieval European
view of extraterrestrial space: In the seventeenth century they produced a sensation,
comparable to the discovery of mountains on the surface of the Moon. In more
recent years, as Pioneer and Voyager probes have sailed past Jupiter and taken dramatic
photographs, the Big Four Jovian moons have become the focus of considerable astronomical
and popular interest.
It would be difficult to dispute the idea that four celestial bodies larger than
Pluto that are, even at their greatest distance away from Earth, always more than four
times nearer than Pluto’s closest approach to Earth, should have some sort of astrological
influence. The operative question, however, is, Does the study of Jovian satellites
add anything to our understanding of Jupiter, or are these influences indistinguishably
blended with Jupiter’s An initial clue from astrological studies of Phobos and Deimos
is that the Jovian moons may represent a polar opposite principle (or, perhaps, another,
related principle) to some key Jupiterian principle. Another clue, taken from asteroid
studies, is that the mythology associated with the name of a newly explored celestial
body provides an initial guide to its astrological significance.
Zeus (the Greek equivalent of the Roman Jupiter), as anyone familiar with
classical mythology knows, had an unpleasant propensity to rape everyone to whom
he took a fancy, and all four of the figures after whom the Galilean moons are named
were victims of the god’s lust. Ganymede was a young man whom Zeus kidnapped to
become his lover and cupbearer, while Io, Europa, and Callisto were all young women
raped by the king of the gods. Zeus, however, seems to have been plagued by guilt for
his misdeeds, because he tried in various ways to make it up to his victims. In the case
of Ganymede, Zeus gave the youth’s royal father a pair of fine mares and a golden
grapevine, and Ganymede himself was immortalized as a constellation (Aquarius).
Callisto was similarly transformed into a constellation (the Big Bear), Europa was
[264] THE ASTROLOGY BOOK