NAME
In January 2018, almost 26 years after its discovery, this body was finally given a name: Albion. Albion is an ancient Greek name for the island of Great Britain, and in fact is the oldest known recorded name for it, being found as far back as the 6th Century BC. It was derived from an ancient word meaning 'white', and may have been given the name by sea travellers whose first image of the island was the White Cliffs of Dover.
The Minor Planet Center gives the following description for the name: "In the creation mythology of William Blake (1757-1827), Albion is the island-dwelling primordial man who divided himself into the four Zoas (Urthona, Urizen, Luvah and Tharmas), each representing important aspects of human character."
We'll look at Albion in the chart of William Blake in the Astrology section of this page, or you can click here to jump to that section: William Blake
Enclyopedia Mythica talks about the mythological Albion:
Albion, or Alebion (Ἀλεβίων), was a son of Poseidon and brother of Dercynus or Bergion, together with whom he attacked Heracles, when he passed through their country (Liguria) with the oxen of Geryon. But they paid for their presumption with their lives.In his book, The British Chronicles Volume 1, David Hughes writes "Atlas, the son of the sea-god Poseidon (Neptune) and the mortal-woamn Cleito." Albion was brother to Atlas, making him a demi-god.
Interesting to note that in various writings, the identities of Albion and his brother are sometimes blurred or even merged. Albion is sometimes called Ampher. Some authors list Albion as the son of Atlas. And in some cases, including the writings of William Blake, Ampher/Albion is identified with Atlas himself.
Ampher/Albion was also deified at one point in Roman mythology as Aquarius, son of Neptune and the island goddess Brittania rather than having a mortal mother. In that case he would be a full god rather than demi-god.
ASTRONOMY
QB1 was the first body discovered out past Pluto, and is designated the first Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) ever found. It was discovered by astronomers Dave Jewitt and Jane Luu.
Check out this information from the discovery circular 1992 QB1
or Dave Jewitt's article about the discovery of the Kuiper Belt because of the discovery of QB1 Kuiper Belt.What about it's orbit? Click here for a picture of that: Orbit.
Dave Jewitt discusses the discovery of QB1, and other bodies, on YouTube: Dave on YouTube
Albion/QB1 has an orbit of 289.68 years, so it takes about 40 more years to circle the Sun than Pluto. It's orbit is much more circular than Pluto's, however, with a perihelion of 40.8952 AU (Pluto can get as close to the Sun as 29.657 AU), and an aphelion of 46.6644 AU (Pluto can get as far out as 48.871 AU).
The last time Albion/QB1 was at perihelion was 9 October 1993, and the last aphelion was 12 December 1849.
Albion/QB1's eccentricity is 0.065888, with an inclination to the ecliptic of 2.15059.
ASTROLOGY
Because its orbit is only a little longer than Pluto's, it can be a long while before they have aspects between them. In fact, the most recent conjunctions I found between Pluto and Albion were in the 10th Century:
Our historical records don't contain a lot of info about those years, but a number of great scientific discoveries were made by Islamic scientists around these conjunctions, many of which were later 're-discovered' by Eurpoean scientists a few centuries later, as well as advanced mathematical theorem.The most recent hard aspects between Albion/QB1 and Pluto were a series of oppositions in the mid-1800's:
An interesting period in history is 1896-1897, as Saturn, Uranus and Albion/QB1 are conjunct in Scorpio. Dates for the exact conjunctions:
Ura Cnj QB1 on 18 Jan 1896 NS at 23�Sc47' D Ura Cnj QB1 on 17 Apr 1896 NS at 23�Sc30' R Ura Cnj QB1 on 16 Oct 1896 NS at 22�Sc55' D Sat Cnj QB1 on 2 Dec 1896 NS at 24�Sc03' D Sat Cnj Ura on 6 Jan 1897 NS at 27�Sc39' D Sat Cnj Ura on 1 Jun 1897 NS at 26�Sc25' R Sat Cnj Ura on 9 Sep 1897 NS at 25�Sc34' DSome people born with close Albion/QB1 conjunctions to Saturn, Uranus, or or both:
- George Burns - QB1 23 Sco 48, Uranus 23 Sco 51, (Saturn 17 Sco 56)
- Andre Breton - QB1 24 Sco 00, Uranus 24 Sco 28, (Saturn 19 Sco 03)
- Tristan Tzara - QB1 23 Sco 31, Uranus 23 Sco 31, (Saturn 17 Sco 11)
- Ida Rolf - QB1 22 Sco 55, Uranus 22 Sco 12, (Saturn 14 Sco 46)
- Cyril Fagan - QB1 22 Sco 52, Uranus 22 Sco 05, (Saturn 14 Sco 34)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald - QB1 22 Sco 29, Uranus 21 Sco 49, (Saturn 16 Sco 11)
- Lilian Gish - QB1 22 Sco 52, Uranus 22 Sco 48, (Saturn 18 Sco 12)
- Ruth Gordon - QB1 23 Sco 14, Uranus 23 Sco 44, (Saturn 20 Sco 03)
- Ethel Waters - QB1 23 Sco 15, Uranus 23 Sco 48, (Saturn 20 Sco 11)
- Mamie Eisenhower - QB1 23 Sco 36, Uranus 24 Sco 40, Saturn 21 Sco 53, Sun 22 Sco 57
- Ira Gershwin - QB1 24 Sco 08, Saturn 24 Sco 28, Uranus 26 Sco 01
- James Doolittle - QB1 24 Sco 19, Saturn 25 Sco 24, Uranus 26 Sco 30
- Sir Anthony Eden - QB1 23 Sco 42, Saturn 25 Sco 41, Uranus 26 Sco 00
- Legs Diamond - QB1 23 Sco 20, Saturn 24 Sco 22, Uranus 25 Sco 13, Moon 24 Sco 44
- Amelia Earhart - QB1 23 Sco 14, Saturn 24 Sco 07, Uranus 25 Sco 00
WILLIAM BLAKE
William Blake was born on 28 November, 1757, at 7:45pm, in London, England. This puts Albion at 13 Gemini 59 R in his 11th house, the house of friends and associations, groups, interaction with the community, hopes and ideals. It is sextile his first house Neptune (15 Leo 20 R) and trine his 7th house Saturn (16 Aquarius 48.)Blake was a writer and mystic, but he was also a social activist. From Annie's Blog: "Blake lived in the time of the British Industrial Revolution. A time when children were forced to work from a young age and physical punishment was considered normal. It was a time of change. The world was becoming mechanised. Blake didn�t like this.
Blake was a visionary. He felt very strongly about the way the Industrial Revolution was doing more harm than good and should be stopped. He didn�t like the way children were used as workmen because of their size and the way they were discriminated against. Blake expressed all of his views in his poems, and in many he gets quite frustrated, and it shows in his style of writing."
From 1790-1800 he lived in an area called Lambeth. From the British Library's page on William Blake's radical politics: "Lambeth was still partly rural, but had its share of social problems. There were alms-houses, workshops of the Philanthropic Society, and an Asylum for orphaned girls; overcrowded housing and grim factories were beginning to appear. The nearby Albion flour mill was an example of the �dark Satanic Mills� Blake would later condemn in his poem �Jerusalem�."
Blake's image of Albion from his A Large Book of Designs My Own Experience
With the slow orbit it has, transits can hang around for awhile. Still, I found it interesting, looking back at the time of my mother's death in 1999, that its transit complemented that of Pluto's.
- Pluto (7 Sag 46) was conjunct my Moon (7 Sag 07), and Albion (10 Ari 32 R) was conjunct the ruler of my 10th house, Jupiter (10 Ari 47). (Also, Neptune on that date was 2 Aqu 05, conjunct my natal QB1 (2 Aqu 37), and Ceres at 17 Leo 36 was conjunct my natal Pluto (17 Leo 57).)
- Pluto opposed my sister's Saturn (6 Gem 51), ruler of her 10th house, and Albion squared her 4th house Sun (9 Can 39). (Also Jupiter (4 Tau 56) squared her Pluto (4 Leo 36), and the Moon at 21 Aries had just squared her natal Albion (20 Cap 07).)
- Neither body was in a significant aspect to my mother's natal chart at the time of her passage. But transiting Albion was conjunct my mother's Solar Arc Ascendant at the time of her passage.
Experiences Of Others
Jonathan Dunn wrote of some initial keywords he was using for Albion/QB1: Keywords.
An interesting perspective on QB1 can be found in Amable's blog, Transneptunian Astrology, "The main theme of (15760) 1992 QB1 is 'systematic search', like the search of new planets: the systematic search by the computer, when checking the telescope data, is based on a secuencial analysis that is repeated until the new object is discovered, like the PIN search in the movie "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" (1991), or the sequencial search at the begining of the movie "Aladdin" (Disney, 1992). This process is called 'limit cycle attractor' by dynamical systems theory."
WHERE IS IT NOW?
You can check out where Albion/QB1 is right now. Click here and look at the far-right column: Ephemeris
Click here 1992 QB1, to find out how to discover where your QB1 is.
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