Quaoar (pronounced kwa-war) is a dwarf planet discovered on June 5, 2002. It is one of many newly discovered trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) from the Kuiper Belt. They reflect the rapidly changing world with accelerating growth and mind-expanding developments in science, technology and medicine.
The primary astrological influences of Quaoar are harmony and creativity, but there is a darker side, which is explored below through its astronomy, mythology and astrology.
Quaoar Astronomy
Quaoar shares some similarities with Pluto. The composition of each planet is similar. Pluto has one moon (Charon), and Quaoar has one known moon, Weywot. Quaoar was discovered only six degrees from Pluto. The orbital period of Quaoar is 289, and for Pluto, it is 248 years. So, Quaoar and Pluto will share similar themes.
However, the orbit of Quaoar is unique. Of all the TNOs, it has the slightest orbital inclination from the ecliptic plane of only 8°. Its obit is also the most circular of all of the dwarf planets, with an eccentricity of just 0.04 compared to the more elliptical orbits of Pluto (0.25), Eris (0.44) and Sedna (0.86). It is believed these orbital characters give Quaoar a more harmonious and balanced influence than Pluto.
Quaoar’s Circular Orbit
Quaoar Mythology
All celestial objects far beyond the orbit of Neptune are given the name of a deity or figure related to creation. 1 Quaoar and its Moon Weywot were named after mythological figures from the Native American Tongva people in Southern California.
Spanish invaders built their first mission in 1771 in Los Angeles. The genocide inflicted by the Catholic Church means little remains of Tongvan culture. The following mythology of Quaoar may be in response to the cultural shock of the missions.
The principal deity in Tongva mythology was Quaoar, also known as Chinigchinix. Quaoar is the genderless creation force of the universe, singing and dancing deities into existence. He first sings and dances to create Weywot (Sky Father). Weywot joins the singing and dancing to make the next deity, and so on. Eventually, after reducing chaos to order, they created the seven great giants that upheld the world, the animals and finally, the first man and woman. 2
Weywot was the very cruel, tyrannical ruler of the first people. His sons eventually poisoned Weywot, and his murder brought death into the world. Quaoar came to restore order and to give laws to the people. After he had given instructions as to which groups would have political and spiritual leadership, he began to dance and slowly ascended into heaven. 3
Quaoar has been represented as a creator deity, cultural hero, lawgiver or prophet who became associated with Christ after the forced conversion. Quaoar divided the first human ancestors into distinct peoples, assigning them languages and territories. A set of “Quaoar avengers” spied on human beings and enforced the moral code. 4
Quaoar Astrology
50000 Quaoar was discovered in June 2002 by astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory in California. Thankfully, we have the exact time of discovery straight from the horse’s mouth:
The first discovery image was taken at 2002 June 04 05:41:40 (Universal Time = Greenwich, England) from the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Oschin telescope. I identified Quaoar in the image at 2002 Jun 05 10:48:08 (Pacific Daylight Time). 5
The chart below shows that Quaoar was discovered at 10♐08. It is only six degrees from Pluto, which reinforces the astronomical similarities.
Quaoar Horoscope
Saturn opposite Pluto was the most significant long-term influence when Quaoar was discovered. It reveals the darker side of human nature. It is associated with control, domination, intimidation, destruction, poverty, hardship, authoritarianism, guilt, fear, religious or political extremism, strict discipline, racism, violence, bullying, disillusionment and social estrangement. It can cause intense stress, frustration, low self-esteem, a paranoid anti-establishment attitude and an oppositional, belligerent and argumentative nature.
The lunar nodes aligned with this opposition highlight fated events, past-life trauma, crisis and the karmic consequences of abusing power. It indicates selfishness, manipulation, judgmental, overly traditional, limiting and pessimistic views. Families, tribes and races are affected for many, many generations. This reflects the tyranny, cruelty, death and destruction of the Tongva people and the mythology of Quaoar.
The key to resolving this battle of opposites is to take responsibility, gradually transform and work within the system instead of trying to fight it. Realizing that life is more a continuum of change will lead to a more cooperative approach, achievement, and success.
Sun sextile Moon provides a sense of calm and balance that reinforces the harmonious nature of Quaoar’s orbit. This equilibrium, impartiality, and fairness allow cooperation and compromise and encourage partnership, diplomacy and teamwork.
This aspect also provides a creative park, a positive outlook, intuition, confidence, enthusiasm for life, ambition, and ease of self-expression. Importantly, it helps resolve conflict and overcome hardship caused by the Sun and Saturn opposite Pluto, as well as opportunities to regain your footing and return to a balanced state.
Neptune sextile Quaoar also reinforces the harmony indicated by the planet’s orbit and reflects the rhythms of dancing and singing from mythology. Like each celestial object, Quaoar has a specific vibrational frequency that can be attuned to. Like Neptune sextile Pluto, it gives pioneering and conviction to challenge the accepted way of thinking and doing things.
This aspect transforms the mass consciousness and how we communicate and live with each other through political, religious, and cultural renewal. Old systems and beliefs based on empire and superiority are disintegrating. In their place, we can collectively dream up, or imagineer, a more humanitarian approach and shared responsibility for the welfare of everyone and everything.
The Cradle aspect pattern highlighted in the Quaoar discovery horoscope above has five blue aspects compared to only one red aspect. This gives an excess of the pleasure and harmony principles, providing sympathy, receptiveness, devotion, an open heart, a positive view of the world, and the ability to live in harmony with the environment and to adapt and deal with the demands of life.
The opposition symbolizes the interface between the material and spiritual, between life and death. It gives an interest in sleep, dreams and death to learn about the transition from one dimension to another. It also acts like an energy barrier, with the empty side remaining unexplored, unknown territory.
The invisible wall reflects others’ opinions or intentions like a mirror and protects you from criticism or attack if something unpleasant approaches. This allows you to soak up like a sponge the feelings, needs and pain of others without being burdened by them.
The Cradle derives excellent stability from its symmetry. However, the appearance of balance can hide repressed inner pain. A tendency to see everyone as good can make you gullible and lead to disappointment.
The Cradle has a development task of leaving the security of a stable life situation and going into the world to face conflict and pain. It requires retreating inwards to reflect on the meaning of life. This withdrawal is a process of self-purification that can make you feel vulnerable. Yet, it makes you strong and wise in understanding human feelings and idiosyncrasies. It allows you to radiate harmony brighter and more intensely.
Events When Quaoar was Discovered
Quaoar was discovered in the middle of a global financial crisis. From March to September 2002, the Dow Jones lost 32% and the Nasdaq 46%. The 2002 stock market crash was due to overly inflated stock valuation, fraud, scandals, bankruptcies, and fear of terrorism and war.
Plus or minus one week, several treaties and agreements were established, and others were broken. Natural disasters occurred that were made deadlier by human actions or neglect. Sweden passed a law that allows homosexual couples to adopt children. R. Kelly was arrested and charged with having sex with an underage girl and sentenced to 2 years. The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans was carried out. American Idol premiered its first episode.
The Heart of the Scorpion
Quaoar was discovered at 10♐08 in Constellation Ophiuchus but aligned most tightly with Alpha Scorpio, Antares at 09♐48.
Quaoar Discovery
Fixed star Antares at 09♐48 is traditionally the star of war, weaponry and violence, portending success in the military, business and politics. It gives the energy, toughness, courage, optimism, mental alertness and strategic ability of a daredevil to undertake the most adventurous, extreme and hazardous ventures that others could not attempt.
At a higher level, Antares marks a point of empowerment and immanation. It gives broad-mindedness, liberal tendencies, and the motivation to take responsibility for your reality, for the life you create, and to “take a stand” for your truth and live it.
With tenacious adamancy, you can challenge the established opposing politics, especially regarding taking a stand against the established conditions of your personal life and against the established order or authority directing your life when those conditions or that authority are no longer in your best interest nor supporting your evolutionary freedom and fulfillment.
With spiritual development or positive aspects, Antares allows you to embrace your initiations and claim your self-empowerment, to graduate from playing the victim in entrapments, and to learn to take responsibility for your reality. You can claim your immanence, having reconciled the forces within and without, knowing your oneness and the inseparable permeability of the Creation Force.
However, with harsh aspects or less awareness, you can mistake this powerpoint for fighting or destroying what you still perceive as outside forces you must combat. You may become belligerent, combative, rash, ravenous, headstrong, obstinate and self-destructive.
Antares can bring sudden happenings, unforeseen events, accidents, violence, malice, destructiveness, evil presages, and danger of fatality. Traditionally, Antares signifies violent death, either in battle or by the process of law, but danger may also come from fire, weapons, or machinery.
Antares is one of the four Royal stars representing Archangel Uriel. These potent stars give extreme ups and downs and extraordinary energy to persevere and overcome hardship with a fighting spirit. Antares in the Heart of the Scorpion rules the right side of the third vertebra from the bottom (fifth lumbar).
Quaoar Conjunct Ascendant
Jean Giraudoux (0°01′) was a novelist, essayist, and diplomat. He wrote with allegory, fantasy, and political and psychological perceptions about the relationship between man and woman or between man and some unattainable ideal. He served with distinction in WWI. In politics, he was affiliated with the Radical Party and served in the cabinet.
Ilse von Stach (0°06′) was a writer. Married three times. A Protestant who converted to Catholicism.
Marcel Arland (0°16′) was a novelist, literary critic, and journalist. His characters are portrayed as alone and condemned, guided by a refusal to be happy. He entertained close relationships with artists and sometimes collaborated with them on literary projects.
Marie Luise Kaschnitz (0°16′) was a novelist, essayist and poet. Her tales are more thoughtful than eventful, often dealing with particular stages in a woman’s life or a relationship, expressing a yearning for a peaceful past but also hope for the future and the slow, painful self-discoveries that come with time and suffering.
Nadia Boulanger (0°20′) was a music teacher, conductor and composer. After World War I, she experienced the dichotomy between private grief and public strength. Guilt at surviving her sibling led to determination and redemptive sacrifice by throwing herself into work and domestic responsibility.
Maurice Blanchot (0°26′) was a writer and philosopher who explored the philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense. He was a strong anti-fascist and warned persistently against the threat to peace in Europe posed by Nazi Germany.
Marguerite Yourcenar (0°27′) was a novelist and essayist. In her most important books, she re-creates past eras and personages, meditating on human destiny, morality, and power.
Käthe Dorsch (0°31′) was a stage and film actor. During WWII, she took advantage of interventions for racially threatened or politically persecuted colleagues. She was known for slapping critics who wrote bad reviews about her.
Bernardo Bertolucci (0°39′) was a film director and screenwriter. His films deal with themes of politics, sexuality, history, class conflict and social taboos. He was a professed Marxist, criticized fascism, and touched upon the relationship between nationhood and nationalism, as well as issues of popular taste and collective memory.
Paul McCartney (0°45′) is a singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing.
Nikolaus Zinzendorf (0°51′) was a religious and social reformer, often influenced by strong and vehement feelings, and he was easily moved both by sorrow and joy. His appearance gave an impression of distinction and force. He promoted religious freedom, provided shelter for exiles and was critical of slavery. He wrote a set of rules that emphasized a code of Christian behavior.
Henri Becquerel (0°55′) was a physicist who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie for his discovery of radioactivity. He also studied the Earth’s magnetic fields and phosphorescence and absorption of light by crystals. Becquerel’s discovery of spontaneous radioactivity is a famous example of serendipity, of how chance favors the prepared mind. He wrote many papers on his discoveries.
Perihelion
- The orbital period (sidereal) of Quaoar is 288.83 yr (105,495 d).
- Next perihelion ≈ February 12, 2075 ±17 days, Julian Day 2,478,980. 2
- Previous perihelion ≈ April 12, 1786 ±17 days.
Events during the last perihelion:
- The Creek Nation declared war on the U.S. State of Georgia over the matter of white settlers on land not ceded by the Nation. A truce was negotiated on April 17 between Creek Chief Alexander McGillivray (Hoboi-Hili-Miko) and U.S. Army General Lachlan McIntosh but was soon repudiated.
- Columbia College (modern-day Columbia University) held its first graduation with eight students.
- The United States and the Kingdom of Portugal signed their first commercial treaty, which was never ratified.
- British astronomer William Herschel published his first list of discoveries, Catalogue of One Thousand New Nebulae and Clusters of Stars.
The Astrology of Quaoar
Like all dwarf planets past Neptune, Quaoar represents long-term cycles, evolutionary change, global organizations, powerful unseen forces, existential threats and deeply buried trauma that affects races, cultures and entire populations.
Quaoar reveals the hidden, previously unknown energies and dimensions that link all matter in the universe and how that affects social organization, individual spiritual development, collective mass consciousness and our future.
The most significant influence of Quaoar is harmony. It is shown in its orbit and mythology through singing and dancing. In the discovery horoscope, harmony is provided by Venus conjunct Jupiter, Sun sextile Moon and Neptune sextile Quaoar. The primary effect of the Cradle aspect pattern is harmony. It allows you to transform the tension and conflict of Saturn opposite Pluto by working within the system rather than fighting it.
In the mythology, harmony is also shown through Quaoar reducing chaos to order. Nearly all the celebrities listed with Quaoar conjunct Ascendant use harmony in their work in literature, poetry, music and film.
When Quaoar was discovered, and during its previous perihelion, several treaties and agreements were established, and others were broken. According to Nick Anthony Fiorenza:
Quaoar imparts a strong humanitarian influence and may impel a “harmonious revolution” to defend the natural world, or activism regarding issues of ecology, human rights, the animal kingdom, or life in general. 6
Fixed star Antares encourages you to challenge the established opposing politics, especially regarding taking a stand against the established conditions. This is a common theme with Qoaoar rising, too. The celebrities listed took a stand against fascism and racism and promoted unity, justice, human rights and freedom.
Quaoar shares similarities with Pluto. It signifies intensity, ruthlessness, and a battle against authority, control and domination that causes frustration, hardship, pain and suffering. The mythology shows this through Weywot as the cruel, tyrannical ruler and the native Tongva people suffered extreme cruelty, losing their land, cultural identity and most of the population.
Creativity is another central theme of Quaoar. All TNOs are named after creation deities. However, the discovery chart provides a creative spark through the Sun sextile Moon and Venus conjunct Jupiter. Celebrities with Quaoar rising are also very creative types. And American Idol premiered when Quaoar was discovered!
The celebrities were also writers of some kind in all but one case, and I have not seen such uniformity in all my research on planetary aspects and fixed stars. They are passionate about sharing their thoughts, feelings, philosophies and discoveries through the written or spoken word.
Quaoar gives an interest in life and death, reincarnation, unseen forces, other dimensions, the interface between the material and spiritual, dreams, intuition and telepathy.
Other Quaoar themes include associative thinking, genetic engineering primarily related to reproduction, sexuality and evolution in response to climate change; gender rights, human rights and equality; spiritual development and self-empowerment through surrendering the ego and taking responsibility for destructive, cruel, racist, and immoral behaviors and beliefs; financial crises and wealth distribution.
Quaoar encourages you to take responsibility for family and community; live in harmony with other people, the environment and the natural order and rhythms of life; adhere to social and moral codes and call out all forms of abuse; take a stand against persecution and injustice, and repay karmic debts.
Find Quaoar in Your Chart
- Create your chart HERE.
- Choose “Extended Chart Selection.”
- Select “Additional objects.”
- In “Common elements,” add Quaoar.
