The intensity of Vesta can go a long way, when it’s activated, to correct an imbalance inherent in the natal.

A chart that is too obviously Libran, for example, with a load of planets in the 7th, or sacrificial Neptune in key places, is often ‘saved’ by having Vesta in something independent like Aries or Sag, or in tight aspect to a key planet like Saturn.

The asteroids provide details to the action of the main planets, and don’t carry as much weight in and of themselves, but sometimes those details are just the thing we need to hear. It can cause us to withdraw and teach us where we need to readjust our behaviour. Vesta can often be the saving grace in a chart that is unbalanced. On the other hand, it’s possible that Vesta in line with the relationship planets was meant to have those ‘alone’ times in order to alter and correct other relationship dynamics in the chart. We can become the kind of person for whom relationship becomes so heavy with meaning that we give up pursuing a ‘real’ relationship completely, preferring to keep the dream of partnership alive. Far from being virginal and/or uninterested in partnership, the importance of relationship can become so exaggerated that it can dominate and hijack the whole psychological mechanism of relating. Mostly, they would rather do without than cope with the stresses and distractions of unsuitable partnership, and they can often fall into a habit of retreat, tending the sacred flames of the idea or concept of relationship without getting their toes dirty in the always muddy water of human interaction. These are not folks who have a frivolous attitude to relationship. Those who have Vesta conjunct a relationship planet, natally, will have a need to pull back from time to time. And in order to provide the proper focus, we need to withdraw for a time from the distractions of the world. I t has grown in meaning over the years, taking on the concepts of clarity and concentration, but as it was first introduced it meant, “any central point.” When Vesta is awakened, what she pays attention to what is central to our lives, or should be. We use the word ‘focus’ all the time now, but that word, drawn from the Latin ‘foci’ for ‘hearth,’ was actually first introduced into the lexicon by astrologer and astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1604 (he who gave us the extended aspects, amongst other things). Vesta has a habit of cyclical withdrawal we will pull back in order to meditate on what it is that really matters, what it is that she wants from us. Vesta’s no-gray-areas approach applies to any planet it touches, but especially when aligned with the relationship planets.

Vertex trine moon synastry