Asteroid Cupido IN FINANCIAL ASTROLOGY

Asteroid Cupido: In Greek myth, Cupid is the son of Venus; his job was to "wound" the unwary with his arrows of love; awaken a consuming affection directed towards a particular object of desire. In one well-known tale, Cu

pid becomes entangled with Psyche, a beautiful king's daughter who has roused the jealousy of Venus; the tale is actually an allegory about how the soul obtains a true understanding of love by undergoing much suffering and hard experience.

In astrology, the asteroid Cupido by itself would perhaps be associated with the trials of love associated with the initial enthrallment and acts of seduction performed in order to obtain the love object, not the sexual act itself. Examples of an overactive Cupido can include crushes, cultivating romance for the sake of the game or putting the object of desire up on a pedestal. In the dark sense, romantic enthrallment can originate out of a love for the chase, only to abandon the prey once it is caught. Asteroid Cupido is not to be confused with Alfred Witt's Uranian body Cupido, which is associated more with family, marriage, tantra and art.

The natal sign and house Cupido is in would indicate the style, tone and preferred arena of action for an individual's romantic powers; aspects made to Cupido would pertain to the circumstances, positive or negative, under which one would be drawn into a dance of courtship with the object of love. Hard planetary aspects made to Cupido can relate either to that quality which particularly excites us in generating attraction or the barriers and obstacles we erect between ourselves and the object of desire. The latter could include actual physical obligations, hang-ups, fears, perfectionism, and a need for control or becoming enthralled with someone who is patently unobtainable. Or we may be essentially unobtainable ourselves, wrapped in a narcissic contemplation of the self. A strong Cupido in positive aspect to any of the planets would make one highly desirable to others in the ways expressed by the planet being aspected. For example, a native with a sixth house Cupido conjunct Venus in Capricorn and both in trine to a second house Saturn in Virgo could present as seductively overwhelming to someone turned on by financially stable, enterprising and fatherly authority figures.

Cupido unaspected or retrograde could relate to a tendency to repress and/or disown one's own real needs in the exchange of love, instead sublimating these qualities to a set of conditions put forth by the desired object, or sublimation in favor of an unrealistic set of conditions that are then projected onto the desired object. The common pattern would be to fall in love with surface qualities first such as beautiful face and figure, a sweet demeanor, and a kind voice; then discover what the person is really like later. Often the proposed love object has no interest in fulfilling the others own personal needs for love and affection. Painful rejection happens because the Cupido person did not allow an honest appraisal of their own real needs in the first place, nor clearly perceived the needs and nature of the person being pursued. One has fallen for an image and a presentation, rather than the real person.

Natal sign position has an influence on Cupido's style and tone. In Aries one is inclined to go directly and aggressively after the object of desire, however may not stay around once having "scored". Placed in Gemini, Cupido can be a mark of the silver-tongued devil, the two-faced fella. A Cupido placed in Virgo could attract with clean, earthly sensuality or a penchant for organization. Going by the house, a first house Cupido for example represents someone whose personal image and presentation is calculated to magnetize infatuation in others. A fourth house placement may seduce through home cooking; in the ninth, perhaps wow dates with cultural events. A twelfth house Cupido might be prone to seduction via pornography or fantasy; can be fascinated with alternative forms of lovemaking or can become an object of compulsive desire, romance or erotic pleasuring for the collective. An example of a strongly placed Cupido who seduced the masses is Rudolph Valentino, premiere professional lover of the silver screen. He had Cupido in the twelfth house at 28° Virgo 43' conjunct his Ascendant at 00°Libra 54'.