‘The Mermaid’ Howard Pyle 1909 {{PD}}

I thought I had talked about Sedna when I first introduced it as a regular player in the charts I use, so I went looking to point readers in that direction, but apparently the piece I’d been thinking of only appeared in ‘ECLIPSE’, or is buried in some larger, differently-focused piece. Here’s the small bit I found, with a little more added:

“Sedna pinpoints our blind spots, those areas we are unable to view directly; we can only discern what’s in our blind spot by watching and listening to the feedback others offer, specifically the kind that addresses things about ourselves we’re unaware of. Typically, a Sedna-themed remark from someone else will surprise us, telling us we are seen differently than we think we are. We are either hyper-aware of our lack in Sedna’s area, or we believe we’ve got it covered, so don’t examine it.

To better understand our vulnerabilities, we can start with Sedna and the characteristics of the sign in which it’s placed, as well as the situation of the ruler of the sign, describing something about our awareness vulnerabilities. For instance, many of us have Sedna in either Taurus or Aries, as it’s very slow moving. In Taurus we may lack understanding around material matters: finances, comfort, food (just think of how far removed the majority of us have become in terms of raising our food, of basic nutrition, and through the rise of eating disorders and many culinary innovations, where we quite literally distort—and so forget–the purpose of food), and with Aries we may not know how to lead, how to take responsibility, may not recognize when our ego or aggressive urges are pushing forward, or we may not know how to take the initiative to get something going.”

House placement, too, can tell us where in life that ‘blind spot’ is most likely to show itself; this can serve as a warning for us, letting us know where we might be smart to get guidance or accept offered assistance. Sedna is associated with the ocean, and specifically is depicted as ‘diving deep’ and surviving there, suggesting she provides essential inner resources in times of stress. She represents the life-death-life cycle of energy of which we’re all aware, but of which we don’t necessarily want to think! This means she has a kind of ‘deep knowing’ that goes into the realm of the pre-verbal and the primal; this energy can give us a ‘backbone’, the origins of which we don’t see, and often influences us through the highly subtle mechanism we call instinct.

Sedna comes to consciousness in instances where Self-preservation (literal or psychic) comes into play, but don’t expect easy access to this energy, and don’t expect to be conscious of it, even when you are reacting from it, or drawing on it as a resource. As happens with each individual, we are only able to see ourselves in our reflection, and it’s the same with Sedna, a ‘blind spot’ we can only hope to glimpse (and call on) now and then, through the responses of others and the world.

See also the ‘Sealskin, Soulskin’ section of Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book, ‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’, which draws parallels among several mythic stories that connect with and inform Sedna energy.

And, a movie I found that expressed Sedna exceptionally well (this review also appeared in ECLIPSE):

‘I Am Dina’ (Norway, 2002) Set in rural, mid-19th century Norway, this at first appears to be a Plutonian story, where a little girl inadvertently creates her own special hell–but then it becomes clear that this is a tale of Sedna and her Life-Death-Life experience, her water motifs punctuating one emotional point after the next. By adulthood, Dina is attractive in that way of people who let their wildness reign; the spirit in her is raw and elemental, and so seductive to those too much in denial of their own wildness. The men in her world, then, see only what they want to see and believe about her, starting with her father; only a gentle tutor, her sole companion for years, and a Russian anarchist traveling through, are in touch enough with their own wildness to see who she really is. With Maria Bonnevie as Dina, and an international cast including Gérard  Depardieu, Christopher Eccleston, Hans Matheson, and Mads Mikkelsen, in a scene where he declares his love for the woman he’s been raping, that will enrage you and break your heart, all at once. Lushly shot on location in Norway, in English, highly recommended