Smother Love & Mother Love - Ceres

I've covered the Temptress, and the Queen, so now this Cancer Moon day is perfect for sharing the gifts of the Great Mother asteroid, Ceres.
The Mother Goddess is alive in all of us. Men have a Ceres too, but as motherhood has been a historically feminine role (that's changing!) we can immediately recognize her in our own mothers. The Mother's specialty is nurturing, unconditionally; she's the one who gives without ever having asked. She sacrifices. She offers advice. She's innately and insanely good at spiritual, physical and/or emotional nurturing. She has that inner radar for people in need. Likewise, the Mother can also push her help, wisdom, food and opinions onto others when they don't want them. The overprotective or controlling Mother who force-feeds nourishment, for the sake of 'just trying to help...' can make others feel dominated, or like a child.
In relationship, Mother/Ceres is the best at doing everything for everyone, no questions asked. And she risks taking care of others to her own detriment. When she doesn't get enough sleep and loses touch with her playful Temptress energy this can impact her marriage, especially her sex life (she's exhausted!). Or when the kids go to college and without someone to care for and the world loses it's color, just like her Goddess namesake (Demeter/Ceres) who fell into a deep depression while wandering the earth looking for her lost daughter, she enters a frosty psychological winter.
Mothers sacrifice so selflessly and the Mother needs to be that strong to perpetuate the human race. The key to working with an abundance of Mother energy in your self is: prioritizing self-nurturing acts (so you don't either neglect your self, or over-nurture others) and making peace with life's cycles of attachment, separation, loss and rebirth. Kids grow up and need independence. Relationships end. New births take place. Spring will come again. Ultimately, balancing all aspects of your femininity is key. You can do so by tapping the playful joie de vivre of the Temptress and purposeful vision of the Queen. Then the Mother/Ceres is truly safe harbor for those she loves: nurturing strength through unconditional love.
The Mother is ruled by the asteroid Ceres, is associated with the signs Cancer, Virgo, Capricorn and Pisces and is strong for those who have Ceres prominent in their birth chart.