In the hearth of every home, in the sanctuary of every temple, in the quiet center of every soul, there burns a flame that is not meant to go out. It is not the wildfire of Mars or the lightning of Uranus. It is not the oceanic mist of Neptune or the volcanic depths of Pluto. It is a steady, contained, concentrated fire, a flame that does not need to consume because it is complete in itself. In the asteroid belt, this fire is carried by Vesta, asteroid number four, discovered in 1807 and named for the Roman goddess of the hearth. In the astrology of desire, Vesta represents the part of us that longs not for the chase, not for the merging, not for the romantic ideal, but for the sacred integrity of the self. She is the desire for wholeness, for devotion, for a fire that burns from within and is not dependent on any external fuel.