24 August 2006 Earth
The chances were looking good that the International Astronomical Union would ADD a few planets to our solar system: Ceres, Charon, Xena, maybe Sedna. Whatever.
Popular Pluto would be grandfathered in to the grateful smiles of old duffers brandishing telescopes and the clapping hands of science-loving schoolchildren.
But the IAU's short-sighted decision to demote Pluto to the status of 'dwarf' lacks lyricism, imagination, and heart. Let's not even try for emotional intelligence and marketing savvy. Killing Pluto will not endear scientists to the public. Scientists should know better. They suffer from an unfortunate P.R. problem as it is. When science projects go begging for lack of funding and public support, the advancement of civilisation itself suffers. It would have cost scientists nothing and benefited them greatly to be generous regarding Pluto, which only 76 years ago was awarded planetary status.
Astrologers were hit hard this morning by this nasty and narrow-minded news. We understand the problems: the solar system is growing. As the Hubble telescope daily discovers ever more celestial objects, scientists are scrambling to bring order into our rapidly crowding neighbourhood. We need order. Categories. Classifications. Labels.
And labels is what they are, and all they are: The IAU's well-intentioned attempt to fix an ever-expanding file cabinet. The boffins with measuring tapes in Prague have voted not unanimously, either — to say what constitutes a planet. Whether a celestial apparition is called a planet, a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO), a 'pluton', asteroid, comet or 'dwarf' isn't going to matter much in the field of astrological research, which is based on thousands of years of collected recorded data and observable phenomena.
There's a parallel here: in November 1977, Charles Kowal discovered Chiron orbiting between Saturn and Uranus. Was it a planet? An asteroid? Who could tell? Astronomers had never defined what a planet was. It was a game of wait and see.
Immediately, astrologers all over the world leapt into action at lightening speed and studied Chiron as no planet had ever been studied before. Astrologers Al H. Morrison and Zane Stein spearheaded a worldwide research project, distributing thousands of forms and surveys to people. Participants were asked to mark each time Chiron made exact contact with planets and angles in their own birth horoscopes and in the charts of their clients, friends and families. The results poured in; they were fascinating and elegant. For example, the horoscope of Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby, was found to have Chiron rising (the point representing one's physical body) in her birth chart. The horoscope of the first woman in space, Dr. Sally K. Ride, had Chiron in the Tenth house (the career angle). Worldwide cooperation meant astrologers soon had a working model of what Chiron meant in charts in months — not years. Chiron was found to be associated with, among other phenomena, ground-breaking events.
Compare this with Pluto's discovery in 1930. In 1975 I asked the respected English astrologer Ronald Davison what he thought of Pluto. "Oh, I think it's too soon to know. really, what Pluto means in charts,' said he. This was 45 years after its discovery!
Fast-forward to 1990, when the announcement came: Chiron wasn't a planet or even an asteroid, after all. Not a bit. It turned out to be a comet, what astronomers call a 'dirty snowball'.
Ouch! By then we'd discovered zillions of properties for Chiron, from extreme medical talent to cloning to gene stocks to franchising and the timing of pregnancies. Would we have done all this back-breaking work if we'd only been researching a dirty snowball? Not a chance!
What astrologers learned in 1990 was, don't be prejudiced by a celestial object's category. And astrology needed shaking up. Our minds had to open. Although some astrologers retreated into myths, what the field needed to do was some good, crisp scientific-method style cerebrating. The Chiron project opened up our thinking. Since then, a few —too few, really —astrologers have been looking at the new planets, including some outside our nabe, the exoplanets.
So when the latest committee of well-intentioned earthlings come to strip Pluto of its epaulets, it probably won't make no never mind to Pluto. It's the data that matter. We will continue to record the evidence of the extreme and extraordinary 'effects' of Pluto's movement through our horoscopes.
Pluto's still the most powerful and devastating planet astrology has ever known. If Pluto's passing through the right spot in your horoscope it can make you powerful, rich or famous overnight. It can even save your life. Put Pluto in the wrong spot in your horoscope and your plane could go down, your job might sail out the window, or you could visit the 'assassination point' in your horoscope (JFK's was in Dallas) and be on time for your appointment in Samarra.
Call a Tyrannosaurus Rex a dwarf, or "Tiny' or 'Wimpy'... but it still gonna eat you!
P.S.: Pluto is the planetary ruler of Scorpio. Scorpios and Scorpio Risings need not worry. Pluto is still your patron pluton. Worry about the poor IAU members. Foolish mortals.
Debbi Kempton-Smith
We never sleep... We guard your
planets as they creep.
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Soulmates, outcasts, troublemakers: Pluto
and Charon
From John Davis:
Tell your clients
not to worry about Pluto. Mickey and Minnie will let him sleep at their
house, till the whole thing blows over . . .
From Liz Hazel:
Pluto was, and remains, a tiny colossus. Now he's squatting on the Galactic Center and will be squared by the solar eclipse on Sept 22. He's getting a make-over along with the solar system. The composition of the solar system, and the galaxy, is erupting into the collective consciousness. This newly-reclassified "dwarf" wields a whole lotta power! A rose by any other name.....
For a brilliant take on this whole kerfluffle, from the New York Times click here
Meet Zane Stein, pioneer of the new planets click here
Our charming and erudite Etonian, Robert Currey, gives Pluto his propers click here
Washington Post reports "Pluto Loses Designation, Sues IAU" click here
