Pluto is no Longer a Planet!

This illustration shows the Pluto system from the surface of one of the moons. Charon, the system's only confirmed moon, is the smaller disk to the right of Pluto. The other candidate moon is the bright dot on the far left. Credit: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI)

Pluto has been demoted from planet to dwarf planet, and now there are only eight planets in our solar system, according to the new planet classification system. The new (and only so far) official definition of planet is: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s. Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of ‘dwarf planets,’ similar to what long have been termed ‘minor planets’. The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun – ‘small solar system bodies’. a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites. CNN.com Thursday, August 24, 2006; Posted: 10:27 a.m. EDT (14:27 GMT.

Pluto’s status change is very interesting on a few levels. It has been known as a planet for 75 years, and although Percival Lowell had made a rough calculation for “planet X” he had not found it by his death in 1912. Clyde Tomgaugh continued the search and found it in 1930, the same year that Walt Disney’s Pluto came out.

Many astrologers consider Pluto to be the most important planet in a chart with different variations on a theme as to the exact meaning, but with the underlying of deep soul metamorphosis. Robert Hand in his book “Planets in Transit” says: “The nature of Pluto is similar to that of the Hindu god Shiva, the creator and destroyer. Pluto usually begins by breaking down a structure; then it creates a new one in its place. This entire cycle of death, destruction and renovation is accompanied by tremendous powers, for Pluto is not a mild or even very subtle planetary influence. You can always see its effects very clearly – ranging from machines breaking down and needing repair to a full-scale destruction or death. Decay at one level or another, followed by new life from the old is the typical Plutonian process.” 1976: 477.

What’s interesting to me is that the debates among astrologers easily transverse into an “us vs.them” orientation towards scientists, once again creating a polarization around philosophies and orientations which serve no real purpose other than to have something more to be divided about. Pluto’s strength is undeniable, and it’s importance in the human psyche established. However, I am looking at this as another manifestation of the Pluto/galactic center transit which will bring both an exposure of our darker natures and an enlightening of our consciousness.

I have often reflected on the wonder and magic involved in the discoveries of science and astronomers related to astrology. I marvel at how quickly masters in the field of astrology can pinpoint the core archetypal meanings of a new discovery, like Chiron. They work because the astrologers are tuned in deeply to the vast and deep mind of man. Scientists are also tuned in, much more than people often give them credit for. The synchronicity with the naming of all the solar system satellites by scientists relative to underlying archetypes held in the collective unconscious is uncanny. We are all working the same game on an unconscious level.

"By dissolving Newton's absolute space and time into a network of relationships, general relativity takes a first step away from the notion that the coherence of the world lies outside of it" (Smolin 1997:240). In fact, Einstein said, "Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live" (quoted in Forsee 1963:81).

For some, Pluto represents our soul or higher self, the part of us that is connected to the Divine. This is also the way I see Pluto. From a mystical point of view, our soul is eternal and goes beyond space and time. The other planets in the solar system of our personalities can easily be relegated to our limited and fractured form as humans. The sun is what we identify with. The Moon is our emotions, and what we need. Mercury is how we think. And so on. We are not what we think or feel. Our soul extends into eternity. Even the transpersonal planets of Uranus and Neptune, which are tied into collective consciousness, are still operating at a human level. Arguably, so are aspects of the Plutonian archetype. But the deep “death / rebirth” metaphor Pluto represents can also be symbolic of the power we have to transcend our limitations into understanding that we are also a soul that transcends this body, this time and space, already perfect, already Divine. Pluto cleanses and transforms.

A step in that direction is the challenge that Pluto gives us by being downgraded from planet to dwarf planet. This could mean a loosing of our egoic specialness that is a big problem here on earth. It also opens a doorway to a much vaster understanding of our connection to all that is by allowing for a group of minor planets to be equally considered in the archetypal understands of our growth and psyches, giving more emphasis to the influences of Chiron, Ceres, Xena and many more. It breaks through stagnation and I can easily imagine that as we gallop on Pluto’s white horse towards an end and a new beginning, we will need that openness and flexibility.