CELESTIAL NAVIGATION:
DWARF PLANETS, ASTEROIDS,
COMETS AND CENTAURS
Though she be but little,
she is fierce.
- Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream
You'll be wondering, no doubt, about the astrological implications of the new category of "dwarf planet". What does it mean that, while Pluto has been "demoted" to "dwarf planet" status, Ceres and Eris have been "promoted" into the same category, and other solar system objects are in line for the same dubious honor? Perhaps you've never even heard of Ceres or Eris. Are they more important now?
Well, if you read the September issue, you already know my stance on that last question. Astrologers rate the importance of a celestial body by how strongly its wanderings correlate with events Down Here. We've been tracking Pluto since its discovery in 1930, and Ceres since its discovery in 1801, and Eris (aka "2003 UB313", briefly known as "Xena") since its discovery in 2003. Meanwhile, we're watching a slew of other bodies, variously designated as asteroids, comets, minor planets, centaurs, and random chunks of ice and rock.
Meanwhile, the astronomers' classification saga continues: for example, Vesta and Pallas Athene, currently thought of as asteroids, are being considered for dwarf planet status. This sort of thing, BTW, is not at all uncommon: at first we called the asteroids planets, until it became clear just how many of them there were (tens of thousands that we know of). Chiron was discovered in 1977, and for a long time we didn't really know what it was. Was it a planet? an asteroid? a comet that had been captured by our solar system? Then we started to perceive other, similar objects in the vicinity, and eventually they all got classed together as "Centaurs". Yet it's Chiron which has captured the attention of astrologers, and Chiron whose movements we've been following ever since.
Now our ever-more-powerful equipment has revealed to us yet more objects orbiting the Sun out beyond Pluto, and we're cataloguing them as fast as we can: Quaoar, Sedna, Ixion, Varuna, Eris -- the list goes on and on. Which ones will make it into the astrologers' canon of Bodies To Watch? Only time -- and observation -- will tell. Maybe all of them. As if my job isn't tough enough.
If there's a lesson to be taken away from this, it's one we already knew: the Universe is stranger and more multifaceted than we can imagine. Just as the notions of electricity and personal freedom came to the forefront when Uranus was discovered, and mysticism and hallucinogenic drugs swam featured in our consciousness when Neptune was discovered, now seems to be the time for us to acknowledge that diversity and make room in our starry pantheon for many small powers.
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WHAT'S GOING AROUND
November transits
Since I last wrote to you, much of that Scorpio traffic has moved on down the road into Sagittarius. Considering that the whole motley crew has to pass through there, and Pluto has already been lingering in this wedge of the Zodiac since 1995, this stellium could make even more waves than the Scorpio one that just ended.
In a sense, the road is Sag's natural home, this being the sign of travel and adventure. Sagittarius is ruled by expansive Jupiter, and is always seeking to heighten, broaden and deepen your experience and your understanding. This month's Sag stellium offers a sense of openness, freedom, adventure, opportunity, and possibility. With Jupiter as the ruler, an openhearted, good-humored attitude attracts success in all endeavors. Note especially where Sag falls in your birth chart. That's a place where a little extra confidence, an open heart and an open mind could take you a long, long way in the year to come.
It's no coincidence that the month that the Sun is in Sag every year is the post-harvest holiday season, when a celebratory atmosphere prevails, along with the generosity that comes with the bounty of the season. At least, we'd like those things to prevail. Where there isn't at least tolerance, what's lacking is perspective, a sense of humor, an attitude of charity toward others and gratitude for what we have -- the highest and best of Sagittarius. At its worst, Sag can be dogmatic, insisting on being right while everyone else is wrong, wrong, wrong and must be converted at all costs to the One Right Way. It must've been a Sag who invented the holy war. Even the most well-meaning Sag can be a little careless of your feelings sometimes, in his zeal to get his point across. If you find yourself embroiled in more ideological crossfire than usual in the coming year, chalk it up to Jupiter and Pluto in Sag and try to just let it roll over you.
Speaking of gratitude... again, no accident that a holiday called "Thanksgiving" kicks off the season. Jupiter is the planet of abundance, and an abundance of blessings is directly linked to gratitude. Despite its reputation as one of the stuffier Victorian virtues, "gratitude" has roots in the Latin word for "pleasure", and can be viewed as a state of being pleased or gratified. When we're in that zone, we relax, open up, our perceptions expand, and many things become possible. So treat yourself to as many pleasures as it takes to attain that exalted condition. I wish you gratitude this holiday season and throughout 2007.
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OK, one more Sag quote...
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
-R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path
