Plutonium is Still Bad For Your Health
24/09/07 13:52
By now you have heard enough jokes about Pluto losing its planetary status, but I am still having people stopping me in the streets and asking what this means for Astrology.
Some are horrified that such a powerful force could be toppled from its throne (it often represents trauma in astrology.) Some are delighted that astrology is definitely wrong after all, since we were wrong about Pluto, and on top of it there are three all new planets. Somehow these people think that if new planets are ‘discovered` then the old planets become invalid.
Now let`s get something straight, people. ‘Planets` are essentially things invented by people. This is a bunch of people sitting in a room, voting on what the definition of planet should be. Size and shape are big contenders to define them, but shape of orbit put in a special appearance this time. Most fascinatingly of all, the new category of ‘dwarf` planets is based on the number of Earth years they take to orbit the sun, with an arbitrary cut off point of 200 to get called a dwarf (is that how old Snow White`s buddies were?)
Even the scientists must have thought it was a bit silly. And there are still some people out there who worry that this will affect the cosmos, or that the 6000 year old art and science of Astrology, one that has persistently occupied the minds of the greatest thinkers throughout the ages, will be toppled by some obscure committee in an unrelated field.
Astrology has no such problems of definition. To most astrologers, the planets are relevant to us because we can see them. This is considerably less arbitrary! Astrology has been called the Science of Light, concerned with the sun, moon and five visible planets. Even bad-rap Pluto, and its invisible cousins Uranus and Neptune, the ‘classical` planets, have never quite acquired the influence and status of ‘real` planets in the astrologer`s chart. So all those invisible blobs of rock out there are not much more than small details, just like they are in space useful, but not essential to the story.
Just never let a bunch of guys in white coats define reality for you. They may never let you out of that place!
Some are horrified that such a powerful force could be toppled from its throne (it often represents trauma in astrology.) Some are delighted that astrology is definitely wrong after all, since we were wrong about Pluto, and on top of it there are three all new planets. Somehow these people think that if new planets are ‘discovered` then the old planets become invalid.
Now let`s get something straight, people. ‘Planets` are essentially things invented by people. This is a bunch of people sitting in a room, voting on what the definition of planet should be. Size and shape are big contenders to define them, but shape of orbit put in a special appearance this time. Most fascinatingly of all, the new category of ‘dwarf` planets is based on the number of Earth years they take to orbit the sun, with an arbitrary cut off point of 200 to get called a dwarf (is that how old Snow White`s buddies were?)
Even the scientists must have thought it was a bit silly. And there are still some people out there who worry that this will affect the cosmos, or that the 6000 year old art and science of Astrology, one that has persistently occupied the minds of the greatest thinkers throughout the ages, will be toppled by some obscure committee in an unrelated field.
Astrology has no such problems of definition. To most astrologers, the planets are relevant to us because we can see them. This is considerably less arbitrary! Astrology has been called the Science of Light, concerned with the sun, moon and five visible planets. Even bad-rap Pluto, and its invisible cousins Uranus and Neptune, the ‘classical` planets, have never quite acquired the influence and status of ‘real` planets in the astrologer`s chart. So all those invisible blobs of rock out there are not much more than small details, just like they are in space useful, but not essential to the story.
Just never let a bunch of guys in white coats define reality for you. They may never let you out of that place!