Pondering the Planets by Vivien Teasdale

Have you ever wondered, as you look up at the night sky, just what would happen if there were no more planets?

Don’t worry. Well, not at first, anyway, because there’d be little effect. The Sun holds us in place, so we could continue jaunting round and round in orbit for a few more million years. But we would miss the brightness above us – no more Venus, the morning and evening star; no Mars, no Saturn or any other planet/star that we can recognise.

Eventually though, we’d have more space rocks being thrown at us and potentially hitting their target. Jupiter is the one which usually deals with that danger and throws them into touch. It is also the other planets which help to keep us in place, so Earth’s orbit might change and/or the axial tilt might change, with possible catastrophic results. Aren’t you glad you won’t be there to see it?

But we have already lost one planet and who knows when another might, arbitrarily, be transformed? Remember Pluto?

No, not that yellow-coated, black-eared pooch who enlivened Mickey Mouse cartoons, though he was actually created in 1930, the same year that planet Pluto was discovered.

That event was hailed with joy. The Planet X, as predicted, was found and all was right with the world.

Well, not quite. Even then some scientists carped that it was too small, didn’t have a proper orbit and it just happened, by accident, to be in the spot they were searching at the time.

Astrologers loved it. This was the planet of transformation, of power, control, intensity, obsessions and the subconscious. Being rationalists, they decided Mars could look after Aries on its own instead of sharing, so the soothsayers allocated it to the sign of Scorpio, which is always supposed to be moody, distrusting, jealous and manipulative, as well as resourceful, brave, and passionate.

But why call it Pluto in the first place? Planets are traditionally named after Roman gods. Pluto was the god of the Underworld in Roman mythology, a cold, dark place at that time before it became endowed with the flames of hell. In 1930, an eleven-year-old girl from Oxford, England suggested the name because she thought a planet so far from the sun would be dark and freezing cold. She was right. Its average temperature is about -90^oC.

Another reason, was the PL link with Percival Lowell, the American astronomer who started the search which discovered Pluto.

So there we were, for seventy-six years, happily reading up how Pluto would affect our lives, telling us who we should marry, depending on which house your Pluto is in and how it aligns to the houses in your potential partner, and how it could ruin or enhance everything from birth to death. Then came the convention in Prague and suddenly it was gone, demoted to a mere dwarf planet. No power, no influence.

That decision upset a lot of people. Arguments were tossed back and forth: yes, it is a planet, no, it isn’t. There were mock funerals in many public places, followed or preceded by equally mock Wakes. People wore black armbands. Even scientists objected as so few of their members were in Prague to vote against the planet.

And today, 24 August, 2026, is the twentieth anniversary of Pluto’s tumble into insignificance. It is time to lift a glass, or even just a cup of tea, and celebrate the rise and fall of the ninth planet.

We should all sympathise. I doubt any of us could claim that never in the course of human history, has anyone not suffered at some point from being demoted, devalued or simply plutoed.

You might want to have a look at:

https://patrickwatsonastrology.com/a-history-of-pluto-through-the-zodiac/

It is interesting, whether you believe it or not.

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"Pluto in false color" by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.