The astrological quandary of new planet discoveries
Each time a new planet has been discovered, it has opened a new doorway in the field of astrology. For thousands of years the visible planets told the entire astrological story, and life was considered to a march towards one inevitable destiny. The planetary story of the natal chart was either exalted or debilitated, and one was forced to resign oneself to fate.
Beginning in the late 18th century with the discovery of Uranus, the astrological landscape began to change. A flurry of revolutionary ideologies and a drive towards individuality, the hallmarks of the Uranian influence, spread like wildfire around the world. Neptune’s discovery in the 19th century led to an increase of spiritual and mystical thought (as opposed to the religious dogma of the church state that was the primary governing force throughout the second millenium of the common era. Pluto’s entry into the pantheon in 1930 opened the doorway for the great psychological teachers of our time (Freud and Jung) and oversaw the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs that were later used annhilate a large part of Japan (Pluto rules the underworld of the psyche as well as the process of destruction and regeneration).
Between 1801 and 1804 the four commonly used asteroids (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta) were discovered, although they were not included in the astrological pantheon until the early 1970s. Chiron’s discovery in late 1977 was an intriguing event for astrologers because of the difficulty in identifying whether Chiron was an asteroid, a comet, or a small planet (read more about that here) and for many years astrologers grouped Chiron together with the other asteroids although astronomers classified Chiron as one of the Centaur minor planets.
Beginning in […]
