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 UNVEILING
PLUTO [Edited Version]
Researched
& written by Gregory Clare ©
For
the complete article visit Greg's
Website
On
19 January, 2006, at 14:00 EST+5, NASA, the American Space Agency
launched the New Horizon space craft bound for Pluto and beyond
(Kuiper Belt). New Horizon was launched from Complex 41 at Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The probe is expected to make
contact with Pluto on 4 July 2015. Discovery & Astronomical Data:
The image of Pluto was first captured on an Astronomical camera by
amateur astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on the nights of 23 and 29 January,
1930 at 21:00 MST +7:00, at Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff Arizona,
and (Fig 1). Tombaugh had been studying the faint shots of Pluto for
several days. The sightings were confirmed on 18 February, 1930 at
16:00 MST +7:00 (Fig 2). Pluto's discovery was announced to the world
on 13 March, 1930. The naming of the newly discovered planet was done
through a competition, won by an 11-year-old English girl, Venetia
Burney. Pluto entered into the history books on 1 May, 1930.
"Tombaugh
exposed the photographs on the nights of Jan. 23 and 29 using the
Observatory's 13-inch Abbott Lawrence Lowell Telescope. Then, as part
of the carefully planned and executed planet search, Tombaugh
"blinked" the two exposures using a machine called a
comparator, looking for motion of objects captured on film. "One
need only visit Lowell Observatory and view copies of the discovery
images through the same eyepiece used by Clyde Tombaugh to appreciate
what a remarkable discovery this was," notes Lowell's Director,
Bob Millis. "The images are extremely faint and testify to the
skill, concentration, and dedication that Clyde Tombaugh brought to
his work."
All
the planets in our Solar system lie within 7 degrees of the ecliptic
except Pluto, which has a plane of approximately 17.5 degrees toward
the ecliptic. Pluto has an orbit of the Sun of 248 mean years, which
makes it somewhat of a legend, when it comes to time travel. The time
the Pluto spends in each zodiacal sign is extremely varied. The
longest period is 31.5 years in the sign of Taurus and the shortest
period of 11.5 years is in the sign Scorpio. Scorpio is referred to
by contemporary astrologers as Pluto's Dignity. The fact that the
planet spends the least amount of time in the sign it is said to rule
may suggest we need to think a little more about assigning rulership
of Scorpio to Pluto!
On
18 February 1930, Pluto's Latitude was 0° 12'.
This meant that Pluto was in close conjunction to the fixed star
Wasat in the constellation of Gemini. The star Wasat has 00°
latitude, which means it, lies on the ecliptic. Pluto's close
conjunction with Wasat and the fact that Pluto was descending in
latitude to cross the ecliptic would have accounted for the ability
to track its movement against the background of the sky at that time.
Just for the record, Pluto crossed the ecliptic on quite an unusual
date; Pluto reached 00:00:00° latitude on 9 September 1930 at
03:00am, Flagstaff Arizona. Pluto's elliptical or cigar shaped orbit
varies enormously according to the distance Pluto is from earth, from
49au when in the signs Aries/Taurus to only 28.5 au when in the signs
Libra/Scorpio. (Here may lay some evidence for the validation of
rulership for Scorpio)
Pluto
made its tropical zodiacal ingress into Cancer, the sign where it
was discovered, on 9 July 1913, at 22:26:42 REC.
Pluto, also known as Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, spent 25
years in Cancer and 18.8 years in Leo. In recent times Pluto has
spent 11.5 years in Scorpio. Pluto is currently in Sagittarius and
having spent almost 12.9 years in this Mutable Fire sign will enter
the Cardinal sign of Capricorn at 13:37:13 AEDT on 26 January 2008.
This is Australia Day, the day in 1788 when Governor Phillip raised
the flag and claimed NSW as a colony of the British Empire. Pluto's
ingress to Capricorn (Australia's Sun sign) will be honored during a
ceremony at the upcoming 17th FAA International conference, which is
to be held at The Women's College, University of Sydney from 23 - 28
January
2008. Astrological Data: Before
making a prediction for Pluto's ingress into Capricorn, I should
point out the distinction between mundane and natal Astrology.
Mundane astrology is primarily used for the study of Cities /Nations,
Kings and their fortunes; it is location specific. There are specific
rules for prognostication in mundane judgments, such as the
consideration of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn every 20
years, known as the Great Conjunction and marking the beginning of
each Jupiter/Saturn cycle. The Sun's quarterly ingress into each of
the Cardinal signs is important. The first Lunation cycle after the
cardinal ingress is also of great benefit in mundane judgments.
To-day we also have the ingress of the slow moving outer planets.
Using all these methods we compare the charts when possible to the
national foundation chart. The angles of the various charts are used
to indicate focus and as there are number of house systems in use,
which sometimes can be problematic. Also of major consideration are
the mundane aspects made by the ingress planet to other major planets
during its stay in the sign.
Pluto
belongs to the group of planets known as 'The Transpersonal
Planets', which includes Uranus and Neptune. This group of planets
came into the collective consciousness (were discovered) from the
16th Century onwards, Pluto not until 1930). They are referred to as
non-visual planets as they can't be seen by the naked eye. We know
the originally assigned nature or temperaments of the five visual
planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. This comes from
the Traditional method known as Essential Dignities.
Natal
astrology is of a personal nature:
One way we can look at the Pluto ingress is to study past ingresses
to gain some insight into what may lie ahead. However, does a planet
that is unknown to the people of the time have an influence on their
psyche, individually and/or collectively? Pluto made its ingress into
Capricorn on 24 December 1515 (Old Style calendar) at 18:01:46 LMT,
Greenwich and on 8 January 1762 (New Style calendar) at 05:07:51 LMT,
Greenwich. Note: On the last two occurrences of Pluto's ingress into
Capricorn the planet was within orb of a conjunction with Venus, and
the 2008 Capricorn ingress will also be conjunct Venus. This is
because Venus has a synodic cycle of 8 years and 8 divided into 248 = 31.
So
what was going on from 1515 to 1530? In
1492 the Americas were discovered and by the 16th C, the settlers
were battling the indigenous people over the land. In 1519 Cortes
conquered the Aztec capital, which is now called Mexico City. In 1517
Egypt fell to the Ottoman Empire, leaving Arabia under Ottoman
control and in the same year, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the
door of Wittenberg Cathedral attacking the sale of indulgences. In
England, Henry V111 reigned from 1509 - 1547, a period that began one
of the most noticeable struggles for religious power in the British
Isles. From 1515 - 1529 Thomas Wolsey took up the battle, challenging
the power of the courts and the Nobles on behalf of the poor and
lower classes. These are some of the events that took place during
Pluto's 1515 - 1530, passage through Capricorn.
The
next passage of Pluto through Capricorn was from 8 January 1762 to
1777, and will be most remembered for the foundation of the United
States of America by the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776.
Here we have a chart for the foundation of nation. In 1770, James
Cook landed in Botany Bay making a claim on Australia for the British
beginning another struggle of land ownership. In 1772, The Danish
nobility rebelled against Count Johann Von Struensee, who had held
absolute power for a year, torturing and beheading him. In the same
year, George 111 secured the passage of the Royal Marriage Act to
control whom the Royal family may marry. In 1773 the first stock
exchange opened in London and in 1774 Joseph Priestly discovered
Oxygen. In 1775 Paul Revere warned his fellow Americans of the
British troop movement and opened the way for the War of Independence.
Examining
the above events a pattern of power-plays, dispossession and
dissolution of the invalid emerges. Any astrology textbook would
apply similar keywords to Pluto. Words like death and transformation,
rejuvenation, secret group activity, big business finance and
lawlessness, to mention just a few. Jeff Green, in his book
"Pluto, the Evolutionary Journey of the Soul" makes these
opening remarks on Pluto in Capricorn, "Pluto in the 10th house
or Capricorn represents a condition wherein an entire chapter or
cycle of evolutionary development has come to a close and another has
just begun within the recent past. This evolutionary development can
apply to countries as well as individuals".
Unlike
contemporary astrology, traditional astrology does not assign a
description for each sign. Rather it ascribes specific temperament to
each sign. Traditionally Capricorn is a Tropical sign, cold and dry.
Contemporary astrology describes Capricorn as an Earth sign and
describes it as (among other things) a sign of understanding,
concentration, motivation, reverence, security, conservatism,
responsibility, patience, morality and self-preservation; governments
and their structure and land associated foundations. Here we have
some themes that may be combined with hindsight to give us a sense of
what we may see in coming years during Pluto's next sojourn in
Capricorn. The discovery of Pluto was announced to the world on 13
March 1930 amidst a wave of kidnapping and when the world was in the
grip of the Great Depression. In Europe, dictators were emerging; In
America racketeers and gangsters ruled. In 1932 the Atomic Age began
with the discovery of the positron.
"The
discovery of the positron (a positively charged particle of an Atom)
in 1932 by the American physicist Carl David Anderson proved the
existence of antiparticles and was a triumph for Dirac's theory.
After his discovery, subatomic particles could no longer be
considered immutable. Given enough energy, electrons and positrons
can be created from a few particles in a vacuum tube. They also can
annihilate each other and disappear into some other form of energy.
The history of subatomic physics from this point has been much the
story of finding new kinds of particles that can be created in vacuums".
The
mythology of Pluto varies in different cultures. One story is that
of Persephone, daughter of Ceres, goddess of the harvest being lured
into the underworld by Pluto the god of wealth. Persephone was
secretly given pomegranate seeds signifying the insoluble sexual
union. However due to the efforts of Ceres to get her back, Pluto
shares his power with Persephone, but only for half the time as she
has to spend half the year above the ground with her mother. (Pluto's
has a retrograde cycle of 6 Months, half a Solar year.)
The
Greeks knew the god of the underworld as Hades (the unseen). After
the overthrow of Kronos the universe was divided and the brothers
Zeus, Poseidon and Hades took the sky, the sea and the underworld
respectively. Hades was also known as Polydegmon, receiver of many
guests. His kingdom continuously grew with the souls of the newly
dead. The dead souls were escorted by Hermes to the boatman Charon on
the River Styx, and prevented from returning to the upper world by
Cerberus, the three-headed dog.
Hades
was not regarded as an evil god, but he was grim and implacable, and
worshippers averted their eyes from his image when making sacrifice.
In order not to draw attention to his role as king of the dead, he
was referred to obliquely by the Romans as Pluto (giver of wealth).
This is just one story of the many that surround the myth of
Hades/Pluto, king of the underworld.
Pluto
and its passage through Capricorn 2008:
This chart represents the ingress of Pluto into Capricorn at 19:37:13
MST+7 on 25 January 2008 as viewed from Flagstaff, Arizona. This
chart has a Venus/Jupiter/Pluto conjunction across the 5th House
cusp, the house of children, pleasure and the arts.
Venus/Jupiter/Pluto conjunction is described by Ebertin as; "The
enjoyment of an unusually large measure of popularity, the ability to
gain favour with the Masses". Tied to this trio is a trine from
retrograde Saturn in Virgo, the sign known for its purity. The Nodes
are falling across the angles together with a Mercury/Neptune
conjunction, Mercury is slow and poised to station, and stationary
Mercury is unable to complete the trine to Mars. Mercury/Neptune can
be described as a powerful imagination and when linked to the North
Node, a fated reunion. The fixed star Regulus is conjunct the rising
degree. Brady's interpretation of this star is; "Success if
revenge is avoided". The fixed star Capulus is conjunct the MC
degree, about which Brady has this to say; "Male, sexual and/ or
aggressive". We have an interesting story line emerging of
fatalistic unions, of sex and pleasure, the arts and children,
clouded by the imagination! The Sabian Symbol description for Mars in
Fig 6: "Bringing under control nature's power of expansion."
Mars is retrograding the previous degree can also be applied and
reads as: "The use of inhibiting circumstances for the
development of character and a transcendent approach to the
environment." With the above description of Venus/Jupiter/Pluto,
could the chart be suggesting that we strive for a world wide
reconciliation of differences and look for unification in the areas
that are affected? Finally, what does this Ingress of Pluto into
Capricorn tell us about the world we occupy? Does it indicate
something about the images we will receive from Pluto and the
condition of Earth when the spacecraft New Horizon arrives on 4 July 2015?
©
Gregory Clare
Edited
for inclusion to Sydney Astrology by Thomas Muldoon |
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