I remember much of the astrology that I was obsessed with as a teenager – some of it still hovers in the background of my thinking, even though I think, on the whole, it is spiritually harmful – so I’ve been watching the debates about Pluto’s status as a planet with great interest. Of course, it exposes the pseudo-science pretensions of astrology quite wonderfully, but the psychological and mythological truths which astrology explores (I’m thinking here of Liz Greene and this book in particular) seem to be standing up quite well. For in astrology, Pluto is the lord of the underworld, the dark realm from whence great riches flow. And as well as the links with fascism in the 1930’s, and the expanse of state control, there is also a very vivid link with oil culture, which really took off at the same time. And which is now coming to an end – just as Pluto itself recedes back into the nether regions.

So this could be a coincidence. It could be synchronicity. Or it could be a really absurd bit of evidence that there remains some resolutely non-scientific truth in astrology after all.

BTW I like the cartoons at Cox and Forkum – see this one about Pluto!

BTW2 for anyone who has a serious interest in astrology, my vocation experience, which was an utterly terrifying and dreadful confrontation with both God and my id, but which bore great gifts as well, coincided to the day with a final Pluto transit of my natal 10th house Neptune (square natal Sun/Ascendant, opp natal Saturn). Another coincidence, of course.