Boot Pluto? Astrology's dismay off the charts

The ruling by the world's top astronomers to boot Pluto from the planet category is sending shock waves through another set of dedicated stargazers: the world of astrologers, who are mulling how this turn of events might affect our moods, our lucky numbers and our chances of getting a date.

For weeks, astrologers have been buzzing about the proposal approved Thursday at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) general assembly in Prague, Czech Republic, that will recast the map of the solar system for the first time since 1930.

After days of impassioned debate, the astronomers voted to demote Pluto, the smallest of the nine planets, to a new class of solar-system bodies called "dwarf planets."

Astrologers think that the positions of the moon, sun and stars affect human affairs and that people born under the 12 signs of the zodiac tend to pick up qualities of the planets associated with those signs.

Some astrologers, including leaders of the American Federation of Astrologers and The Astrological Association of Great Britain, are standing by Pluto. They say they will continue to regard the icy orb as a full-blown planet with a powerful pull on our psyche, despite the astronomers' decision.

"Whether he's a planet, an asteroid, or a radioactive matzo ball, Pluto has proven himself worthy of a permanent place in all horoscopes," says Shelley Ackerman, columnist for the spirituality Web site Beliefnet.com. Ackerman criticized the IAU for not including astrologers in its decision.

Wall Street's best-known astrologer, Arch Crawford, 65, who has studied the effect of the planets on the Dow Jones industrial average, says, "I'm going to continue using it [Pluto]. They [astronomers] can stick it where the sun don't shine."

Thursday's ruling in Prague brought good news to some. The astronomers indicated several planetlike bodies — including the asteroid Ceres and the newly discovered UB313, nicknamed "Xena" — will also be classified as dwarf planets.

That has generated excitement among a small group of practitioners known as "minor-planet astrologers." They have long contended that outer-lying asteroids and ice balls exert a powerful tug on our psychological makeup.

Some astrologers think that officially introducing new dwarf planets to the charts might give astrologers additional information about people, by providing more planetary bodies and forces to study in the charts.

"This is a moment that I've been waiting for, for a long time," says Eric Francis, a minor-planet astrologer who edits the Web site Planetwaves.net. "People are finally talking about Charon." Charon is Pluto's largest moon, which astronomers briefly considered granting official planet status at the IAU meeting.

Francis and many other minor-planet enthusiasts are interested in raising awareness about Charon and the new dwarf planets, Ceres and UB313, in part because they consider them female planets symbolizing a rush of new maternal energy into the cosmos.

"Most of our clients are women, and we need stories women can relate to," Francis says.

A planet's gender is determined largely by the name given to it by astronomers.

StarIQ.com astrologer Michael Wolfstar suggests that the asteroid Ceres is a humanitarian, compassionate force "associated with relief operations, the food industry and parent-child relationships." According to the site, Ceres is currently pushing for "the return of refugees to southern Lebanon" and "reforms in the organic-milk industry."

The IAU decision had less impact on some older branches of astrology that ignore the influence of more recently discovered planets, such as Uranus (discovered in 1781) and Neptune (discovered in 1846).

In the Indian tradition of Vedic astrology, for example, astrologers generally use the first five planets: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. Modern astrologers, who account for an estimated 90 percent of U.S. practitioners, have long worked with a nine-planet system.

This is also not the first time a new discovery has rocked the astrology world. In 1977, astronomer Charles Kowal discovered Chiron, a comet between Saturn and Uranus. Some astrologers welcomed Chiron into the planetary fold and many still use it today.

Companies that make chart-reading software for astrologers are adjusting their products to include more information on dwarf planets. Astrolabe, an astrology-software company in Brewster, Mass., released a software patch this week for users that provides additional information on Ceres.

Horoscope columnists are wrestling with whether to incorporate the new dwarf planets into their chart readings.

Michael Lutin, columnist for Vanity Fair, says he will consider the newcomers. But he notes that they aren't likely to have massive impact on our personal lives because of their location in at the outer reaches of the solar system: "UB313 is never going to tell you whether Wednesday is good for romance."

Material from Bloomberg News is included in this report.