Attention stargazers...

[kickaha]

So I know there are a few astrology buffs (serious and non-) on here.

Could someone please explain the ramifications of losing Pluto as a planet?

Thenk yew.




For that matter... how did astrology handle new planets being discovered? It would seem that's easier to work with than having one suddenly be declared irrelevant...


Just wonderin'.

Comments

[mcglk.livejournal.com]

No ramifications at all.

Before 1930, Pluto was unknown, and astrologers didn’t use it, claiming their predictions were fully qualified by the planets. Since 1930, Pluto has been incorporated into the star charts (after some initial resistance by astrologers)—with no discernible difference in predictive accuracy. Since astrologers don’t seem to care about planetary status (hence the incorporation of the Moon into the horoscopes), or even the Copernican system all that much (it’s still heavily based on the Ptolomaic system), I really doubt they’ll bother to change back.

A few astrologers have incorporated Sedna and other Kuiper-belt objects into their horoscopes. No word on Ceres, though.

[kimokeane.livejournal.com]

Astrology hasn't have to handle many planets being discovered - Uranus was discovered in 1741, and Neptune in 1846, and all the rest are obvious naked-eye objects, so it's not like it happens all the time. Since astrology is a pseudo-science and has no agreed-upon methods, it's hard to answer your question thoroughly, and therefore it depends on whom you ask. Ask the astrologers (as the Wall Street Journal did) and they'll say it'll be huge, and most of them (who were asked) said that the new decision doesn't matter and they'll leave it in the charts. Of course, it wasn't on the charts before Pluto's discovery (as has been noted here), but some will say that leaving it in provides better results, others will say that taking it out will produce even better results. But since astrology makes no quantifyable or firm predictions, it can't be shown that the accuracy of the predictions has changed.

Fuck them all. Let them all sputter and burn and die trying to cope with this.

What, professional rivalry? Naw, couldn't be...

for that matter

[ssandv.livejournal.com]

Astrology's always had a soft spot for a large asteroid or two anyway, so I don't see where declassifying Pluto would change anything significant.

Raymond Smullyan (logician, and Taoist) has an interesting take on astrology--there are obvious correlations between the positions of heavenly bodies and seasons, for instance, even though not all of them are relations, and he suggests, more or less, that if you treat it all as a series of various clock cycles, that it's possible some interesting things emerge from it. That is to say, you could just as well use cicadas, or sunspots, to do your astrology. Theories of spooky influence, on the other hand, he has no truck with whatsoever, and rightly so.

Who has a 'professional rivalry' with astrologers? Used car salesmen?