Dem Bones, Dem Bones

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. How are you feeling (rhetorical, no need to e-mail back)? If you’re like most folks the creaks and aches seem more present and for good reason. Chiron, the centaur whose very name comes from the same word, chirugery (literally, skilled in the use of hands), as chiropractor recently backed into Capricorn, the sign whose ruler, Saturn, refers to bones. Just the sound of that sentence prompts the urge for a neck adjustment. Truly, deep tissue massage, massage to support the bones and chiropractic tweaks help those creaks. Even pulling out the Pilate ball and hanging upside down (well Chiron is retrograde) changes your point of view and gets the back back in line.

Before too long the centaur, Nessus, also retrogrades back into Capricorn, joining Chiron, evidently waiting for Jupiter’s October push to both of them for resolution and redemption. Nessus refers to complicated life scenarios in which one encourages others to conspire in an unconscious manner to inspire evolutionary circumstances and ultimately a cooler state of consciousness. Be mindful that Nessus, like the new almost planet, Sedna, requires discernment, clear thinking and strong choices that serve one’s will and spirit. Sedna jumped onto the kayak of a bird man in disguise when he promised the Arctic equivalent of a 9,000 square foot home with servants and unending streams of pate, a shiny Hummer, manicures and endless love. She never even took the time to Google him. Was she surprised to end up in an igloo, eating whale blubber, watching the march of the Penguins for real and alone as her mate did the hunter/gatherer thing. Not the best choice when you step back from it. Good choices require a clear head.

I find that a good chiro crunch gets more blood and oxygen into my head. I write faster and come up with enough ideas to immediately put me a decade behind in workload. Best yet, I can think more creatively, clearly and critically. By critically, let me be Mercury specific, I do not mean in a judgmental, put down, here’s-what’s-wrong-with-everything manner. By critically, I mean think things through. Here’s a for instance, if the outermost planet in the solar system represents the limits of mundane experience, why didn’t Uranus take that away from Saturn upon discovery? Why was the need so strong to impose rebellion and disruption onto his nature? Shouldn’t Pluto now have Saturn-like reservations and restrictions as part of its nature following suit? Won’t Planet X take on those characteristics?

In the preceding paragraph I said (or more specifically, wrote) clear, creative and critical. Go get an adjustment, a good massage and take a meteor shower during the next three nights watching the Perseids to get your sense of awe refreshed. You’ll be watching the sky fall sort of, but the flashes you see come from bits of dust about the size of a pencil point. Something as large as an asteroid, Mars or the bogus Planet X (not the real one) would be a fireball from hell, er, I mean heaven. Now think about it... you know these silly Mars e-mails? Well, Mars will be as close to the Earth as it gets in October, not in the next two weeks, and not nearly as close to the Earth as it was in August 2003. Think about if for just a second. Google gravity. If Mars were the size of the Moon in the sky you wouldn’t need to worry about global warming, homeland security or you should take steroids to strengthen your reach for the stars. You’d be dead, washed away by wild tides and shaken by an Earth in serious gravitational tumult.

Now to Planet X. Think. The Internet hyped Planet X with the 3,600 year orbit heaven bent on destroying us in the next apparition, suggests that the devastation of Earth takes place every 3,600 years. There’s no physical Earthly evidence to support that. Proclaiming that theory, you get set back a grade and must take all the Creationism classes so freely taught in Kansas. Only one thing I can find in the alleged astronomy of this body potentially works. Will we find a Kuiper Belt Object with a 3,600 year orbit? Possibly. Will it have such size that it can throw Neptune, Jupiter and the rest of the solar system off known trajectories? Not even. This body consists of all the elements of terrorism. Someone’s trying to scare the crap out of people by applying feeble astronomy and wild speculation. Creative yes. Critical and clear? Not even.

But we do have Planet X again, as we did before. Percival Lowell called Pluto Planet X meaning the unknown as referring to math models. Now we have the tenth planet. Near as I can see, while they have picked a name, they have not yet released it. I’m guessing all the missing details come out next month at big astronomers’ ball. For certain, I’ll keep you posted. One of the new potential planets, 2005 FY9, keeps jumping around in determination of its absolute magnitude, which indirectly lets us know how big it is. It’s gotten bigger this week. I’m guessing it’s about 90% Pluto’s size. So hard to know. Regardless, we have at least one new planet to ponder and its archetypes now affect us and of which we are only dimly aware (until naming and orbital refinement). Meanwhile, the International Astronomical Union recently established committees to define the parameters for a planet, set naming criteria for TNO bodies and another to consider the proposed name. The IAU wants to remain Greco-Roman in naming, and the discovering astronomical team members report they have a few interesting ideas under those conditions, implying the suggested name stands outside Greco-Roman. Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted, there too. I’m checking for updates twice a day. Yes, in my spare time.