Today, August 24, 2006, world's leading astronomers gathered in International Astronomical Union's 26th General Assembly in Prague decided to strip Pluto of the planet status it has held since its discovery 76 years ago.
This decision has no influence on the way Pluto works in astrology charts, as it represents merely astronomers' administrative decision to classify planets differently.
But this decision will hopefully lead astrologer reconsider planets' rulership over zodiacal signs. There is a tendency in modern astrology to consider that Uranus rules Aquarius, Neptune rules Pisces and Pluto rules Scorpio and that's it.
In fact, given the huge number of cosmic objects of different sizes and orbits that rotate around our Sun, it seems unfair and disbalanced to allow Pluto (now, no longer a planet!) to rule Scorpio, but deny this right to the other asteroids or dwarf planets out there, some of them even bigger than Pluto (see Xena).
My point of view is that there is only one harmonious way to assign planets' ruleship over signs, and this is the traditional way, considering only the 7 traditional planets (Sun > Saturn). These 7 planets also have another special and close relationship with the zodiac, through the 5 kinds of essential dignities (domicile/exile, exaltation/fall, triplicity, term, face).
All other cosmic objects out there (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, also Ceres, Chiron or ANY other asteroid) can be associated analogically (domicile/exile, exaltation/fall) with certain zodiacal signs, with whom they share analogical affinities. But they don't represent actual sign rulers, only have special relationships with the respective signs.
So I think that today's astronomers' decision contributes to the understanding of this idea, and also it demonstrates to all astrologers that even a non-planet (such as Pluto, now) can have a major influence in astrology. It opens up the path to an extensive use of all other known asteroids or even virtual objects to any branch of astrology.
For instance, I know that most modern horary astrologers use Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in their delineations, but are reluctant to include also Ceres, Chiron or Lilith. I have been advocating that any such (real/virtual) cosmic object with known influence in astrology can be included in horary astrology delineations, given that it is specific to the nature of the question.
Article written by Radu