Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by the mysterious planet Pluto on July 14th.
In 1930, Pluto (named after the Greek God of the underworld) was discovered as the ninth and furthest known planet in our solar system. This was some years after Gustav Holst wrote the classic seven-movement orchestral suite, The Planets, which he wrote between 1914 and 1916. It was inspired by astrology and each planet in our sky’s corresponding astrological character.
Disillusioned by the popularity of The Planets, and the attention it took from his other music works, Holst expressed no interest in giving Pluto its own movement. Although, in 2000, the Halle orchestra commissioned English composer, Colin Matthews, an authority on Holst, to write a new eighth movement, which he called Pluto ‘The Renewer’.
You can find it on the last part of this, there is a little surprise!
In 2006, some people with some authority on something, decided to demote Pluto to a dwarf planet. Speaking from a small person’s perspective, I would say this is unfair – she may be small, but she has power!
Astrologically, Pluto rules Scorpio – the sign of death, transformation and rebirth – it is an extremely powerful sign of the zodiac. If you use its energy wisely, it can either be intensely spiritually powerful, or, pretty dark. There is literally a choice to go higher or lower with this amazing power. I have Scorpio rising and find Scorpio people really fascinating in general, especially if they are connected to the spiritual side of their power.
Pluto has five moons – Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.
Check the fly by photos here – I like the heart especially.
According to The Guardian front page: “The images revealed an extraordinarily complex world complete with mountains and an atmosphere in which frozen flakes of nitrogen fall as snow.”
It’s mad that so much exists outside of our planet. Magic!
This post was written by Kim Booth