RE-DISCOVERING THE OUTER PLANETS by Daniel Heydon
Introduction
"The eternal truths cannot be transmitted mechanical1y: in every epoch they must be born anew from the human psyche. "
- Carl Jung Civilization in Transition
Our textbook definitions of the outer planets are certainly valid. Astrologers everywhere will concur that Neptune is indeed the planet of deception, idealism, confusion, drugs, compassion, and psychic awareness. Uranus too lives up to its name as the planet of rebellion and individuality, and evidence is mounting that early descriptions of Pluto's link to gangsterism, depth psychology, totalitarianism, terrorism and the like was in no way an exaggeration of its effects. Though most of us interpret the death and rebirth aspect of Pluto as metaphoric, most would still agree that Pluto transits often signal the end of one phase of existence and the beginning of another.
However, if you were to ask an astrologer what actually was going on in the world at the time of each of these planet's discovery, he or she would no doubt would tell you that coinciding with the discoveries of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, the new principles of democracy, socialism, and totalitarianism entered the world. In connection with Uranus, the French and American revolutions would be cited, and some references also would be made to electricity and the Industrial Revolution. With respect to Neptune, references no doubt would be made to the discovery of anesthesia and The Communist Manifesto. And, finally, with Pluto, you would no doubt be told that Hitler, Hiroshima, and the Holocaust relate to its discovery.
All of the above information is correct and, indeed, the above is pretty much what you'll find in the way of historical background linked to the discovery of the outer planets in your typical astrology textbook. So it must come as a surprise to some readers to hear me speak of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto as the planets of culture, for there are no specific references to cultural developments in our texts in connection with the discovery of the outer planets.
Maybe, in an out of print text of 1860, there's a reference to the fact that Millais exhibited the first of his paintings with socialist themes in the year of Neptune's discovery; or that tyranny was very much on the mind of both the populace and the playwright, when, in 1781, von Schiller's The Robbers was first staged. And then again maybe not. Obviously, a play and a painting could easily be overlooked by the astrologer of yesteryear, especially, in the light of the earth shaking developments that took place in the political arena then. Yet, Millais' painting is equally representative of the significance of Neptune's discovery as is Marx and Engel's The Communist Manifesto. And von Schiller's The Robbers is no less important than the steps that Watts took in 1781 to make his steam engine practical to an understanding of the significance of Uranus' discovery.
The above facts may still seem trivial to some readers. Yet, when we come to Pluto's discovery, we have no choice but to look to some place other than history for insights into what 'death and rebirth' means. After all, in 1930, Christ did not once more rise again from the dead; and though we have plenty examples of gangland murders then, where are we to find an example of the 'rebirth' principle of Pluto in the historical events of 1930?
Indeed, skeptics of astrology might decree astrology a bogus subject for its insistence that death and rebirth are linked with Pluto, except for the fact that death and rebirth is the main theme of Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury which was first published in 1929, shortly before Pluto's was first sighted in January 1930. But when we learn that Faulkner also wrote two other books dealing with the same subject, Light in August (1932), and As I Lay Dying (1930), we see that the publication of this trio of novels must be ranked as one of the major developments that occurred at the time of Pluto's discovery.
Indeed, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are the planets of culture and though I'm making this statement today, the following pages should demonstrate to the reader that Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were the planets of culture right from the moment of their discovery, (and indeed, you'll find examples of their influence in cultural events in the years before their discovery).
I call this series of articles "Re-discovering the Outer Planets". Could it be that astrologers overlooked important events that occurred at the time of the outer planets' discovery? I believe so. Much of what's written in the following pages will be new to astrologers; yet will be supportive of what we already know of the outer planets' significance.
For example, all students of astrology know that Neptune is the planet of compassion. But I think our knowledge that the first use of anesthesia in 1846, for the purpose of alleviating a person's suffering, is made richer when we consider these other developments that occurred in the very same year. The Virgin Mary, universal symbol of compassion, was said to have made an appearance on earth four days prior to Neptune's discovery; Dostoevsky received public recognition for his compassionate treatment of the downtrodden in Poor Folk ; and the first ever hospital for the training of nurses opened in Kaiserwerth, Germany. Through the use of the symbol Neptune we see interrelatedness between art, science, and religion that would be missed without a scrutiny of cultural developments.
But if astrology is going to regain its position as an instrumentality of transcendence than we must once again get in touch with its symbolic nature and recognize the fact that an astrological symbol can manifest simultaneously in the arts, sciences and religion. Astrology still remains our best bet for restoring the Pythagorean view of the cosmos in which the interpenetration of the arts, science and religion in our culture and daily life events will be once again achieved. Having taken that step, then humankind can undergo that journey to that New Age consciousness, which thinkers from Christ to Rudyhar have foreseen.