Friday, Aug. 25, 2006 | A new era for astrology Welcome Wall Street Journal Readers! And for Planet Waves readers, I was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal; today's front page article is reproduced here: http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/wsj.html While I'm sharing clippings, below is a really interesting, comprehensive BBC News piece on what happened in Prague. Just looking at the basic facts, like how few people voted, and how bad the final proposal is from a scientific standpoint, it seems a bit odd at best. I have been marveling all day at the idea that something has been declared "not a planet" when a space probe has never even been there. Ah yes, but one is on the way. What if they show up and find little green men? Who just voted Earth out of Planet status! Haha, it's not even our planet, and we decide it's not a planet! Wait a rock pickin' minute! Oh wait -- we didn't decide! Someone else did! And I wonder: do we have a shade of truth in my one-time hero and Xena discoverer Mike Brown saying he might go down in history as the guy who killed Pluto? It's weird, he's been lobbying for Pluto in the press and on his web page incessantly. Then he changes his mind...I suggest Mike Brown get himself some mythology books and read a little -- he would measure his words more carefully. Anyway -- I'll catch you Monday. It's time for this tempest in the cosmic teapot to settle down, and I do need a couple of days off. Thanks to everyone who has been SO MUCH HELP this week. Shabbat Shalom.     e And here's that BBC piece...perk up your ears... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5283956.stm And PS, here is a device that is tracking the Pluto story, anything that gets on the Web as "news" will turn up here: http://artofwebdesign.net/astrology/plutonews.php From earlier Friday... Dear Friend and Reader: IT'S NOT like this kind of thing happens every day. There have been no significant changes to the agreed structure to the solar system for 76 years, when Pluto was discovered in 1930. While on the one hand, we 'lose' Pluto as an official major planet, we gain a new category of planets, that is, a designation for minor planets (dwarf planets) and thus we gain Ceres and Xena/2003 UB313 -- two rather excellent goddess figures, and there are many more planets in this category on the way -- as many as 50 are already known, and will be added in the next few years. This is going to make a difference to astrology because it's going to prompt a lot of people to do things differently, guiding people to consider planets they never would have considered. And we need Ceres. We need the planet of compassion, mother, food, and agriculture; the goddess of fertility; and hey, why not, the patron of Sicily, from which my entire family hails (Ceres Ferdinandea was the original name, given by the discoverer, Piazzi). It's perfectly appropriate that Ceres should gain recognition during the Virgo New Moon, and when she is so prominently placed in the sky. I'll be working on Planet Waves Weekly this morning, which will cover some of these events in much greater detail. There is some coverage in Astrology Secrets Revealed, in the article Before and After Pluto, and a sample of the newest Planet Waves Weekly is posted to the front page. This will be the last in our series of samples through the Pluto renaming era -- so come along and sign up! To find out how, and why, click away: http://www.planetwavesweekly.com/why/ -- Eric Francis