Welcome to your consciousness workbook for our ten new planets, written without any jargon, in a way that anyone without any astrological knowledge can enjoy and benefit from. Beautifully illustrated with meditative images for each planet created by astrologer Karen La Puma, this book invites you to embark on the adventure of embracing these new aspects of consciousness in your life!
In the scientific worldview of contemporary Western culture, we tend to think that the stars can't really affect us, and that astrology is something akin to magic or a belief system. This assumes we live in a stable world and the planets are merely bits of rock flying around us in space. The truth is that we live in a dynamic system, and we are influenced by the rhythms of that system. We're on a spinning planet revolving around the Sun, along with all the other planets of our solar system, thanks to the gravitational forces and dynamics of those planets.
Neither magic, nor a belief system, astrology is a social science, recording the psychology and behavior of people over the eons, as referenced to the dynamic system in which we live: and that is the only way we measure and record anything. A year is one cycle around the Sun, a day is one revolution of the Earth.
So, over the eons astrologers noticed that we generally sleep at night and go to work during the day. We go out and party on the full moon and stay home and plant gardens on the new moon. That we struggle to make decisions when Mercury, the planet of ideas, seems to be going backwards in the sky. And when Saturn, the planet of responsibility, returns to his birth position when we're about age 29, we all go through a 'What am I doing with my life?' reality check.
Our personal consciousness develops within the collective consciousness around us, and we see this mapped out in the personal planets in our chart. These are the planets out to Saturn that are visible to the naked eye, and they talk about facets of our personality that are important in living day to day.
The inner planets represent aspects of personality, and the outer planets represent aspects of consciousness. So, as each new outer planet is discovered, it represents a new aspect of consciousness that is becoming available to us. Over the last 200 years, we've discovered three new planets. The discovery of Uranus brought us intuitive consciousness, the discovery of Neptune, spiritual consciousness, and the discovery of Pluto, psychological consciousness.
Then, since the turn of the 21st century, we've discovered another ten planets: Ixion, Orcus, Salacia, Varuna, Haumea, Quaoar, Makemake, Gonggong, Eris, and Sedna. The discovery of so many new outer planets at one time represents a feast of new consciousness that is now available to us. The enlightenment that until now was only available to select gurus and priests after years of devout work, is now open to everyone.
We see these esoteric outer energies manifesting most clearly in our lives through their house placement, so the book includes house interpretations for each planet, and, to bring these to life, they are all illustrated with examples of well known people. The book also includes instructions on how to discover where your new planets are in a simple way online, and a basic astrology section for those who are new to the field.
In our research at the Dwarf Planet University, it has been amazing to see how, by simply making these new aspects conscious, students become empowered and their lives are transformed. We need to engage with these new consciousness energies to take them out of the unconscious area of action. To enable this, the book includes consciousness exercises for each planet, so we can on-board their energy in our lives. As we do, we will become empowered, and our lives will be transformed.