Book Review: There Are More Plutos

Or has it? In There Are More Plutos, author Sue Kientz presents the astrology of Pluto’s fellow Kuiper Belt inhabitants, including Eris, Makemake, Sedna, Ixion, and more. It’s a lively cast of astrological characters, resonating not only with Greek and Roman mythology (as with the planets through Pluto), but also with cultures like Easter Island (Makemake) and Hawaii (Haumea) – the skies are getting less Eurocentric.

The Kuiper Belt is a region of space beyond Neptune, which is now the ultimate official planet in our solar system. The number of dwarf planets (and comets) that may reside in the Kuiper Belt is unknown, but they are being discovered at a rate that makes it hard for astrologers to keep up with them. Sue Kientz steps in to sort things out with her new book, working with the mythological meaning of the planets as well as an impressive set of correlations with birth charts and events. Although she states that she is writing for the astrological community, most of the book is readily accessible to anyone who has interest in the astrology of the farther reaches of our solar system.

In addition to her writings on the dwarf planets, Kientz also includes her ideas about how and why astrology works. While this may challenge some astrologers, she does present a comprehensive – if brief – overview of the topic. The author expands beyond astrology to include relevant ideas from chaos theory and other branches of science that help to support her ideas. An extended discussion of the fractal quality of astrology is interesting and hints towards the mechanisms that underlie it.

The heart of the book, however, is Kientz’s exploration of the meaning of the new dwarf planets. In this she has done a truly comprehensive job, finding close aspects in the charts of famous and infamous people and major events in world history, as well as the mythological background of the dwarf planets’ namesakes. It’s a big job, as there are more named dwarf planets than there are classical planets. Yet the task is made somewhat easier because the new members of the celestial lineup are all transpersonal planets. Rather than signifying personal or societal meanings, they point to global or even cosmic concerns. Given that, the Kuiper Belt objects often seem to have a rather heavy meaning, although many of them clearly inspire solutions to problems as much as signifying the problems themselves.

There Are More Plutos is an interesting book for anyone interested in the astronomical history of recently discovered dwarf planets, and provides a firm foundation for their astrological meaning. Astrologers are likely to further expand and refine those meanings over the coming years, as they see the planets in action. Sue Kientz has done an excellent job of showing why that is a worthy project.