I remember when I was very young and ravenously studying astrology and other things of a more esoteric nature. Astrologers would always claim that there were two other planets besides the nine that were traditionally acknowledged by modern scientists. For thousands of years this has been a secret knowledge that astrologers have accepted as fact even though traditional science would never acknowledge it. This would always make me feel a little weird about astrology and astronomy. I would always think to myself ‘well how come these astrologers know about this but the rest of the world doesn’t? Could they be that far off?’ and at the same time it would also make me think, ‘those silly astrologers... if they don't even know how many planets there are, how the hell are we supposed to take any of this seriously? Certainly we know how many planets there are. There are nine planets and every one knows it...’

O.k. now cut to the news this week. By now everyone knows that this week American astronomers in California discovered a “new planet,” about ¾ the size of Pluto. They are calling the new body Sedna. I really couldn’t believe what I was hearing. If that wasn't enough, what's really weird is that astronomers are totally split on if this new object that circles the sun just like the other planets should be called a planet since it is so small; they are citing Pluto saying that Pluto is also not a an actual planet. As it stands now, they don't have an official definition of the word ‘planet.’ This is true. So depending on how you look at it, according to scientists today, as it stands now, there are either eight or ten planets in our solar system, but not nine... Hhhmmmm.

It does make one wonder about a lot of things. Maybe there was more to these astrologer’s ancient knowledge after all. I would love if it in our lifetime they found this other mysterious planet they say is out there. That would just be fucking wild. You see, scientifically this may not turn out to be such a big discovery. The planet itself might not hold much for us in the way of science... But it may mean a lot more to us in different more subtle ways... the implications of this new information about something that is so old... and was so unknown for so long now... may be much more important than we are currently giving it credit for. Imagine being alive today when we have just discovered a new planet in our solar system? When all our lives we were taught there were only nine? And all that time this other group of us was quietly saying there were two more hidden planets out there... crazy.