Science uses astrological symbolism

A headline in the news read:

NASA Spacecraft ���Wakes Up��� Near Pluto, 2.9 Billion Miles From Earth

The article went on to quote NASA’s 6 December 2014 statement: “After a voyage of nearly nine years and three billion miles ���the farthest any space mission has ever traveled to reach its primary target ��� NASA���s New Horizons spacecraft came out of hibernation today for its long-awaited 2015 encounter with the Pluto system��� (italics mine).

Mission control received full confirmation at 9:53 p.m EST. ��NASA launched��New Horizons��on 19 January 2006. It has traveled 2.9 billion miles from Earth and is now (on 6 December 2014) within 162 million miles of Pluto. “After spending 1,873 days in hibernation mode, operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., confirmed at 9:53 p.m. (EST) on Saturday that New Horizons switched to ‘active’ mode and the radio signal took 4 hours and 26 minutes to reach NASA���s Deep Space Network station in Canberra, Australia.”

In astrology Pluto is a symbol of rebirth, transformation, resurrection, crossing new horizons and exploring unknown realms. As god of the underworld, Pluto represents that which is hidden from view and can be discovered only with great effort to penetrate its mysteries. In the tarot, Pluto has become associated with the 20th trump card, Judgment, depicting souls rising from the grave to face the Lord on Judgment Day. Below is the Judgment trump from Llewellyn’s Classic Tarot with its Pluto-related image.

Note the Plutonian themes of “waking up” and “coming out of hibernation” in this card. NASA and the news media use the same images to write about the emergence of the New Horizons spacecraft from its long slumber to explore the hidden world of Pluto. ��Perfect symbolism!