Planets in Motion

In response to my recent eNewsletter article about Mercury Retrograde, my friend Richard (who loves astronomy) shared his thoughts with me…and I am passing them along to you through my blog:

Astronomy deals primarily with the ‘physics’ of the planetary, stellar, and galactic entities and their motions.

As the scientific community understands planetary motion today, planets and asteroids orbit the sun in elliptical paths. Part of their elliptical orbits are very slightly closer to the sun, and as a result their velocities are slightly greater than when they are slightly farther from the sun and its gravitational pull is slightly less (a reflection of Newton’s universal law of gravity).  Incidentally, planets closer to the sun orbit in less time than those farther away. For example, mercury takes about 88 days to go around the sun; the earth 365+ days; Jupiter takes 12 years and Pluto (planet or not) takes around 252 years!

So now, what IS retrograde motion? When one is standing on the earth and observing the motions of planets, if one is taking careful observations of the movement of a planet against the background of stars, most of the motion of the planet appears to be uniform and the planet ìs seen to shift eastward each night against the background of stars. And then something interesting happens!

The planet appears to slow down in its eastward motion, stops, and then moves westward against the
background of stars. After some weeks or months, depending on the planet, this westward motion slows down, stops, and the planet returns to its eastward motion.  This motion by the planets, this `wandering` motion was what gave us the name planet, as derived from the Greek word meaning wanderer.

So if you are still with me, here is the point of all this.  Although the planet appears to slow down, change direction, and then go the opposite way, IT DOES NOTHING OF THE KIND.  The planet always moves in the same direction around the sun. Because of the earth`s movement around the sun
and that of the planet. It only appears that retrograde motion occurs.

So appearances can be misleading, right?  So what is all the fuss about?  To make claims about the effects of planetary motions on the human condition is a domain of Astrology (and I leave that domain to those who find this endeavour to be useful in interpreting their lives).

What I DO caution is to be very careful upon what one uses to base one`s beliefs. There is a tremendous amount of literature currently available relating to the psychological and spiritual dimensions of our lives. C.G. Jung`s work is an example of the former and the work of Michael Newton and Brian Weiss are examples of the latter.

From reading your newsletters and sensing your wonderfully positive orientation to the soulfulness of the world and knowing your commitment to help open the doorways of people`s hearts to what is possible, I have nothing but admiration. Your use of retrograde motion (I realize it wasn`t your original idea) may warrant some further consideration.

Blessings,
Richard

Thanks, Richard!