The Ever Enigmatic Pluto
By Carl L. Johnson
Catching-on:
What follows is an examination of, or perhaps personal musings on a planet which until recently was often regarded by most lay persons as rather dreary, unassuming and not especially important. Also contained herein are entries about a formidable (at least he was in ancient times) Roman deity with whose name that planet, if such it may even rightfully be called, has been dubbed. This space object can be considered an asteroid or planetoid which happens to be held captive by the Sun's gravity. Some folks prefer to call it a Plutoid. To those who persist in debating its classification, it is an celestial hemorrhoid! Twenty-first century astronomers have come to take a somewhat more evolved stance in regards to this eccentric mini-world, with its bizarre, elliptical orbit. Now that NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has documented the planet through amazing and detailed photographic images, people are increasingly taking notice. Pluto was revealed to have some features which are indeed remarkable. One of these, the planet's surface isn't ashen grey or black as had been suspected; it is red, like unto Mars. Get this: there is snowfall there!
Introducing Pluto...
My 4th grade class in public schooling formally introduced to me the subject of Astronomy. (I'd already been reading astrological primers about the planets and stars, prior to the early scholastic introduction.) At that time, I and my fellow students we taught that our solar system was comprised of a sun or center star, about which revolves nine small celestial bodies called planets. Planet is the Greek word for wanderer. Well, one of those celestial bodies was dismissed from its planetary status. That was, is much-debated Pluto. For a time it defied classification, and was thought of as merely a rogue moon or an asteroid captured by our sun's diminished gravitation. It is now regarded as a "Dwarf" Planet, and at intervals in its solar orbit is within range of the circumstellar Kuiper Belt which is included in and is located at the outer perimeter of our Solar System. Further deleterious to Pluto's status, 'though not its allure, is our distant neighbor's current designation as Asteroid number 134340. My point is, the rocky object that is approximately equal in size to but somewhat smaller than tiny Mercury and holds in its meager gravity one major moon, Charon, plus 4 minor ones: Hydra, Kerberos, Nix, and Styx--with potentially five more to be found and named--still eludes adequate terminology. I say, it is what it is: it's majestically there!
Appropriately Named Dwarf!
Pluto was named by a young woman (or girl, since at the time she suggested that moniker for the 9th Planet, having recently been discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, she was 11 years of age) from Oxford, England named Venetia Katharine Douglas Phare (nee Burney). Young Ms. Burney chose the name of the Roman god of the Underworld, Pluto because then there were only faint images of the planet as it appeared as a hazy speck of light, so from the beginning of its confirmation as a part of our Solar System it was shrouded in mystery. It's considerable distance from the Sun: an average distance of 3.67 billion miles, rendered the object barely visible even though the largest and most powerful telescopes built during the first four decades of the twentieth century. It was reasonably presumed that Pluto could be little more than a colorless boulder floating along the outer edge of the Solar System, a black world devoid of both sunlight and atmosphere, probably similar in appearance to a huge lump of coal. Due to its uneven, Solar orbital path, It is not always the further planet from our Sun. For a period in its "year" which is 247.9 Earth years, Pluto intersects Neptune's orbit and actually is closer to Sol than is the eighth planet.
Tying-in Mythology
Pluto, therefore, remains the controversial "Dwarf"Planet. This obscure yet somehow enduringly fascinating globe composed of rock and ice is named for that Roman god who judged the dead upon their arrivals in his subterranean kingdom. Pluto is the Roman counterpart of the Greek Hades. Although the two names connote what is essentially the same deity venerated in different regions and times, Hades was seen as being rather malevolent, and darker in aspect than Pluto. The following interpretation might seem to be something of a stretch, but Pluto and Hades have common origins with Satan, the Biblical fallen archangel, the Accuser and Adversary. Certainly, Pluto was thought have held dominion over the demonic, or wicked spirits who's abodes were in subterranean regions...that is, within caverns and chasms far beneath the surface of the earth. Such debased entities are akin to the devils of Judeo-Christian theology. As such, they are unwieldy and rather difficult to constrain, always seeking to escape the confines of the abyss wherein they dwell, and wreak havoc upon mankind. (Apparently, that has always been the favored recreation of evil spirits!)
Not a, or the, Devil
Were you to be transported back in time 2,100 or so years and teleported to ancient Rome, and you attempted to warn folks around you about the temptations of Satan, provided some could even understand you, your cautioning would scarcely raise an eyebrow; you'd be dismissed as just another fanatic or lunatic. The Hebrew devil just wasn't in town at that time! However, dread Pluto was regarded as a formidable and implacable being, and you had better not utter that name too freely. Still, the two creations were somewhat related, or connected, through their origins. Pluto was still a god to the Romans, the ruler of the Underworld, and never considered as a devil or anything evil in nature. It was Pluto who pronounced judgment over departed souls, and the concept of an after-existence for those who died in states of disgrace was quite dismal scenario. Yet it wasn't unimaginable torture. Generally the eternal punishments were thought to fit the earthly crimes! Pluto consigned the dead, rather than condemned them. Even prior to his fall from grace, Satan could never have approached a status of being Yaweh God's equal or rival. Traits-in-common Pluto and Satan retained were their nightmarish nether-abodes wherein they presided, and their governance over a portion of the deceased populace. By no means are these random similarities. In all structured theologies, there exists the dichotomy of a beneficent (if awesome and potentially fearful) Creative Force wielding ultimate power that is above (or pervasive), either balanced or opposed by a dark lord or "Arch Regent" that is below.
Two Symbols Have I
Two symbols have been created to signify the "Dwarf"Planet Pluto. One is its astrological sigil, which is a cross topped by a crescent suggesting a bowl, and hovering above or perhaps contained by the bowl is a circle. The other and more recent sign shows the letter P connected to the letter L by their staffs. This can mean the first tow letters of PLuto, but it can stand for the initials of Percival Lowell, the astronomer who devoted years of careful charting and observation in his search for "Planet X", using a 40-inch refractor telescope of his design. However, it was another pioneering astronomer, one Clyde Tombaugh, who, inspired by research the completion of which Percival Lowell did not live to see, officially announced the discovery of our Solar System's ninth (former) planet on May 1, 1930. Should we perhaps artistically combine those initials, C and T into a brand, and design a third symbol?
Planetary Name-calling
Descriptive words which readily come to mind as I contemplate Pluto include--in alphabetical order--bleak, distant, enigmatic, forbidden, frigid, murky, mysterious, nebulous, obsidian, occult, ominous, restricted, shadowy, Stigian, vacuum, vague, wary, and xenophobic. I recall a phrase which Edgar Allan Poe wove into his signature poem The Raven: "...on the night's Plutonian shore?" This is spoken by the unnamed narrator, his desperation winding into a frenzy, as he implores the bird of ill omen, "perched upon the bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door," to utter but one hopeful syllable, anything besides the inexorable, contractive term, "Nevermore!" Horror-fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft, mentioned elsewhere on this web site, alluded in his writings to theorized outer space object as, Yuggoth, ruled over by an inter-stellar usurper by that name. (Pronunciation is, of course, interpretive.) To quote H.P.L., "A race of great, telepathic beings live on Yuggoth: the black, trans-Neptunian planet, that astronomers have yet to discover."
Motif Planet?
By virtue of all of the afore-mentioned considerations, I feel diminutive Pluto should be the governing planet aptly associated with our web site: Demonology, Incorporated. After all, our site is designed to provide a forum for sharing extraordinary experiences and expressing unorthodox (even in the realm of paranormal) opinions. Pluto tends to generate controversy, 'though not merely for controversy's sake. Perhaps it is a suitable motif for the whole of that subject termed demonology. If demons ever retire from active service and wish to bide their remaining time in obscurity, Pluto might be their suitable haven. Undeniably, "Dwarf" Planet, Planet X, asteroid or planetoid, Pluto possesses a unique mystique! Faintly but enduringly, it glows in the remote reaches of the Sun's neighborhood, as a ghostly image invisible to the unaided human eye. Thanks to endemic curiosity, dogged persistence and scientific advances, we now recognize its face.
Brief but Grateful Acknowledgement --
I wish to conclude by expressing my whole-hearted thanks to the founder of Townes Designs, my partner, coauthor and the love of my life, Lana Jan Brock, for all of her invaluable assistance in managing our web site and publishing this article. Her expertise with graphics techniques transforms what could be dismissed as a dry dissertation combining tow topics: a remote planet and an obscure Roman deity, into something that draws folk's attention, providing what I've written with a captivating visual. Thank you for working your magic, Lana honey!
