I've always seen Neptune as indicative of mass terrorism and war, too.

Face it, all the outer planets fail the benefic test.

I've always seen Neptune as indicative of mass terrorism and war, too. Face it, all the outer planets fail the benefic test.

In which case you could all be in deep shit, considering the moderator has natal Neptune conjunct his natal ascendant.

I have always been quite suspicious of Pluto. Its not a fashion statement to fit in with the astronomers. If that was the issue I would not be doing astrology at all.

Equally, its not the ideological objection of a hard core traditionalist. I do find Uranus and Neptune quite discernable in charts although I would never consider them sign rulers. Its just Pluto I struggle with. I confess that when I hang out with other modern astrologers I will often play along to keep them happy. Pluto denial can lose you a lot of astrological friends. For a lot of people its the poster boy for much of their misery. So its like you are denying all their suffering! Maybe I am just weak succumbing to such peer pressure.

The thing is lots of times I look at Pluto transits I dont see an awful lot happening. Of course they are so dragged out something usually happens. But I remain a sceptic.

Maybe its our two dimensional astrology that is to blame. With an inclination of almost 18 degrees to the ecliptic Pluto is simply not where we think it is a lot of time. Should an object that is so frequently outside the ecliptic even count as a planet in astrological terms?

As a Kuiper belt object Pluto just seems to be a comet (aka dirty snowball) that has got into an orbit around the Sun. Quite like that other piece of astro debris so beloved of modern astrologers: Chiron.

according to the moderns, Neptune is in charge of mass killings. Somehow they overlooked this in their rush to assign recreational drugs to Neptune because the discovery coincided with the first use of ether as an anesthetic. A connection that is a bit tenuous at best.

I dont see it as my role to defend modern astrology. However, in terms of historical events the Opium wars between Britain and China occured around this period.