Pinyo Pongcharern, 51, president of Thailand's Association of Astrology, believes that last week's decision by the world astronomy body to downgrade Pluto from one of the nine planets in the solar system to a "dwarf planet" will affect how astrologers make predictions based on the stars, their motion and relative positions.

"At the very least, the downgrade will have some psychological effect, reducing the creditability of those who have long used Pluto as one of the planets in their astrological calculations. However, Pluto is a relatively new planet in the solar system since it was discovered only in the 1930s," he says.

"In Thailand, this celestial body was first applied in astrology around 1957. So there are not many statistical records relevant to Pluto when compared with those of Neptune, Uranus or the other planets of the solar system. Yet many astrologers will have to adjust their calculations to take into account the astronomers' decision to downgrade Pluto," says Pinyo, who took up studying traditional Thai astrology in 1971 under Chao Khun Udomsilapakhun of Wat Buranasiri Matharam.

According to Pinyo, the study of Thai astrology focuses on the Earth, Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahoo and Ketu, as well as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto more recently.

"Historically, King Rama 4, who was both an astronomer and astrologer, was the first to use Uranus in astrological calculations back in 1865. Uranus was the seventh planet of the solar system. It was discovered in the 18th century - around 1781. Neptune, the eighth planet of the solar system, was discovered later, around 1846.

"In my opinion, both astrology, which is essentially the study of celestial bodies' motions and their relative positions with interpretations on human characteristics and activities, and astronomy have been closely related since time immemorial. In fact, they could be called the twin bodies of knowledge of mankind. In ancient times we observed the stars, their motion and relative positions with the naked eye. In those days, astrology and astronomy were probably the same discipline," Pinyo says.

"However, they started to separate when we entered into the age of science some 300 to 400 years ago. Most importantly, the invention of telescopes allowed us to observe and discover other unknown celestial bodies that could not be seen with the naked eye. For instance, Pluto is not visible to the naked eye since it's the farthest in the solar system.

"Pluto's orbit around the Sun takes around 248 years compared with 165 years for Neptune, since Neptune is closer to the sun. All these figures are used in calculating the cycles in astrology. I think our school textbooks on astronomy, as well as texts on astrology, will be revised soon as a result of the downgrade of Pluto.

"At present, the number of astrologers in Thailand who rely on astronomy as the basis of their craft is estimated to be in the order of 10,000. Of this number, about 1,000 are younger ones who often include Neptune, Uranus and Pluto in their astrological calculations," Pinyo says.

"Today we have a lot more knowledge about astronomy than in previous centuries, so astronomy has become a full-fledged discipline in its own right. Yet astrology is not completely unscientific. It's based on human knowledge and experience from time immemorial, as well as statistical records that have been maintained over generations. It's the natural truth. Some astrological observations have also proven to be true scientifically such as the effects of a full moon on the earth and animals.

"For instance, some types of fish will jump during a full-moon night. To prove this phenomenon, scientists created an artificial environment of a full-moon night and the fish still jumped, but stopped after a few minutes.

Another form of marine life opens its mouth only during a full-moon night. Scientists conducted an experiment by putting them in an opaque, closed container during the full moon and found that they would still react by opening their mouths," he says.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com