The Lunar Occultation of Pluto in 2012-2013

by Robert Wilkinson

There’s a lot of buzz going on about the Moon supposedly “occulting” Pluto numerous times throughout 2012 into 2013. Is this actually happening, what does it mean, and if it is happening, what will be its effects?

First, an “occultation” of a planet is a fairly common occurrence. Technically, it’s “the eclipse of a star or planet by another heavenly body.” That means any time another body gets between the Earth and a planet or star that planet or star is “occulted.” So it would work the same way an Eclipse works. There are countless occultations that occur each year involving a large number of celestial bodies.

Second, we had Pluto occultations in 2011 involving a high magnitude star which allowed astronomers to view Pluto and get information from the event about the planet. In March 2012 Pluto is occulted by its satellite NIX, and both Pluto and Charon (its satellite) will be occulted by the same star in July and September. So Pluto occultations are fairly common. The trick is to figure out what an occultation of Pluto means, if anything.

Third, this is a Pluto occultation by the Moon. That would imply it involves the Moon blocking some of Pluto’s energies so we can’t “see” them. But we can’t see Pluto with the naked eye anyway! So something we cannot see is being partially blocked by our Earth’s Moon, shutting down something so that other Plutonic energies can be “seen.” As Pluto is one of the three “outer invisibles,” you can assume that it works invisibly, or not evidently to our usual senses.

At this point, I’ll go to an outside reference. I looked up quite a few websites using search terms for “Lunar occultation of Pluto,” “Moon occulting Pluto,” “Pluto occulted by the Moon,” and so forth. I found only two astrological sites referencing this phenomenon, and both quoted the Uranus square Pluto statement made in “The Mountain Astrologer,” which did NOT reference any Lunar occultation of Pluto.

It seems the primary source for this information is an astrological article linking it to the Mayan Calendar and the alleged December 2012 “galactic alignment,” which incidentally does not happen then, regardless of rumors to the contrary, at least not from an astronomical standpoint. However, the article does throw a lot of historical events into the proverbial mixing bowl and comes up with some glamorous pronouncements. As you know, I believe that just about everything being stated about the December 2012 “galactic alignment” and the Mayan Calendar is like perfume – you can smell it, but you should not swallow it!

As much as I have a hard time with the supercilious narrow-mindedness of most astronomers when it comes to astrology, I found one astronomical source that addresses the claims of that article. The quoted material of the first line is what the astrologer stated about the occultations. The second line through the end was the astronomer's response. For your consideration, here’s the statement and the response:

“March 16th 2012, A lunar occultation of Pluto occurs today. This is the first anywhere on Earth since January 19th 1935. They will occur every month now from today up to [sic] August 17th 2013.”

Now is as good a time as any to point out that I’m just copying and pasting from Ms. _______’s website….

… Anyway, I looked into this. I’m not sure what software she’s using, but I was using Starry Night Pro. I started out in my default location of Boulder, CO (USA) and didn’t see any occultation. I then went to France, Iran, a few places in Russia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the UK, Benin, Egypt, Venezuela, China, Australia, Chile … the closest I saw any approach was about 15′ of Pluto to the moon. That means it misses it about a quarter of a lunar diameter, and that was from the Falkland Islands. Finally I tried the south pole, and Pluto gets within 6′ of the moon (0.1°). Close, but no cigar.

As far as I can tell, this claim is simply false, unless someone can give me a different location where this happens. (Again, I did this via simulation in Starry Night Pro.)

Now, what’s cool is that after March, the occultations do actually start to take place as seen from Earth, about every 27 days or so after that. Those of us at my latitude in Boulder, CO won’t be able to see this until January 10, 2013, at about 6:30 PM, though at that time they’ll be about 11° away from the sun. And, the occultations will stop around the August 2013 timeframe for those of us in the higher latitudes in the northern hemisphere.

And then this did occur back in January 19, 1935, again from the South Pole, and it just missed occulting Pluto on February 15, 1935.

So while this claim is partly/mostly correct, I’m not sure what the significance is supposed to be. It’s not like it happens on December 21, 2012.

So it would seem that: A) While there are numerous occultations of Pluto in the coming months, there is not one in March; B) They won’t be seen from very many places on Earth; and C) It has nothing to do with the Mayan Calendar, December 2012, or much of anything else. So please don’t change your work or play schedule simply because Pluto is being occulted or someone claims that 11:11 sometime in December marks something important. It doesn’t.

(As for other Mayan Prophesy nonsense being thrown around the internet, please reference several article in my archives about the subject. It’s NOT what most are claiming, as I found out from true experts on the subject who are Mayan.)

Finally, I will note that there are many Lunar occultations of planets this year. Jupiter is occulted every month from June on, and we also have occultations of Mercury, Venus, and Mars, as well as some very bright stars. So it’s NOT a “rare event.” In astrology, when the Moon “occults” a planet it’s nothing more or less than a conjunction.

The Moon conjuncts Pluto (and every other planet) each month. Again, it’s nothing to worry about, and merely indicates that as a result of a celestial alignment, something is being obscured so that we can see other things in the field while that planet is obscured, and/or eventually see other manifestations of the “occulted” planet come forth. And of course, the Moon puts the focus wherever it is, so pay attention each time it conjuncts any celestial body, since it focuses the nature of those energies.

This year, when the Moon conjuncts Pluto, it will also square Uranus just before the conjunction. So each time the Moon occults Pluto it triggers the Uranus square Pluto effect. That will be positive or negative, depending on our inner relationship to those spiritual indicators.

It will throw the voids into Cancer and Libra, showing the qualities we need to demonstrate to bring balance to whatever situation presents itself during the time those aspects are at work. And of course, these conjunctions and squares will most impact those with planets or sensitive points between 5-13 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, while bringing gifts and special/unique circumstances to those with planets or points around 19-23 Pisces, 19-23 Gemini, 25-29 Libra, and 25-29 Capricorn.

Anyway, that’s what I found regarding the Moon occulting Pluto and all the other planets. If you know something that can constructively contribute to this subject, please feel free to comment. Otherwise, don’t sweat the times the Moon occults Pluto. It’s just a conjunction.

Copyright © 2012 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Kay]

Thanks for the clarification Robert, much appreciated I read it at the same website but she said it directly affects women so that is what piqued my interest!!

Regards and thanks
Kay

[Nicolas]

Precise, clear, and well explained. Point well made. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and dispersing the "fears" some people might of encounter.
Cheers

[caliban]

I swallowed it. It was a promo beer, dark and delicious called 2012, by Point beer. It was so good I had a second one.

And speaking of Pluto, Sky News reported in the Jan/Feb issue that astronomers observed Eris passing in front of a background star and got a read on its actual size. From the 3 telescopes around the world that recorded, findings are that Eris is no larger than Pluto. (Although Pluto is harder to measure because it has an atmosphere obscuring the exact edge.) According to the article, Eris was previously thought to be 25% larger than Pluto. They are about equal in size but Eris is more massive, mostly rock, covered in ice with a coating of nitrogen and methance ice which causes the bright surface.

[Caroline]

http://serennu.com/astrology/eclipseoccultation.php?insort=revodate&se=y&le=y&oc=y&o0=&o1=&o2=&o3=&o4=&o5=&o6=&o7=&insyear=2012

[dcu]

So does that mean that I have to go to work tomorrow? LOL.

[Daniel]

I would say it s not that simple. The Moon conjuncts the Sun every month (New Moon), but it occults it only twice a year (the solar eclipse). Venus conjuncts the Sun every year, but it occults it rarely (as it will happen in June).

[Robert]

Hi Daniel - Well, this article was about the Moon occulting Pluto. Venus goes retrograde every year and a half, and crosses its nodes, as well as the Moon's nodes, every year. That's fairly frequently. We had Lunar occultations of Venus in 2008, 2010, will have one this year, and so forth.

[Daniel]

Thank you, Robert! I meant the occultation of the Sun by Venus, which will happen in June and last happened in 2004. It is more than just a conjunction between the two, which happens every year. The same with solar eclipses (conjunctions), which are more powerful than new moons (conjunctions). I think, in general, occultations are special conjunctions and probably stronger

[Sagars]

Right Daniel, nodes are involved here. Unless those conjunctions occur within a certain orb of the nodes, a new moon is just a new moon and not an eclipse.

Ditto here with Venus and Pluto. Venus nodes are currently at 16,26'05'' Gemini/Sagittarius (hence we will have Transit of Venus or Venus "eclipsing" Sun since the orb of between the conjunction point and nodes is very small) while Pluto's nodes are currently at 20,01,42'' Cancer/Capricorn. I will try to find out the orbs with nodes required for these "special" conjunctions/occultations for Moon/Pluto. Like Moon's nodes, every planetary nodes must have some "evolutionary meaning", so some additional considerations may be possible.

[Sagars]

Robert, while I research, ever since I read this article three days back,particularly,

"It will throw the voids into Cancer and Libra, showing the qualities we need to demonstrate to bring balance to whatever situation presents itself during the time those aspects are at work.", some thought keeps playing on and on with respect to:

"Sacred Feminine, Transit of Venus, TransPluto,Persephone, Divine Mother, Parvati, Shakti."

The Transit of Venus chart on June 6th, exact at 1:02 am UT has Moon/Pluto occultation two hours later same day.

Could this have any significance?

(The following site shows planetary nodes:
.
http://www.true-node.com/eph1/
.
)

(Something appears spooky though:
11 May 2012,Pluto North Node: 9 cp 20 Rx 19 cn 15 South Node: 21 cp 58) (May be the ecliptic of Pluto has some tilt that is causing this difference in North Node/South Node being a degree apart, or may be the ephemeris is wrong! Even if they are using true node and not the mean node, the degree values should be same, right?)

Anyway, Pluto's occultation by Moon at Capricorn South Node seems like emphasizing the need to embrace TransPluto, Divine Mother energy.

[Abhi]

Pluto is not occulted every month.
http://asa.usno.navy.mil/SecA/2012/olist12.html

[Robert]

Hi Abhi - Yes, that's what I said. While there was no occultation in March, there is one every month after that through 2012. Your astronomical table link confirms that.