Unlike today's astronomy, the Sun and Moon were counted as planets by the ancients, and the Earth remained the center or reference point for all the others. They even tell how a broken watery Tiamat became the Earth, Moon, and the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and how Pluto was once a moon of Saturn but was slung out to its current position. Nibiru takes 3600 years to reach us disrupting or rearranging everything along the way. Many say it is due to return in 2012.

It makes sense to have twelve main planets -one for every sign of the zodiac. In the Greek pantheon there were always twelve gods and one planet for each. If one god/planet was demoted another took its place so that there were never more or fewer than twelve. We apparently lost the knowledge of all twelve planets until the telescope came into use and we began re-discovering them in the last 250 years. Uranus was discovered in 1781, Neptune in 1846, and Pluto in 1930, bringing the total from 8 to 11 -if you count the Sun, Moon, and Earth.

In 1977 tiny Chiron was discovered between Saturn and Uranus, but many feel it is too small to qualify as a major planet. Same for Ceres which was discovered in 1801. Then, beginning in the 1990's and especially in the early 2000's a new planetary zone, the Kuiper Belt was discovered. Some of its members include Quaoar, Haumea, and Makemake("dwarf planets") which are all sizeable but still not considered major planets by astronomers. Sedna is also in this category but is much more distant. Then came Xena/Eris in 2005 which is slightly larger than Pluto and which definitely qualified as a major planet -at least to astrologers it did. Unfortunately it was relegated by the astronomical community(along with Pluto) to dwarf planet status. Astrologers are not fazed by Pluto's demotement. They still believe it is a major planet, at least in the astrological sense, and this author agrees.

Eris, however, is still not registering in the psyche of astrologers. It is still unclear if it has any real or major astrological significance. Perhaps it is still too early to tell. It is most commonly linked to Libra and the concept of strife or discord which is kind of ironic for that sign. Eris was also touted as the tenth planet by Nasa, but how does it figure in the Sumerian scheme -if at all? Eris is a big mystery or puzzle at this time.

With increasingly more powerful and sophisticated instruments we are discovering other possible candidates for a twelfth and final major planet. One such is Tyche said to be a brown dwarf or binary somewhere in the inner Oort Cloud. If Tyche exists, Nibiru could be its seventh planet, and have enough distance to cut into our solar system. Increasing disturbances and changes on the Earth and across the solar system could well be due to some as yet undiscovered major body or system out there, and I feel it will be discovered or revealed soon.

There is a good chance that this Tyche/Nibiru is currently in tropical Sagittarius. Long observation and study of people's charts tells me that this may well be so. If Tyche and/or Nibiru is a reality , we will then have twelve legitimate astrological ruling planets -one for every sign of the zodiac. The Sun will be for Leo, Moon for Cancer, Mercury for Gemini or Virgo, Venus for Taurus, Mars for Aries, Jupiter for Sagittarius, Saturn for Capricorn, Uranus for Aquarius, Neptune for Pisces, Pluto for Scorpio, and Earth(working through the Ascendant) for Libra, and Tyche or Nibiru for Gemini or Virgo.

Why only twelve planets? Because this is the universal divine number for this creation. Less than twelve is too simple and more than twelve starts to get too complicated. So twelve is a happy medium or balance. Twelve can be divided by 1,2,3,4,6, and itself, giving us our elements, modes, polarities, signs, etc. The odd numbers can't be divided evenly so they're out, and the even numbers less than twelve can't be divided as much as twelve can so they're out too. Twelve is the perfect number! This does not mean that other planets should be disregarded, but that twelve are of particular or primary importance.