A letter from Susan Miller of Astrology Zone: Sedna, the New Planet in Our Solar System.

Dear Astrology Zone reader,

Recently headline news was made when NASA announced the agency might have discovered a new planet in our solar system. Not since Pluto was found in 1930 has as much excitement been whipped up in astrological communities.

Almost immediately after news was announced, my phone began to ring off the hook. Reporters had questions, perhaps similar to ones you might have, and so today I thought I would do an entire newsletter on Sedna. This new body was first discovered sometime in November 2003 and officially confirmed in the press on March 15, 2004.

Before I go into my discussion about Sedna, I want to remind you to pick up your April forecast on Astrology Zone if you have not already done so.

This month Mercury will be retrograde and won't regulate its orbit until April 30. In the meantime we will all need to have lots of patience while delays and glitches crop up. Be sure to back up your computer and try extra hard to double check facts and figures.

The new moon solar eclipse fell in Aries on April 19 and may have stirred up some rather dramatic events in your life.

The April 19 eclipse, in Aries, was to be the first eclipse of 2004, and another eclipse will follow, in Scorpio, on May 4. You can be part of our intense eclipse watch on Astrology Zone as we go through this period-I have done a thorough analysis of the April 19 eclipse and will do so for the one due on May 4 as well. Keep in mind that some eclipses deliver their news one month to the day later, plus or minus four days.

To prepare for the upcoming May 4 eclipse in Scorpio, think back to changes that occurred in your life six months ago, near November 8, 2003-the May 4 eclipse will tied to that one, and will surely advance talks you had back then further.

Eclipses mark key points of change in any given year and often bring on sudden news. The eclipse this month should be unusually positive and friendly. I cannot see everything in your chart, so I need to qualify that remark by saying MOST readers will enjoy the developments.

If you are find you were not pleased by the events triggered by the April 19 eclipse-say, if you lost your job or broke up with your sweetheart-keep an open mind. With friendly planets surrounding the April 19 eclipse, things could take a surprising turn in your favor. An eclipse will rarely deliver its complete message all at once-there is always a second act. I explain more in your forecast, so do check it on Astrology Zone now, to be fully briefed.

This is the first eclipse in Aries to come by in almost a decade and there will be more in this sign and its opposite sign of Libra in months to come. After May 4, the next pair of eclipses will arrive in October. At that time I will ask you to took back to April and early May to see what happened, so you may want to keep a few notes on what happens now.

New moon eclipses tend to emphasize facts rather than emotions, another reason I think you will take well to the April 19 eclipse. (The reverse will be true of the May 4 lunar eclipse, a full moon in Scorpio, which would be much more feelings oriented.)

Now, let's turn our attention back to Sedna, the so-called tenth planet of our solar system.

What Happens Astrologically When a Planet is Discovered?

We still don't know if the scientific community will deem Sedna a genuine planet or an icy body. While NASA works on that question, we need to be patient. In astrology, planets are the major players of a horoscope. Icy bodies and asteroids have far less influence in a chart.

Recently the Hayden Planetarium in New York City announced a controversial decision when it reversed itself and deemed Pluto nothing more than an icy body. The rest of the scientific community disagreed with the Hayden Planetarium scientists and have kept Pluto categorized as a planet---and so have astrologers.

Astrologically we have a good notion of the areas that Pluto rules in a chart and how it operates, but many astrological scholars are doing additional study to this day. Astrological research is never done, especially in regard to a newly discovered planet. (Pluto was discovered in 1930.)

One reporter asked me if Sedna were deemed a planet, would it mean that our natal charts are all wrong? No, not at all. I explained to the journalist that by adding a planet astrologers would simply add more information to a chart. A new planet would increase insight, not negate what is already there.

When a new planet is discovered, astrologers look to world events to glean the meaning of that planet. We do this because we feel that a planet is born in our consciousness at a certain time in history for a reason-it is not accidental. We believe we were ready to understand and accept the message of the planet at that time, so there is significance to the date of its discovery. The world events surrounding that discovery can give us clues to the planet's meaning.