Planets in Astrology-12 Zodiac Signs | Horoscopes Description

Planets in astrology have a meaning different from the modern astronomical understanding of what a planet is. Before the age of telescopes, the night sky was thought to consist of two very similar components: fixed stars, which remained motionless in relation to each other, and "wandering stars" (Ancient Greek: ἀστέρες πλανῆται asters planet), which moved relative to the fixed stars over the course of the year. To the Greeks and the other earliest astronomers, this group comprised the five planets visible to the naked eye, and excluded the Earth. Although strictly the term "planet" applied only to those five objects, the term was latterly broadened, particularly in the Middle Ages, to include the Sun and the Moon (sometimes referred to as "Lights"), making a total of seven planets. Astrologers retain this definition today. To ancient astrologers, the planets represented the will of the gods and their direct influence upon human affairs. To modern astrologers the planets represent basic drives or urges in the unconscious, or energy flow regulators representing dimensions of experience. They express themselves with different qualities in the twelve signs of the zodiac and in the twelve houses. The planets are also related to each other in the form of aspects.

Modern astrologers differ on the source of the planets' influence. Hone writes that the planets exert it directly through gravitation or another, unknown influence. Others hold that the planets have no direct influence in themselves, but are mirrors of basic organizing principles in the universe. In other words, the basic patterns of the universe repeat themselves everywhere, in fractal-like fashion, and "as above so below". Therefore, the patterns that the planets make in the sky reflect the ebb and flow of basic human impulses. The planets are also associated, especially in the Chinese tradition, with the basic forces of nature.

In addition to the Earth, Astrology deals with ten planets, namely the Sun, the Moon (the two luminaries are considered planets in astrology), Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Minor celestial bodies, such as the Dark Moon, asteroids and the nodal axis, are also taken into account, and are addressed at the end of this chapter. Each planet has its precise function in the natal chart, and represents a specific energy. The planet's action is influenced by the sign it tenants. It plays out primarily in the area of life indicated by the house where it is posited.

The planets are divided into two classes: personal planets, (or fast-moving planets), and collective planets (or slow-moving planets). 

The personal planets are the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. They are said to be fast-moving because it takes them a short time to travel the Zodiacal circle (from a minimum of 28 days for the Moon to a maximum of 1 year and 220 days for Mars). As they quickly shift from one sign to the other, they release their energies very differently in each individual. 

The other planets are slower and require between 12 to 249 years to travel through the entire Zodiac, depending on the planet considered. This is the reason why they are called collective planets, with the exception of Jupiter and Saturn, because their motion is faster. Collective planets remain in a sign for several years and their energies affect one or several generations. Therefore, their influence on the individual's personality is less important. 

The Sun and the Moon are two valuable sources of information on the individual's basic psychology. They are of utmost importance for the interpretation of the natal chart, and are called Luminaries because they are the brightest planets. 

The Sun

The Sun takes approximately 365 days to travel through the Zodiac, and spends 30 days in each sign. (There are 30 degrees in a sign). The Sun's daily motion is roughly of one degree. In astrology, as viewed from the Earth, neither the Sun nor the Moon retrogrades. The luminaries, i.e. the Sun and the Moon, are the only "planets" which never move backwards on the Zodiac as they perform their endless dance.

Distance from Earth: 150 millions km. Mass: 334 000 times the Earth's.

Fire is his element. His nature is hot and dry. He rules Leo and is in exaltation in Aries. He is in analogy with the heart.

He represents the father, the husband, and the leader. The age of the Sun covers the period from 20 to 40 years, approximately.

Temperament: choleric.

Characterology: emotive, secondary, active. He is passionate.

The Sun is the individual's ego, his aspirations, his inner self and his will, that which he tends to really be, unlike the Ascendant which is the image projected onto others.

The Sun is the masculine part of the personality, the Yang, and as such, he represents all male figures (father, husband, leader, etc.). He provides clues to the image of the father and men in general, as well as the type of relationship with them, regardless of the gender of the chart's owner. However, he seems to be more important in men's chart, since he stands for all masculine and positive values.

The Sun is a star of warmth, life, and light. Therefore, he emphasizes courage, loyalty, nobleness and generosity, but also pride, irascibility, and self-centredness.

In a woman's chart, the Sun usually symbolizes her father, and later on, her husband. The Sun is always active in the woman's personality and represents her ideal of man.

The Sun is associated with youth, the period in life when, brimming with ambitions and hopes, one completes one's studies.

The Moon

The Moon is the swiftest of all the celestial bodies. She travels through the Zodiac in approximately 28 days, and spends two and a half days in each sign. Her daily motion is an average of 12 degrees.

Distance from Earth: 384 000 km. Mass: slightly over one thousandth of the Earth's.

Water is her element. Her nature is cold and moist. She rules Cancer and she is in exaltation in Taurus. She is in analogy with the stomach.

She represents the mother, the wife and the crowd. Her age covers the period from birth to childhood before puberty, or even earlier, according to some authors.

Temperament: phlegmatic.

Characterology: emotive, non-active, primary, or non-emotive, non-active and primary. She is nervous, or amorphous.

She is complementary to the Sun in the sense that she represents the feminine part of the personality (the Yin), the unconscious, the emotions and the sensitivity of the chart's owner. She symbolizes all feminine figures such as the mother, the wife, etc.

She is a sign of fertility, femininity, imagination and memory, or lack of, depending on the aspects she receives. She is particularly important in a woman's chart because she is believed to express more or less easily her female status and her femininity.

In a man's chart, although the Moon represents his sensitivity, she may be of a lesser importance, since she is often repressed. In addition, she symbolizes the chart owner's mother, and later on, his wife as well as his representation of the ideal woman.

The Moon is the night star. Therefore, she is associated with dreams, the unconscious, subjectivity, moods, the past, nostalgia, but also with laziness, nonchalance and whims. Besides, she is of utmost importance for children, because they have not yet learnt to master their primary instincts, and remain very attached to their mother.

Mercury 

Mercury's revolution takes about 88 days. The apparent daily motion of this very small planet is of one degree on average, similar to the Sun's. Mercury never moves further than 28 degrees away from the Sun, when viewed from the Earth.

Earth is his element. His nature is cold and dry. He rules Virgo and Gemini, and he is in exaltation in Virgo also. He is in analogy with the arms, the hands and the nervous system.

He represents traders, attorneys and messengers. His age covers the period from 12 to 18 years, approximately.

Temperament: nervous

Characterology: emotive, non-active, primary, or non-emotive, active, primary. He is nervous, or nervous and sanguine.

Mercury symbolizes intellectual capacity, thought process, comprehension and learning abilities, and all intellectual activities in general. He is the planet of communication and exchanges. Indeed, in mythology, he was the messenger of the gods.

When Mercury is a dominant planet, he bestows nervousness and wittiness. However, he can also turn the chart's owner into a dishonest, dissipate and insensitive person. He is good for the intellect and favors reasoning over feelings and emotions.

Unlike the Moon and the Sun, Mercury has neither masculine nor feminine gender. He is neutral and works at the service of the Sun, which means that the intellect is at the service of the self and of willpower. He may represent siblings, friendships based on intellectual ties, merchants, and also thieves.

Mercury's importance increases towards a peak at adolescence, when the individual's intellectual curiosity awakens, when studies are begun and friendly relationships are built.

Venus 

Venus' cycle is variable. She takes approximately 225 days to travel through the Zodiac. She is bigger than Mercury, and viewed from the Earth, her average daily motion is also of one degree, similar to that of the Sun and Mercury. Venus never moves further than 48 degrees away from the Sun, slightly more than Mercury.

Air is her element. Her nature is moist. She rules Taurus and Libra, and she is in exaltation in Pisces. She is in analogy with the kidneys, the nervous system, the bladder and the neck.

She represents artists, traders, and all occupations related to beauty and seduction. Her age covers the period from 18 to 25 years, approximately.

Temperament: sanguine and phlegmatic

Characterology: emotive, non-active, primary, or emotive, non-active, secondary.

Venus is associated with love, beauty, well-being and gentleness. She describes one's romantic life, affections, leisure, and the way one behaves with one's love partners. Venus softens, beautifies and creates pleasant situations at the place where she is posited.

When Venus is a dominant planet, the chart's owner is gentle, accommodating, seducing, charming, rather handsome, conscious of his external appearance. He is sometimes endowed with artistic talents (decoration, fashion, painting, music, dance etc.). Like the Moon, Venus is a feminine planet, but she is more sensual and more attracted to pleasures life has to offer. A negative Venus may turn the individual into a greedy, lazy, materialistic, overly sensual and hypocritical person.

In a man's chart, Venus symbolizes the mistress and the type of woman who physically attracts him, and with whom he wishes to have short-lived love affairs.

The age of Venus starts with the arousal of feelings, when one starts to get interested in the opposite sex, and to pay attention to one's physical appearance.

Mars 

This quite small planet travels through the Zodiac in 1 year and 220 days. He usually spends about eight weeks in each sign, although at certain stages of his cycle, he remains in the same sign during five or six months. His average daily motion is of half a degree.

Fire is his element. His nature is hot and dry. He rules Aries, and he is in exaltation in Capricorn. He is in analogy with the muscles and the spleen.

Mars represents the military, sportsmen, warriors, surgeons, blacksmiths, etc. His age covers the period from 42 to 58 years, approximately.

Temperament: choleric

Characterology: emotive, active, primary. He is a choleric.

Mars is a combative energy and describes how one commands and takes action. He symbolizes virility, action, violence, courage and boldness. He bestows dynamism and enterprising spirit, but he can also turn the chart's owner into a despotic, irascible and primary person.

Mars gives information on the ability to come to grips with things and to overcome hurdles, as well as the types of sports practiced. It also describes sexual life and desires.

Because Venus is his opposite, in a woman's chart Mars represents her lovers and the type of man to whom she is attracted and with whom she is willing to have a love affair.

Like the Sun, Mars is a masculine planet. However, he is less idealistic than the Sun, and more active, more primary and more sexually driven.

He is associated with the forties and the fifties, the fully mature individual, the stage of life when one must fight to assert oneself, when professional activities are at their heights, and one is aware that nothing is achieved without effort.

Jupiter 

Jupiter is the first slow-moving planet, the biggest of the solar system, and twelve times the size of the Earth. He takes nearly twelve years to travel through the Zodiac (11 years and 11 months), and spends approximately one year in each sign.

Air is his element. His nature is hot and moist. He rules Sagittarius and Pisces (along with Neptune), and he is in exaltation in Cancer. He is in analogy with the hips and the endocrine system.

N.B.: the planet's element, Air in the case of Jupiter, must not be confused with the elements of the signs it rules (Fire for Sagittarius, and Water for Pisces).

Jupiter represents people in power, magistrates, great professors, and religious figures. The age of Jupiter covers the period from 55 or 58 years to approximately 70 years.

Temperament: sanguine.

Characterology: emotive, active, primary. He is an extroverted choleric, some sort of a moist version of Mars, and as the latter, he is action-oriented.

He symbolizes abundance, warmth, blossoming, good luck and self-confidence. He also describes the potential for good fortune and the way the individual expresses his enthusiasm, his benevolence, as well as the way he integrates into the mainstream.

Jupiter is the biggest of all planets. Therefore, he is associated with wealth, glory and honours, and he also is a success factor. Although he is often beneficial, he may show a tendency towards exaggeration and pretentiousness, and sometimes, he promises more than he can deliver.

When Jupiter is a dominant planet, the individual is generous, outgoing and enthusiastic. He has charisma and usually loves children.

Jupiter represents public persons who offer supports and protection, as well as lawyers and politicians.

Jupiter is associated with middle-age people, the beginning of retirement when the individual can enjoy all the wealth acquired throughout his professional life. It is the age for resting, blossoming, devoid of hard work, when he can devote himself to his leisure and his interest centres. Thanks to the experience he has gained, the chart's owner is full of self-confidence.

Saturn 

Saturn takes about 29 years to travel through the Zodiac, and spends two and a half years in each sign.

Earth is his element. His nature is cold and dry. He rules Capricorn and Aquarius (along with Uranus), and he is in his exaltation in Libra. He is in analogy with the bone system (the skeleton) and the skin.

He represents grandparents, wise men, the elderly, scientists and knowledgeable persons. The age of Saturn is old age, from 70 years, and sometimes earlier, depending of the individual's health, until death.

Temperament: nervous.

Characterology: non-emotive, active, secondary, or sometimes, emotive, non-active, secondary. He is a phlegmatic, sentimental or apathetic.

As the opposite of Jupiter, who is synonymous with expansion, Saturn is synonymous with restriction. He symbolizes time and its implacable principle. He is associated with toughness, austerity, discipline and limitation.

He describes hurdles, lessons to be learnt and ordeals to be undergone. Everywhere Saturn is posited, he crushes, slows down things, and demands efforts and concentration. Since Saturn is considered a malefic planet, he does not seem sympathetic. However, he allows the individual to grow, to acquire a good thinking process, and to gain a strong sense of responsibilities. He is a sign of ambition, maturity, wisdom and asceticism.

When Saturn is a dominant planet, the individual is rather introverted, solitary, quiet, discreet, observant, ambitious and impassive. He may seem cold and emotionless, which is not true. He is passionate and proud, but he does not want to show that he may be weak and that his sensitivity or his feelings can be moved. Nevertheless, he may be stingy, cruel, curt and selfish.

Saturn is associated with the elderly, the wise, and all people who can help us overcome an ordeal such as priests, medical practitioners, etc.

Saturn symbolizes old age, when one starts to lose interest in material life. It is the age of solitude and retirement (old people's home).

Uranus 

Uranus takes some 84 years to travel through the Zodiac, and spends about 7 years in each sign.

Fire is his element. His nature is dry. He rules Aquarius and he is in exaltation in Scorpio. He is in analogy with the brain and the nerves.

He represents inventors, eccentric or mentally ill people, and revolutionaries.

Temperament: extremely nervous?

Characterology: emotive, active, secondary. He is passionate.

Uranus is a dynamic and brutal energy. He brings about sudden and unforeseeable changes, new situations, revolutions, and disruptions. He is upsetting by nature because he symbolizes eccentricity, marginality, inventiveness, independence and dementia. He is also curt and terse, and sometimes, intolerant.

When Uranus is a dominant planet, the individual is therefore always eccentric, very independent, idealistic, inventive and quite extravagant. He may also show intolerance, insensitivity, a lack of human warmth, which is quite paradoxical because, although he is on the fringe of society, he needs to be at the service of humankind and to contribute to the betterment of the world.

Uranus is associated with everything modern, technology advances, and communication through new means (telephone, the Internet, the medias, etc.). As he is a collective planet, his energy is more particularly felt on the mundane plane, just like the other planets that are even slower.

Neptune

Neptune takes approximately 168 years to travel through the Zodiac, and spends roughly 14 years in each sign.

Water is his element. His nature is humid. He rules Pisces and he is in exaltation in Cancer. He is in analogy with the vegetative system.

He represents dreamers, psychics, magicians, purveyors of illusions, and drug addicts.

Temperament: rather lymphatic?

Characterology: emotive, non-active, primary or secondary. He is sentimental, sometimes amorphous.

With Neptune, everything is slowed down, blurred, nebulous and shrouded in mystery. He represents all things unreal and incomprehensible, as well as imagination, inspiration, faith, religion and mysticism.

Neptuniun people are gentle, dreamy, mystical, some sort of cranks who demonstrate selflessness and generosity. They are most sensitive and grasp the subtleties of the surrounding atmosphere.

Their sense of psychology is highly developed, and they particularly appreciate music. However, they can also be wimpish, malleable, impressionable, gullible and easy to fool, and in some rare cases, they have no sense of realities.

Neptune gives a tendency to alcohol and drug addictions, "artificial paradises" and suicide. He causes depression, nervous breakdowns and psychological uneasiness.

On the mundane plane, he is associated with slow, strange and merely noticeable changes, most often, religious or spiritual ones.

Pluto 

Pluto takes approximately 254 years to travel through the Zodiac, but he can remain in a sign for 12 or even 30 years.

His element is undefined. His nature is burning, probably similar to molten lava. He rules Scorpio and he is in exaltation in Pisces. He is in analogy with the sexual and excretory functions.

He represents dictators, sadists, violent, instinctive and powerful persons, as well as hidden and mysterious forces.

Temperament: rather choleric?

Characterology: emotive or non-emotive, active, primary. He is passionate and choleric.

Pluto is the most remote planet. His discovery is recent and the interpretation of his energy remains quite vague. He represents occultism and all hidden sciences, mystery, death, the hereafter, deep self-questionings, as well as power such as that of the atom.

Pluto brings about radical upheavals from which it is impossible to escape. After his transit, one feels totally transformed, whether positively or negatively. Pluto also rules our deepest instincts, our obsessions, our anxieties, and our sexual energy.

Plutonian people are enigmatic, deep, magnetic, sometimes worrying, endowed with an incredible amount of energy, and able to constantly carry out self-questionings. They can also, in some rare cases, be violent, sadistic, and perverse.

On the mundane plane, as already mentioned, Pluto brings about shattering changes and major crises, including financial crises, since he is also associated with wealth.

Reference

• Planets and Asteroids: their meaning