Understanding Astrology: The Planets
Personal Planets
Mercury, Venus, and Mars are considered personal planets. Their influence effects your personality and your day to day life on an individual level. The further planets beyond the asteroid belt give a general vibe.
Mercury
Mercury is the planet of intelligence and in some ways, Mercury makes life more understandable.
This planet determines how you communicate, how you think and process information, how you relate to other people and how you convey your messages through speaking or writing. It is named for the Roman messenger god who was swift, clever, and agile. These qualities probably stem from the fact that Mercury travels around the sun in just 88 days.
Because Mercury travels so close to the Sun, it is never very far from the Sun in your birth chart. It is always either in your Sun sign or in the sign immediately preceding or following your Sun sign. Which makes sense, because how you communicate is very closely tied to who you are at your core.
Venus
Venus is the planet of love, beauty, and pleasure. This planet rules over your ability to enjoy beauty and express affection. It also indicates the allure and desirability of your personality and tells about your sex appeal.
Named after the goddess of love and the emotions, this planet governs the social graces, love affairs, decor and ornamentation, art and beauty, harmony, affection, and friendship. Venus rules over the higher emotions and the gift of happiness. Venus makes life beautiful.
The planet Venus is never far from the Sun. It is always either in your Sun sign or in one of the two signs immediately before or after your Sun sign in your chart.
Mars
Mars is the planet of physical energy. It governs your sex drive, your forcefulness, and your aggression. Mars is the planet that spurs you into action.
Mars is named for the Roman god of war. He is warrior who is depicted as aggressive and quarrelsome. This planet governs energy, boldness, the will to win, and the ability to turn ideas into action.
Mars's position in your chart indicates what stirs your passions and whether you can get your own way. Mars's influence also brings strife and conflict, tension and anger, accidents and destruction.
Depending on how you use Mars's force, you may be argumentative, quarrelsome, and reckless and encounter a great deal of discord in your sexual relationships. You may be a strong leader, adventurous, and pioneering, but you may also be quick-tempered, brash, impulsive, and impatient.
In its highest form, Mars represents your unleashed energy and your human will. It is up to you to use this force constructively.
Social Planets
Jupiter and Saturn represent society—the outer world. In your birth chart, they suggest your societal fate, balancing what you hope is possible and what your fear is not. Because of this, they are often compared to the good cop/bad cop trope. They give you a springboard to reach your highest potential and a giant barrier that holds you back.
Jupiter
In astrology, Jupiter's kingdom is luck, health and happiness, wealth and worldly goods, power and high position. It rules over knowledge, higher learning, breadth of vision, and honesty. Its influence bestows a willingness to partake of life, to gather new experiences. Jupiter is the planet of good luck, optimism, success, and generosity. Jupiter brings joy to life.
Jupiter was the ruler of the heavens, supreme god of gods. He was an all powerful and benign guardian who symbolized honor, good faith, and wisdom.
Jupiter's position in your chart indicates how outgoing and likable you are, whether you attract money and possessions, and in what career you will have the most luck.
Jupiter can also be too much of a good thing, for its influence can make you extravagant, lazy and luxury-loving, profligate with money, and blindly optimistic. If things fall into your lap too easily, you never develop strength of character or spiritual wisdom.
Jupiter is the planet of blessings — blessings you must learn to use wisely.
Saturn
Saturn, sometimes known as the Celestial Taskmaster, is the planet of responsibility, limitations and diligence. It symbolizes the ethics of hard work with its domain of patience, stability, maturity and realism. Under its influence a person's character is strengthened through trial and difficulty. It has been said that Saturn disciplines us until we can learn to discipline ourselves.
The planet is named after the Roman titan-god who was the father of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto. Saturn was also a symbol for Father Time, for he brought to an end all things that had a beginning.
Saturn's position in your chart indicates how well you accept responsibility, whether you are self-disciplined, and what delays and opposition you can expect to encounter. Saturn gives the power to endure and provides the tenacity and perseverance to realize your potential.
As a negative influence, Saturn can make a person overly ambitious, calculating and selfish, solitary, inhibited, and unhappy. Its negative influence is associated with inflexibility, cruelty, humorlessness, and pessimism. Saturn also represents illness, handicaps, and misfortune.
Interpersonal Planets
When analyzing the positions of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, the sign has more of a generational influence than they have on the personal level. To see the influence of these planets on a more individual level it is more helpful to look at their position in the Houses.
These three modern planets are so far away from the Sun that they travel very slowly through the zodiac; they spend a long time in each of the signs. Uranus takes seven years to transit one sign, Neptune spends fourteen years in one sign, and Pluto takes from thirteen to thirty-two years to go through one sign.
Uranus
Uranus is the planet of change and originality, symbolizing the element of surprise in your life. Uranus brings about sudden events and opportunities. It awakens, shocks, and revolutionizes.
Uranus was the Roman sky god, the first ruler of the universe. In astrology Uranus is the planet of the future, associated with modern science, invention, electricity, humanitarian movements, and revolution. It is the planet of sudden upheaval and swift, unexpected happenings. Its domain is all that is new, original, different, and unorthodox.
Uranus's position in your chart indicates whether you have an inventive or unconventional mind and if you are attracted to odd and peculiar ideas. Uranus's influence also tends to make a person eccentric in behavior, undisciplined, reckless, and perverse.
Uranus brings change into your life, new situations, and new people. Its gifts are always sudden and ephemeral; you have to take immediate advantage of them before they flash by. The message of Uranus is to move with change and not be afraid of the future.
Neptune
Neptune is the planet of mystery and illusion. Its power is that of the imagination. Neptune represents your dream life and your mystic qualities. It is the planet of bewitchment.
Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea, who ruled over oceans, rivers, streams, fountains, and all things hidden by watery depths. In astrology Neptune is the planet of idealism and spirituality. Its realm is the subconscious world, hidden memory, intuition, and clairvoyance.
This planet's position in your chart indicates what kind of ideals and goals you have, how psychic and visionary you are, and whether you possess a magnetic allure that people respond to. Neptune's influence brings great depth of understanding, ESP ability, and creative genius. Unlike the power of Uranus, which is sudden and forceful, Neptune's power is subtle, ethereal, inspirational, and otherworldly. Many astrologers claim that Neptune brings a person into contact with a higher plane of consciousness. When this planet is prominent in an individual horoscope, that person is likely to become involved in mysticism, psychic phenomena, or dream interpretation.
When Neptune is afflicted, a person cannot separate fantasy from reality. He or she may seek release from life's problems in drugs and alcohol or even exhibit criminal tendencies.
Pluto
Pluto is a planet of awesome power, but it is a power that we still find largely inexplicable and difficult to understand.
Pluto is named after the Roman god of the underworld and the nether regions of Hades, and of the spirits of the dead. The planet is well named, for in astrology, Pluto signifies death and rebirth. It is the planet of regenerative forces, of destruction and annihilation, and then complete transformation. Its keyword is elimination. Pluto wipes the slate clean.
Even in the most civilized personality, Pluto's force is felt as an undercurrent of turbulence and uncontrolled energy. Its strong negative power may cause some people to be cruel, sadistic, or treacherous, or even lead a life of crime. Pluto's power is seen in both idealistic leaders and brutal dictators.
Pluto represents the highest and lowest of which humankind is capable. Some astrologers believe Pluto's power is too arcane and mysterious for human beings to analyze properly now, but that the planet will continue to govern impulses in our secret psyches that we do not yet fully understand.
A note about your horoscope
The signs influence on the planets all influences various pieces of your character. The Sun and the Moon also influence you in a variety of ways. With the added environmental and genetic factors, the essential you-ness of you is entirely you-nique.
You are an unrepeatable combination, unlike anyone else.
Interpret your entire chart using this free worksheet. Click the button, enter your info, click the download link, print or save to your computer.
Learn the basics for reading your own birth chart
(and how you can use this information to live your best life).
Your birth chart, as the name would suggest, is based on the time you were born. It is a snapshot of the sky and what was going on at that moment. Each planet—including the sun and the moon—were in a position somewhere in the sky space associated with the signs of the zodiac. When you map out these positions, that is your birth chart. Once you understand the influence of these positions, you can make the most out of the energy that influences you from the moment you are born to the moment you die. Find this and dozens of other courses at Mumbles Academy.
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