The Planets

Astrology Tutorial

Personal Planets

Personal are those planets that are fast moving; they form the core of the personality.

Sun
The symbol for the Sun is a circle with a dot in the centre, with the circle representing divinity and immortality, and the dot suggesting the creative spark of an individual life which partakes of the divine essence. Its role in the chart reflects our core sense of self around which everything else revolves, our individual purpose and the place where we can shine by developing a range of unique gifts and talents.

The Sun bears an ancient association with the idea of spirit, the fiery drive of the conscious will. Psychologically speaking and in Jungian terms it would be associated with the ‘animus’ or inner image of the masculine, denoting the idea of maleness or fatherhood, as well as vitality and willpower. We can also associate the Sun with the notion of centrality, management and authority, in both the external world (kings, rulers and authority figures) and in the body—the Sun rules the heart and spine. Its metal is gold and its color is bright yellow.

Moon
As the Sun rules day, so the Moon rules the night, and the more hidden, mysterious, nocturnal forces of the psyche. It influences our automatic functions such as digestion and sleep, and figuratively, as a symbol in the chart for the inner world of feelings and instincts, it is our emotional memory bank, describing our instinctive responses to the people and events we encounter.

The Moon has an association with feminine dimensions and Jung’s ‘anima’ or inner image of the feminine, associating the mother and other female figures, particularly those who take a nurturing, feeding, catering or caretaking role. It has a strong influence over the domestic realm, suggesting what makes us feel comfortable and safe, and therefore has a strong impact on the kind of home life we might create for ourselves, as well as our daily emotional, mental and physical routines and rituals. Its metal is silver and its colors are light grey and white.

Mercury
Mercury is the trickster and messenger of the gods, the communicator, agent, tradesman and go-between. Mercury functions as a mouthpiece, showing how we speak and communicate, and what we might like to communicate about. Here is our mental functioning, our intellectual and critical abilities, our capacity for logic, and how we absorb and process information. Schools, learning, libraries, books, magazines, newspapers and social networking all come under the auspices of this planet. Mercury is a swift-moving planet with a somewhat eccentric and elliptical orbit around the Sun which has led astrologers to associate this planet with movement, mobility and change. Mercury’s metal is mercury or quicksilver, and its colors are blue or grey.

Venus
Venus is well-known as the planet of love. In the birth chart it describes the kind of person we are attracted to romantically and how we seek to make ourselves attractive to others. More generally, it shows how we relate to others, how we liaise, interact and find common ground, as well as the things we find attractive and valuable.

Like the Moon, Venus also has an association with feminine and with the ‘anima’ — the image of femaleness within both men and women. A powerful Venus in the chart can suggest a strong desire for harmony, balance and fairness, all expressed according to the nature of the sign it occupies. The metal of Venus is copper and its color is green.

Mars
Balancing the more receptive and ‘yin’ energy of Venus, Mars in the chart denotes our urge to attack, fight and defend. We may do this in a number ways, perhaps physically on occasions but also verbally or through strategy, cunning or simply refusing to back down. As another image of the ‘animus’, we take action according to our Mars, perhaps directly and assertively, or perhaps with polite deference to our opponent. It might show which sport we enjoy and how competitive we are, how physically energetic and how much stamina we have, as well as our willpower and drive, and how prepared we are to take a risk.

In both the natural and man-made worlds, Mars represents all those things which are hot and sharp, chillies, mustard and nettles, as well as tempers, knives and scissors. Its metal is iron, the resilient metal of weaponry and tools, and its color is red.

The Social Planets

These move more slowly than the Personal Planets, spending longer in a zodiac sign. They represent processes of adjustment to wider social themes, opportunities and pressures.

Jupiter
Jupiter represents the idea of enlargement and growth. We usually seek some kind of expansion in the territory which Jupiter occupies in the chart, as if tapping into the spirit of protection, generosity, benefaction, wealth and abundance which this planet can bring. It is sometimes said about Jupiter that he promises more than he delivers, as his governance of frivolity, travel, adventure, gambling, horse-racing and general extravagance would attest, but he also offers the capacity for joy, trust and self-confidence, leading to hard work and the mastery of skills.

On a wider social level, Jupiter represents the spirit of the law, its ethical and moral codes, so it may form the basis of the particular guiding philosophy or religious belief with which we most resonate. Jupiter engages us with a process of education and betterment that takes us beyond the primary stage of learning and discovery, into a search for meaning. Its metal is tin, the lightest of the metals, and its color is purple, the color traditionally worn by the judiciary and the clergy.

Saturn
Whereas Jupiter tends to create a sense of increase and possibility, Saturn’s process is one of contraction and consolidation, an appropriate guiding deity for anyone taking exams or seeking professional accreditation! Here is the part of us which is rooted in the notion of work and exertion for the purpose of achievement and respect, a process which may take many years to accomplish and which underscores Saturn’s association with seriousness, gravitas and age, as well as the wisdom which comes with it.

As such, it can represent figures of authority, both in the family and in the wider world, parents, guardians, teachers, the police and all those who devise or reinforce the numerous sets of codes and rules which set the boundaries and govern life in any social or cultural unit. Appropriately, Saturn’s metal is lead, the heaviest of the metals known in antiquity, and its colors are sombre black, dark grey or brown.

The Collective Planets

These take years to travel through one sign of the zodiac. Hence, as well as playing a personal role in the birth chart, they also represent processes and themes which are collective to society as a whole, embedded in movements in politics, society, and the arts.

Uranus
When Uranus was discovered in 1781 its presence shattered the safe boundary symbolically held for centuries by Saturn and doubled the size of the known universe; it also coincided with the revolutions which brought massive social and political change across Europe and America. In astrology, it quickly took on a similar transformational energy. Uranus offers us, individually and collectively, the potential for liberation and the electrical excitement which can be generated when we dare to make significant changes, as well as the chaos and disturbance which can accompany this process.

In mythology, Ouranos was the sky god of the Greeks, who fertilized mother Earth, Gaia, with his sudden bursts of creative energy but who would not allow his offspring to be born into the world. Uranus is primarily a mental and intellectual energy which deals awkwardly with either the practicalities of the real world or the messiness of human emotions. Under its rulership come invention, innovation, science and enlightenment, not to mention earthquakes, outlaws, eccentricities, jolts, breaks, schisms and arrhythmia. Uranium was named after the planet Uranus and is the radioactive element most capable of fission or splitting and used to generate electrical power. Uranus’ color is usually given as electric or sky blue.

Neptune
With Neptune we move to a very different perspective. Where Uranus seeks independence, Neptune seeks to merge and blur any kind of boundary so that distinctions, and sometimes a sense of reality, disappear. As a god, Neptune’s realm is under the sea, a place of mystery and imagination where nothing is seen as it really is. Both individually and as a society, we follow a vision or dream, which may act as a powerful and important muse but which can also tip us into illusion and fantastical projection. Neptune can tell us what this vision is, and what it means for us, in our lives.

Neptune rules those things through which we can gain inspiration and connection to a world of non-ordinary reality, outside space and time, such as art, music, film, spirituality, imaginative exploration, romantic and universal love, dreams and fairy tales, not to mention alcohol and drugs. Neptune tends to distort, erode or dissolve whatever it touches, or he brings glamor and enchantment. Chemists have named Neptunium after the planet Neptune, a substance which is hard to find, hiding itself in Uranium ores. Neptune’s color is sea green.

Pluto
Consistent with the mythic image of Pluto as the god of the underworld, this planet signifies a process of transformation, an experience of symbolic death and rebirth during which something is stripped down to its basic essence. In the process we often discover the true nature and potency of the thing in question, whether this is our creative output, our working life or our communicative abilities. Astrologers often associate Pluto with power, particularly the power which comes from having been through some kind of symbolic ‘near death’ experience. We are often passionate, heavy and intense, some might say obsessive, where Pluto is in the chart. There is a potential for compulsive behavior when Pluto is dominant in the chart. But there is also a therapeutic and cathartic quality to this planet. Pluto rules the vital process of elimination of waste which would otherwise become poisonous; and we can see a parallel to this in psychological terms. Pluto may be a ruthless and non-negotiable force, but he governs the essential processes of renewal and regeneration. Its element is Plutonium, the heaviest of all the primordial elements, which is used in nuclear weapons. Pluto’s color is dark red.

The Wounded Healer

There is one more planet, not recognized by many mainstream astrologers and yet of fundamental important, next to a planet as yet undiscovered by astronomy: Vulcan.

Chiron
There is one final body which many astrologers use, Chiron. Discovered in 1977, he is a relatively recent addition to the group of astrological planets because he represents a powerful archetype in his own right. In Greek mythology, the centaur Chiron experienced rejection by both his parents, but eventually became a wise healer and teacher; and his dramatic story includes a critical episode of wounding by a poisoned arrow, a wound of which he was unable to cure himself. Our astrological Chiron draws on these mythological images, it can represent early painful experiences of emotional or physical wounding, abandonment or misplacement, a place in ourselves which may be deeply sensitive and where, through force of circumstance, we may find it difficult to follow the conventional line. Where Chiron is, we may have to take a circuitous route to reach our goals, or we may naturally follow a maverick path, or the path of a shaman or healer. Here we are sensitive to the experiences of others which are similar to our own and we are moved to help or to offer empathy and understanding. Chiron has no metal or color with which it is universally associated.