The Astrological Planets

The Astrological Planets — an Introduction

The astrological planets comprise the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto.  The Sun is actually, as we know, the star at the centre of our solar system, and the Moon is the Earth’s satellite, but these bodies are known for convenience in astrological terminology as ‘planets’.

In astrological symbolism the planets are seen to correspond to basic human functions or principles, common to all of us.  For instance, the planet Venus represents that function in all of us which is our need and ability to achieve harmony with other people in close relationships, as well as our sense of harmony in aesthetics or beauty.

The zodiac sign that a planet is in at the time of birth determines the way that a ‘planet-function’ is expressed in a person.  For instance, the sign Cancer is an emotionally sensitive, protective, tender and cherishing “way”.  So someone born with Venus in the sign Cancer would be a person who tends to seek harmony with other people in close relationships in particularly protective, emotionally sensitive, tender and cherishing ways. That person’s sense of beauty or artistic harmony may also be expressed in emotionally sensitive ways.  That’s the function or principle of Venus (planet) being expressed in the Cancer way (sign).

The house that a planet is in at the time of birth determines the sphere of life in which a ‘planet-function’ is typically expressed in a person.   For example, the fourth house represents activities to do with the home, family and domestic life.  So if a person is born with Venus in the fourth house, then the person’s need for harmony in close relationships would be particularly centred around the home; the person’s domestic environment may also be particularly harmonious, beautiful and aesthetically pleasing.  That’s the function or principle of Venus (planet) being expressed in the fourth house (sphere of life).

So a planet represents a basic, common human function, which is typically expressed in a way corresponding to the sign it is in, and in a sphere of life corresponding to its house it is in.

A planet in its sign and house may also have a particular relationship (or ‘aspect’) with another planet or planets. The nature of a relationship between planets may be easy, or more difficult and challenging, depending on the angle between them in the circle of the zodiac.

Let’s go through the basic, common human functions represented by the astrological planets.

The Sun Astrological Planets - Sun

Most people know of astrology by their “sun-sign”.  You hear people say, “I’m an Aries,” or “I’m a Capricorn.”  What they’re talking about is the zodiac sign that the Sun was in when they were born.

Why has the Sun been seen as the most important planet-function of all the planets when considering a birth chart?  It’s because the Sun represents both the most central and the most general function of all – the core or spirit which permeates every aspect of the personality.  It is the essential factor which organises and integrates all aspects of the person into a unique whole.  Thus it represents the animating principle of a person’s self-expression (the expression of the true self); the power and vitality of a person’s conscious, purposeful, willed and creative activity.

The manner in which this central function of the Sun is typically expressed in a person is shown by the zodiac sign it was in at the time of birth. The sphere of life in which it’s particularly expressed is shown by the house it was in.

The Moon Astrological Planets - Moon

The basic human function represented by the Moon is almost as important as that of the Sun, but it is quite different.  Whereas the Sun represents a person’s purposeful, willed, creative spirit, the Moon rather shows one’s ‘automatic’, involuntary emotional responses and behaviour, often due to unconscious conditioning, memory, upbringing and learned habit patterns; the habitual and instinctive nature.

It is therefore apparent in one’s unguarded outward manners, moods, mannerisms, fluctuations and habits.  The Moon is the automatic emotional response of the mind, rather than the Sun’s spirit of deliberate, willed creativity.

Like all the ‘planet-functions’, the particular way that this emotionally instinctive principle of the Moon is shown in a person is revealed by the sign it is in, and the sphere of life in which it’s most manifest is shown by its house.

Mercury Astrological Planets - Mercury

The common human function or principle represented by Mercury is that of a person’s intellectual mentality; their expression by any method of communication; the ability to interpret, mentally manipulate and transmit abstract information and ideas alertly through mental and nervous co-ordination.

The function of Mercury is therefore that of one’s thoughts and thought-processes; one’s reason, wit, and logical intellect, as well as one’s ability to communicate and interpret that intellect, through speech or writing.

Like the other ‘planet-functions’, the way that this intellectual, information-processing function of Mercury is expressed is shown by the sign that it is in, and the sphere of life in which it’s characteristically manifest is revealed by its house.

Venus Astrological Planets - Venus

The human function represented by Venus is our need and capacity to achieve harmony and balance, with other people by attracting others into close relationships and partnerships, as well as our sense of harmony in aesthetics or beauty.

Venus is our need to judge and value experience through feelings, sympathy and evaluation; our desire for relatedness, peace, the uniting of opposites and the smoothing out of discordance, through all forms of affection, partnership, beauty and art.

Like the other planet-functions, the way the harmony-seeking principle of Venus is expressed in a person is shown by the sign that it is in at birth; the sphere of life in which it’s most apparent is revealed by its house.

Mars Mars

The common human function represented by Mars is a person’s capacity and need for activity and activation, energetic expression, heat, initiatory force, initiative, self-assertion, physical strength, working ability, courage, enterprise, sexual energy, and ability to fight and pioneer.

The way that this martial and assertive function is expressed is shown, like the other planet-functions, according to the mode of the sign that it is in, and the sphere of life in which it’s most apparent is revealed by its house.

Jupiter Jupiter

The common human function represented by Jupiter is a person’s power to grow, expand, prosper and preserve the life (both materially and through understanding), through opportunity.

It represents the person’s aptitude for well-being, and the tendency towards cheerful, jovial, optimistic, expansive ways; the person’s ability for scope and compensation for inadequacies elsewhere; healing, growth, and the indications as to the way in which the person will fortuitously benefit from luck or success.

It also represents a person’s conscience and sense of justice with mercy; their inner sense of law, order, morals, as well as religious convictions.  Jupiter’s function is to expand into maturity and fulfilment.

The way that this expansive and optimistic function of Jupiter is expressed in a person is shown by its sign, and the sphere of life in which it’s most manifest is revealed by its house.

Saturn Saturn

The common human function represented by Saturn is a person’s tendency toward limitation, discipline, self-consciousness and self-control of the life; the power for sustained, laborious and monotonous work, requiring patience and a sense of duty.

Saturn represents a person’s tendency towards formativeness, restriction and rigidity, the need to accept the ties of necessity in life, to bear the weight of responsibility and keeping within necessary bounds; the tendency of a person to feel insufficiency in life, to endure and overcome difficulties; the way in which the person will be limited, controlled, frustrated or delayed by what may seem to be the sternness of fate, either emotionally or physically.

Saturn shows a person’s need and capacity for serious and reflective attitudes, and the realistic and responsible handling of affairs.

The way that this formative and disciplining function of Saturn is shown in a person is revealed by the sign that it is in at birth, and the sphere of life in which it’s most likely to be evident is shown by its house.

Uranus Uranus

The common human function represented by Uranus is a person’s urge towards freedom; their power to exert a free, rebellious, independent and often unconventional spirit, perhaps even flying in the face of prevailing social norms.

It represents the person’s capacity for deviation from the normal; for originality, revolutionary thought and action, sudden dramatic insight and inventiveness, scientific thought, disruption and drastic change.

The characteristic way that this unconventional and progressive function of Uranus is expressed in a person is shown by the sign it is in at birth – though it should be noted that Uranus stays in a sign for around seven years, so a person will share the same characteristic manner of Uranus’s urge towards unconventionality and deviation with a substantial peer-group of others born around the same time.  The particular sphere of life in which Uranus’s function of radical deviation is most manifest in a person will be revealed by the house it’s in at the time of birth.

Neptune Neptune

The common human function represented by Neptune is a person’s urge towards the non-material and the spiritual; the yearning to seek experience beyond and detached from material form and structure, towards subtlety of spirit, impressionability, immateriality and nebulousness.

It is the desire to use the imagination, to have contact with the hidden or the non-material and the intangible.  It is a person’s desire for spiritual refinement and dissolution, through self-abnegation and self-sacrifice, which can be manifest in mystical experience, psychic or artistic work, or in practical self-sacrifice through an impressionable response to others’ needs; or, if poorly expressed, through mere escapism or cruder forms of self-dissolution, through alcohol or drugs, or in deception or self-deception, muddled and chaotic thinking, fantasy and illusion.

The way Neptune’s function is expressed in a person can be revealed through the sign it is in at birth, though it’s important to note that Neptune stays in a sign for around 14 years; therefore a person will share a similar manner of expressing Neptune’s self-transcending function with a wide peer-group of others born in the same decade or so.  The sphere of life in which Neptune’s other-worldly function is most manifest in a person will be revealed by the sign it’s in at the time of birth.

Pluto Pluto

The common human function represented by Pluto is the person’s ability to renew themselves by disclosing and eliminating deep-seated matters which, without such transformation, cause difficulties.

It is the ability to bring to light hidden and burdensome problems which in a suppressed state may give rise to physical or psychological dysfunction to the whole system.  The Pluto function therefore relates to critical phases in life, when deep issues that cannot be allowed to stay as they are must be faced and unearthed.

The Pluto function corresponds to powerful, hidden, often taboo-laden processes such as birth, sex and death, or sometimes to other purgative factors that are shared on a mass social level.

The way the Pluto function is expressed in a person can sometimes be shown by the sign it is in at birth, though as the planet stays in one sign for roughly an entire generation, the particular way it’s expressed due to its sign usually reflects collective forces at work, in which the individual participates to a greater or lesser degree.  The sphere of life that the eruptive function of Pluto may manifest in a person is revealed by the house it’s in at the time of birth.