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Learn the Meanings of the Planets

In the last article of this series, Lesson Zero, I introduced the history of astrology and the reasons for studying ancient astrology. Have you ever wondered what the planets mean (signify) in astrology? In this article, we will explore the meanings of the planets and how to read their symbols, as well as how to avoid a few pitfalls along the way.

A Note on Astrological Terminology

The terminology of ancient astrology is sometimes confusing because ancient astrologers were also the first astronomers. Modern astronomy developed over the last few centuries and has taken the same terminology used by ancient astrologers/astronomers but often with a change in technical meaning and application. This re-defining of terminology has been a source of confusion. It is also behind many false assumptions made by critics.

What are Stars?

It helps to think of the ancient astrological terms as being based more on visual considerations while their modern astronomical equivalents are based on physical considerations. For instance, in ancient astrology, a ‘star’ is basically a glowing heavenly body so it included not only the stars in the modern astronomical sense (defined by their composition) but also the planets and the Moon. Therefore, ancient astrology distinguishes the “fixed” stars from the “wandering” stars.

Sure the Sun is a star, but in astrology, the Moon is also a star and a big one. It’s also a planet in astrology. More on this below.

When a Planet was a Type of Star

The term “planet” causes more confusion than any other, Not only does ‘planet’ have a different meaning nowadays, but modern astrologers have tended to use the term in the astronomical rather than the astrological sense. For instance, in ancient astrology, the “planets” are the seven wandering stars. These seven glowing lights are seen to wander in a regular path along the ecliptic (i.e. the path of the Sun) moving from west to east. They include the Sun and the Moon, though the Sun and Moon were given special status among them as the Lights or Luminaries.

A Planet by Any Other Name

The astrological planets didn’t include the modern astronomical outer planets Uranus and Neptune, nor the dwarf planets like Pluto and Eris. These so-called planets are not stars in the ancient sense (and thus are not wandering stars) because they are not visible glowing heavenly bodies. For this reason, some modern-day traditionalist astrologers who like to use these modern astronomical planets have taken to calling them “the invisible planets”, or simply “the modern planets”. In this way they can be distinguished from traditional astrological planets.

Uranus is not a planet in the traditional astrological sense, but it’s still damn cool.

The Planets – Order and Symbols

The 7 planets of ancient astrology are typically ordered in terms of apparent speed. This order was conceived as spheres around the Earth which were the domains of each planet. At birth the soul would descend from the fixed stars, then through the sphere of Saturn and the rest of the planets to the Moon, and then to Earth. The soul would take on different physical and spiritual qualities along the way, in parallel to fetal development. At death, the soul would ascend from the Earth upwards through the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, and so forth, tested at each sphere and shedding some worldly attribute (possibly influencing the Christian conception of the seven deadly sins according to some scholars). This order is sometimes called the Chaldean order of the planets. Typically, the order starts with either the slowest planet, Saturn, or the fastest planet, the Moon.

Planetary Order

1. 1. 1. The Moon
    2. Mercury
    3. Venus
    4. The Sun
    5. Mars
    6. Jupiter
    7. Saturn

On the right side of this engraving, from Renaissance Italy you can see the planetary spheres starting with Saturn below the fixed stars (constellations), in order to the Moon.

Remembering the Planetary Order

The Sun is in the center of the list, dividing the rest of the planets into 3 “inferiors” (Venus, Mercury, The Moon) and 3 “superiors” (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn). Closest to the Earth is the Moon, while furthest is Saturn. To aid memory, note that the crescent of the Moon and the rings of Saturn are both wispy circles on either end of the list.

You may have heard the expression that men are from Mars and women from Venus. Mars has to do with masculinity and Venus to femininity. In the planetary order, they they flank the Sun on either side. To aid memory, note that Venus is like a feminine sexual organ pulling into the direction of Earth while Mars is like a masculine one pushing out to the stars. The giant Jupiter is out toward Saturn and the tiny Mercury in toward the Moon.

Learning the Planetary Glyphs

The glyphs for the planets can also be seen here. The glyphs for the Sun and Moon (Sol and Luna above) are pretty easy to grasp. Many are also familiar with the glyphs for Venus (like a stick person, think “female person”) and Mars (a circle with an arrow, think “erection”). The glyph for Mercury (Mercurius above) is pretty easy to grasp, as it looks like a stick person with a winged hat – Mercury is the messenger.

The symbols for Jupiter and Saturn (Iupiter and Saturnus above) are the most confusing for beginners. They are derived from the Greek Z for Zeus and K for Kronos respectively. Jupiter looks like a 4; think 4 corners and peace of mind. Saturn looks like a cross with a tail; think cross to bear and a little devilish.

The Basic Meanings of the Planets

The seven planets are the most important symbols in the astrological language. Your ability to read a chart will depend upon being able to get a sense of their main meanings and associations, as well as their quality or energy. It is very easy to be misled when reading a chart if you do not have a clear idea of the distinctness of each planet. Master these 7 notes of the music of astrology.

As I explain the meaning of each planet, think about people, actions, and things in everyday life that these planets can describe as adjectives.

Short List of Planetary Associations

Saturn

Ancient, dead, land, raw resources, dark, fear-inducing, lack, obligation, duty, macabre, cold, doubting, restrictive.

Jupiter

Lofty, opportune, joyous, generous, open, fertile, popular, teaching, warm, trusting, expansive.

Mars

Fiery, intense, aggressive, dangerous, bold, pack-animals/swarm/march, very hot, disagreeable, explosive.

The Sun

Vibrant, powerful, prominent, rational, leading, pioneering, hot, influential, attention-getting.

Venus

Beautiful, pleasurable, friendly, sensual, sexual, mysterious, intoxicating, wet, agreeable, soothing.

Mercury

Clever, skilled, complex, cunning, numbers, language, business, transporting, dry, knowledgeable, informative.

The Moon

Primal, powerful, idiosyncratic, irrational, natural, familial, nurturing, journeying, wet and changeable, personal, intimate.

Describing People with Planets

Let’s think of a few well-known figures and what planets we’d associate with their lives and personalities. There are no right or wrong answers in this exercise. Simply try to keep the planets distinct and think of why some signification applies to a certain aspect of the life or personality.

Einstein

He doesn’t strike us as very dark and foreboding (Saturn). His personality seemed a bit Jupiterian, i.e. lofty, joyful and expansive. He doesn’t strike us as hot-tempered at all (Mars), but he did deal with themes in his professional life of intense energy. The genius, pioneering, and attention-getting significations of the Sun seem to pertain very strongly to his life’s work as a whole. He doesn’t strike one as particularly sensual or artistic (Venus) but he has more of a mysterious friendliness than a gregarious Jupiterian friendliness.

Mercury seems to have had a major impact on his life’s work as a whole as it very much was concerned with numbers, knowledge, complexity, and information. As far as scientists go he seems more lunar than typical in his personality, in that he appears more natural, idiosyncratic, intimate, and embracing of the irrational. Overall, it would seem that his legacy is particularly well-described by Mercury and the Sun, while his personality seems more lunar, Jupiterian, and possibly Venusian.

Bjork

Bjork strikes me as very lunar in many ways as her art seems to stress a certain natural, primal, intimate, and irrational side of things. She is an artist which automatically brings to mind Venus but in her style and approach, she seems to stress attention-getting vibrant creative genius (Sun) and intimate personal expression (Moon).

James Randi

It’s hard to imagine the guy as anything but a dark, duty-bound, doubtful figure aiming to strike fear into con artist New Age gurus, which is Saturn all the way. As a magician, he’s clever, an entertainer, and an attention-getting rationalist, so Mercury and the Sun also come to mind.

Barack Obama

As a leader, the Sun definitely comes to mind as having a prominent role to play in the life. Personality-wise he seems somewhere between Jupiter and Saturn, between open and gregarious Jupiter and the cool formal sternness of Saturn. His general tendency to be attended by luck and popularity is consistent with Jupiter.

Useful Planetary Groupings

There are some ways of grouping or organizing the planets that are particularly useful and meaningful.

Benefics and Malefics

One of the most important groupings is according to the tendency to signify pleasant or unpleasant things. Two of the planets (Jupiter and Venus) tend toward signifying the most enjoyable types of things while another two of the planets (Saturn and Mars) tend toward signifying the most unpleasant and challenging things.

The Benefics tend toward fortuitous balance.

1. 1. - Jupiter – Temperate, fertile, joyous, high, opportune, sweet.
    - Venus -Temperate, fertile, pleasurable, beautiful, satiated, fatty.

The Malefics tend toward unpleasant extremes.

1. 1. - Saturn – Cold, depressed, slow, extremes of lack of life and activity, rotten/sour.
    - Mars – Hot, angered, overloaded, extremes of violent energy, bitter.

The Lights and Mercury

Three planets are neither benefic nor malefic. The Sun and the Moon signify powerful and important things. Mercury, the planet most closely associated with rationality, is complex and can assist in bringing about pleasant or unpleasant things.

The Lights tend toward prominence and influence, which is neutral but often desired.

1. 1. - The Sun – Attainment, honors, leadership.
    - The Moon – Depth, naturalness, subjective significance.

Mercury is amoral, complex, and combining. It is neutral but also tends toward argument, contention, and dryness so it was considered by some to tend toward slight displeasure.

Sect

Another very useful and important division is called “sect”. Three planets are more associated with the day and the sky (i.e. above the horizon), and three with the night and the ground/underworld (i.e. below the horizon). Mercury is neutral, affiliating sect based on specific circumstances. Each sect is led by a Light and has one benefic and one malefic. We will return to sect frequently in future lessons, as it is an important factor in astrological interpretation.

The Diurnal Sect

The day or diurnal sect is led by The Sun, with the benefic Jupiter and the malefic Saturn. These planets are also more associated with the realm above the horizon, which is more sky-like, soul-oriented, or abstract. Therefore, they tend to signify along more social, mental, and spiritual lines.

The Nocturnal Sect

The night or nocturnal sect is led by The Moon, with the benefic Venus and the malefic Mars. These planets are also more associated with the realm below the horizon, which is more Earth-like, body-oriented, or tangible. Therefore, they tend to signify along more familial, physical, and resourceful lines.

Contrasting the Two Pairs of Benefics and Malefics

All of the planets can signify along either abstract or tangible lines. However, the day benefic and day malefic will usually pertain more to social and mental benefits and problems, while the night benefic and night malefic will pertain more to physical and familial or intimate benefits and problems. The day malefic Saturn would be more likely to signify something like imprisonment or depression (a social or mental problem). By contrast, Mars would be more relevant to something like assault or a family argument (a physical or familial problem). Similarly, the day benefic Jupiter will tend to signify getting a job or having a spiritual experience (a social or mental benefit). By contrast, Venus will tend to signify a delicious dinner or a great sexual experience (a physical or intimate benefit).

Statue of Good and Evil, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NY, NY

Take It Further

Now that you are familiar with the basic associations of the planets, I’d like you to look at two different ancient perspectives on the significations of the planets. Vettius Valens and Claudius Ptolemy are both very important Hellenistic astrologers who practiced in the 2nd century CE. Valens was more in line with the astrological thought of his day (and the Mesopotamian’s before) in that he viewed astrological indications as signs (like writing in the sky from a higher power). On the other hand, Ptolemy sought to understand planetary influence in a physical and causal way, using the Aristotelian physics of his day.

Look over the first chapter of Valens’ Anthology (click the link) in which he describes the planetary associations and their significations for character. Compare and contrast these with Ptolemy’s description of the powers of the planets (click the link). Ptolemy’s descriptions are very weather-oriented. However, later in the Tetrabiblos when he describes actual characteristics and events in terms of the planets, we find that he associates the planets in much the same way as Valens. It is worth reviewing the first chapter of the text by Valens multiple times.

Planetary Thoughts

Think about the basic planetary associations and the indications given by Valens. Which planet or planets play the greatest role in your life? What planet best describes your personality? Which one best describes your work and favorite hobbies? Ask yourself these questions about loved ones as well.

The planets can span nearly any topic in life, so also think about people, place, things, and events in general in terms of the planets. If someone goes on vacation think “Moon”, as she journeys. If someone is frequently commuting for work, think “Mercury”. Seeing a major CEO, think “Sun”. A homeless person should make you think “Saturn”, and a lottery winner should make you think “Jupiter”. An attractive musician should have you thinking “Venus”, while muscles and tattoos should have you thinking “Mars”. A computer database is “Mercury”, while an explosion is “Mars”.

Practice thinking like this and in the next lesson, I’ll address one way to find the general prominence or “volume” (as in loudness) of a planet’s significations in someone’s life.

Image Attributions

Featured image is in the public domain.

Luna de Septiembre (September Moon) by ANDY ABIR ALAN, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54698423

Uranus image is in the public domain.

Music of the Spheres image is in the public domain.

Astrological Glyphs images are in the public domain.

Einstein image is in the public domain.

Bjork image by Zach Klein from New York, New York, USA (Bjork, Hurricane Festival) [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

James Randi image is in the public domain.

Barack Obama Portrait 2006 by By Ari Levinson (Autumnfire), minor cleanup edit by Chicago god. (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Solar eclipse image is in the public domain.

Statue of Good and Evil image is in the public domain.

Introduction

In the last article on Whitney Houston’s death, I discussed some major astrological predictive factors. A number of predictive techniques highlighted the importance of Saturn. From the activation of her natal Sun-Saturn opposition, to Saturn’s transit through her 8th house of death. At the time of death we found the transiting Sun conjunct her natal Saturn while the transiting Moon was in her 8th with natal Mars and applying to that transiting Saturn. Altogether, 8th house and Sun-Saturn themes abound in the predictive indications. In fact, though not noted in the other article, Houston also has her twelfth-part Saturn in Virgo, the sign activated by the monthly profection at the time of her death.

Primary Directions

Following the publication of that article, some commentary on it prompted me to explore primary directions in some depth. I followed that exploration with a series on pre-Renaissance traditional primary directions. That series explored the basic use of primary direction in ancient astrology and how they can be calculated with free software. The first post on primary directions concerned the primacy of the Ascendant in early directions and the time lord technique of directing the Ascendant through the bounds. This later came to be known as the distribution. The bound lord is called the distributor, or jarbakhtar from Persian terminology. I also explained how to calculate primary directions. Since that time an update of the Traditional Morinus version of the software has been released which improves the display when directing through bounds. You can download the software here.

Death and Directions

In this article, I won’t be discussing all the ancient special techniques for longevity and death. I will hit on some of them in some future posts in this series. However, note that in those techniques there is an emphasis on the direction of a malefic significator (planet, star, lot, or point) of harm to a significator of the health and the body (typically a Light or the Ascendant). For instance, the Descendant is symbolic of death (point of setting) so a direction of the Sun to the Descendant could signify death. While conjunctions, squares, and oppositions are typically the most important types of aspects, for primary directions we consider all classical aspects. This is because primary directions take so long to occur. Often a planet will only aspect another planet or point a few different times over an entire lifetime.

Whitney’s Chart

Whitney Houston Natal Chart (AA-Rodden-Rating)

Directing Through the Bounds

As I detailed in my introductory article on primary directions, the bound lord of the directed Ascendant was typically considered a very powerful time lord, setting the tone for the period. For this reason, I advise that one should always look at the direction of the Ascendant through the bounds, The bound lord, an important time lord, is known as the distributor or in Perso-Arabic astrology as the jarbakhtar. A table can be generated in Morinus as discussed in the article I referred to earlier. The following table of jarbakhtars is for Whitney Houston, with the period active at her death highlighted.

Whitney Houston – Distributors of the Ascendant for 100 Years After Birth

Saturn as Distributor

As we can see from the table above, Saturn is the main time lord of the period (day of death was Feb. 11, 2012). We find that this technique, as with many of the others, strikingly highlights the role of the natal 12th house Saturn in characterizing the period.

Other Distributors

While the distributor of the Ascendant is typically the most important, and is the one used by Abu Ma’shar, some authors, including Masha’allah, use the technique for other life-signifying points as well. Typically, it is one of the Lights or the Lot of Fortune that are also considered. While I consider the distributors of the Ascendant to be much more important, I’ve included below a table of the distributors of the Lights and Lot of Fortune as well. It is interesting that the Sun and Lot of Fortune also (like the Ascendant) have malefic distributors, in this case Mars.

Houston Distributors of Lights and Fortune Age 25-50

Algol to Ascendant

One of the most striking primary directions at the time of death is that of the fixed star Algol to the Ascendant. Algol is considered to be one of the most malefic fixed stars. It is in the constellation of Perseus, which images the hero Perseus grasping the head of the Gorgon, Medusa. Algol is the eye of Medusa in the constellation. The star has separately been associated with demons, evil, death, decapitation, horror, tragedy, and such in many different cultures. For those unfamiliar, you can get a quick briefing on Algol on Wikipedia and especially on Constellation of Words.

A table showing all the directions of fixed stars to the Ascendant from Age 25 to 50 is below. The table says the direction was exact on February 15th, which in primary directions is still “exact” even on February 10th, because even seconds of inaccuracy in recording the birth time equates to days of difference in timing by primary directions.

Directions of Fixed Stars to Whitney Houston’s Ascendant (direction of Algol to Ascendant in February 2012)

Saturn transiting over the Directed Sun

Whitney Houston’s Natal Chart

One of the more interesting directions at the time of death concerns the Sun. As seen above (2nd table up), the distributor of the directed Sun was in the Mars bound of Libra. This bound is 2 degrees in length starting at 28° Libra and ending at 0° Scorpio. Interestingly, Libra is Whitney Houston’s 8th House and the Mars bound of Libra is the bound Saturn transited at death. In fact, look below at the chart of the primary directions zodiacal positions at the time of death. We find the directed Sun at about 29°14′ Libra. Transiting Saturn was conjunct it in the same degree at the time of death.

PDs in Chart for Death of Houston

In my opinion, this was one of the more striking repeat Sun-Saturn significations. Consider this together with over-arching Sun-Saturn planetary years manifestation, Saturn as the main distributor, and the transit of the Sun over natal Saturn.

Whitney Houston – Transits at Time of Death

Conclusion

If you’re new to primary directions, I hope this has whet your appetite for this very valuable technique. Please check out the other articles on primary directions to start working with them yourself. They are really not hard to work with when there is great free software available for the calculations. Until next time, give someone you love a big hug, and let them know how much you care. Continue having fun exploring traditional predictive astrology.

The featured image is Medusa by Caravaggio.