Horoscope, Planets and your Personality

In a modern city we tend not to notice the stars. But even today, if we are alone in the country they attract our attention, and they still excite wonder and a kind of distant affection. To the ancient human beings, especially those that enjoyed clear skies, the stars were extremely familiar but also very puzzling. They were always there, but with the exception of the two "luminaries" the Sun and Moon they never had any immediate effect that people could feel in the way you can feel a change in the weather. It is impossible to grasp the rays of the stars in the way you can grasp any terrestrial object, animal, vegetable, or mineral.

There was another worrying strange about the stars. Most of them the "fixed" stars appeared vastly more stable and predictable than other natural phenomena. But a small minority seemed disturbingly wayward. Now we know that these are the planets (the word comes from a Greek word meaning "wanderer"), which the Babylonians called the "stray sheep." Sometimes it seems that they tend to go forward, sometimes to go back or to stand still. The place was called Mesopotamia where men first pondered the relations between the fixed stars and the straying ones, and first thought that they could affect human life. It was the beginning of the science that now we know as astrology. Very early it had been noticed (especially by shepherds and travellers) that however the Sun, Moon, and other planets may seem to wander, they do not just wander anywhere in the sky. They keep within a definite track, which was called the Zodiac and divided into 12 parts bearing the same names as 12 of the constellations. The ancient people decided that the position of the planets within the Zodiac at any one time must be what affected human beings in their live. It was some time before the 12 signs of the Zodiac were identified and named. But the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were known to everyone long before it. As, of course, were the Sun and Moon, which for long time were also to count as planets.

Nevertheless, before the Greeks gave their planets the names of gods (that had already been invented by them),it seems that they have given them names derived from their visible characteristics: Venus was the Dawn-bringer and Mars, because of his red color, the Fiery One. It seems possible that they changed to the god-names when they met with the astronomy-cum-astrology of Babylon. In Babylon some of the heavenly bodies were gods or should we say some of the gods were heavenly bodies? Or maybe certain gods controlled certain heavenly bodies? Anyway, the great triad in that country was Sin the the most powerful Moon-god that personified a male's beginning, Shamash the Sun-god that personified a female's beginning, and Ishtar, the goddess of love. Symbols of all three can be in stone carvings. The immediate business here is to introduce the cast, the broad lines of whose behavior have hardly altered for over 2000 years. And a very strong cast it is. As an English astrologer put it in the 17th century, "you must know that the seven planets are the seven rulers of the world, by their different natures, and are God's instruments." Among the ancient people the normal order of the planets, based on their supposed distance from the earth, was : the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. When astrologers say that someone is a typical Jupiterian or Martian or other type, they mean that this person possesses some or all of the qualities associated with the planet, and they assume that this planet was in some way dominant at the moment of his birth. There are various ways in which a planet achieves dominance: For one thing, each planet is the "ruler" of one or two of the Zodiacal signs.

Thus Mars is the ruler of both Aries and Scorpio; if he is found in either of these at the moment of your birth, he will tend to make you not only more of an Aries (or Scorpio) type but more of a Mars type. (This applies whatever the position of the sign. It is true, that a planet has a similar (though lesser) effect if it is in a sign that is sympathetic to it. Technically, this is known as "exaltation". For example Mars has his exaltation in Capricorn.

Some other factors that enhance the power of a planet are the following: If a planet is found at any of the four highly sensitive points in the heavens the ascendant, its opposite the descendant, the mid-heaven, and its opposite the imum coeli or I.C. it will have something extra to say to you. So will a planet that is the ruler of the sign rising at your birth: If you have Taurus rising, Venus (the ruler of Taurus) will have more strength in your horoscope. The same is true of a planet that is the ruler of your Sun-sign: Venus will again be strengthened in your horoscope if you are "born under Taurus" by being born between April 21 and May 21. Lastly, a planet can become prominent or dominant in your natal chart if it is strongly "aspected" by other planets.

All this should be enough to indicate that there is more than one way of becoming a "planet type" or of being "born under" any planet. The same is only too true of being "born under" any Zodiacal sign. And of course all the possible combinations and permutations provide the astrologer with a let-out if his predictions go wrong.

Now let us turn to the characteristics of the individual planets, taking the Sun first, since he is pre-eminent in modern astrology. For people who read only the newspaper "prediction" columns, the Sun-sign (i.e., the Sun's position in the Zodiac on the day of one's birth) is the only thing in astrology that matters. Even through the long geocentric ages (and astrology still carries on as if the Sun went around the earth) the Sun was always unique. Some of the ancient Romans called it "the chorus-master of the planets." The point does not need laboring; after all, the Sun is something that hits you. The centuries-old Hermetic writings on astrology, alchemy, magic, and so on describe the stars as visible gods of whom the Sun is far the greatest. The Sun's astrological symbol, or hieroglyph, is a dot within a circle: The circle is said to symbolize eternity or primal power; the dot pinpoints the emergence of that power.

Personality horoscope understanding with Planets Aspects

Planet in Signs:

Planet in Houses:

Planets Aspects:

Planets Meaning: