What Do the Planets Mean in Astrology?
All ten planets in your birth chart explained: what each governs, how fast it moves, and why the outer three say almost nothing about you personally.
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The planets in astrology
The ten planets are what a birth chart is made of. Each one describes a different function: what you need, how you think, what you want, where you meet resistance. Here is what each means, what it rules, and how personal the placement really is.
LuminarySun, Moon
The Sun and Moon are not planets astronomically. In astrology they are the two lights, and they carry more weight than anything else in a chart.
Personal planetMercury, Venus, Mars
Fast enough to be genuinely yours. Mercury, Venus and Mars change sign in weeks, so two people born a month apart can differ.
- MercuryMind, language and how you processRules Gemini and Virgo · 15 to 60 days in a sign
- VenusValues, attraction and what you find beautifulRules Taurus and Libra · 23 to 60 days in a sign
- MarsDrive, anger and how you go after thingsRules Aries, and Scorpio in traditional astrology · About 6 weeks, longer when retrograde in a sign
Social planetJupiter, Saturn
Jupiter and Saturn sit between the personal and the generational. A Jupiter sign is shared with everybody born within about a year of you, a Saturn sign with everybody born within two and a half.
Generational planetUranus, Neptune, Pluto
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto spend seven to thirty years in a sign. The sign describes your generation. What is personal is the house it falls in and the aspects it makes, which need an accurate birth time.
- UranusDisruption, independence and the sudden turnRules Aquarius, in modern astrology · About 7 years in a sign
- NeptuneImagination, dissolution and what you cannot see clearlyRules Pisces, in modern astrology · About 14 years in a sign
- PlutoPower, compulsion and what will not stay buriedRules Scorpio, in modern astrology · 12 to 31 years in a sign
See where yours actually are
Reading about a planet is a different thing from knowing which sign and house yours occupies. Both tools are free and both compute from real ephemeris data rather than a lookup table.
Reading the planets
What each planet stands for in a chart, and how the personal ones combine into the big three.
Your Big Three: Sun, Moon and Rising Explained
Your Sun, Moon and Rising signs do most of the work in a birth chart. What each one governs, why they contradict each other, and how to read all three.
How to Read Your Birth Chart: A Beginner's Guide
How to read a birth chart from scratch, in seven steps: what to look at first, what to ignore, and how to turn symbols into an actual person.