The meaning of the planets in astrology
In astrology, each planet is thought to be in charge of a different side of the mind and of life.
| Planet | What it represents | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sun | your self, purpose and will | The center of the chart. The sign in a horoscope column is your Sun sign, the sign the Sun was in. |
| Moon | emotions, your private self, comfort | Your Moon sign shows your private face and the environment where you feel at ease. |
| Mercury | intellect, words, communication | How you think, speak and learn. |
| Venus | love, beauty, pleasure, money | What you love, your romantic tendencies and your sense of beauty. |
| Mars | drive, passion, fighting spirit | How you go after things, how you get angry, and sexual energy. |
| Jupiter | growth, luck, generosity | The planet of good fortune. It takes about 12 years to go round the zodiac, blessing the area of the sign it visits. Its 12-year cycle is linked to the ancient Chinese practice of naming years after Jupiter's position, an ancestor of the twelve-animal year count. |
| Saturn | trials, responsibility, time, maturity | It takes about 29.5 years to go round. Saturn's return to its birth position, the “Saturn return”, is seen as a milestone in life. |
| Uranus | reform, originality, freedom | Discovered in 1781, it shows shifts in a whole generation's values. |
| Neptune | dreams, inspiration, art | Discovered in 1846, it shows ideals, illusions and sensitivity to the unseen. |
| Pluto | destruction and rebirth, primal power | Discovered in 1930 and reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, but still treated as important in astrology. |
Days of the week, the five elements and the planets
The seven days of the week come from the Sun, the Moon and five planets. In Japanese the link is still plain to see: Sunday is the Sun’s day, Monday the Moon’s, and Tuesday to Saturday are named Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth, after Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. In East Asia the five planets visible to the naked eye were given the names of the five elements, so Jupiter is the “Wood star”, Mars the “Fire star”, Saturn the “Earth star”, Venus the “Metal star” and Mercury the “Water star”. Jupiter goes round the sky in about 12 years, so it was called the “year star”, and counting years by its position was connected with the system of giving each year one of the twelve animals.
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