Astrology: The Planets

Sun.
The heart and center of it all. The father, guru, teacher or figure of authority. Anyone older or living in an experience more disciplined than our own. That which we look up to and receive light from. That which we may become.

Moon.
Our surroundings, the environment out of which we came. Our past and childhood. Our formative years and self. The background. That out of which we emerged.

Mercury.
Communication at light speed. Linkage. Thought. Ideas. The light of the mind. Logos, direct voice.

Venus.
How we respond, appreciate, cherish or value something. The way we love. Love, but not attraction. Compassion.

Mars.
Energy. What drives or moves us. Our emotions. Urge to unify or become one, therefore yoga, union, or marriage.

Jupiter.
The way through or on. Continuing, continuity, succession, success. The pathfinder or lamp through the trials of time. Luck.

Saturn.
The giver of laws or rules. The prince of time and the material world. Satan. Laws. Sometimes obstacles, authority.

Uranus.
Insight, invention, breakthrough. Good uses for Saturn. "To see eternity in a grain of sand."

Neptune.
Cherish, solve, compassion. "The dewdrop slips into the shining sea". Unity, solution, one.

Pluto.
Transformation. Sensitivity to the impermanence of life. Intimations of mortality.

Lunar north node.
Vocation or application point. Right-of-way.

 

Astrology: The Lights   

The Sun and Moon (or lights, as they are called) are the two most important bodies. It is sometimes easier to understand what they represent in astrology if we consider how they interrelate with the Earth.   

A good analogy is the following. Each of us is on Earth. The bright and shining Sun represents someone older, someone we look up to -- whether that be a teacher or guru. The Moon represents someone younger, especially the groups that we used to belong to. That is the analogy. Here is how we might think about it:   

We can't live either on the Sun or Moon. We have grown out of and beyond the younger generation (Moon). Out of it we once came or were born. This is why the Moon is said to be a mystery. It is both our parent and our child. Regardless, we no longer are alive to what moves the younger generation. The same kind of reasoning is true of those older than us, who have taken more degrees of experience. We are still too young... not yet ready to live in the solar environment. We receive light from the Sun, and it makes life grow.   

We each have both a Sun and a Moon. In the course of a month, these two bodies take up various positions in relation to where we are on Earth. At the Full Moon, the Moon is beyond the orbit of the Earth (farther out) and reflecting sunlight back on us. At the New Moon, the Moon is within the Earth's orbit and lost in the Sun. Tradition suggests that we start (or may receive) an impulse at the New Moon, build and develop it for two weeks until the Full Moon, and then gradually understand or draw some conclusions from the experience during the two weeks after the moon is full.

   (This is the text from the supplement of terms and concepts included with the Astro*Talk Profile , created by the author, Michael Erlewine.)