 The Sun
The Sun represents your essential life energy, the essence of your identity. The Sun tells us of the actual core of a person, the inner self, of that which is of central concern. Just as the Sun's energy nourishes life on earth, the Sun in your chart provides you with strength and vitality. Your Sun sign tells you about your inner nature, and what you need to feel most fulfilled and inspired. This is the sign you tell people is your sign, the sign you look up in the newspaper's Horoscope section. It is determined by the month you were born in as the sun moves into a new sign every month around the 21st.
Associations:
Sign: Leo
Element: Fire
House: Fifth
Numbers: 1 and 5
Tarot Card: The Sun
Tarot Suit: Wands/Staves/Sceptres
The Moon
The Moon indicates how your inner world is structured. It tells you what you need emotionally, and how you experience life. The Moon represents our feelings, senses, and emotions, the receptivity, imagination and basic feeling tone of a person. Whereas the Sun represents the active, outgoing component of your personality, the Moon represents your receptive, inward aspect. It also controls intuition. Knowledge of your Moon sign and its qualities can help you increase your intuitive powers. The Moon enters a new sign approximately every day and a half to two days. To determine your Moon sign it is important to know your time of birth within a few hours. If your birthday was a day when the Moon changed signs the birth time will tell you which side of the change you were on.
Associations:
Sign: Cancer
Element: Water
House: Fourth
Numbers: 2 and 4
Tarot Card: The Priestess
Tarot Suit: Cups/Chalices
Mercury
Mercury, Roman messenger of the Gods, represents the mind. Mercury represents reason, reasonableness (common sense), that which is rational. It is the part of your personality that mediates between all the others. As well as the intellect, Mercury is associated with communication, and indicates the role of communication in your life. It stands for the spoken and written word, putting in order, weighing and evaluating, the process of learning and skills. Because Mercury has a smaller orbit than Earth and is therefore closer to the sun, your Mercury sign will always be within 1 sign of your Sun sign. For example, if you're a Sun in Taurus, Mercury can only be Aries, Taurus, or Gemini.
Associations:
Signs: Gemini and Virgo
Elements: Air and Earth
Houses: Third and Sixth
Numbers: 3, 6, and 5
Tarot Card: The Magician
Tarot Suits: Swords and Pentacles/Coins/Shields
Venus
The planet Venus, named after the Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty, is traditionally associated with love, and it does indicate what you truly love in life, but Venus also reveals an area of life that you can easily and skillfully work with. Venus indicates artistic abilities and social tendencies and gives us a sense of beauty, the enjoyment of pleasure, aesthetic awareness, love of harmony, sociability, taking pleasure in relationships and eroticism. Just like Mercury, Venus has a smaller orbit than Earth and is therefore tied to the movements of the Sun. Your Venus sign will never be more than 2 signs away. So if you're a Taurus, your Venus can only be Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, or Cancer.
Associations:
Signs: Taurus and Libra
Elements: Earth and Air
Houses: Second and Seventh
Numbers: 2, 7, and 6
Tarot Card: The Empress
Tarot Suits: Pentacles/Coins/Shields and Swords
Mars
Mars, named for the Roman God of War, shows how you express yourself and how you accomplish your goals, and reveals an area of life in which you can be devoted, creative and passionate. It represents the energy and drive of a person, their courage, determination, and the freedom of spontaneous impulse. It also describes the readiness for action, the way one goes about doing things as well as simple aggression. Because of its association with the God of War, Mars indicates how warlike or diplomatic you might be. If there is a battle to be fought in your life, Mars shows how you approach it.
Associations:
Signs: Aries and Scorpio
Elements: Fire and Water
Houses: First and Eighth
Numbers: 1, 8, and 9
Tarot Card:
Tarot Suits: Wands/Staves/Sceptres and Cups/Chalices
Jupiter
Jupiter, named for the Roman King of the Gods, reveals your true aspirations, and shows you the direction your life is growing in. It is an area that you truly appreciate, and in which you have wisdom. The search for individual meaning and purpose, optimism, hope and a sense of justice are represented by Jupiter. So also faith, the striving for spiritual growth and expansion. Jupiter represents your higher mind, including your intuition, spiritual inclinations, generosity and a basic philosophy of life. It is the main guiding force in your life. Good luck is also covered by this planet.
Associations:
Signs: Sagittarius and Pisces
Elements: Fire and Water
Houses: Ninth and Twelfth
Numbers: 9, 12, and 3
Tarot Card: The Wheel of Fortune
Tarot Suits: Wands/Staves/Sceptres and Cups/Chalices
Saturn
Saturn represents structure and discipline, and relates to how you deal with "reality," where we meet with resistance and discover our limitations. Saturn often indicates areas where you have difficulty, but also areas in which you eventually develop wisdom and clarity. It represents the conscience and moral conviction, the laws and rules which we chose to obey. It also tells us about our powers of endurance and the ability to concentrate. It lends qualities like earnestness, caution and reserve. Where this planet lies indicates an area of life in which you have great concentration, and which shapes the goals you seek.
Associations:
Signs: Capricorn and Aquarius
Elements: Earth and Air
Houses: Tenth and Eleventh
Numbers: 10, 11, and 8
Tarot Card:
Tarot Suits: Pentacles/Coins/Shields and Swords
Uranus
Uranus, named for the Roman God of the Sky and father of Jupiter, discovered in 1781, takes 84 years to make one orbit, and spends 7 years in each sign. It indicates an area of clarity, inspiration and revolutionary insight and creativity. Uranus indicates the ability to transcend, evolve and grow. It stands for intuition and an openness for all that is new, unknown and unusual. It transmits sudden inspiration and lightning insights. Uranus is associated with new discoveries, whether scientific or personal, and with leaps of consciousness. This planet is also associated with eroticism and sex, particularly Sacred Sexuality, the ancient idea that sex can bring your closer to the wisdom and power of the divine. It is sometimes called the Planet of Chaos because this planet can be a wild card in your Astro Chart, causing contradictions and confusions in other signs that it has aspects to.
Associations:
Sign: Aquarius
Element: Air
House: Eleventh
Numbers: 11 and 4
Tarot Card: The Fool
Tarot Suit: Swords
Neptune
Neptune, named for the Roman God of the Sea and discovered in 1847, takes 164 years to orbit the Sun, and spends about 14 years in each sign. Neptune indicates a search for ultimate truth, and points to what you feel is ultimately valuable. Neptune represents the ideals which shape your life, and shows an area where you learn at a deep, spiritual level. This planet gives us the supersensory, opens doors to mystical experience and the transcendental. On this level it is hard to discern where perception moves into deception, illusion and false appearances, and so Neptune is associated with all of these, with drugs and all kinds of pseudo-realities. Just like its partner Uranus, Neptune is a wild card. It is known as the Planet of Confusion because of its tendencies to introduce illusion and deception into your other signs
Associations:
Sign: Pisces
Element: Water
House: Twelfth
Numbers: 12 and 7
Tarot Card: The Hanged Man
Tarot Suit: Cups/Chalices
Pluto
Pluto, named after the Roman God of Death and the Underworld, was discovered in 1936 and, though very small, has been empirically observed to have an effect on us. Pluto gives profound insights into life, and reveals a higher sense of purpose. Pluto represents a powerful perspective that can bring worldly or personal success. It also is associated with repressed or seldom expressed desires, and can reveal areas of tension. Pluto describes how we deal with power, personal and non-personal, be it through suffering the power of others or exercising it ourselves. It describes how we meet the demonic and magical, our regenerative powers and our capacity for radical change and rebirth: the cycles of dying and becoming.
Associations:
Sign: Scorpio
Element: Water
House: Eighth
Number: 8
Tarot Card: Judgment
Tarot Suit: Cups/Chalices
Chiron and Lilith
Chiron and Lilith are large asteroids located outside of the asteroid belt. Despite their size, they have been shown to have an effect, however small, along with a few other asteroids and large moons. I'm still investigating their meanings and significance....
The Ascendant and Descendant
The Ascendant and Descendant, which are always exactly opposed, are based on the Horizon line, the imaginary horizontal line which runs around the center of the Earth. It is parallel to the Visible Horizon, the "line" between Earth and Sky that we see (the Horizon line is not the Equator however, the planet's tilt causes the Equator to be at a 25 degree angle to the Horizon). Where the Horizon line intersects with the Ecliptic, another imaginary line representing the Sun's apparent path around the Earth, the Ascendant and Descendant can be found. The Ascendant is the sign that was at the horizon on its way up into the sky when you were born while the Descendant is the sign that was on the opposite side on its way down. Signs continually move in and out of the Ascendant and Descendant position every 4 minutes due to the Earth's rotation so this information requires knowledge of the precise time of your birth.
The Medium and Imum Coeli
The Medium Coeli and Imum Coeli, or MC and IC, are the opposite of the Ascendant and Descendent. Medium Coeli is Latin for "middle of the sky" and is also known as the Midheaven. Imum Coeli is Latin for "opposite of the sky." Whereas the Asc and Dsc run horizontally and represent the horizon, the MC and IC run vertically and represent the imaginary line running from the center of the sky to the center of the earth. Often your North and South nodes are very close to these points but not always.
These two points represent your Life Path. The Medium Coeli, or Midheaven, represents the path you are meant to follow in this life, which the Imum Coeli is the path you are supposed to move away from.
The Moon's Nodes
The Moon's North and South nodes, which are also always exactly opposed, are those points where the paths of the moon and the earth cross and correspond to where eclipses occur. They can be found where the Ecliptic intersects the Meridian, the great circle from the North to the South Pole, perpendicular to the Horizon, and are often very close to the MC and IC. Psychologically, they are associated with a certain level of passion for knowledge. Astrologers see these points as being of karmic significance: The North node is said to represent the spiritual development called for in this life, while the South node represents experience gathered during previous lives. Another point of view regards the North node as a point of meeting, signifying important personal ties or connections, while the South node indicates separation. The well-known German astrologer Thomas Ring taught that the northern node shows where subconscious contents can become accessible, whereas the southern node shows where conscious awareness can sink back into the depths of the unconscious. Go here to see a list of the meanings of specific North/South Node combinations.
Sources:
Teach Yourself Astrology, 3rd Ed., by Jeff Mayo
Astrodienst, http://www.astro.com
Your Astrology Site, http://www.yourastrologysite.com
Your Personal Horoscope Series by Joseph Polanski
Yeah I know some of this info is copyrighted and whatnot, I'm just trying to spread the knowledge! Not enough people on this planet understand the significance and usefulness of Astrology in my opinion so I have to spread the word. I'm just a kid, suing me won't get you much money. =)
|
