The Personal Planets

I find that, if you’re new to learning about your chart, you only really need the planets out to Mars to start out with. These are the personal planets, the inner planets of our solar system. After that we have Jupiter and Saturn and all the ice and gas planets. Saturn and Jupiter are the gas giants occupying the center range of our solar system. They are important too, they describe how the chart-holder interacts with society and the responsibilities life imposes. The outer planets and Chiron seem to represent conditions laid down by the Fates. They seem to effect society as a whole in the moment, and some people don’t really seem to be affected by them. But if you have a strong contact between one of the outer planets and one of the inner planets… you are going to know it. It’s best to figure yourself out first, before you figure out what ails you. But that’s the all more complicated astrology stuff you can get into later, once you have your basics sorted out.

The personal planets are the inner planets of our solar system, close and in warming contact with the Sun. They are made of rocks, and are real and close, not like the mythological and beautiful gas and ice planets further off. These inner, personal planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars, have short solar cycles like the Earth does and they move fast through our night skies. They are constantly making fresh aspects to our charts throughout the year.

These planets seem to symbolize and influence important parts of our personalities. Jungian astrology says that although we feel like one unified personality, actually that self is made of several different functions, functions that have their own little mini agendas. You can picture the planets in your chart as being part of an ancient royal court. The Sun and the Moon are the King and the Queen. The inner, personal planets are important court functionaries, the dukes and the duchesses of the land. When you learn their sign you are learning what their style and priorities will be. When you learn their house, you learn where they are taking a stand at, or where is the seat of power for that plane, their areas of concern in life. Then after that you can learn the aspects between them and begin to see their relationships, all these complicated inner-court dynamics. The duke has hired the jester and the pretty lady is everyone’ s tramp… but somehow gets along great with the Queen, could describe Mercury in Aries and Venus in Sagittarius trine the Moon.

In our sky, Mercury can only be 45* from the Sun. Through out the year, the Sun, Mercury and Venus appear to move as a loose group. Mercury and Venus travel back and forth across the Sun’s path, retrograding behind it, and then racing ahead again.

A retrograde motion is when the planet appears to be moving backward in our skies, every day rising a bit later than it did the day before. This is because the planet is actually going in a circle around the sun on a smaller circle, or elliptic, than we are. So when it goes up ahead and starts turning around the Sun ahead of us, to us it looks like it was going backwards. This was completely fascinating to the ancients, and they did all kinds of mental gymnastics trying to account for it. Trying to figure out the purpose, or some rhythm in the retrograde motion of the visible planets was a scientific driver in many cultures for a long time. The final conclusion that the Sun was in the center and we revolved around it may have been the birth of the modern mind.

Find out what the planet’s function is. Explore your personal style but learning about how that planet behaves in the signs it’s in. I love learning about the signs, that’s the fun cheesecake part of astrology. Find out the house that your planets are in and see what’s most important to your life.

Once you learn it, you can think it over for awhile, until you start to see what the astrology is explaining, in your own behavior. That’s the part where it starts to help you. Maybe your Venus is the 11th house is leading you to be kind of a doormat, but you could lean towards your strengths and force people to respect how wonderful you are at tastefully bringing a group together. Maybe your Saturn in the third house is causing you to be no fun at parties, and you could, you know… lighten up a little and at least respect that idle amusing chatter IS a skill set even if you don’t possess or admire it. Not to say astrology is some sort of self-improvement venture. I just feel like knowing is half the battle.

Let’s look quickly at these personal planets.

Mercury

Mercury has to do with our thinking. The sign Mercury is in describes our style of thinking. The signs describe the belief system that informs the priorities that shape everything we do. Mercury has its own way of moving, depending on the sign. Are you mutable air, swift and adaptive, are you fixed and earth, ponderously plowing through? Does your thinking revolve around your priority to gather information, or are you like a counting house, with your mind of your money and your money on your mind? Do you only thing about people and relationships all the time? Are you strategic and always thinking about your next best move to further your interests? Think fast or do you wait and let things come to you… maybe both? Maybe you try not to think. It does slow down the action…

Mercury is so fast and light and infiltrating that it contacts everything we notice. Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, and who we are and our thoughts are so close it’s hard to see them as district entities. And it’s true that we often can’t see the planet Mercury because the rays of the sun contain us in our daylight little world. But it is its own entity with its own characteristics.

You can also look at the relationship between the Sun and Mercury to understand how your style of thinking, and putting things together goes with your identity.

So then Mercury will always be in the sign ahead of your Sun sign, the same sign as your Sun, or the sign behind the sign that the Sun is in now. So, if Mercury is in the same sign as your Sun is, your ways of thinking and making connections are complimentary with your identity. If Mercury is in the Sun before or after, your mental style will be different than your basic identity, a different element and mode. Usually this is fine, it seems like signs that lie alongside each other are sympathetic with each other, although they are very different. If you have a Scorpio Sun, which is fixed water, the planet Mercury could have still been in the sign of Libra when the Sun moved to Scorpio. Here you have a Scorpio who is still all intense about things, but manages to come off with a controlled and polished banter. Scorpio Sun with a Libra mercury would be exploit at coming up with reasons not to like particular people. Or Mercury could be moving ahead of the Sun and you could have a Sagittarius Mercury, which is mutable fire Mercury. That combination could come out with alot of reserve and high surface tension but with a loud and bawdy sense of humor.

Amazing astrologer Sue Tompkins pointed out that the closeness or distance of Mercury to the Sun seemed significant. It seemed to her that if Mercury was very close to the Sun, then the thinking is more personal, maybe the person is less able to be objective. Accordingly, a person who’s Mercury is stretched as far away from the Sun as it can be might be more likely to be abstract and detached in thinking. It would be interesting to do an experimental study and see if that correlates. In all cases there is no way that Mercury can be far off from the Sun, and I think that’s such an interesting symbolism to represent how closely our thinking is an integral part of our identity, yet still has characteristics in its own right.

Mercury the messenger, with wings on his feet, he’s almost invisible he’s so swift. Powerful, mysterious and ancient, he’s one of the few gods able to go between worlds. And our thoughts are like that too, half dreaming, half filled with anxiety…

It’s interesting to see what house Mercury falls into in the chart. If it’s in the same house as the Sun, then you know you’re devoting a lot of your life energy to whatever that topic is. I find the house where Mercury is in represents what you just talk about all the time. You talk about it all the time, and you draw it into your life. Maybe you have Mercury in the eleventh house and you like to think about all the clubs you’re in.. Or you have Mercury in the 7th house and walk around talking about your partner all the time. Mercury creates connections all the time, somehow what we talk about creates a structure that clothes our lives with people and situations.

It can be tricky to understand exactly what it means to have Mercury in a certain house. Mercury is just such an integral planet it connects to so many things in the chart. By the ancient laws, Mercury rules two sign, Gemini and Virgo, and so right there you have the potential for Mercury to be effecting more houses than the one he’s in.

Mercury is easier to understand if you think about him being multi-directional. He doesn’t just travel in straight lines back and forth across the horizon like we do. Mercury can go to Heaven and Hell, forward and back in time, in secret or loud as bullhorns. He is fluid, colorless, and multidimensional. Unless maybe he’s in an earth sign and house and conjunct Saturn…then maybe more with the lead wings….

Mercury also seems very gender neutral to me. The mythology of the Greek god Mercury does include masculine sexual content. Apparently the countryside was scattered with little winged weiner statures that were referred to as Herms. He also has a role as a hermaphroditic god. I think of his energy as young and lightly masculine. There maybe other gods and goddesses that can be associated with this planet. I think Iris, the goddess of rainbows is a good candidate. In China, Mercury is known as the greens star and doesn’t seem to be very personalized. In the Hindu culture he is known as Budha, he’s not as fleshed out as the greek god, but has similar attributes, the day Wednesday is named after him in Hindi languages., and he is associated with the colors green and yellow, trading, wit and intelligence.

Mercury had a very flexible identity, and was very important to ancient Romans. They were famous for their religious tolerance, being very willing to incorporate local religions with their own. One of the ways that they did that, was to blend Teutonic and Gallic gods with the god Mercury. There are old shrines all over northern Europe and England depicting these composite gods.

The personal planets represent parts of our psyche that are so instinctive and large scale, that it can be hard to notice them. Here’s where I think astrology can really help, because you can learn all this about yourself from knowing these planets. There is something really freeing and relaxing about knowing these elements in your chart. That’s the way I am, you think, I can’t be any other way. You don’t have to worry about conforming, fitting in and fighting yourself anymore, you make the system work for you the way you are. It’s better.

Venus

I believe the planet Venus describes our decision making processes.

Think about how complicated that is, when you choose what you want. How swiftly you switch into decision making mode, and how your preferences seem to rise up out of you. It’s so personal…

You might be a fire Venus, you’re impulsive and chose quickly, vehemently and passionately. You might be an air sign Venus who’s every move is a calculated perfection, or completely detached from normal human cares. Maybe you have Venus in Scorpio and your first priority is to make sure that no one knows what you want to choose. An earthy Venus might want to be be sure they always choose the most valuable or the most comfortable.

Think about what a global process that is for you to make even the simplest of choices. You bring up favored textures and colors, memories, assess your mood, feel an awareness of social pressure, and financial conditions. It’s a whole swirl of information and sensations involved in the process of decision making. Some people are great at it, and are typically satisfied with their choices and some are really terrible at it.

Maybe you’re one of the ones that can’t pick, and you’re terrible at making choices, you’re afraid of outcomes. Venus in your chart should describe your style of choosing, what your priorities are when you make your choices, and whether your choices tend to work out well for you.

People seem to have a hard time with the notion of Venus. People seem to have a hard time with femininity too. Older astrology text describe Venus as the pretty girl of the astrology chart, and that doesn’t make sense for some people. Some people just don’t feel pretty, and that’s okay. In stories about Venus, she didn’t seem very into her relationships. She seemed to like to stay independent, and decided what she was going to do on her own. Other goddesses are much more involved with partnerships, such as Juno, Hera or Freya, you know, the wifey ones.

I don’t think of Venus as being that relational, except for when it comes to the most important part of the relationship, is the choosing of the person to be the significant other.

And obviously that part is a big deal. Through out our recorded history, most societies have gone to great lengths to prevent young people from making that choice on their own. From genital mutilation to arranged child marriages and complicated betrothal requirements, societal and family pressures, in traditional societies it is obviously a big deal who chooses to hook up with whom. Isn’t that what half of Shakespeare’s plays were about? Only with the advent of modern society’s ideals and personal freedoms does that choice become our own. Feminism sets Venus free. Everyone can choose what they want.

If you’re a man, you may not be comfortable with your “chooser” being a female entity. The less comfortable you are with the feminine, the more masculine your choices are going to be. He looks in the mirror and is afraid to see any luxury ego at all, he’s going to make choices that are male caricature. Men do seem to eschew a fussy or extended decision making process.

There are also a variety of gods that can be associated with the planet Venus. Eros was considered by some to be the first god. There’s also cupid. Wikipedia lists eight deities associated with the plant Venus, and thirty-six deities that considered “Venusian”. Everyone should be able to find one they like. Lucifer is one of them. Venus was very important in Latin American native astrology. The Aztec’s had two important gods associated with Venus, including Quetzalcoatl.

The planets are complicated beings/processes that affect us in numerous ways. Besides describing our own inclinations and behaviors, they also can describe our reactions to people or events that match an archetypal resonance within you. So, Venus can describe how you make choices, and also describe how you view and might react to young or especially attractive women. Do you want to be her, do you want to fuck/kill her, do you want her to go about her merry way? If you can learn to “see” your reactions, you can learn more about you, and your issues, gifts and strengths.

Venus, like Mercury seems a bit too complicated and involved to be bound into one house. Like Mercury, Venus rules two signs, Taurus and Libra, so it will affect those areas of the chart as well. The house of Venus is good to know, because that will let you know an area of life that is a big priority for you. The subject of the house Venus is in, is something you will attempt to choose again and again.

If your Venus is in the tenth house, you will choose your career, if your Venus is in the third house you will choose the world at wide, if it is in the sixth house, you will choose again and again to prioritize your daily routine or small pets.

You’ll probably figure out even more later with aspects and rulerships and all that. If Venus is very close to the Sun, you might find yourself having a preoccupation with making sure you present in a certain light, might be really into fluffing yourself and making you look pretty. There seems to be some correlation between Venus being near the Ascendant or Midheaven, and people finding you attractive, or you being identified with the beauty industry in some way.

Mars

Mars rotates outside of the Earth’s orbit, a sister planet. It’s the last of the rocky inner planets and has the longest orbit of any of them. It takes Mars two years to go around the Sun. If Venus is the pretty girlfriend of the chart, Mars is the easily offended boyfriend.

Mars signifies our drive. I find the house that Mars is in is highly defining. Where Mars is we return again and again, driven to that activity. But it also seems to describe what gives us energy, what we get a lot of energy from. Like the other planets, there’s as many ways to do Mars as there are people.

A Mars gone bad is an interesting way of seeing that willful element in ourselves. Mars-gone-bad people seem completely hellbent on getting their way. But then even if their way is bad, they cannot stop. Even when it’s clear that things are not working out right, they may continue on their way, because they just cannot stop getting their way, and their will has ahold of them, rather than the other way around.

I think the element of the sign that Mars is in is significant as well. Fire Mars is quick, explorative and creative, people with Mars in earth signs are hard workers, water sign Mars can be passive aggressive, or magnetic with a mysterious vibe, air Mars? Do I know any air sign Mars people? Maybe they’re all hiding from me. I don’t know many Libras either, but I live in a place of humble fabrics… maybe they’re just all congregated somewhere more snazzy. I think an air sign Mars would have a lot of verbal power.

Mars is definitely noticeably red in the sky, and was associated with horrors in almost every culture that was aware of it. Mars was considered a harbinger of disease, death, cruel rebels and wars. Of course, they said all that about Venus too. Mars seemed to be considered masculine…harshly masculine by the all the cultures that noted it. Many cultures associated Mars with radical transformation.

Because Mars is outside of the Earth’s orbit and has a slower, longer orbit, Mars can be in any sign. It’s not tied into the Sun complex in the chart like the other personal planets, Mars is a bit more autonomous. That makes sense to me too. People have complex relationships with their will. That driving force can be extreme one way or another. Too much Mars power will means they can’t put the brakes on easily when they’re headed for disaster. Some people have all the best ideas in the world, but if they can’t summon the will to enact them, they have nothing. We admire those who show a high degree of controlled willfulness, athletes who control their bodies, scientists and doctors who spent long hours forcing thier minds to absorb loads of information. Important judges who have kept their lives so contained and lawful that they can be trusted with the very fabric of society itself and beauty queens who ruthlessly stay on their diets. We lie about how powerful our will is, and feel shame when we cannot control ourselves. You can learn about the different aspects of your own willfulness by learning about the planet Mars in your own astrology chart.

These core planets, the lights and the inner planets of the solar system, Mercury through Mars, offer living symbols to understand the core and inner-workings of the personality. Maybe we do come with an instruction manual.

The lights and these inner planets describe the various personages that make up your psyche. If you set up a section in your astrology binder for each of these, you can capture the information that will make them come alive for you.

Books!

There’s a book I love so much. It’s not an astrology book, it’s actually about tarot cards. It is the best introduction to thinking about and understanding symbols like the planets, and the kind of processes and energies they represent. Jung and the Tarot: An Archetypal Journey by Sally Nichols is one of the most wisdom making books I have ever read.

I have learned so much from amazing astrologers. Here are some of my favorite astrology books with information about the personal planets. Liz Greene is a pioneer in Jungian astrology, taking humankind’s oldest system of knowledge and combining it perfectly with the fascinating insights generated by modern psychology. Her book Astrology for Lovers is a beautiful introduction to astrology signs.

Sue Tompkins is a British Astrologer, from her I learned the nuts and bolts of astrology. The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook is a succinct summary of everything you need to know. You can quickly get the gist of all your personal planets. Her views are balanced and competent. Her other book, Aspects In Astrology, is one of my bibles.

Raven Kaldera is a talented imaginative astrologer. In Mythastrology he describes each planet in the signs, by linking them with a god or goddess from world mythology. The results are illuminating. Whenever I come upon a planet/sign combination I can’t get a number on, I go get this book.

Howard Sasportas is a contemporary of Liz Greene and another Brit. His book The Twelve Houses is an astrology classic. You can read a thoughtful and centering description of each planetary placement here.

If you like astrology and magical self-help books, I’ve listed all my favorites in the article Books! in my DIY Astrology archive.

Jung and The Tarot: An archetypal Journey Sally Nichols Weiser Books 1980/1991

Astrology For Lovers Liz Greene Weiser Books 2009

The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook Sue Tompkins Lsa/Flare 2009

Mythastrology: Planets In The Signs Raven Kaldera Llewellyn Publications 2004

The Twelves Houses Howard Sasportas Lsa/Flare 2009