The Planets in Astrology ---> What they represent ---> Glossary #1

enchantedspirit (66)in #astrology • 6 years ago

An idea whose time has come ... finally

So yesterday, a visitor to this blog actually asked if I'd consider doing a glossary of terms so a total novice might be better able to understand some of my posts. Imagine my surprise.

Back in my days of bright-eyed naivete on Steemit, I planned to do such a thing ... lay down a series of "foundation posts" I could refer back to as needed and save myself countless instances of repetition to help readers catch up and keep up.

It would be oh-so-helpful if Steemit would move forward on their recent promise to let us edit old posts after 7 days ... but I'm not holding my breath. Back then that wasn't even a mirage ... and while objectively that may not have changed, maybe a few posts on basic terms is still a good idea.

It's Sunday -- a time when the place is even more dead than usual. I don't have another topic on hand begging to be published (although there are several works-in-progress nearing completion.) To have someone who isn't already a Steemit-friend show interest -- well, to quote Ruth Gordon in her Oscar-acceptance speech at age 70-something, "I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is ... "

So, let's lay down some foundation tracks and hope for the best. They will generate links I can refer back to. They may not be riveting reading ATM, but maybe somewhere, somehow, someday someone (else) will care. I'm game. Let's start with the planets.

With all the talk of planets, signs, houses and aspects, Astrology can sound much more confusing and intimidating to a novice than it really is. Astrology is essentially a code ... and you read a chart for an event or a person's birth (and thus his character, etc.) by knowing and deciphering the code.

There are admittedly elements of Astrology that are complex and difficult -- sometimes needlessly so, in my opinion. But the essential, generic meanings of the planets, signs, houses and aspects are pretty simple.

Planets depict elements and motives within the character of the "thing" a Natal Chart is designed to describe. That "thing" can be a person, a corporation, an event, a relationship, a job or project ... anything that has a definite beginning, development, and eventual end -- even if the end is nowhere yet in sight.

If something had a "birthplace" ... a beginning point in time and space -- such as a physical birth, a signed contract, the exchange of legal vows or obligations, a handshake of agreement, a certification, an "opening" for business or use, it can be the subject of a Natal Chart that defines its qualities, strengths, problems, and "personality." A Natal Chart tells an astrologer what one can expect from the entity s/he is examining.

Thus the Sun in a chart shows the ego energy, the central purpose, the essential focus and "personality" of the thing it defines. Mercury shows its interests, mental posture, intellectual perspectives ... how it "thinks" and sees itself and the world around it. Mars will show its capacity for taking physical action, achieving its goals, defending its interests, asserting its desires and doing the actual work the entity is designed to accomplish.

Each planet defines some important quality or ability such as this. In Astrology there are ten of these (including the Sun and Moon) and together they encompass all the faculties an entity needs to develop and survive. Planets are like the characters in a drama. The drama, of course, is the development of the life, existence, event or destiny shown in the Natal Chart.

The Planets
What They Represent

Sun

Your ego
Your self-definition and self-image
Your essential self
Sign and house shows how and where you want to be important, to make your mark on the world

Moon

Your emotional self
Your inner landscape
Your feelings and instincts
Your sense of "family" and what's familiar
Where the past influences you
Where you want things to feel safe and supportive

Mercury

Your mind
Your ability to analyze and use logical reasoning
Your ability to communicate
Your ability to learn and use information
How you think ... and the things that interest you

Venus

Your social instincts
Your ability to attract and participate in partnerships
Your behavior in association with other people
Your ability to cooperate, compromise ... and handle conflict
Your financial values ... and your way of working with money

Mars

Your personal initiative
Your ability to compete ... and work through conflict
Your way of taking action and pursuing ambitions
Your willingness to defend what's important to you ... and fight for what you want

Jupiter

Your access to Karmic blessings ... and luck
Your ability to expand, do more, receive more
Your experience with "easy benefits"
Your sense of generosity and advantage
Your "philosophy of life" and sense of morality
Your educational background and interests, and the foundations of your expertise

Saturn

Your involvement in Karmic responsibilities
Your capacity for hard work and self-discipline
Your need to build structure, safety, and protection ... for the long-term
Your capacity to create deferred rewards, reliable benefits, "assets for weathering life's storms"
Your sense of practical ambition
Your need for status and concern for your public reputation
Your involvement with career development ... and the legacy you build

Uranus

Your urge for independence, originality, novelty, innovation, invention
Your desire to be free of tradition, limitations, structure, restrictions
Your sense of rebellion ... and eccentricity
Your capacity for handling sudden changes, disruptions, "the unexpected"
Your ability to be unconventional, ingenious, and unique
Your involvement with ideas that are unusual, progressive, idealistic, modern, and totally new -- totally yours

Neptune

Your ability to act with inspiration, to take direction from your intuition and subconscious urges
Your idealism and faith, your ability to trust in Spirit ... and the goodness of your own direction
Your capacity for psychic insights, your ability to act "from deep inner feelings" that you know are right
Your psychological structures ... and motivations
Your capacity for compassion and empathy, your ability to offer and experience altruistic love
Your artistic creativity, imagination, dreams, ability to work with artistic symbolism
Your religious and spiritual interests
Your sense of privacy, your ability to be alone, your ability to hear and heed your own inner truths
Your connection to the Divine Source
Your capacity to offer healing therapies and wisdom -- to yourself and to others

Pluto

Your capacity for regeneration, for starting over "from scratch" after a time of crisis or demolition
Your ability to experience rebirth, renewal, recycling, rebuilding
Your experiences with death and resurrection, with "being born anew" ... and undergoing fundamental permanent changes
Your capacity to work with transition, transformation, improvement, renovation, "remodeling" ... replacing what exists with something better
Your ability to deal with life and death issues
Your involvement with fundamental creativity ... including sexual passion
Your ability to cope with crises and emergencies ... and forge profound changes and improvements from "the rubble and the chaos"
Your ability to restructure things that need to be torn apart and redone ... in far-reaching and permanent ways
The interaction between your personal Karma and mass Karma -- involvements with sweeping social change

Thank you for stopping by!

If you've always known there was more to Astrology than Sun Sign material and the three line daily horoscope in the newspaper, climb aboard and follow this blog. You'll find a world of wisdom detailing how you were designed to work with life ... and why you are the way you are -- all in quick-to-read, easy-to-digest-and-remember, written-in-plain-English essays that offer plenty of food for thought.

Little by little, I'm doing a set of articles that talks about all the elements in your horoscope and what they have to say about you. If you "know something" about Astrology -- or know something about your chart placements, that will help you get more from this material.

If you don't ... well, this is one place you can learn. We all have to start somewhere ... because we aren't born knowing this stuff. Meanwhile, if you've never seen your horoscope ... and don't have a clue how to work with it, maybe it's time to find out. There are lots of "chart services" on the internet -- some of whom produce decent, readable charts "for free" and some are so awful and confusing that even I can't read them easily -- and I've worked with charts for decades.

One extremely user-friendly chart site is here: AstroLabe. I recommend them if you want a simple, easy-to-read chart. I think they even give a reasonable little interpretive reading of your horoscope as part of the package. You'll need to know your birth information -- day, month, year, time and geographical place. Without all that your chart will have limited accuracy.

Or, if you want to get serious and really talk about this, upvote this post and start a conversation in the comments section sometime in the next six days from the time of publication. We'll go from there depending on what you want to know.

Questions about any of this? -- Upvote this post and talk to me in comments. It's a terrific way to build value for yourself and the community ... and it will give me ideas of what to write about in future posts. Believe me there is lots to say about the way The Sun, The Moon -- and all the other elements in a horoscope, all the other components of Astrology -- work together to interpret you and your story -- and what it all means to the person you've become.

This is who I am.

About the art in our visual essays ...

Although sometimes the background pictures in our visual essays support the topic and text, they don't always. Sometimes the connection is clear. Sometimes it's symbolic and subtle. Sometimes, there's no connection at all.

The scenes depict landscapes and natural features, buildings and wildlife. They were chosen because they show something lovely or interesting ... or simply because the photo appealed to me.

Our spectacular and remarkable planet is changing at astonishing speed. Rarely are these changes for the better. Few people seem to know ... or care ... or have the will and power to do anything about this. It may not be long before the world humans have known and lived in for centuries is forever lost. We certainly won't be able to make repairs as fast as we destroyed it.

So a few years ago I began collecting pictures of the way things were ... and still are for now, a record of the beauty we have while it is still ours to love and honor.

The photos here are part of that collection, with sincere thanks to the artists who saw these moments ... and with their cameras ... preserved them. All of us at Enchanted Spirit are profoundly grateful to them for their generosity and skill ... and for the added grace, depth and dimension their art brings to ours.

Original images used under this Creative Commons license or this Creative Commons license and modified by added text.