The Planets in Astrology: Meanings and How to Read Them
Astrology uses ten planets: the Sun and Moon (called planets for convenience), five planets visible to the eye and three outer planets found by telescope. Each describes one part of life: identity, feeling, thinking, love, drive, growth, limits, change, imagination and power.
The ten planets
Each page gives the planet's meaning, rulerships, how long it stays in a sign, and links to all its sign and house placements.
Personal, social and outer planets
The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars move quickly, so their signs differ even between people born a few weeks apart. They describe personality. Jupiter and Saturn take one and two and a half years per sign; they describe how you fit into society and how you grow and mature. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto stay seven to thirty years in a sign and are read mainly through their house and aspects.
Reading a planet in your chart
Ask three questions. What does the planet want? (its meaning) How does it go about it? (its sign) Where in life does it play out? (its house) Then look at its aspects to see what helps and what complicates it.
A planet in a sign it rules or is exalted in works easily; in its detriment or fall it has to work harder. Neither is good or bad: hard-working planets often produce the most skill.
Retrograde planets
Every planet except the Sun and Moon appears to move backwards from time to time, as Earth overtakes it or it overtakes Earth. A planet retrograde at birth is read as working more internally. Retrograde periods in the sky are read as times to review.
Find yours
See which sign and house each of your ten planets is in. Birth chart calculator
Read today's sky against your own chart
Everything on this page applies to your chart in a particular way. A Precision Horoscope casts your chart, finds today's transits to it and writes the reading for you. The first one is free. Get my free personal reading