The Planets in Astrology

Sun	Moon	Mercury	Venus	Mars
Jupiter	Saturn	Uranus	Neptune	Pluto

You can use the little form at the bottom of this post to get your own birth chart and find out where your planets are!

Sun
Rules: ♌ Leo & 5th House		Orbit: 365.25 days - 30 days per sign
	The sun's glyph contains a circle and a dot. The circle has no beginning and no ending and represents  wholeness, spirit, and infinite possibility. The dot in the center symbolizes the spark of life. As a whole, the astrological glyph for the sun portrays infinite potential (the circle) through a specific point - the individual (the dot).

Sun Keywords
father	husband	the hero	true self	basic drives
light	vitality	self-expression	ego	purpose
"to be"	life force	individuality	the center of self	self-awareness

The placement of the Sun describes:
Your self concept	Your father's influence
Your self-expression	How you perceive your father
How you can fulfill yourself	Your true potential
the health of your ego	The strength of your life force
Your urge to create	How you express your will to be

"The universe is moved by a power which cycles endlessly from day to day. Such greatness endures for all time. As in heaven, so on earth." - I Ching 

Moon
Rules: ♋ Cancer &  4th House		Orbit: 27.32 days - 2.5 days per sign
	The moon's glyph contains a crescent shape which represents openness and receptivity. It is concave and empty, like a bowl waiting to be filled. The crescent is said to represent the soul.

Moon Keywords
mother	wife	feeling-instincts	habits	subconscious
conditioning	instincts	nostalgia	emotional security	protection
maternal love	nourishment	the stomach	femininity	reactions

The placement of the Moon describes:
How you nurture yourself & others	Your unconscious reactions and instincts
Your mothers influence	How you perceive your mother
How you protect your vulnerability	How you soothe yourself
How you express your emotions	Conditioning learned in childhood
How you instinctively react	How and where you attempt to get your needs filled

"The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs." - Cicero

Mercury
Rules: ♊Gemini + ♍Virgo & 3rd + 6th Houses		Orbit: 88 days - 2-3 weeks per sign
	Mercury's glyph is formed like a totem pole with the crescent of soul on the top, the circle of spirit in the middle, and the cross of matter on the bottom. This represents the spirit as a link between soul and matter. The cross of matter on the bottom is the rootedness and base from which the spirit is lifted up to reach and connect to the soul. All together,  matter, spirit, and soul create perfect wholeness.

Mercury Keywords
intellect	reasoning	deductive logic	communication	linear thought
the messenger	the connector	writing	language	ambiguity
ambivalence	nervous system	interchanges	transportation	neighborhoods
perceptions	correspondence	the lower mind	logical processes	eagerness to learn

The placement of Mercury describes:
Your ability to perceive and make sense of the world	How you communicate
your motivations to communicate	Your eagerness for new knowledge
How you learn new things	How you articulate yourself
Your perception of your siblings	How you analyze, organize, and discriminate
Your urge to understand reality	how you connect with the world outside of you

"I have been criticized and ridiculed for turning to astrology, but after a while, I reached the point where I didn't care." - Nancy Reagan

Venus
Rules: ♉Taurus + ♎Libra & 2nd + 7th Houses		Orbit: 225 days - b/w 20 days & 2 months per sign
	The glyph for Venus places the circle of spirit over the cross of matter. This symbolizes the spirit as presiding over the cross of matter. It is also the standard biological symbol for "female."

Venus Keywords
love	affection	beauty	politeness	harmony
relationship	urge to connect	cooperation	values	visual arts
music	money	aesthetics	tenderness	self-indulgence
urge for togetherness	feminine energy	desire for physical comfort	grace	refinement

The Placement of Venus describes:
What you are aesthetically attracted to	How you love
What you do to attract others	How freely you express love and kindness
What you value	Your aesthetic choices
How well you compromise	What makes you feel physically comfortable
Your urge to socialize	Your needs for companionship
How you show affection	how much you value social contacts

"Astrology is just a finger pointing at reality." - Steven Forrest

Mars
Rules: ♈Aries & 1st House		Orbit: 2 years - 1.5 months per sign
	The glyph for Mars is a perfect representation of its essential purpose: the expenditure of energy. It includes the circle of spirit with an arrow shooting out from it, pointing upwards to the right - to a specific aim. It represents a release of energy. Fittingly, it is also the symbol for "male."

Mars Keywords
masculinity	aggression	action	animal nature	assertion of self
independence	war	violence	athletes	accidents
surgeries	raw power	force	competition	destruction

The placement of Mars describes:
How you get what you want	How you assert yourself
Your passions	How competitive you are
What makes you mad	How you fight
how and where you spend your energy	How you start new projects
Your urge to do	How defensive you are

"Astrology is a language. If you understand this language, the sky speaks to you." - Dane Rudhyar

Jupiter
Rules: ♐Sagittarius & 9th House		Orbit: 11.9 Years - 1 year per sign
	In the glyph for Jupiter, there is the crescent of soul on the side of and connected to the cross of matter, representing a balance and cooperation between the receptivity and matter.

Jupiter Keywords
optimism	expansion	luck	faith	trust
freedom	growth	enthusiasm	exploration	sense of humor
high expectations	philosophy	higher education	over-doing	exaggeration

The placement of Jupiter describes:
How you express enthusiasm	What your beliefs are
Your urge to explore mentally & physically	Where you feel fearlessness
How much faith you have in life	What your philosophies are
Your urge for abstract thought	How you mentally grow
In what area you tend to over-do	Your sense of humor

"The cosmos is a vast living body, of which we are still parts. The sun is a great heart whose tremors run through our smallest veins. The moon is a great nerve center from which we quiver forever. Who knows the power that Saturn has over us, or Venus? But it is a vital power, rippling exquisitely through us all the time." - D.H. Lawrence

Saturn
Rules: ♑Capricorn &10th  house		Orbit: 29.5 years - about 2.5 years per sign
	The Saturn glyph has  the cross of matter rising up above the crescent of soul. That is, matter presiding over receptivity. Saturn does, in fact, prefer reality over  illusion, as its glyph perfectly symbolizes.

Saturn Keywords
discipline	responsibilities	obstacles	limits	control
restriction	maturity	fear	misfortune	reservation
authority	disappointment	time & patience	structure	boundaries

The placement of Saturn describes:
In what area of life you are most fearful	how and where you need to control
how strong your boundaries are	Where & how you limit yourself
where you need to learn responsibility	How you deal with authority
where you will have obstacles to overcome	What lessons you need to learn
where you are most close-minded	how structured and stable you tend to be

"The stars which shone over Babylon and the stable in Bethlehem still shine as brightly over the Empire State Building and your front yard today." - Linda Goodman

The last three planets: Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto are considered the Outer Planets, that is, they are much further away and slower than both the Social Planets: Jupiter and Saturn, and the Personal Planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto move around the sun at such a slow rate that they actually spend many, many years in relatively the same spot, or the same Zodiac sign. Therefore, every person born within a span of 7 years, for instance, will have Uranus in the same sign in their birth chart. What this means is that these last three planets affect decades of people in the same way.

For instance, right now in 2014, Uranus is in Aries and will be there until March of 2019. Therefore, every baby born from until then will have Uranus in Aries. Neptune is in Pisces until 2025. Pluto is currently in Capricorn and will be there until 2023. Uranus and Pluto, specifically, effect entire generations, each generation reflecting the current signs of the planets.

When it comes to interpreting these slow planets in a birth chart, it is more personally informative to look at which house they are located in and what aspects they make to your personal planets. The house placements and aspects of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are more or less different for everyone, and are therefore more telling on a personal level. It is still important to look at the signs of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto but remember it will be the same for everyone within several years of your birth.

Uranus
Rules: ♒Aquarius + 11th House		Orbit: 84 years - 7 years per sign
	There are two glyphs for Uranus. The 1st, and most widely used one, is one of the more complicated glyphs. It includes both the letter H for Sir William Herschel who discovered the planet in 1781, but it also has two crescents on each side of the cross of matter, on top of the circle of spirit. This shows an openness and recptivity from both sides, feeding into material existence . Uranus is, in fact, the planet of flashes of insight and invention. The 2nd glyph for Uranus shows the symbol for the sun with an arrow shooting directly upwards, depicting Uranus' fixed ideals and tendency to go where the light has not yet been. Uranus is, in fact, the rebel of the solar system.

Uranus Keywords
freedom	eccentricity	invention	deviation	progression
unpredictability	carefree	upheaval	disruption	electric impulses
revolution	humanism	awakening	flash of lightning	the unexpected

The house placement of Uranus describes:
where  you need to let go	what area of your life is unpredictable
Where you feel unattached to convention	in what area of life you need total freedom
where you can expect sudden changes	how & where you follow your own path
where you cause or experience rebellion	in what area of life you do things "differently"
where you experience upheavals	where you feel the most idealistic

"Astrology is a fact, in most instances. But astrological aspects are but signs, symbols. No influence is of greater value or of greater help than the will of an individual.... Do not attempt to be guided by, but use the astrological influences as the means to meet or to overcome the faults and failures, or to minimize the faults and to magnify the virtues in self." - Edgar Cayce

Neptune
Rules: ♓Pisces + 12th House		Orbit: 165 years - 14 years per sign
	The Neptune glyph depicts an upward crescent connected to the cross of matter. The crescent is lowered onto the cross so that there are three points pointing upwards to infinite idealism and the superconscious. The Crescent seems to overwhelm and submerge a part of the cross of matter. In fact, Neptune is most definitely the planet of submergence, that is, viewing life as if through water, blurred and deceptive. Neptune's rewards require a true balance of practicality and inspiration.

Neptune Keywords
delusion	deception	glamour	escapism	the higher realm
fantasy	smoke & mirrors	boundlessness	merging	illusion
infiniteness	drugs/alcohol	formlessness	limitlessness	disappointment

The placement and condition of Neptune describes:
where you have a weak hold on reality	where you deceive yourself / others
where you are overly idealistic	where you feel limitlessness
the strength of your personal boundaries	the strength  of your urge to escape reality
how open/closed you are to outer influences	where you are the most in-tune with higher realms
where you have the urge to blur boundaries	your infinite imagination

"The puzzling thing is that there is really a curious coincidence between astrological and psychological facts, so that one can isolate time from the characteristics of an individual, and also, one can deduce characteristics from a certain time." - Carl Jung

Pluto
Rules: ♏Scorpio + 8th House		Orbit: 248 years - b/w 14 to 30 years per sign
	There are two glyphs for Pluto, the "PL" symbol being the most popularly used today. The "PL" stands for astrologer Percival Lowell (founder of the Lowell Observatory) and for the Roman god Pluto. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in 1930. The 2nd glyph is similar to that of Neptune, but with the upwards crescent containing a circle of spirit. This represents Pluto's need for a balance of both our receptivity to the underworld (submerged circle of spirit) and our need for power. If one outweighs the other, it can lead to total obsession with power, psychotic episodes,death, and destruction.

Pluto Keywords
destruction	death	psych. complexes	rebirths	ruthlessness
power & control	all or nothing	transformation	perceptiveness	tearing down to rebuild
elimination	penetration	obsession	shadow self	desire

The placement of Pluto describes:
where you feel the dire need to control	you urge for power
where you subconsciously transform	where / when you are the most intense
where your ego feels the most threatened	where you need to release control entirely
where you feel a sense of obsession	where you manipulate and feel manipulated
where you are most close-minded	your detective skills

Let us know what signs and houses your planets are in! Do you have a lot of planets in one house? I have 5 planets in the 7th house! I also have the Sun in Scorpio in the 8th house and the Moon in Aquarius in the 11th. My favorite is my Venus in Libra in the 7th. I'm proud of that one. :)