Rae Orion - Astrology For Dummies

Or look at Leo, which lives next door to Cancer but boasts a very different personality, as is always the case with adjacent signs. Leo is the sign of positive fixed fire. Its natives tend to be outgoing and assertive (positive or yang), determined (fixed), warm, and full of personality (fire).

The polarity, modality, and element provide a rudimentary sense of what each sign is about. For a detailed description of the signs, turn to Part 2.

The zodiac arcs across the cosmos, huge and impossibly remote. Its symbolic equivalent, small and incredibly close, is the human form. About two thousand years ago, the Roman astrologer Marcus Manilius correlated each sign of the zodiac with a part of the body in a sequence that starts at the head with Aries and runs down to the feet, which belong to Pisces. Medieval art, both European and Islamic, includes many fine renderings of the so-called Zodiac Man, a figure that also appears in ancient medical texts. Indeed, medicine as it was once practiced looked to astrology not only for an understanding of disease — the Black Death that swept across Europe between 1347 and 1351 was widely blamed on a planetary conjunction and an eclipse — but also for cures. Throughout the Middle Ages (and beyond), medical students at the University of Bologna and elsewhere were required to study astrology.

I have concerns about medical astrology. I have seen cases in which astrological diagnosis has proven to be weirdly accurate. Still, it’s not a sport for amateurs. To make an accurate diagnosis through astrology requires serious expertise. I love this diagram anyway because it reminds us that the spectrum of experience represented by the signs of the zodiac is universal and lives in each one of us.

The Sun, the Moon, and the planets play individual parts in your horoscope. Each one carries a certain kind of energy and represents a different facet of what it means to be human. Their meanings are as follows:

The Sun represents your essential self, will, and individuality. More than any other celestial body, it represents who you are.

The Moon represents your emotions, subconscious, instincts, habits, and memory.

Mercury symbolizes your approach to communication, your reasoning ability, the way you think, and your curiosity.

Venus represents your approach to love, attraction, beauty, money, possessions, and the arts.

Mars is the planet of action, desire, and aggression. It represents your physical energy, combativeness, enterprise, and courage.

Jupiter is the planet of expansion and good fortune. It represents growth, prosperity, abundance, generosity, religion, philosophy, and wisdom. (Jupiter is said to represent the “higher mind” while Mercury, the planet of gossip and word games, must make do with the “lower mind.”) Jupiter’s position in a horoscope tells you where you’re lucky and where your efforts are most likely to be rewarded.

Saturn represents limitation, caution, organization, endurance, and discipline. It tells you where you have to face your fears — and also where you’re ambitious.

Uranus represents rebellion, revolutionary change, originality, independence, and everything unexpected or unconventional. It also represents technology, electricity, and invention.

Neptune represents spirituality, dreams, psychic ability, intuition, disintegration, compassion, self-sacrifice, deception, illusion, and imagination.

Pluto, which was officially relegated to a dwarf planet in 2006 but maintains its status within the astrological community, represents destruction, regeneration, renewal, and transformation.

Besides the planets, many astrologers sneak a few other celestial bodies into their charts. The most notable is Chiron, which was discovered in 1977. It has been classified as an asteroid, a minor planet, a comet, and finally a centaur. Like the mythological half man/half horse for whom they are named, centaurs are hybrids, part asteroid and part comet. Chironrepresents past wounds and pathways to healing. Many astrologers associate it with holistic medicine.

In every chart, some planets are more powerful than others. But every chart includes every planet, and every planet has its own meaning. One way to summarize all this is to associate a single word with each planet. These keywords appear in Table 1-3.

TABLE 1-3Keywords for the Planets

Planet	Keyword	Symbol
Sun	Self
Moon	Emotion
Mercury	Communication
Venus	Love
Mars	Action
Jupiter	Expansion
Saturn	Restriction
Uranus	Revolution
Neptune	Imagination
Pluto	Transformation
Chiron	Healing

In an ideal universe, each planet would function perfectly well in each sign. But astrologers have long noted that some placements seem to work better than others. The sign in which a planet is most effective — that is, the sign with which it shares the greatest affinity, the sign whose style is most like its own — is the sign that it is said to rule. Two thousand years ago, when astrologers only had to worry about the Sun, the Moon, and five planets, they connected the planets and the signs this way:

The Sun ruled Leo.

The Moon ruled Cancer.

Mercury ruled Gemini and Virgo.

Venus ruled Taurus and Libra.

Mars ruled Aries and Scorpio.