by Kay Cavender
First and foremost, always keep in mind that the planets are never literally a person, place, or thing. They do not "rule" anything. And they are "not" other people in your chart. As always in such write-ups, the sentence structure when referring to any planet tends often to seem to "equate" the planet and the quality or condition referred to. Beware. The planets signify and symbolise archetypal characteristics, energies, and conditions. There is no way to tell from a chart if it is of a person, animal or event. Given that it is of a person, there is no way to tell from the chart if the person is male or female, genius or idiot, saint or sinner. But the outstanding qualities of any of those may be known.
The following paragraphs have been distilled from several sources which were given to me but without the authors name attached. I found them so useful I didn't want to give them up
The Sun much like the Moon, draws and focuses attention upon you, but it brings more emphasis to your all-around individuality, your own "personhood" and productivity, and your basic values. It might precipitate questions from others such as: "What are your abilities, talents, potentials?" People will want to know just where you are headed and how you plan to get there. You can increase your status in the world by bringing others to review your current or past accomplishments. You too will be reviewing your status, becoming more aware of how you stack up in the eyes of those in a position to influence your affairs. In general, a feeling of increased importance, and a greater sense of purpose may be experienced. This can indicate possible glories or potential successes if supported by other transits such as an angular Jupiter. The Sun dominates elements of pride and ego gratification, the need for recognition, & the fires of ambition, fame, fortune or importance in the world.
If self-esteem is low, the Sun generally revives it, as your appreciation of yourself and the good qualities you possess become important. Because of your centred in your own purposes, you can come over now as the "boss" or the master of current situations or circumstances. You tend to impress people in general, and thus your ego gets a warming massage and personal status or regard is uplifted.
The transit of New or Full Moon over the Sun can overstress the physical or emotional system, sometimes indicating a drop in overall vitality for the duration of the transit. This can be aggravated by a tendency to concentrate energy on personal matters meant to gratify your ego. But a basic self-interest manifests concerning your potential, what satisfies you and what does not. This can make you feel you are a power to be reckoned with, to be placated--a bit of a potentate in your own field of interest.
The Moon angular accentuates the power of your emotions, memories, intuitions, prejudices, sentiments, passions and sensations. You may find yourself ardent over fanatical whims and dreams, or going overboard on cherished projects. When the Moon is angular, refrain from swinging wildly from the heights of euphoria to the depths of despair, as this lunar angularity can whip up buried feelings and sensitivities. In general, the motion of nature and life, the perceptions and sense within yourself and the tidal or cyclic movement of existence is deeply felt. For some, this brings an acute awareness of the emotional interactions between you and another. Eager to sympathise, easily wounded, responsive to overtures, you tend to filter down any and all situations onto a personal and emotional level. You are impressionable and susceptible to others' opinions, subject to more or less wild mood fluctuations, setting your sails according to every prevailing wind. And as the late Cyril Fagan indicated, Sun-Moon contacts present opportunities for amorous attractions to manifest because of one's heightened emotional receptivity.
Publicity, or public opinion, and feeling loom larger than usual with the Moon. You may feel the importance and impact of your peers, or society rules and regulations upon you at this time. Your position or status can be subject to changing opinions of others and you may experience alterations or transitions in your occupation or in your community standing. Since there is a more emotional element to your actions and especially reactions, impulse or reaction to others plays a greater role in your moves or decisions. As your 'openness' assails you & you become thin-skinned, there can be a strong urge to surrender to the moods of the moment.
The Moon indicates a restless atmosphere in domestic relations at home and office with wide fluctuations of mood. You can experience an increased desire and taste for variety. Thus, alteration in decor, the rearrangement of furniture, or other changes around the house may be instigated by you, as impulsive decisions and emotionalism prevail. Current fads capture your attention, and can be accompanied by emotionally based resolutions to follow some new trend, but staying power may be lacking. You tend to be more vulnerable than usual to appeals to your sympathy or generosity. On the whole, relations with those at home or at work on daily basis are especially emotional and sensitive.
Mental activity, your ability to focus thought, observe, assess, learn, perceive, concentrate or memorise are featured or called into play. Much exchange of information and a general air of business is manifest, even quick changes in atmosphere, comings and goings. You could find yourself bringing work home from the office, engaging in extensive homework for school projects, signing or studying official papers and reports. Messages and phone calls can be prevalent and take up much of your time.
Whenever Mercury is angular, details tend to demand more attention, as well as letter writing, conversation, study and news. You may find relatives coming to visit or neighbours temporarily assuming a larger role in your affairs. A burst of activity often accompanies Mercury. Clean-up work, details, news, written material and the spoken word come to your immediate attention. Efficiency on the job or in creative expression is stimulated. Arrivals, departures and other transportation matters assume importance.
Mercury usually means a heavy volume of correspondence-- letters coming and going, packages, and a myriad of details to be attend to. Mercury's aspects are particularly important in determining the type of communications you can expect. If with Uranus, unexpected calls or startling news. With Pluto, it also can mean shocking or amazing news, while with Jupiter, it may indicate uplifting news. Mercury with Venus can inspire musical or artistic interest, or focus attention on language and social communication that have to do with friends or romance.
Mercury with Saturn may require dutiful response to some serious matter or unpleasant news, or at least tiresome business such as form letters. Mercury with Mars can show communications hassles, as business tensions or everyday friction can increase and become wearing on the nerves. Mercury with the Sun touches on news affecting status, ego, and so on. Mercury with Neptune or Moon increases emotionalism and the impact of feeling in news, letters and conversations. With Neptune, Mercury can set off misapprehensions that have little foundation. Don't sign contracts or papers under this, though. Only creative or aesthetic projects with non-material goals are "favoured."
'Your peace is my peace' appears to best express the desire for oneness with others that manifests when touched by Venus. One tends to be attracted at this time to activities which require harmony, rhythm, beauty and refined conduct. Relaxation, enjoyment and tranquillity are emphasised. Venus is essentially tolerant, lax and lenient implying that you will take the line of least resistance. and just let things ride. Conciliatory action such as extending the olive branch can accentuate any basic tendency for compassion, tolerance and mercy. Forgiveness is apt to be exhibited.
And so Venus can ease circumstances, relieve pressures and smooth your relations with the world; likewise in your daily environment, with Venus there is a harmonising, quieting, tenderising influence promoting peaceful or co-operative conditions. Your home may become restful, tranquil and a thoroughly enjoyable place in which to pass your leisure time.
Familial and on-the-job friction should subside, at least somewhat, while this influence is in effect. Even if travelling under this influence, you feel more or less at home, no matter how exotic your surroundings.
Gains in material possessions as an external expression in addition to gain in status or esteem are also possible. You could find ways and means for improving the beauty of your home or office. Gardening and the addition of some lovely new plants, for instance, or other incidental items to your home may also feature importantly. Under Venus, one tends to be "in the mood" for love, with the desire to express affection for a person, place, or thing. Feelings of affection and benevolence often coincide with offerings of money and gifts and other tokens of affection.
Generally, romance and friendships brighten, and prospects for future seem more optimistic because Venus accentuates tender, gentle, sentimental and aesthetic feelings; so there may be a strong inclination to seek our the joys of social life, dances, parties, or any activity that centres around person-to-person contact. Invitations to formal occasions (weddings, graduations, etc.) may be received and accepted happily. So friendship and romantic opportunities are always possible with an angular Venus, and social contacts are likely foremost, though nothing is fated. There is a possibility that your peers, or society at large, may express affection for you and approval of your accomplishments, or you may just experience a general feeling of being accepted and part of the group. You will probably feel content with your status.
Hence, Venus is a helpful influence for parties, celebrations and entertainment as Venus angular often brings the desire for activities which give enjoyment. You may find the general atmosphere more or less festive. Even when something goes sour in the proceedings, you tend to sweeten things by unobtrusively smoothing over troubled waters.
With Mars, you seize the initiative. Energy is up and a search for adventure ensues. You are brash, rash, and rush in where angels fear to tread. You are ready to participate in the life around you, and you have an eagle eye out for your own interests. Any provocation you offer may be returned in kind, so do be careful what you do and say. You are intolerant of other's foibles. Emotionally you can be high strung, irritable, testy. Something or someone may really set you off, as it were, since you are labouring under the stress of a short temper and feel the need to let off steam. Exercise, movement and flexing your muscles both figuratively and literally in constructive ways is called for. Take action on previously planned projects, sports, or any activity that gets you moving, but be careful not to burn yourself out. Caution with tools or machinery is needed as tenseness or nervousness can make you careless at just the wrong moment.
With Mars, your reaction to affairs can get irritating and perhaps a bit explosive. Great physical activity is indicated, expressed in housecleaning, furniture moving, painting, extensive home repairs, and other heavy household jobs. Relations with parents or a spouse can be quite tense. The emphasis is on commotion, tumult, and nervous energy looking for an outlet. Guard against outbursts of impatience, temper and emotional agitation. Because Martian mishaps are usually the result of "too much, too fast" on the part of the individual concerned, try to slow yourself down in order to avoid them. Mars can precipitate clashes that could lead to break-ups or temporary separations, brought about in the heat of anger rather than through considered reasoning. It can however bring to the surface matters that need to be faced before they can be cleared up.
Mars is a combative influence; there is an element of attack to be considered. You may feel the domination of someone in your life trying to take control of your direction, your career. Mars angular usually foretells a "rough ride;" you could get it or give it; you could be called on the carpet by authority figures and really get chewed out or chew someone out. Another usual form of Martian expression is through possible attacks from germs, e.g., virus, cold, fever, etc., or even pests from the insect world. Mars often manages to get your adrenaline flowing in a big way. Mars calls for action, excitement, aggression, and you are usually presented with circumstance to fill the bill, or you present the reaction and change the circumstance.
Any angular position of Jupiter injects a feeling for the lighter side of life, encouraging enjoyment in the here and now and hope for the future. Jupiter tends to ease your general circumstance into more palatable channels and usually represents opportunities of all kinds. If Jupiter is also near the natal angles, or the natal Sun, as well as return angles, you may experience once-in-a-lifetime elevations of influence, prestige and status. In general, your position in your own eyes and in the eyes of your peers is upgraded. If changes of residence are made under this Jupiter position you are likely to improve your conditions and move into better circumstances than you left behind. This is an excellent influence for outpourings of concern, interest and acts of kindness directed toward you or from you. You may increase your material possessions because of such actions by others. The overall Jupiter influence indicates a feeling of prosperity or some kind of gain, help, success or relief from burdens.
Jupiter can indicate opulent or progressive conditions in your philosophy, home or family life. Under Jupiter, you can advance and improve close relationships. An element of celebration or the impulse to rejoice may be relevant. Jupiter angular by location or transit frequently indicates increases in your material assets in some way, adding to your possessions, indicating optimism and a feeling of hopeful expectation. If Venus aspects Jupiter, the receipt or giving of expensive items or gifts may follow. Jupiter enlivens the atmosphere and conditions around you, and your home or backyard may become the centre for happy occasions that upgrade your status in the local community. You may feel like thinking of positive new beginnings that lay the groundwork for future material growth and expansion. Raises, praises, and promotions sometimes occur with this placement. You, your home or family life can experience welcome breath of optimism and high spirits.
With Jupiter you experience a lift in spirits, feelings of luck, jubilation, of having a good time, and of being of value to yourself and others. You mood radiates with expectations, enthusiasm, hope and confidence as everything seems to go your way. This is a time when you are apt to be rewarded for past favours or services rendered. You are given a boost in self-esteem as business, social, friendship or financial interests take on new vitality. Cares and responsibilities seem to fall from your shoulders as you don the garb of humour, geniality and good cheer and good will to all. If you can keep from feeling too relaxed to do anything because everything is coming up roses and already going your way, this is a fine time to go out and actively promote your interests. This is your best of all times in the best of all worlds.
Physical, emotional, intellectual inertia can manifest. You become acutely aware of the passing of time. The spotlight seems to be on your sense of inferiority, and you become sensitive to your own limits: your faults, mistakes, and weaknesses--and assume that everyone else sees them, too. As your vulnerability and morality seem to be hanging out, at least to yourself if not to the rest of the world, it is not the best time to apply for a job or ask for favours.
The positive emphasis, although it's hard to focus on such, is on the cultivation of such qualities as self-control, discipline, responsibility, sobriety, autonomy, and self-sufficiency. Saturn gives a feeling of being on entirely on your own with the necessity to work to carry out ambitions and practical objectives. You may feel you are on the short side of the bargain unless you are experienced in the ways of the world and spirit. With Saturn activated, questions about your limits on all levels are raised. What is your physical and material security and protection? Is your body and mind healthy? What are your financial weakness and strengths? What is your spiritual status? All difficult questions, but Saturn plays the investigator, cross-examining you in every way.
Saturn may spur you into stronger desires for increasing your self- sufficiency and security. Your standing in the world or your reputation can come under severe scrutiny at this time. You can become acutely conscious or sensitive about your current status in life and the lack of fulfilment in your expectations. This may signify a period when you take stock of where you now are and where you actually want to be. You may feel a necessary tightening of the purse strings cramps your style. Saturn angular puts a strain on your pocketbook, piling up the expenses, increasing debts or, at the very least, making your usual payments temporarily a heavier burden than normal. A slow-down in business, office or domestic affairs is usually more noticeable, as Saturn often places limits on one's normal cash flow and everything else.
Saturn tends to stress duty, self-sacrifice, restrictions or disciplinary action with the concomitant feelings of constraint or being "put upon" by fate. You could imitate these conditions yourself through a self-imposed isolation, retreat or fast. This can be extremely boring placement indicating time on your hands, yet without the feeling of freedom to do with it as you please. It can emphasise a sense of solitude in the world or the feelings of deprivation. You may need to resist the temptation to worry and fret as Saturn can be a great initiator of negative emotions.
But transits of Saturn tend to bring awareness of dead wood in your life, or outmoded or otherwise undesirable situations. In many cases, a curtain of sorts is brought down in some phase of your life. Saturn can indicate feelings of restriction, even of depression over any ruts you've allowed yourself to fall into. It may add an element of sadness or moroseness to your daily activities, with your mundane affairs becoming stultifying, stagnant, or far too humdrum for your taste. Demands on your time, the passing away of old customs, habits, people can occur. Saturn can bring self-sacrifice, self-discipline, duty or the necessity of coming to terms with circumstances over which you have no control. Boredom, worry and a sense of isolation are common.
You experience a sense of uniqueness, and express creative action or ideas. Attention is focused on your inventiveness, originality, and any singular abilities or contributions you have to make. Sudden inspiration may occur to you, or strange, unusual, "far out" ideas occupy your mind and impinge on your concentration. A inner need to express you uniqueness builds up and can break loose to make you appear undisciplined and uncontrollable. In a sense, you come alive with a new independence. A chance to travel may present itself just when your own wanderlust and restlessness hit hardest. Contacts with unusual subjects or strangers attract your interest and may offer new delights--or you may discover amazing personal, mental or psychological breakthroughs. Especially interesting dreams can also occur.
Whenever Uranus hits an angle, it freshens your outlook, calls for new perspectives, and creates ideas for ways of breaking up the status quo. Uranus does not take to the tried and true; on the contrary, it embraces the possibilities inherent in each passing moment. It can help you take the pigeon-holing and categorising out of your life, and instil a new openness to life's uncertainties. To those who are somewhat habit-bound, this can be disturbing, but disturbing or not, the changes experienced with Uranus can be expected to promote a new awareness of the impermanence of nature and the infinite possibilities of your own individuality.
Uranus likes to work on us like a bolt out of the blue, to shake us up a bit and renew our sense of excitement in life. Its placement may mean a complete change in environment, such as an opportunity for travel or a residential move. You tend to be "up," ready for something interesting to happen if you have to make it happen yourself. If Uranus is simultaneously transiting the natal Sun or angles, it accents and personally intensifies its power to rip up your usual patterns of activity and introduces, for the nonce, circumstances in which your life definitely take on added zest and totally new dimensions. With Uranus, unexpected visitors, surprising developments, or even changes of residence can occur; change is in the air and it hits you right in your sanctum santorum, so be prepared for most anything!
The element of surprise, shock, and the unforeseen must always be counted upon when Uranus comes to an angle. Nervous tension, stimulation and high awareness occur. In general, it breaks up tiresome routine, and kicks tedium in the seat of the pants! Uranus will definitely relieve boredom and maybe even shake you up a little, at least temporarily. All this tends to be unsettling, of course, and you have to be on your toes to meet the challenge of changing circumstance.
You tend to drift, sitting by the water counting every star, as your time is occupied with weaving dreams, ideas and images that never were. Searching for the key to paradise, you look in mysterious places for answers to mysterious questions. The dim past, the far-away future, weird happenings are subjects designed to raise good bumps--all these crowd your mind. Emotionally, you can be extremely vulnerable, easily swayed, overjoyed, depressed, embarrassed and melodramatic. There is a need to emotionalise and internalise the world which can only be done by wearing rose-coloured glasses and avoiding practical realities. The real world assumes a low profile for you. If you find yourself weeping suddenly, chalk it up to Neptunian emotionality, and let it go at that. Fervent feelings, extreme tension, nerves and various emotional states that can range from the blues to the heights of spiritual exaltation are often engendered by this planet of extremes. On the positive side, Neptune can increase one's dramatic ability and creative imagination as well as psychism, clairvoyance or visionary experience. At the very least, you may find retreat in a good novel.
Neptune can stir up the emotional atmosphere in your home. Should you have a larger than usual number of people coming and going, visiting for a long period of time, using your house for a base of operations so to speak, you can find yourself succumbing to great nervous strain. Demands are made on you to smooth over others' problems, to sympathise and render emotional support and to, in effect, be all things to all people in the family circle. On the other side of the coin, a strong desire to be alone, to ponder the mysteries of the universe, as it were, may come upon you making relations with those who would intrude upon your privacy more stressful. There is always a possibility of some health problems and dependence which can confine some to their homes during a Neptune transit or location. Should Neptune be in aspect with Saturn, any physical health problems could be complicated by depression or anxiety at not being able to handle your usual chores and duties. In this case, self-recrimination may be the unhappy result. Insecurity and unjustified fearfulness may be difficult to overcome without the emotional support of other close family members.
The home or office area may become overripe with sensitivity where you feel you have to walk on egg shells to avoid emotional complications and outbursts. This is not a good time to move into or buy a new home. Hidden clauses, poor plumbing, or other unnoticeable trouble spots may not be detected until it is too late and you're already signed on the dotted line. Your dreams and fantasies may be played upon to your detriment, so try to keep your feet on the ground and your head as far away from the clouds as possible during this period. If an artistic or spiritual person, you can glean much from Neptune in the form of increased studies in your special field of interest. However, if you allow yourself to become too absorbed by your mental pursuits, you can leave other important duties undone.
Neptune can bring strange and subtle pressure to bear with both emotional and psychological overtones that can work upon your sense of well-being in terms of worldly status. It may indicate the possibility of a humbling experience concerning prestige or community standing or strange worries, tensions and fears about what people think about you. It can bring you inklings of unrest about your position in the eyes of acquaintances, friends, society at large, etc., as Neptune angular can making you feel "like a fool" for any number of reasons, and it tends to feed off your reputation, using your life, position or status as a basis for speculation. Officials, bosses, and those in authority may not be dealing with you very decisively now--sort of letting things ride with no clear signals to let you know where you stand. Don't expect promotions, as Neptune's transit usually doesn't bring them, and if it does it may be all glamour and no substance. Rumours are rift with Neptune. You can get "sucked in" to unprofitable ventures or schemes. Watch out for glorified hucksters or conditions that may make you ripe for a royal "scam" or just plain hoodwinking as any angular position of Neptune can indicate deception. This is not a time for you to "show your stuff" to the world. If you do, you tend to wind up feeling a bit inept and ineffectual as your energy is now turned inward. In other words, you are not operating at peak efficiency in the external world. The natural tendency is for you to retire from the world, depending on the power of fantasy or faith to get you by. Neptune is for the inner world.
There is vitality in your determination to get what you want and to go where you want to go. Your goals become clearer and your resolve to meet them stronger than ever. A change in address or a turnabout in domestic relations can occur most abruptly. You may "choose" to cut loose from formerly restrictive ties and associations and close out affiliations that no longer "cut the mustard." A startling revelation may set you back on your heels, or you may set others back. A variety of odd circumstances can assault your domestic peace and quiet. The basic effect is of transient bombshells levelling your current state of normalcy, and with this, you may find yourself frequently wondering, "What's next?" Important matters tend to come to a head. There is often a feeling of finality when this influence is in effect. Many people come to sudden decisions which can affect their futures in an important way.
The element of shock and surprise can not be overestimated where Pluto's position is concerned. Pluto tends to introduce the antisocial or the elements of the "ugly truth" into your life when it is on an angle, so be prepared for some unpleasant or shocking facts about to be revealed as such a time. Whether such shocks are pleasant or not seems to depend on Pluto's aspects to other planets in natal and return charts. Pluto's effect is often on the order of "shock therapy." Examples of this type of influence are the discovery of snakes in your plumbing, a hive of bees converging around your car or clinging to your front door, a wasp's nest on your roof or other unnatural, but natural, anomalies that can strike home with sudden force and stunning vitality.
Pluto often shows a very basic change in your affairs, and you'll look back and realise that Pluto has initiated a real life drama into your private world. Pluto makes its own rules, and it can bring about big changes in environment, rearrangements in your normal circle of friends and perhaps indicate a new job or a different attitude toward bosses and superiors or everyone. Pluto tends to make you aware of realities, usually with a striking force that reaches you in a totally personal way. Pluto is the great revealer, bringing all kinds of strange, even alien, and perhaps unwanted emotions and situations out into the open. It brings you face-to-face with the eternal verities and invites you to take a long, hard look at life. Pluto gives you a feeling of the power of personal action being taken out of your hands and put into those of "fate" or a higher power.
With Pluto, your concepts of time, space and the universe are subject to sudden revision. Incredible opportunities or experiences can appear offering a totally different perspective for living your life. You are totally transfixed with what happens around you under Pluto. Pluto tends to expose a raw nerve, to unmask or uncover that which you would often rather not deal with . In some area of your life, this is the time when you lay your cards on the table. The intensity of expression required by Pluto necessitates some kind of drastic or dramatic reactions within the personality, so precipitous actions or words can come out. This is your moment of decision, or so you feel, and you must make a stand, whether for defence or offence.
The materials for a personal renaissance, a transformation, a new lease on life are definitely here with Pluto's transit. For this, you may feel you have cast yourself into the role of outlaw or rebel. Pluto doesn't play by the book and when you are strongly under the influence of this transit, you don't either. You stand on the threshold of time and existence alone, and find yourself singled out, sensitive to the consequences of your actions and to the turnings of fate. You can appear to others as anti-social, or unwilling to cooperate, dogmatic, unbending, or fanatical, as you seem to be marching to the beat of a different drummer. This influence is responsible for the internal force to overcome, the will to power, and feats of an almost supernatural nature.
Copyright © 1995 Kay Cavender. All
rights reserved.