The Nine Celestial Influences
The sun is the soul, the heart, the father, authority, heat, power and ambition.
The moon is the mind, mother, water, coolness, emotions, memory and common sense.
Mars is courage, bravery, sports, competition, maleness, passion, action, war, cuts and burns.
Mercury is intelligence, learning, teaching, speech, expression, communication and writing.
Jupiter is fortune, expansion, wealth, children, religion, philosophy and wisdom.
Venus is marriage, love, romance, luxuries, prosperity, femininity, artistic expression, grace, and beauty.
Saturn is slowness, struggle, discipline, dryness, labor, asceticism, accidents, and chronic disease.
Rahu is material desire, dullness, ignorance, laziness, sleep and addictions and ancestral karma.
Ketu is asceticism, spirituality, psychic ability, ghosts, eccentricity and occultism.
The Signs of the Zodiac
Aries is the first sign of the zodiac and is ruled by Mars and so has many of the qualities of this planet. Aries is action, impulse, independence, force, self-expression and competition.
Taurus is the next sign and is ruled by Venus. Taurus is the earth, feelings, stability, conservation, relationships and partnerships.
Gemini is ruled by Mercury. Gemini is energy, nervousness, restlessness, intellect, language, artistic ability, and communications.
Cancer is ruled by the moon, which is mind and the mother. Cancer is openness, friendship, sympathy, care, nurturing, emotions, family and the home.
Leo is ruled by the sun and therefore stands for heat, order, harmony, and central control. Leo is ambition, power will, pride, show and drama.
Virgo is ruled by Mercury. Virgo stands for intellect, command of language, nervousness and sensitivity. Virgo is also detail and precision.
Libra is ruled by Venus. Libra is leadership, power, command of ideas and idealism. Libra is reform, revolution, prophets, and even fanaticism.
Scorpio is ruled by Mars. Scorpio is secretive, sensual, sexual and eccentric. Scorpio is both physical and mental, and so stands for martial force as well as psychic force.
Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter and stands for grace, beneficence, completion and harmony. Sagittarius is expansion, morality, justice, philosophy and religion.
Capricorn is ruled by Saturn and therefore signifies hard work, perseverance, tenacity and accomplishment. Capricorn is also power, order and organization.
Aquarius is also ruled by Saturn and tends to exhibit the dark side of Saturn. Aquarius is deviation, occultism, eccentricity, but also includes sacrifice, humanitarianism, ingenuity and faith.
Pisces is ruled by Jupiter. Pisces stands for emotion, expansion, intuition, liberation and imagination. Pisces is also dependance and conservatism.
The Houses
There are 12 houses of interpretation. The first house is always determined by the place of the rising sign, the second house follows after that, and so on. Each of the houses have the following symbolic importance:
The first house is the house of life purpose and physical existence. It indicates the self, the ego, character, appearance, the head and general well being.
The second house is money, wealth, self expression, knowledge, speech, family and imagination.
The third house shows courage, bravery, efforts, adventures, brothers and sisters, enthusiasm and motivations.
The fourth house shows mother, the heart, land, buildings, comforts, vehicles, happiness and ancestral property.
The fifth house is children, intelligence, learning, destiny, government, investment, romance, and charity.
The sixth house shows health, illness, enemies, litigation, obstacles, subordinates and employees.
The seventh house is the spouse, married life, relationships, partners, and foreign residence.
The eighth house is longevity, death, wills and inheritance, legacy, taxes, occult matters, secrets and sex.
The Ninth house is father, fortune, solutions, religion, philosophy, faith, worship, wisdom and long journeys.
The ten house shows career, fame, worldly power, professional activities, honors, and life purpose.
The eleventh house shows gains, wealth, opportunities, major goals and desires,
The twelfth house is expenditure, loss, insanity, imprisonment, final salvation, the state after death, secret sexual pleasures, and life in remote places.
Planetary periods
 |
|
Hindu astrologers have observed that life has certain “moods” or “phases,” which are governed by the nine celestial influences. In Sanskrit these planetary periods are called periods (dashas). Every life has a sun period, a moon period, a Mars period, a Jupiter period, and so on. These periods last for different time lengths. A sun period always lasts for six years, a moon period for ten years, a Mars period for seven years, a Venus period for twenty years, etc., so that the total number of years for all the planetary periods is 120 years. Why the length of each planetary period varies and how these planetary periods are determined is a technical matter that goes beyond the scope of this discussion, suffice to say that each chart will have these different planetary periods. The value in knowing the planetary periods is to understand when, for example, the influence of the sun will be strongest in the person’s life and therefore to know when sun related influences are most likely to occur. The same for the moon and Mars, and all the other planets. This helps in prediction. You might compare the idea of planetary periods to music. For a certain time a song may be in the key of C, then the song changes to the key of D minor, and then to another key. During the “C period” the music will have a certain sound and mood, but when it changes to D minor the music exhibits a different sound and mood. In this way a life will go through its different planetary periods and during each period will have a certain tone and mood, so to speak. Planetary periods are also divided into smaller sub-periods and then even into sub-sub-periods. This gives the astrologer even more ability to make predictions. The matter of planetary periods is complex, but at least to know in a general way about these periods will help a person understand how an astrologer reads a chart.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
