Willow's Pagan Place

The Planets and their meanings

SUN Self Esteem, Life force, vitality, creativity, risk taking instints, \par pride, star quality, fun loving spirit, inner child, drive for excitement, need for recreation, speculative side, romantic passion, need to shine

MOON emotions security needs, caretaking instincts, dependency needs, drive to nurture, vunerabilities , homing instincts, receptivity, moods, habit paterns, women (including mother)

MERCURY
       Communication, intellect, skills. Planet of intelligence and the mind. Associated with speed and agility. Rules over intelligence, perception and reason, memory, speaking and writing. Reflects the way you see, hear, understand, and assimilate information. Day-to-day travel, short trips, and the various means of transportation are under it's dominion. Controls functions of the nerves, arms, hands, and fingers. Also rules the voice. Negative side produces tendency to be critical, sarcastic, argumentative, and sly.

VENUS
       Planet of love and pleasure. Rules capacity to express affection and to enjoy beauty.Rules over love affairs, art and beauty, adornment and decoration, the social graces, affection, harmony, and friendship. Governs the higher emotions, Venus makes life beautiful. Rules ability to love and to share with another person. Other side of influence is encourages more importance on pleasure, ease, and luxury, than on self-discipline. A strong streak of narcissism and a lack of will-power indicates negative side is stressed.

MARS
      Planet of physical energy. Governs sex drive, forcefulness, and aggression. Governs energy, boldness, the will to win, the ability to turn ideas into action. Planet of passion, sexuality, and force. Signifies ambition, desire, courage and strength. Governs the sex organs. Influence also brings strife and conflict, tension and anger, accidents and destruction. It rules heat, fire, earthquakes, violence, and war. Negative side can cause sudden injury or illness. Represents unleashed energy and human will.

JUPITER
      Planet of good luck, optimism, success, and generosity. Brings joy to life. Identified with idea of expansiveness and abundance. Jupiter's kingdom is luck, health and happiness, wealth and worldly goods, power and high position. Rules over knowledge, higher learning, breadth of vision, and honesty. Influence bestows a willingness to partake of life, to gather new experiences. Influence can make you extravagant, lazy, luxury-loving and blindly optimistic. Planet of blessings.

SATURN
       Planet of responsibility, and symbolizes the ethic of hard work. Influences that a person's character is strengthened through trial and difficulty. Planet of diligence, self-control, and limitation. Domain is patience, stability, maturity, and realism. Influence is stern and restrictive, cold and severe. Effect is to delay rewards until they are earned. Bestows an ability to wait. Planet of courage, steadfastness and integrity.Negative influence is over-ambition, calculating and selfish, solitary, inhibited, and unhappy-associated with inflexibility, cruelty, humorlessness, and pessimism. Represents illness, handicaps, and misfortune. Our destiny. Rules fate, things we cannot escape, and payment that must be made for what is received.

URANUS
      Planet of change and originality, symbolizing the element of surprise. Brings sudden events and opportunities. Awakens, shocks, revolutionizes. Responsible for the flash of human genius that creates something new. Planet of the future, associated with modern science, invention, electricity, humanitarian movements, and revolution. Planet of sudden upheaval and swift, unexpected happenings. Domain is all that is new, original, different, and unorthodox. Relates to inner will and secret power. The guiding force behind the visionary. Tends to make one eccentric in behavior, undisciplined, reckless and perverse. Brings change, new situations, and new people into our lives. Gifts are sudden and ephemeral; take immediate advantage before they flash by. Message is to move with change and not be afraid of the future.

NEPTUNE
       Planet of mystery and illusion. Power is that of the imagination. Represents your dream life and your mystic qualities. Planet of bewitchment. Planet of idealism and spirituality. Realm is the subconscious world, hidden memory, intuition, and clairvoyance. Positive side of influence represents glamor and mystery, artistic imagination, dreams and visions. Negative side is characterized by deception, confusion, fraud, treachery, and sham. Rules over a wide domain of human activity, from motion pictures, drama, dance, and poetry to hypnosis and anesthesia, hospitals, institutions and prisons, poison, and drug addiction. Brings one into contact with a higher plane of consciousness. Symbolizes perfection. Represents unselfish ideals, your spiritual quest, and search for the Impossible Dream.

PLUTO
      Planet of awesome power, but is still found largely inexplicable and difficult to understand. Brings to light things hidden in the depths of your subconscious, releases dormant forces, and causes suppressed energies suddenly to erupt. Signifies death and rebirth. Planet of regenerative forces, of destruction and annihilation, and then complete transformation. Keyword is elimination; Pluto wipes the slate clean. Influences masses of humanity, enormous groups of people, and large organizations. Rules over disruptive elements in nature as earthquakes and volcanoes. It's power has been likened to that of nuclear fission, which both destroys and creates. Governs the uncovering of secrets of the past in order to clear ground for the future. Force is felt as an undercurrent of turbulence and uncontrolled energy. Strong negative power may cause one to be cruel, sadistic, treacherous, or even lead a life of crime. Represents the highest and lowest of which mankind is capable. Governs impulses in our secret psyches that we do not yet fully understand.