Each planet symbolizes a fundamental energy drive within us. A planet therefore represents a specific energy source, which is further described by the style of its occupied zodiac sign and its house position. The house a planet is located in reveals the realm in which that planet's energy will manifest in our lives, and the house(s) that it rule(s) describes the contributing energy or drives that further color our motivational needs relative to the aspects it makes to other planets and those planetary placements.

The planets are divided into two major categories: personal and transpersonal planets. Personal planets travel through the zodiac at a fast rate and therefore change signs at a quick pace. They participate in our most basic and immediate psychological framework. The personal planets are: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars. Transpersonal planets are generational planets that remain in a zodiac sign for a very long amount of time; hence many people are born with the same sign placement for planets such as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. In my opinion, the planets Jupiter and Saturn, which remain in zodiac signs for a pretty lengthy amount of time, generally one to three years, are the bridge between the Personal and Transpersonal planets. While these
two planets have generational qualities, their basic natures are such that they have a more immediate effect on our personality making them sufficiently personal in how they operate within us.

SUN

The Sun is similar to our ego. The ego helps us navigate through life. It is the realm of the psyche that is conscious, which instantaneously controls thought and behavior so that we can function in our external reality. In Freudian psychology, the reality principle is the basis of the ego. The ego comprehends the needs and desires of other people and it perceives the consequences of our actions. The ego acquires the needs of the id, while factoring reality into the situation.

The Sun represents our desire to embrace life and meet its challenges. Likewise, the Sun represents the part of our consciousness that chooses a course, focus
and methods to accomplish our desires. The Sun expressed through a zodiac sign represents the manner in which we wish to be recognized, and the purpose that we set for our existence. The Sun, as a symbol, can indicate our physical vitality. Along with the planet Saturn, the Sun indicates our paternal experience (regardless of the parent's sex who gave you that experience) and represents how we experienced being fathered and our sense of personal responsibility. Likewise, the Sun is associated with our personal ambitions.

MOON

The Moon is the most polar opposite planet to the Sun in terms of symbolism. The Sun is the conscious, active, ego expression of self, while the Moon is primarily unconscious, reactive, and is similar in function to the Freudian Id (In Freudian psychology, we are born with our Id. The id allows us to get our basic needs met. Freud believed that the pleasure principle governs the id. The id wants his or her needs to be met, and is primarily concerned with its own satisfaction). While the Moon is not synonymous with the id, it has id-like tendencies in its connection to desire, reaction and concern with achieving our needs.

The Moon rules our most instinctive self. It is the realm of our emotions and memories. It describes how we emotionally respond to situations and experiences. In the developing years of our lives, the Moon corresponds to our earliest life experience and conditioning, and the habits and needs that resulted from that experience. In astronomy we know that the Moon has no liquid and no atmosphere. Consequently, there is no weather to disturb its surface. Hence, footprints and other formations on its surface are pretty much permanent. Likewise, the Moon as an astrological symbol stores all our impressions that we gather in life.

The Moon also represents our experience and the nature of our nurturance. It symbolizes our actual mother, in terms of how we perceived her lifestyle and personality, and also how we experienced her mothering. However, the term mother, here, represents the person and means through which we experienced mothering and must include all possibilities for people who fit that role. The Moon represents our domicile experiences in prenatal, childhood, and our final years. Additionally, the Moon indicates our earliest family experience and our desire to put down roots of our own.

MERCURY

Mercury rules a large part of our cognitive faculties. It governs our ability to encode data (encoding is the process through which we transform data into meaningful form, and this may employ association with things stored in our memory). It symbolizes how we acquire, assimilate and distribute our knowledge and information. Mercury signifies our mental construction and it reveals how we think and communicate. It conveys our style of ascertaining what is knowable and indicates the kind of knowledge that we are attracted to. Mercury is associated with manual dexterity and therefore has some rulership over our hands and mechanical skills. Mercury describes all phases of communication, which also includes transportation and is therefore associated with mobility.

VENUS

Venus represents our social instincts and our personal values. It also represents the things we find pleasing and would like to acquire. Hence, Venus is associated with our pleasure principle. Venus exemplifies our conscious ability to recognize our paradigms of beauty, pleasure and all good feelings. It governs what characteristics we find appealing in others and how we behave in intimate associations. Once we have determined our inner needs, Venus energy is projected outward and we attract people into our lives that conform to our values and needs. Venus makes us view those who represent our values as pleasing. It is a significant planet for evaluating relationships because it describes our requirements for and expression of love. It rules our desire to please and a large portion of what we identify as love.

Mars

Mars rules our drives, vigor and exertion. In Freudian psychology, we have two primary drives: sex and aggression. Sex is associated with Eros, which is also known as "Life force." Eros represents our drive to survive, thrive, and reproduce. Aggression is associated with Thanatos, which is our "Death force." Thanatos represents our defensive drive, which ensures our existence, authority and ability to survive. Mars is the self-centered initiating energy that helps us gratify our needs. Accordingly, it governs our sexual energy.

Mars is the ruler of the zodiac sign Aries and the traditional ruler of Scorpio. Using the Freudian concept our two basic drives, Eros and Thanatos, Aries is closely associated with the Eros function of Martian energy where we are directing our energy towards personal expression, agency, and reproduction. The Thanatos principle is closely related to a Scorpio style where we focus on our ability to obtain, master and use personal power to defend and sustain our existence. At the symbolic level, both Aries and Scorpio are equally associated with sex and sexuality; however, Aries is associated with the appropriation of sex for personal satisfaction, while Scorpio is associated with the rejuvenation and "little death" aspect of sex.

Mars energy is the force that enables us to achieve goals. Mars rules our momentum, and it represents the thrust we use to satiate our passions and desires. The sign placement of Mars shows our style of assertion.

JUPITER

Jupiter is the planet that Vedic (Eastern Sidereal) astrologers call the "wise counselor." Jupiter describes our desire to expand our awareness in whatever area of life it governs by sign, aspects and house placement. It suggests our beliefs, our quest for greater knowledge, our desire to explore and our benevolent urges. Jupiter's energy is unrestrained and its effect is to inflate. It rules our expansion potential in the material, spiritual, intellectual and cultural sense. Jupiter is the planet of opportunities because its energies compel us towards experiences that promote our growth. Used negatively, an individual can develop a dependence on luck and an enlarged appetitive for pleasure that will cause overindulgence, over extension and decadence. When misused, Jupiter can also promote a superiority complex in which "lesser" is held in low esteem to what we perceive as "greater" or elite. Jupiter's energy is predominantly benevolent and its house and sign location usually denote areas where we can give and receive generosity and experience abundance. Jupiter is configured strongly in the charts of teachers, explorers, wanderers and philosophers. It also describes our optimism.

SATURN

Saturn governs our reality principle. It supports our ego (Sun) in its effort to satisfy our id's yearnings (Moon). In combination with other planets, through the aspects its forms, and relative to its house location, Saturn's energy participates in our ego defenses and mechanisms, which can include any of the following: denial, displacement, intellectualization, projection, rationalization, reaction formation, regression, repression, sublimation and suppression. Most noticeably, Saturn governs our ego's repression mechanism. It describes that area of our psychological makeup where we force into unconsciousness issues and experiences that make us feel insecure. The root cause of this insecurity is our sense of powerlessness or fear regarding such issues. Consequently, Saturn's condition and location in our birthchart reveals issues of inhibition.

Saturn is frequently viewed as the "task maker" and its sign, aspects and house location suggest areas where we methodically strive to discipline and master ourselves, or where we reveal our cowardice, as we learn to confront our fears. Saturn is an impartial judge and its energy is similar to the Greek goddess of Justice, Themis, whose very name means both justice and doom, which implies that good work will be rewarded and failures punished. Used positively, Saturn is the preeminent builder of structures and routines that create a sense of security within us. Saturn helps us navigate through the realm of reality and is crucial in identifying our limitations so that we can build wisely on our strengths. Saturn makes us aware of reality and what is achievable. Used negatively, Saturn energies represent fearfully avoided issues that have compelled us towards experiences of powerlessness, subjugation, depression and abuse arising from our sense of inadequacy. It is frequently viewed as the planet of limitations, which can be self or socially imposed.

URANUS

Uranus is the planet of sudden, drastic and explosive change. This energy can manifest in such ways as the stroke of genius within us that sees beyond accepted norms, the freedom fighter, or the sudden and abrupt action that throws us into new realms of activity and experience. For this reason, it governs our rebellious instincts and our freedom urges. Uranus indicates originality and uniqueness. It rules radical expression and nonconformity. Uranian energy is very ambivalent, frequently causing one to choose the opposite of whatever is offered or required, and then, at some later time, embracing what was once rejected. Uranian energies defy control and usually manifest in our birthchart as an area where we compulsively resist the norm and seek to embrace something new.

NEPTUNE

Neptune rules spirituality, delusions, addictions, devotions and metaphysical perceptions. It rules fantasy, confusion, mysticism and ideals. It is prominently configured in the charts of addicts, religious leaders, artists, the subjugated and the confined. It participates in all aspects of loss of consciousness, such as sleep, alcohol, drugs and comas. Neptune is also the planet of inspiration and is prominent in the charts of musicians, composers, painters, actors and psychics. Wherever Neptune is found in a chart, that area of our lives, which is described by the house in which it falls, may be a realm of confusion, uncertainty, deception, illusion, or psychic, religious and artistic abilities. The energies of this planet are usually quite difficult to handle because its energies can promote humility and a sense of shame leading some to feel inadequate in the realm in which Neptune is found. Neptune has neurotic properties and it can make our fears supercede our ability to perceive what is real. Wherever Neptune is found the suppression of clarity tends to be an issue. Neptune is known as the great "dissolver." It resists containment and melts structures and form. Neptune energy is almost always veiled. It can inspire or confuse. It can deceive or enlighten. Neptune makes us see all possibilities whether we understand them or not. In Eastern mythology, Neptune is very similar to the god "Maya."

PLUTO

Pluto represents our most profound desire to exercise control for either transformational, regenerative, or authoritative purposes. It indicates our evolutionary desire for mastery, and our need to overcome restraints. Consequently, it's the planet of profound psychological confrontation in our quest for self-empowerment. Plutonian energies are obsessive, compulsive, irrational andthey seldom embrace comprise. Its power can lead to death (not just physical, but also emotional and psychological), birth and subsequent renewal. Frequently, Plutonian energies manifest as a desire to "kill" some part of ourselves in a desire to shed or transcend what is perceived as no longer useful to us. It compels us to confront control issues leading to an experience of complete mastery, renewal or rebirth in the area of our birthchart in which it is found.