What the Planets Mean in Astrology: What Each One Rules in Your Chart

In a birth chart, the planet is the "who", the sign is the "how" and the house is the "where". Venus in Leo in the 5th house means your love (Venus) shows itself warmly and generously (Leo) in romance and fun (the 5th house). So learn what each planet governs first; then the signs and houses have somewhere to go.

The ten planets at a glance

Time per sign and retrograde share calculated daily by our engine for 1950–2030 (retrograde = the longitude the next day is smaller than today). Calling the Sun and Moon "planets" is an old astronomical convention astrology has kept.

The ten planets fall into three groups by speed. The personal planets (Sun through Mars) move fast and can differ even for people born in the same month, so they show individual differences best. The social planets (Jupiter and Saturn) spend one to two and a half years in a sign and describe how a person engages with society. The generational planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) stay in a sign for many years, even decades, so classmates and colleagues share them; they are more the backdrop of a whole generation.

What each planet governs

Sun: self, vitality, who you want to become

The Sun is the protagonist of the chart: your core motivation and the center of your life. The house it occupies is often the area where you most want to shine.

Moon: emotions, security, inner needs

The Moon is who you are in private: how you look after yourself and what you need to feel safe. The people closest to you often see your Moon more than your Sun.

Mercury: thinking, communication, learning

Mercury describes how you think and how you speak. It never strays more than about 28° from the Sun, so it is always in your Sun sign or one sign either side.

Venus: love, taste, values and money

Venus is what you like and what attracts you, and how you show affection and spend money. It never gets more than about 47° from the Sun, so it always sits within two signs of your Sun sign.

Mars: drive, desire, competition and conflict

Mars is how you go after what you want and how you get angry, and it is the source of stamina and push. It circles the zodiac in about two years, spending six to eight weeks in each sign.

Jupiter: growth, opportunity, belief

Jupiter shows where luck comes easily and where you tend to overdo it. It changes sign about once a year, so people born in the same year usually share a Jupiter sign.

Saturn: responsibility, limits, long-term lessons

Saturn is where you feel pressure and need time to mature, and also where you eventually build real mastery. It changes sign about every two and a half years and completes a circuit in 29.

Uranus: breakthrough, change, independence

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto move so slowly that they stay in one sign for years or even decades, so their signs describe a whole generation. For the individual, what matters is the house they occupy and their aspects to the personal planets.

Neptune: ideals, imagination, dissolving boundaries

Neptune stands for dreams, inspiration and faith, and also for where you see less clearly and are prone to self-deception. It spends about 14 years in each sign.

Pluto: deep power, crisis and rebirth

Pluto stands for power, obsession and thorough transformation. Its orbit is very eccentric, so it spends anywhere from a dozen to thirty years in a sign.

Retrograde: is the planet really moving backward?

No. Retrograde motion is an illusion seen from Earth: the planets circle the Sun at different speeds, and when Earth "overtakes" an outer planet, or Mercury or Venus on the inside overtakes Earth, the planet appears to move backward for a while. The Sun and Moon never go retrograde.

Retrograde shares: calculated daily for 1950–2030. The last figure comes from 1,200 random birth moments between 1950 and 2010 cast for Taipei.

That last number is the one to remember: almost everyone has a retrograde planet in their chart, since the outer planets are retrograde nearly half of every year. So a retrograde planet in your chart is nothing to worry about. Tradition says a retrograde planet's energy turns more inward and asks for review; retrogrades of the personal planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars) deserve more attention, while outer-planet retrogrades are almost universal.

Generational planets: the shared backdrop of a generation

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto move so slowly that whole cohorts share the same sign. Here are the years they first entered each sign between 1950 and 2030 (a retrograde can take them back into the previous sign for a while; only the first entry is listed):

For example, almost everyone born between 1983 and 1995 has Pluto in Scorpio. So when you read the generational planets, the sign describes a theme shared by a generation; the personal part is the house they fall in and the aspects they make to the Sun, Moon and other personal planets.