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Planetary Psychology

Planetary Psychology - Astrology Encyclopedia

Definition of Planetary Psychology Planetary influences upon the unfolding psyche, are as follows:

Sun: Individual faculties; consciousness of Ego, the Individuality as distinguished from the Personality. The vital energy that flows from the Sun through the solar system, enabling life to exist and its activities to be pursued; inspiring men to the consciousness of a destiny to be achieved: the sense of purpose that is recognized by MacDougal and the psychologists of the Purposivistic School; ambitious, with good organizing and executive ability. The solar influence is reflected in an impression of power in reserve; an outspoken and worldly-wise counselor; a strong individuality with an urge toward acquisition of power. Emanates an impression of dignity, grandeur, wisdom, authority, will and lofty spirituality. Restless under restraint, it operates more through inspiration than intellect. A strong paternal instinct. Generous, masterful, honest, truthful and creative; vital, forceful, sanguine, dignified. Power, honor, fame, pride, influence. When frustrated may become ostentatious, despotic, ceremonious, and fond of pomp and ritual.

Moon: Higher emotional faculties such as faith, hope and charity, veneration, peace-loving. The instinctive mind, the desire-nature with respect to material things; the external reactions to every-day affairs and to those pertaining to the home and domestic life; moods that fluctuate between the extremes of optimism and pessimism; ideas that are not abstract; ingenuity applicable to concrete purposes and practical ends; a mind that fluctuates and that lacks the ability to concentrate, hence easily influenced; sympathy, not compassion; respect for the old and regard for the young; suavity, kindness; love for animals; strong protective sense, and an inclination to defend those incapable of self-defense; acute maternal instinct not based on sex; modesty, timidity, economy, receptivity, imagination, impres- sionability, changeableness; fond of travel; personal magnetism; psychic qualities; extra-sensory receptivity; lymphatic, changeful, plastic, wandering, romantic, visionary, frivolous, capricious, fanciful, unstable, procrastinating, lazy.

Mercury: Concrete mental faculties: perception of size, weight, form, color, order, position, motion; memory, speech, intonation, phonetic inflection; thought, understanding, reason, intelligence; vacillation, hesitancy to face issues; mental waywardness; brilliant and facile but not profound; intellect in the abstract but not the concrete; industrious in acquiring knowledge for its own sake, apart from any practical application or any question of right or wrong; amasses evidence and eloquently cites statistics in support of his thesis; loves argument and debate; cunning, crafty, subtle; a skilled technician enjoying a superficial proficiency; literary, though not a ready writer. Mercury's highest application appears to be in the realm of "pure reason," which, however, knows so much on both sides of a subject it experiences difficulty in drawing a conclusion, or in holding to a conclusion once arrived at. From the planet Mercury we have the word for the element Mercury, and its derivative effect, mercurial. Its mental direction is largely determined by aspecting planets. v. Aspects, planetary.

Mercury: Active, excitable, impressionable, nervous, gossipy, worrisome, witty, dextrous.

Mercury expressions: Literature, writings, oratory, study, memory. If frustrated may become conceited, profane, unprincipled, tale- bearing, forgetful, addicted to gambling.

Venus: Physical faculties: friendship, romantic amativeness; the affections, particularly love and the emotions derived therefrom; aesthetic sense, but not analytical; responsive to beauty whether of person, adornment, art or environment; enjoys elegance, comfort and pleasure; good taste; sex sensitivity, but discriminating; parental instinct; a youthful, almost childlike simplicity of approach and viewpoint; a gracious yet almost patronizing attitude; subject to negative moods and extremes of feeling; given to self-pity in moments of depression; mind highly receptive but largely concerned with social affairs; memory sense frequently unreliable; gentle, amiable, pacific, graceful, cheerful, temperate, passive. When thwarted, inclines to extravagance in self-indulgence; slothful, licentious, sensual, vain, dissolute, and generally abandoned; fond of gaudy apparel. Evolved venusian sensibilities incline to art, music, peace, justice, grace, faithfulness, fruitfulness.

Mars: The vital faculties: combativeness, acquisitiveness, desire, enthusiasm, passionate amativeness, courage, ardor in pursuit, not easily rebuffed and seldom discouraged, indiscriminate sexuality, haste, anger, intolerance, fretfulness; a centre of power and energy, whether for good or ill; acute, penetrative mind, largely concerned with physical accomplishment, through direct-action methods, rather than aims, and fitted for enterprises requiring seer-assurance; dynamic force, whether applied constructively or destructively; domineering, brooks no interference and is often ruthless in disregard of others; fearless and unhesitating as to hazardous undertakings and occupations; love of family - and on a wider plane, patriotism; ever ready to protect its own, whether family, country or organization; strong sense of brotherhood with humanity at large, though appearing to be self-centered. Mars is forceful, active, inflammatory, generally careless and destructive, expert, high-spirited. Normally synonymous with force, activity, ambition, pluck, endurance, desire, strife. When thwarted, Mars becomes cruel, egotistical, sarcastic, quarrelsome, coarse, vulgar.

Jupiter: The abstract and creative faculties: comparison applied in generalizations upon the broader aspects; idealism; powerful sense of the dramatic, and obsessed with the desire to be of service to society; symbolizes a person of sound judgment with an ample store of common sense; optimism, order, harmony; the principle of expansion and growth as expressed in the accumulation of material wealth, but without the miserliness of a marked Saturnian trait. Idealism generosity; a balance of feeling and thought, of heart and mind, that yields optimism, devotion, benevolence, good nature, generosity, temperateness, sociability, hopefulness; peace-loving, law-abiding, philosophical; usually of marked religious tendencies, especially of a ritu- alistic order; convinced of the integrity of his motives and that his judgments are tempered with mercy; love of beauty as applied to grandeur and the sublime, with a leaning toward art, especially sculpture; the ability to overcome opposition with forceful but impersonal arguments; broad vision, open-mindedness; listens to reason.

Jupiter creates conditions through which these qualities can bc expressed: health, as physical harmony; law, as social harmony; religion, as spiritual harmony - not as channels of intellect, or the means of making money. It represents judgment, power in the benevolent sense, profit, good fortune, honesty, dignity - or just plain respectability.

At its best Jupiter is generous, expansive, genial, temperate, vital, benevolent, respectful, self-controlled; but when frustrated it inclines to pride, dissipation, boastfulness, gambling, extravagance, procrastination, complacency, hypocrisy.

Saturn: The concrete creative faculties: asceticism; practical ability to achieve the external expression of thought forms; well ordered mind for the technical and concrete with an emphasis on detail; inclined toward scientific research involving mathematics; the conservative realist who asserts the authority of experience; secretive, noncommittal, noncommunicative; cautious, inhibited and reserved; laconic in expression; apostle of justice meted out with a firm hand, yet fair and impartial, a strong sense of justice - particularly injustice; a slave to customs and conventions, even when railing against them; patient, prudent, constant but jealous, yet not easily offended. Its emphasis on the personal ego and inability to give outward expression to affection, tends to separation and isolation; a serious outlook on life; inclined to learn everything the hard way; avoids strenuous effort or exertion - but generally finds more than his share of it to do. Its strong sense of self-preservation is deliberately purposeful and holds the emotions in check through the exercise of thought and will power, more completely than does any other planet.

Where Uranus makes a show of strength when freedom is threatened, and Mars when the passions are aroused, Saturn is cold, slow and deliberate, but inexorable when fully aroused. Plots his way to positions of authority, wherein he discharges his duties with tyrannical conservatism; generally a reactionary, but faithful.

Normally fearful, secretive, cautious, defensive, binding, cold, hard, persevering, steadfast; when frustrated Saturn develops avarice, materialism, ultra-conservatism, tradition-bound narrow-mindedness, pessimism and fatalism.

Uranus: The iconoclastic tendency: characterized by an aloof, offhand manner and approach; imagination, constructive or otherwise; reacts violently against anything that would deprive him of his free and conscious choice of thought and action. Unbending will, insistent upon independence at any price; not readily amenable to any sort of control, much less to arbitrary authority; strong sense of power and authority; assertiveness, with crushing positiveness; self-reliant; inventive; interest in scientific and religious principles; unconventional, altruistic; perseverance to cope with and conquer material obstacles, yet subject to sudden changes of attitude; organizer, promoter, scientific investigator along materialistic lines; originality, with a tendency to break new ground, start new occupations, advance new ideas, utilize new methods, depart from established customs, and hold in disdain the arbitrary restrictions of conventional morality; strong mechanical sense and executive ability that leans toward construction engineering; unerring ability to sense people's motives, hence often becomes a refractory spirit, more or less alienated from his relatives; moves spontaneously from an inner urge - hence impulsive and generally classed as eccentric.

Uranus is deemed a higher octave of Mercury. often fails to know his own mind, but is moved by providential circumstances; often a fatalist who considers his destiny beyond his control.

Naturally inclined to be variable, spasmodic, impulsive, prophetic, and heroic, under restriction - even that of an inferiority complex - it becomes eccentric, refractory, bohemian, fanatical, anarchistic, and given to hurling sarcastic invectives at anybody or anything on any pretext and without provocation. Uranus is eminently the planet of science and invention, particularly aviation, electricity, and astrology.

Neptune: The Social Unrest; follow-the-trend illusive and intangible emotions, of which we know so little; entertains false hopes and indulges in tricky schemes, yet is highest in human sympathy; loves mystery; acts dictated by powerful but inexplicable motives, directed toward invisible, intangible ends; reacts to harmony, sympathy, symmetry, rhythm, poetry, and the dance, which is the poetry of motion, with a partiality for stringed instruments; also for the morbid and erotic.

Neptune pertains to feeling, desire, emotion, imagination. aesthetics, intuition, the psychic faculties or extra-sensory perceptions. When thwarted it becomes psycho-neurotic, theatric, and susceptible to flattery, the power of suggestion, and appearances. On the merest whim it will break a bargain or go back on its word. It exhibits a high regard for uniformity yet often succeeds in enterprises that require more than the average measure of mental effort. Neptune is deemed a higher octave of Venus.

Pluto. Sociological Urge. The organized group as the instrument with which to amputate parasitic growths on the body politic, in order to reconstruct society along more altruistic lines. Depending upon the spiritual development they have attained, these individuals become leaders of eleemosynary organizations. Foundations for the advancement of human welfare and relations, professional associations or trade unions through which to achieve better social conditions, or mere racketeers and gang leaders. It affords incentive to great literary or dramatic geniuses who inculcate in their works Plutonian doctrines calculated to bear fruit through the succeeding generation; total disregard for constituted authority or vested rights, except as administered for the good of all; and even at its worst, more likely to be activated by a sense of righteous indignation on behalf of society than by personal vindictiveness.

(Nicholas deVore - Encyclopedia of Astrology)

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