Understanding the planets is the key to understanding astrology. Though signs get a lot of attention in our current culture, they really get their power and attributes from the planets that rule them, fuel them, shape them. I wrote my series on Embodying the Planets to help people bring that information into their bodies through ritual activities and what I saw as the most important attributes of each planet.
If you don’t know the basic attributes of the 7 visible planets, start there:
But here’s the thing: in charts and in our lives, planets rarely show up by themselves. A rose, for example, may be of the nature of Venus for its color, smell and association with love buts its thorns are of the nature of Mars. You may have a really sweet Cancer Moon, natally or by transit, but if it’s opposed by Saturn, you can’t get the nurturing, protecting qualities of Luna without the scarcity and struggle of Saturn.
Again and again in client consults, I find that by solely talking about the planetary combinations in someone’s chart, you can get to the heart of the foundational dynamics of their heart. And if you start looking around, you see planetary duos, specifically between two planets, show up all over astrology. Lots, or calculated points of fate, are determined via the relationship between two planets in your chart. Signs are defined by both their domicile and exaltation rulers. All fixed stars are assigned a planetary duo that reflects their nature.
By beginning to understand what it means when two planets come together, you see the relationships between them and the common ways they manifest in our mixed-up, varied lives.
In our charts, a planet is considered in combination with another when they are in the same sign, in opposing signs, or in mutual reception (a swapping of rulerships, i.e. when the Moon is in Leo and the Sun is in Cancer. Terms, exaltations and decans count here too).
So today, I begin a series exploring these planetary combinations in part because I find them so interesting. This work is heavily inspired by Austin Coppock’s “36 Dramas: Essential Planetary Relationships” Lecture from NORWAC 2022, so please check that out if you want to learn more! Going beyond his wonderful starting point, I will also include information on the decans, each of which have two planetary rulers when you consider both the Chaldean and Triplicity system, as their dynamics do a great job demonstrating what the planetary combinations look like in action. We will also be examining the fixed stars that share the same nature as this planetary combination to further our understanding.
Other uses for these combinations:
understanding mixed planetary correspondences
determining which herbs may help you if they have more than one ruler
connecting with your holy guardian angel (who is classically of the nature of two planets)
seeing your chart more clearly
attuning yourself to both planetary days and hours
P.S. If you want help understanding your own planetary combinations, my books are open for January! Book now to reacquaint yourself with your magic and destiny (no big deal).
Saturn and the Moon: A Summary
The Moon and Saturn are both planets of time. As the fastest and slowest-moving planets, respectively, they delimit the boundaries of the visible sky. The Moon, being closest to earth, governs the emergence of the celestial through the earthly, the spiritual becoming mundane and familiar. Saturn, on the other hand, marks the end of the known sky and guards the gate to the unseen deep. The Moon takes 28 days to pass through the zodiac, the original container for our 12 months. Saturn makes its way through the zodiac in 28 years. While we use the Moon to mark out daily, hourly moods, appetites and activities, we use Saturn to mark epochs and our transition from one major life stage to another. Saturn, being dry marks endings, limits and what is not conducive to life. The Moon, being wet, signifies the container that allows all things to be born and gives them the sustenance they need to continue. Both, in some form or another, have to do with the substance of our lives— our property, bodies, lineage, currency.1
With Saturn’s persistence and the Moon’s fertility, Valens points out that this combination is “productive of money, estates, ship ownership, and profits from the deceased,”2 the latter pointing to Saturn’s role as lord of death. Firmicus, on the other hand predicts that for Saturn-Moon natives “maternal inheritance is lost”.3 Due to the Moon’s shiftiness one can call this combination “unsteady with respect to possession”4 though substance will be a great concern to the native regardless.
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