The planets

Who are you when you are not adapting to anyone?

The Sun is the part of you that wants to be a particular person rather than an average one.

Retrograde: The Sun is never retrograde. If a chart shows it as retrograde, that is a data error rather than an astrological condition.

What do you need in order to settle?

The Moon is the part of you that reacts before you have decided anything, and that says what you need in order to feel safe.

Retrograde: The Moon is never retrograde. Its speed does vary a great deal, and a fast Moon has a different texture from a slow one, but it never reverses direction.

How do you think, and how do you say it?

Mercury is the part of you that takes information in, sorts it, and turns it into words.

Retrograde: Mercury turns retrograde three or four times a year, so roughly one person in five is born with it retrograde. In a natal chart it describes thinking that runs inward first — revisiting, rephrasing, checking before speaking — rather than anything going wrong.

What do you find valuable, and how do you show it?

Venus is the part of you that decides what is worth having, and how you go about being wanted in return.

Retrograde: Venus is retrograde for about six weeks every eighteen months, so it is uncommon in a birth chart. It describes someone who arrives at their own standard of value slowly, usually after some distance from the one they were handed.

How do you go after what you want, and how do you defend yourself?

Mars is the part of you that starts things, pushes back, and decides what is worth a fight.

Retrograde: Mars turns retrograde for about eleven weeks every two years. Natally it describes initiative and anger that are turned inward before they are turned outward, which slows the response and changes where the force finally lands.

Where do you enlarge things, and what do you take on faith?

Jupiter is the part of you that looks for meaning and scope, and that builds the case for saying yes.

Retrograde: Jupiter spends about four months of each year retrograde, so it is common in birth charts. It describes growth worked out privately, measured against an internal standard rather than an external offer.

What are you willing to be responsible for over years?

Saturn is the part of you that sets limits, keeps commitments, and decides what is worth a long cost.

Retrograde: Saturn is retrograde about four and a half months a year, so it is common. Natally it tends to describe authority assembled internally rather than modelled well from outside, which makes the standard both stricter and more private.

Where do you refuse to be standardised?

Uranus is the part of you that breaks a pattern once the pattern can no longer be lived with.

Retrograde: Uranus is retrograde roughly five months a year, so nearly half of all charts have it. Natally the sign matters far less than the house, and the retrograde condition is close to background noise.

Where do you stop seeing clearly, and what are you reaching for there?

Neptune is the part of you that dissolves outlines — where you imagine, idealise, and lose the border between yourself and something larger.

Retrograde: Neptune is retrograde about five months a year, so a very large share of charts carry it. In a natal chart the house it occupies says more about you than the sign or the direction.

Where are you unable to be moderate?

Pluto is the part of you that goes through a change you did not authorise, and that cannot be moderate about the thing it cares about.

Retrograde: Pluto is retrograde nearly half the year, so its direction distinguishes very little between people born in the same period. The house is where the personal reading is.

What do you have to learn on purpose?

The north node marks the direction that is unpractised and has to be chosen deliberately rather than fallen into.

Retrograde: The nodes travel backwards through the zodiac almost all of the time, so retrograde is their normal state and says nothing distinctive about a chart. The true node also makes brief direct movements, which is the whole difference between the true and the mean calculation.

What do you reach for automatically?

The south node marks what you already do well enough to fall back on, including at the moments when falling back on it is the easier option.

Retrograde: The south node sits exactly opposite the north node and moves with it, backwards through the zodiac almost all of the time. Its retrograde state is structural, not descriptive.

Where do you decline to make yourself more convenient?

Black Moon Lilith marks the place where you refuse to be managed, and where you would rather be left out than made easier to deal with.

Retrograde: Lilith is a calculated point rather than a body, so it has no retrograde motion of its own. This is the mean value, which is smoothed; the true, osculating value moves irregularly and the two can sit several degrees apart, which is why the chart says which one it used.

What do you understand because it cost you something?

Chiron marks the place where something went wrong early and competence was built afterwards, often in helping other people with the same thing.

Retrograde: Chiron spends about five months a year retrograde, so it is retrograde in a large share of charts and carries no special weight there.