Planets in Astrology - Know Everything!

Sun Planet	Moon Planet	Mars Planet
Mercury Planet	Venus Planet	Jupiter Planet
Saturn Planet	Nodes (Rahu and Ketu)

Introduction

The planets in the solar system impart a significant impact on human lives. De facto a type of divination based on the theory that the positions and movements of celestial bodies (stars, planets, sun, and moon) at the time of birth profoundly influence a person’s life is the science of planets or Astrology in its traditional form.

Why are the initial conditions more important than all subsequent conditions for one’s personality and traits? Why is the moment of birth chosen as the significant moment rather than the moment of conception – Why aren’t other initial conditions such as one’s mother’s health, the delivery place conditions, forceps, bright lights, dim room, back seat of a car, etc., more important than whether Mars is ascending, descending, culminating, or fulminating?

No one would claim that in order to grasp the effect of the moon on the tides or potatoes one must understand initial conditions of the Singularity before the Big Bang, or the positions of the stars and planets at the time the potato was harvested. If you want to know what tomorrow’s low tide will be you do not need to know where the moon was when the first ocean or river was formed, or whether the ocean came first and then the moon, or vice-versa. Initial conditions are less important than present conditions to understanding current effects on rivers and vegetables. If this is true for the tides and plants, why wouldn’t it be true for people?

Even professional astrologers, can’t pick out a correct horoscope reading at better than a chance rate. Yet, astrology continues to maintain its popularity, despite the fact that there is scarcely a shred of scientific evidence in its favor.

The position of the planets and the sun and moon in the twelve houses at the moment of birth is decisive. They are divided into day-stars (Saturn, Jupiter, and also the sun) and night-stars (the moon, Mars, and Venus); Mercury belongs both to day and night. Mercury belongs both to day and night.

The planets are farther divided by their genders. While, the sun, Jupiter, and Mars are masculine; the moon and Venus are considered feminine, Mercury belonging again to both classes.

Jupiter (fortuna major) and Venus (fortuna minor) are good planets; Saturn (infortuna major) and Mars (infortuna minor) are malignant planets. The sun, moon, and Mercury have a mixed character.

Each of the planets known to antiquity, including sun and moon, ruled a day of the week; hence the names still used to designate the various days. Judicial astrology also took into consideration the position of the sun in the zodiac at the moment of birth; the signs of the zodiac also had a special astrological significance in respect to the weal and woe of the newborn, particularly his health. In medical astrology every sign of the zodiac ruled some special part of the body, for example: Aries, the Ram, the head: its diseases; Libra, the Balance, the intestines. Judicial astrology postulates the acceptance of the earth as the centre of the solar system. Natural astrology predicts the weather from the positions of the planets, especially the moon. Many of its theories are not to be rejected a priori, since the question of the moon’s meteorological influence still awaits a solution, which must depend upon the progress of human knowledge as to ether waves and cognate matters.

Explanation

The solar System consists of the Sun and other planets, which revolve around it. In total there are nine planets, which are generally considered for astronomical purposes. Now, scientists claim to locate the tenth planet, which is yet to be named. Sun is actually a star and has light of its own. All other planets get its light from the Sun. The planets forming part of the Solar System are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Some planets have their natural satellites, which revolves around it. In our case Moon is our satellite and it is the closest heavenly body from earth. Therefore, its influence on human beings is quite significant. Vedic astrology considers moon as the governor of mind and thus the inner being itself ‘Chadrama Manaso Jaatah’. This consideration gave rise to the practice of naming a child with corresponding Rashi or Moon sign.

The word planet is derived from the Greek word planetes, which technically means wanderer. However, the Hindu concept of Planet is Sam Bhavate Sam Graha, which means, “that which influences is called Graha”. The effect of planets on human life is now under consideration even by open-minded physical scientist community. It is a well-established fact that various cyclones or floods and high tides are generally seen to occur on a full moon. It has been further clarified as a result of modern researches on the subject that Earthquakes is generally seen to occur at the time of eclipse. The reason being that at the time of eclipse Sun, Moon and the earth is in the same plane. Therefore, the combined gravitational pull is the maximum at that point of time. Originally derived from the Greek, a “planeta” means a “wanderer”. However, the Hindu concept of Planet in

Sanskrit is Sam Bhavate Sam Grah, which signifies “that what influences is called Grah(planets)”. Sidereal astrology defines a planet as any celestial body with an attraction.

Understanding

As per “Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra” (Chapter 2 verse 3-4) there are many incarnations of the unborn Lord Janardhan or Vishnu. He has incarnated as the Navgrahas or planets to bestow on the living beings the results of their Karmas or action. He assumed the auspicious form of Grahas to destroy the strength of the demons and to sustain the strength of the Devas (the divine being) and to establish Dharma (religion or faith).

Rama is the incarnation of the Sun, Krishna of the Moon, Narasimha of the Mars, Buddha that of Mercury, Vamana that of Jupiter, Parashurama that of Venus, Koorma that of Saturn. Varaha that of Rahu and Meena that of Ketu. The other incarnations are also from the planets and the stars. The beings with more of Parmatmamsa are called heavenly beings or divine beings.

Vedic astrology excludes planets like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto and include two Chhaya Graha (Shadowy Planets) namely Rahu and Ketu. These Chhaya Grahas Rahu and Ketu however give the same effect. The reason why these planets have been excluded was probably because these planets stay in one Rashi (Sign) for a very long time. Sometimes, for decades and further these planets are very far away from earth. Therefore, their influences can hardly be considered. Further, in the absence of classical backing it won’t be wise to consider them. In astrology we consider both sun and Moon as planets and all our observations are based on Geo – Centric Observations considering the earth as the center of the universe.