Terrestrial Planets vs Gas/Ice Giants in Astrology

 

Before I continue my series about planets in Astrology, I would like to draw a distinction between terrestrial planets I already covered and the outer planets I am yet to cover.

In astronomy 4 terrestrial planets are nothing like the outer ones. Our Earth together with Mercury, Venus and Mars are all relatively small, made of solid matter and have few moons if any.

Outer planets are nothing like that. To begin with they are much larger and in size, a lot closer to Sun than to Earth. Jupiter and Saturn are even made of the same substances as Sun, one could even speculate they could have become shining centers of their own solar systems if things turned out differently. Each outer planets have many moons, revolving around them, possibly more than our Sun has planets. Physical properties of these moons are a lot closer to our Earth than to out Moon.

Similarly significant differences between terrestrial and outer planets exist in astrology. Sun spends one month in each sign and in one year can cycle the entire Zodiacal cycle and return to the original position. Terrestrial planets take about as much time in each sign as Sun does. Mercury and Venus are locked to Sun own movement and cannot travel too far ahead or behind Sun. Sometimes they get a little bit ahead of Sun only to then turn retrograde and fall behind again. While Mars's movement is technically independent of that of Sun, it still spends just a little longer than Sun in each sign and therefore within Sun's pace.

Outer planets are on much longer cycles. Closest to Sun Jupiter spends a year in each sign and it will take it more than a decade to cycle the entire Zodiac. Planets further away even longer than that. Their cycles measure much larger spans of time compared to that of Sun.

Pluto can go as far as 32 years in a single sign, Taurus, even if it spends only 11 years in Scorpio. I will cover it and other TNOs separately in its own article.

Neptune spends 14 years in a single, sign. Enough to define entire generation by its placement. For example, Boomers are Neptune in Libra generation and Millennials are Neptune in Capricorn generations. Commonly accepted boundaries of boomers do bleed into Neptune in Scorpio period however when it comes to Millennials and younger generations, such disparity is no longer the case.

Uranus then neatly splits each generation into first and second wave by spending 7 years, half of what Neptune spends in a single sign.

On the short end, Jupiter does define character of an important demographic: school students of the same year. Depend on how students are assigned into different grades, each grade will have people with one or two placements of Jupiter. Most students one year older will instead have Jupiter in a previous sign on the cycle and those one-year younger in the next one instead. Thus, Jupiter placement is what will define class of 2003 and separate it from class of 2004 and other classes.

Saturn that spends 3 years in each sign, can further connect classes together. For example, I who have Saturn in middle degrees of Sagittarius have friends who are both one year older and one-year younger. Even if our Jupiter placements are different, we still can connect over the common Saturn placement.

In natal chart and during transits outer planets function differently from terrestrial planets. If terrestrial planets define your personal traits, abilities and tastes, then outer planets instead define more abstract ideals and aspirations. That might sound like the Sun, but Sun governs your personal individual values, while outer planets instead define trends and believes of the times. They define not you personally, but a decade you were born, its events, believes, character and so on. That is why when outer planets change signs, major changes in society soon follow. These changes shape the generation that is born in these times. Each generation is a reflection of times, they were born into.

Optimism of post WWII era produced happy go lucky boomers who still retain these attitudes long after these times have passed and still think that all you need is love. Similarly, Millennials reflect Spring of Nations and collapse of Iron Curtain, that happen when they were born. By extension Millennials expect old rules, old restrictions and old order to fall as we celebrate dawn of new era of freedom.

One's relationship with era one was born into are defined by placement of outer planets compared to inner ones. Good aspects will mean that you are son of your times and easily relate to everything that happens. Bad aspects in turn would mean you are frustrated with what was happening and wish things were different.

Outer planet transits instead reflect your relationships to the current era and show if you like what is happening or disgusted with it instead.

Now that I laid down the framework that defines astrological relationships between different groups of planets all that is left if to cover what each individual giant planet stands for. Each will be covered in a separate article.