newbie - planets question

Hi there,
Please forgive the 'newbie' nature of this question, but its something I have been thinking and the answer isnt obvious in my learning so far.

Are the meanings and essence of the 7 planets as taught through modern astrology relevant and applicable to the traditional meanings and essence of the planets?
Or have the modern astrologers flipped and changed those too?

Thanks in advance

inanna,

depending on who you ask, you might get a lot of different answers, but the best is where you answer the question for yourself based off observing the planets at work... there is some really silly stuff going on at this site with regard to the differences between trad and mod which probably don't help either... fact is the meaning for these planets is much the same regardless of trad or mod.... the one big dif would be how the info was used in the past verses its use today... and, for the record in spite of the excitement for trad astrology that has been largely generated thru the release of a number of old astro texts not available prior to the mid 80s and early 90's, mod astrology has some great insights you won't find in trad, not to mention no discussion of the outer planets, and a number of points that you might want to consider as you get to know more about astrology...

try to follow your own chart and friends and family members charts to better understand how the planets work.. you can do this by watching transits to natal chart placements and more generally by continuing to keep an open mind on all of what astrology has to offer, regardless of whether it is trad or mod or yippidy do da astrology... it really doesn't matter in the long run... you need to base the astrology on observation.. let it be your observation, as opposed to the observations of others as much as possible... happy trails in your astro studies! james

Thanks for your reply Sandstone.
Transits etc are a bit advanced for me - I still need to get a lot of knowledge under my belt, and so I was checking incase I learn things that need changing later on (trying to save myself a potential brain ache).

inanna,

learning astrology takes a lot of time and devotion. don't expect to get it all down too quickly... stick with your chart and those of people close to you that you have accurate birth times for, to try to understand how planets operate in the charts.. continue to read as much as possible, but let the ideas be based on observation more then theory as best you can..

Inanna said:

Hi there, Please forgive the 'newbie' nature of this question, but its something I have been thinking and the answer isnt obvious in my learning so far. Are the meanings and essence of the 7 planets as taught through modern astrology relevant and applicable to the traditional meanings and essence of the planets? Or have the modern astrologers flipped and changed those too? Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Inanna, this question was mentioned on another thread just a few days ago at this link http://www.astrologyweekly.com/forum/showthread.php?p=353838#post353838

Rebel Uranian said:

^ That paragraph makes me think that the planets stood for other things than what they do now back in older times...

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and I replied as follows with the advice as given by Robert Schmidt of Project Hindsight at http://www.projecthindsight.com/geninfo/about.html

JUPITERASC said:

Interesting observation Rebel Uranian

The Sun’s nature is to select

The Moon’s nature is to gather and include

Mercury’s nature is to contest and to destabilize

Venus’ nature is to reconcile and to unify

Mars’ nature is to sever and to separate

Jupiter’s nature is to confirm and stabilize

Saturn’s nature is to reject and exclude

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Inanna, Haizea mentioned free online resources so here's a link to a free online translation of Vettius Valens, a practicing astrologer from almost two thousand years ago whose work "The Anthology" survived http://www.csus.edu/indiv/r/rileymt/Vettius Valens entire.pdf

Inanna said:

Hi there,
Please forgive the 'newbie' nature of this question, but its something I have been thinking and the answer isnt obvious in my learning so far.

Click to expand...

No need to apologise! I don't know why people feel the need to apologise for not being an expert on everything!

No, I don't really find the meanings of the planets to be so different between Modern works and Traditional works. There are some differences, of course, but it's mostly the nature of over-emphasizing particular points. Modern astrology seems to have emphasized the more psychological aspects of the planets while dropping off the more mundane.

Inanna said:

Hi there,
Please forgive the 'newbie' nature of this question, but its something I have been thinking and the answer isnt obvious in my learning so far.

Are the meanings and essence of the 7 planets as taught through modern astrology relevant and applicable to the traditional meanings and essence of the planets?
Or have the modern astrologers flipped and changed those too?

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

from another newbie trying to learn traditional astrology on her own and laboring through valens (difficult to digest) this is what i understood so far: in essence, traditional astrology bases its interpretations on the condition of the planets at birth. in order to properly interpret a birth chart, in traditional astrology, you need to look closely at the sign, dignity, house, exaltation/fall/exile, triplicity, term, face, aspect and degree of the planet. most of their predictions are done by interpreting these qualities of the 7 planets. instead of using transits, solar returns and progressions (modern astrology), traditionalists use primary directions (movement of the planets during the day, as perceived from the earth) midpoints and lots. this makes sense to me, because it is natural that the energies of the celestial bodies will influence whatever was promised below, at birth, by the condition and interaction of the 7 planets.

rox said:

from another newbie trying to learn traditional astrology on her own and laboring through valens (difficult to digest)

Click to expand...

And just how difficult to digest Vettius Valens is may be shown by the posting on you tube on 22 February 2012 of a video graphically illustrating the need for clear audio visual presentation when clarifying ancient astrological meaning as originally intended by the author two thousand years ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7j_5...ature=youtu.be

– the video is a response from Andrea Gehrz http://www.moirapress.org/Site/Home.html to some very interesting dialogue initiated by Sidereal astrologer Therese Hamilton on a thread entitled “Valens: Schmidt, Riley and Gehrz” http://skyscript.co.uk/forums/viewto...er=asc&start=0

rox said:

this is what i understood so far: in essence, traditional astrology bases its interpretations on the condition of the planets at birth.

in order to properly interpret a birth chart, in traditional astrology, you need to look closely at the sign, dignity, house, exaltation/fall/exile, triplicity, term, face, aspect and degree of the planet.

most of their predictions are done by interpreting these qualities of the 7 planets.

instead of using transits, solar returns and progressions (modern astrology), traditionalists use primary directions (movement of the planets during the day, as perceived from the earth) midpoints and lots. this makes sense to me, because it is natural that the energies of the celestial bodies will influence whatever was promised below, at birth, by the condition and interaction of the 7 planets.

Click to expand...