Planets Part II - Outer Planets

Planets Part II - Outer Planets

YOUR STARS WITHIN - ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELING

Understanding the role of the outer planets begins with understanding how long they stay in each sign. These planets have a longer lasting influence. People born in the same year and in some cases, the same decade, will share the sign of these planets. However, the interactions between the outer planets to your inner planets are particularly significant. This is where the real struggles and strengths of the chart is seen. Outer planets making squares, oppositions and conjunctions to Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Mercury, Venus and Mars are especially notable.

When a current transit of an outer planet changes signs, it has an effect for everyone in a general way, such that this particular energy is changing tonality. It also has a personal effect based on what house of yours it will be entering. The aspects it makes, such as when transit Pluto or Saturn are aspecting a personal planet- these are significant and can last anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 years depending on the planet.

So I am going to talk about these planets in terms of how you would look for the impact of them on your chart.

So I left off the personal planets at Mars.

Jupiter - Jupiter stays in a sign for about a year. Which means everyone born within that year period will have Jupiter in that sign. Of course it moves from 1-29 degrees throughout that year, so whether Jupiter makes a tight aspect to your Sun, Moon or other personal planet – this is not as shared by others.

Jupiter is a feel good planet generally. He’s kind and generous- actually SO generous he tends to overdo it – or give you too much of something. Even the sweetness of life can be in too high a dose! So when Jupiter has a transit to your planets, he makes them bigger, usually in a positive way. If it’s transiting your first house he’ll tend to exaggerate your personality, making you more active, talkative and larger than life. If it’s transiting your fifth house, getting pregnant may come easily and you may be busy with many hobbies and activities. If he’s transiting your 10^th house, you will likely have a good reputation at work, maybe a promotion or other job offers.

When Jupiter is transiting a planet it is similar. If he transits your Sun your personality and outward expression will be highlighted. You'll likely be full of energy and joy and comfortable with yourself. Jupiter transit your Moon will make you feel good, generous and emotionally open. If you’re born with these aspects you likely have this in your personality.

I have also noticed that people born with Jupiter/Moon contacts tend to have very loving mothers.

Remember this is just an overview. We could really spend an entire post and more on each planet in house/aspect.

Saturn – Saturn isn’t generally enjoyed quite the way Jupiter is. In fact Saturn is the taskmaster. He’s an old school teacher with a ruler. He is responsible and hardworking and expects the same of you. He is the master of timing- you may not have what it is not your time for, and you will get what you need at exactly the right timing. Saturn is teaching lessons, unfolding in beautiful synchronicity. What he won’t stand for is not learning the lesson. You will simply repeat and repeat this lesson until you get it. This is a math test and there is a correct answer.

Many people worry when they’re having a Saturn transit. However, Saturn is pretty straightforward. Recognize what you’re learning, work hard and do the inner work and be responsible for that. He will ease up with the pressure when you’re doing the work.

Saturn often has a restrictive feel or a serious vibe. Sometimes it can indicate an older person. Saturn is an important part of manifesting. Without Saturn things don’t exist in time and space- our conscious reality. So if you want something to happen, Saturn can sometimes add the necessary structure. I learned this from a friend who started dating a man she felt was perfect. I looked at their charts and sure enough they had lots of feel good contacts. Nice trines and sextiles, happy feel good planets, you name it. IT DIDN’T EVEN LAST 3 MONTHS! I remember saying to her, there’s not a single Saturn contact, I am worried this won’t be able to go anywhere. Sure enough they could never really get off the ground. It felt good, they had good sex and some laughs, but try as they might, they couldn’t put a serious relationship together.

So while Saturn is serious and often with it comes all the tension and struggles of learning and growth, it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to Saturn. Plus, remember- he really does ease up when you own the work!

Everyone has a “Saturn Return” around age 28 and 56. I’ll write about that in depth in a future post.

So if you’re having a Saturn transit, you are probably serious and maybe unsure of yourself in the area being tested. The house will tell you a lot about where it’s showing up.

If you need a refresher on the houses, you can always reference:
https://yourstarswithin.blogspot.com/2018/03/houses-signs-and-body-parts.html

If Saturn is transiting a personal planet or Asc/IC, that area of life is going to have some “lessons”. It will likely require you to put a lot of time and energy into it. For example, if transiting your Sun, you may need to really present to the world a responsible demeanor, which may not be hard because you may be feeling more melancholy or serious in general. If Saturn contacts Venus, you likely will feel difficulty expressing love or receiving it. Maybe your words don’t flow out the way you want them to. It’s possible you make a more serious love commitment to a lover, but also possible that something that doesn’t have real long term potential will fall away, unable to harden into the reliable principle Saturn is holding it to.

When you’re born with Saturn in difficult contact with personal planets, you’ll likely experience this area as restricted, difficult or closed. This should lighten up a bit after your first Saturn return at 28. If you have a difficult aspect with Saturn and your Sun, likely your father was a difficult person to live with, critical controlling maybe even abusive. If Saturn to the Moon, your mother may have been very harsh or critical and as a result you may struggle with depression or similar issues.

Uranus – Uranus is the unexpected, so the best thing I can say is whatever you conjure this transit might be about, it’ll probably show up another way- because it has to be UNexpected! Uranus is the genius quality. He thinks outside of the box and comes up with novel solutions to problems most people haven’t even fully realized exist yet! He’s unique, free and erratic. Uranus energy is like a lightning bolt or an open electrical wire. It shows up out of no where and *BOOM* you suddenly get it now. Insight just clicks. No hard work, no restrictive process, just Ah HA!

However, as humans we tend to prefer consistency (unless we have a lot of Uranus influence). So when change occurs like this often we fight against it. Whether its your life changing too quickly for your comfort zone or you’ve made decisions and others are struggling to keep up, Uranus keeps everyone on their toes.

When Uranus makes a contact to a planet it really jazzes it up with energy. You can feel wired and on edge if you aren’t exercising or out letting this energy in some way. This is a great time to get out of your norm and try new things. Now, when this energy is in something like your 7^th house of partnerships, it can sometimes indicate it’s time for something new in that area, which may be disrupting to your current relationship and family structure. If its in your fifth house sometimes it could indicate an unexpected pregnancy, but not always. It might mean you’ll find new hobbies that you never expected would be you. In your first house, your identity may become something quite different then you thought it would be.

Same for the planets, if its making a difficult aspect to Mars, you may have aggression that jumps out that you didn’t even know you were carrying! On the other hand you may suddenly have the energy and passion to so something different in your life- highly motivated and ingenious. When Uranus is connected to parents in the chart, it can indicate unexpected losses or erratic behavior where the parent is not reliable and around for the child- very in and out. It could also just indicate an eccentric parent. 

When you’re born with Uranus contacts, this generally is going to make you a more unusual or unique person (or tend to date unusual people if connected to Venus). If connected to Moon or Sun, maybe one of your parents was rather unusual, but likely, especially with the Sun, so are you. Moon could make you emotionally erratic which could be hard to ground that energy at times. Learning physical activities to stay grounded and maybe herbal/sense based therapies would be helpful.

Neptune – Neptune is the master of illusion. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, Neptune runs the gamut. The most connected spiritual experience, merging consciousness with all of life is one expression, as is drug addiction, psychosis and the need for fame.

An apt quote for Neptune might be:

“The psychotic drowns in the same waters, in which,

 the mystic swims with delight.” 

– Joseph Cambell

Neptune is where the music comes from and the connection you feel when you are in flow with life, able to channel directly into an art. There is psychic and medium-ship abilities as well as false prophets and belief systems. Neptune is the master of illusion. Neptune is like a smoke screen, it makes things foggy and unclear.

Whatever house Neptune is currently transiting for you, it will likely be there for up to 15 years. So it’s a slow moving planet that will move through maybe half of your houses in a lifetime. It has more effect when it is making an aspect to a personal planet, such that the planet it aspects has qualities of both spiritual insight and confusion. Generally it is not wise to make big decisions in the area of life Neptune is making a direct aspect to, though some times this is unavoidable. 

If Neptune is making an aspect to your Moon your emotional responses to life may be confused, you may be responding to and hearing things that aren’t the way others intend. You may feel confusion related to decisions in your life and likely find activities such as meditation and music enjoyable- where you can merge into oneness. You may also be susceptible to emotional use of escapism tendencies such as drinking or substance use. Be careful with this during a Neptune transit.

Neptune also makes others see you the way they want to, not exactly who you are. Others may respond positively to you, yet you might realize they don’t’ fully understand you. This is like a shape-shifter quality and you may not even realize you’re doing it, but you’re adapting to the needs of others instinctively.

The aspects Neptune makes in your chart will be ongoing areas to be aware of. Strong Neptune aspects speak of being very cautious with substances. Use music and spiritual connection to express this energy instead. Feel like using a substance,?Put some music on and lay back and breathe to it. Your Neptunian energies need an outlet, but you are in charge of what that outlet is and its overall effect on your life.

Pluto – Pluto is the farthest planet and for that reason will stay in a sign for 14-30 years. Pluto will move through very few houses in your lifetime. For this reason, if you’re lucky enough to have a Pluto transit in your lifetime, I encourage you to make the most of it. If Pluto makes an aspect to your Sun, Moon or Venus, those areas of your life will be forever transformed. 

Pluto tends to sit on a few degrees for a long time, so an aspect can last approximately 3 years. Whatever Pluto touches will never be the same. In fact, the change is so monumental you won’t recognize the person you were before and you can’t understand the person you’ll become because it is a consciousness shift or a paradigm shift in that area. I personally went though a Pluto opposition my Venus for three years. My understanding of what relationships are, how to have them, how to be in them and how they meet needs has completely shifted. In fact, I can’t even tell you how I was before, as I have changed at what feels like the cellular level in the way I understand and approach relationships.

Pluto is a difficult aspect because it is utter transformation. The caterpillar to the butterfly, the Phoenix rising. 

An apt quote for Pluto may be:

“Step into the fire of self-discovery. 

This fire will not burn you, 

it will only burn what you are not.”   

-Mooji

And burn away what you are not is exactly what it will do. Not on the surface level, it gets all the way in there and destroys all that stood before. The only way for total transformation is total destruction, the Shiva quality if you will. You can not continue to build on an unstable foundation. You can not change something completely by building on top of what is already there. Like the dead of winter, everything must go! 

So, the first phase of a Pluto transit is purging, the release of all that has been stored inside unconsciously. This may be ancestral traumas and pains you didn’t know you were carrying. There is pain in letting go because as humans we tend towards wanting to be attached, even to things that do not serve us. RELEASE is your best answer with Pluto. Cry, scream, run, sweat whatever it takes to release, don’t cling. Once Pluto has pulled all of the venom from you psyche, it begins to rebuild you through the process of experience; you will have many experiences to learn new ways of understanding. Often this is painful because again we want to attach to the first thing that shows up. However, this process will never be regretted. When Pluto is done, you will have moved into a completely new way of being that adds depth and dimension to the area that was affected.

If however, you have Pluto aspecting personal planets in your natal chart, this can often point towards abuse or manipulation in your early life. You may be susceptible to being taken advantage of by seedy individuals or you may have a tendency to do the manipulating. A strong Pluto in your natal chart (to the personal planets remember), will give your presence power. Learning how to properly wield that power can be a struggle and when Pluto energy is in charge of you or has overwhelmed you, many dysfunctions can arise: cruelty, sickness, distortion, sexual deviance, rage etc.

***I want to remind you that the planets themselves, out in the sky, are not “causing” these events. The sky is more of a book, or the key for the map. It's telling you which energies are available to you and how they’re interacting with your energy- like chemical reactions. The sky isn’t causing it, the sky is describing it, its showing you the way/acting as a map so that you can place yourself on the journey more accurately. It is the communication between you and the Universe that is working to Co-Create with you. So use your energies wisely and seek guidance on the best ways to use your energy for evolution and positive growth.

I will, in future posts, go through each planet and discuss their impact through the houses, signs and aspects. This article is meant to be a backbone of information to make future interpretations more familiar. Don’t’ fret it you’re not memorizing everything. Just get the gist of the different types of energies available. If you want to discuss your personal aspects or transits email me about scheduling an appointment. I am happy to teach you, through your chart, so that you can better access this information personally. 

Thanks for Reading,

LittleWave