Personal Planets

The Personal Planets. The personal planets are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars. They are the fastest-moving bodies in the chart, and because they change sign quickly they vary a great deal from one person to the next. This is what makes them personal: they describe the individual character rather than the mood of a generation. Each one covers a basic part of the self. The Sun is identity and will, the Moon is emotion and need, Mercury is thought and communication, Venus is love and value, and Mars is drive and action. Between them they map the everyday machinery of a personality, how a person thinks, feels, relates, and acts. Because they move so fast, the personal planets are sensitive to exact birth time and date, and they form the heart of any natal reading. When astrologers describe someone's core nature, they are usually drawing on these five bodies together with the rising sign.