Planets in astrology

In astrology, planets have a meaning different from the astronomical understanding of what a planet is. Before the age of telescopes, the night sky was thought to consist of two similar components: fixed stars, which remained motionless in relation to each other, and moving objects/"wandering stars" (Ancient Greek: ἀστέρες πλανῆται, romanized: asteres planetai), which moved relative to the fixed stars over the course of the year(s).

To the Ancient Greeks who learned from the Babylonians, the earliest astronomers/astrologers,^{[citation needed]} this group consisted of the five planets visible to the naked eye and excluded Earth, plus the Sun and Moon. Although the Greek term planet applied mostly to the five 'wandering stars', the ancients included the Sun and Moon as the Sacred 7 Luminaires/7 Heavens (sometimes referred to as "Lights",) making a total of 7 planets. The ancient Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Medieval Christians, and others thought of the 7 classical planets as gods and named their 7 days of the week after them. Astrologers retain this definition of the 7 classical planets today.

To ancient astrologers, the planets represented the will of the deities and their direct influence upon human affairs. To modern astrologers, the planets can represent basic drives or urges in the subconscious, or energy flow regulators representing dimensions of experience. They express themselves with different qualities in the 12 signs of the zodiac and in the 12 houses. The planets are also related to each other in the form of aspects.

Modern astrologers differ on the source of the correlations between planetary positions and configurations, on the one hand, and characteristics and destinies of the natives, on the other. Hone writes that the planets exert it directly through gravitation or another, unknown influence. Others hold that the planets have no direct influence on themselves, but are mirrors of basic organizing principles in the universe. In other words, the basic patterns of the universe repeat themselves everywhere, in a fractal-like fashion, and as above, so below. Therefore, the patterns that the planets make in the sky reflect the ebb and flow of basic human impulses. The planets are also associated, especially in the Chinese tradition, with the basic forces of nature.

Listed below are the specific meanings and domains associated with the astrological planets since ancient times, with the main focus on the Western astrological tradition. The planets in Hindu astrology are known as the Navagraha (literally "nine planets"), with the addition of two shadow bodies Rahu and Ketu. In Chinese astrology, the planets are associated with the life forces of Yin & Yang and the five elements, which play an important role in the Chinese form of geomancy known as Feng Shui. Astrologers differ on the signs associated with each planet's exaltation, especially for the outer, non-classical planets.

This table shows the astrological planets (as distinct from the astronomical) and the Greek and Roman deities associated with them. In most cases, the English name for planets derives from the name of a Roman god or goddess. Also of interest is the conflation of the Roman god with a similar Greek god. In some cases, it is the same deity with two different names.

Treatises on the Ptolemaic planets and their influence on people born "under their reign" appear in block book form, so-called "planet books" or Planetenbücher. This genre is attested in numerous manuscripts beginning in the mid 15th century in the Alemannic German area; it remained popular throughout the German Renaissance, exerting great iconographical influence far into the 17th century.

These books usually list a male and a female Titan with each planet: Cronus and Rhea with Saturn, Eurymedon and Themis with Jupiter, probably Crius and Dione with Mars, Hyperion and Theia with the Sun, Atlas and Phoebe with the Moon, Coeus and Metis with Mercury, and Oceanus and Tethys with Venus. These planetary correspondences are linked to the ancient Greek myth of Eurynome as noted by Robert Graves.