the solar system
noun
the collection of eight planets and their moons in orbit around the sun, together with smaller bodies in the form of asteroids, meteoroids, and comets. The planets of the solar system are (in order of distance from the sun) Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
- Oxford Languages
ORBITING our star
OUR STAR, Sol
To befriend astrology is to befriend the planets in our solar system. At the center of it is our one star, the Sun, or Sol in Latin. Just as we name stars such as Sirius, Sol is the name of our star. Depending on how a star is formed, having a planetary system around it is somewhat common.
Worshiped throughout time and connected with daytime and our vital light, Sol is the center of our existence. When someone asks you what sign you are and you blurt out Leo or Scorpio, you are talking about the part of the zodiac the Sun was pulling Earth toward when you were born. There is something about our spiritual core that is oriented to Sol. Our sol-ar orientation is vital to us thriving in our lives.
planets & Orbits
Moving out from our solar center, planets move in elliptical trajectories around the Sun with centripetal acceleration, responding to Sol’s gravitational pull. Some planets have moons that orbit them in this same fashion. Earth is the third planet from the Sun, with Mercury and Venus’ solar orbits falling inside our own.
While a planet’s mass makes a difference in its orbital speed, more pronounced is its distance from Sol. Mercury, being the closest planet to Sol, has the speediest orbit. It orbits the Sun three times in the time it takes us to orbit it once. Each planet further out orbits at slower and slower speeds. Elegant harmonic relationships, or sacred geometry, occur with the mathematics of it all.
The planets that orbit at speeds closest to our own—Mercury, Venus, and Mars—are considered personal planets. Included in astrology’s personal planets are Sol and Earth’s moon, Luna. These important cosmic bodies seem to affect our daily lives in more obvious ways than the further out planets. Our inner neighbor, Venus, holds significance around our inner values and an ability to speak and stand for ourselves. Mars, our neighbor just outside of our orbit, holds significance by pointing us toward a direction in our outer lives.
Jupiter and Saturn are our social planets. Jupiter, the giant of our solar system, is a culture maker. Why a certain movie or song was so impactful in a given year can often be traced back to this planet that brings a sense of vision and narrative to life. Saturn holds with societal constructs. It is the farthest planet we can see by eye alone. It likes to give us boundaries around what we are constructing. Boxes that society deems appropriate.
The further-out planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, have a transpersonal effect. They are past what we can see with our plain eyes. There are a lot of generational associations with these planets and a connection to how we seek a greater understanding of consciousness.
As the planets orbit the Sun, we see their movements against the backdrop of the zodiac. In astrology, we assign the planets as having archetypal qualities. Where we see them in the zodiac assigns that archetype certain characteristics—Mercury, the messenger, brings news and ideas of value and materiality when seen against the backdrop of Taurus.
EARTH’S YEAR
The journey our Earth, hence we, take around the Sun takes 365 days to make a full orbit. This is where our Earth year comes from. A year for another planet would depend on the time it takes for its full orbit. Time is relative.
If you were to launch into space above the north pole and look down, you’d see that we orbit around the Sun in a counterclockwise direction, same as the other planets. If you were to do the same but from above the South Pole, the orbit would look clockwise.
When we deal with space, orientation is paramount in understanding direction and location.
About two million years ago, man appeared. He has become the dominant species on the earth. All other living things, animal and plant, live by his sufferance. He is the custodian of life on earth, and in the solar system. It’s a big responsibility.
- George Wald