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In the field of astrology, generational planets are planets that affect an entire generation of people. The generational planets are the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, and potentially Sedna and Quaoar.
Uranus exhibits the ideals of the 18th century, when people such as Benjamin Franklin endeavoured to use their inventive mind to move man into a more enlightened era. It has an orbit of 84 years, staying in each sign of the zodiac for approximately 7 years. [1] Uranus is considered to be a higher octave of Mercury, [1] [2] which means that as people develop within their selves, their character and means of communication will exhibit more influences of the sign and house of Uranus. In essence, Uranus can be seen as a person's higher self. Because it takes Uranus 84 years to travel through the zodiac, transiting Uranus might conjoin the natal Uranus within a person's lifetime.
Neptune is a 19th-century planet in that it heralded in many of the varied Protestant denominations, as well as spiritualism. Visionaries such as Edgar Cayce and Rudolf Steiner were born in the second half of the 19th century, and their psychic abilities are indicative of the Neptunian themes of this time. It has an orbit of 165 years, spending approximately 15 years in each sign. [1]
Neptune is considered to be the higher octave of Venus [1] [2] because both planets are gaseous and both strive to achieve the higher ideals of mankind; Venus through the adoption of beauty and Neptune through unconditional love. [3] Because Neptune has such a long orbit, an individual may see transiting Neptune form an opposition to their natal Neptune.
Pluto is very much a 20th-century planet and refers to the two world wars, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear power, and a desire to totally control the world. It is a planet that reveals the extremes people are capable of if they do not set necessary boundaries in their lives. [1] This planet governs people's compulsions, the things they are compelled to do but know they should not, such as murder, rape, and drug addiction.
Pluto is considered to be a higher octave of Mars, [2] evidenced by the fact that both planets co-rule Scorpio. Pluto, circling the Sun in 248 years, has a rather elliptical orbit, which means that it stays in the sign it rules, Scorpio, for a mere 12 years, and the sign of its fall, Taurus for 30. With this in mind, some astrologers[ who? ] believe that Pluto should rule Taurus, but for the time being it still rules Scorpio. As other trans-Neptunian object planets are discovered, however, this placement may be reconsidered.
Quaoar was discovered on 4 June 2002 [4] and is considered to be a trans-Neptunian object. Although a planetoid, it is considered by many[ who? ] to be more of a planet than Pluto because its orbit is more circular in nature, being 286 years. When a person is around 71 years old, transiting Quaoar will form a square aspect to his natal placement. Since this is a recently discovered object, not much is yet known about its astrological significance and what part it plays in the universe.
Sedna was discovered by a team using the Samuel Oschin telescope on 14 November 2003 and is a trans-Neptunian object. [5] It has an orbit of 11,250 years, so it stays in a sign for approximately a millennium. Because this planet has recently been discovered, not much is yet known about it.
The Kuiper belt is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies or remnants from when the Solar System formed. While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles, such as methane, ammonia, and water. The Kuiper belt is home to most of the objects that astronomers generally accept as dwarf planets: Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's moons, such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, may have originated in the region.
Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's quest for Planet X. Lowell proposed the Planet X hypothesis to explain apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the giant planets, particularly Uranus and Neptune, speculating that the gravity of a large unseen ninth planet could have perturbed Uranus enough to account for the irregularities.
A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has an orbital semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au).
Orcus is a large trans-Neptunian object and likely dwarf planet located in the Kuiper belt, with one large moon, Vanth. It has an estimated diameter of 870 to 960 km, comparable to the Inner Solar System dwarf planet Ceres. Orcus had been accepted by many astronomers as a dwarf planet, though as of 2024 that classification remains somewhat controversial. The surface of Orcus is relatively bright with albedo reaching 23 percent, neutral in color, and rich in water ice. The ice is predominantly in crystalline form, which may be related to past cryovolcanic activity. Other compounds like methane or ammonia may also be present on its surface. Orcus was discovered by American astronomers Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz on 17 February 2004.
Sedna is a dwarf planet in the outermost reaches of the inner Solar System, orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. Discovered in 2003, the planetoid's surface is one of the reddest known among Solar System bodies. Spectroscopy has revealed Sedna's surface to be mostly a mixture of the solid ices of water, methane, and nitrogen, along with widespread deposits of reddish-colored tholins, a chemical makeup similar to those of some other trans-Neptunian objects. Within the range of uncertainties, it is tied with the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt as the largest dwarf planet not known to have a moon. Its diameter is roughly 1,000 km. Owing to its lack of known moons, the Keplerian laws of planetary motion cannot be employed for determining its mass, and the precise figure as yet remains unknown.
In astrology, a planet's domicile is the zodiacal sign over which it has rulership. This is a separate concept from the houses of the horoscope. A planetary ruler is given to each sign, over which the planet is said to have a more powerful influence when positioned therein. The ruling planet associated with a sign is also used as an implied focus of interpretation for the signs on house cusps in a chart. A planet is considered to be in domal dignity when it is positioned in the sign it rules. This is the strongest of the five essential dignities of a planet. Domicile is an archaic term in infrequent, specialist uses today; most astrologers use the simpler term "sign".
(148209) 2000 CR105 is a trans-Neptunian object and the tenth-most-distant known object in the Solar System as of 2015. Considered a detached object, it orbits the Sun in a highly eccentric orbit every 3,305 years at an average distance of 222 astronomical units (AU).
The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant circumstellar disc in the Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy small Solar System bodies, which are a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects. The scattered-disc objects (SDOs) have orbital eccentricities ranging as high as 0.8, inclinations as high as 40°, and perihelia greater than 30 astronomical units (4.5×109 km; 2.8×109 mi). These extreme orbits are thought to be the result of gravitational "scattering" by the gas giants, and the objects continue to be subject to perturbation by the planet Neptune.
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto, which for decades was regarded as a planet before the "dwarf" concept was adopted in 2006.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined in August 2006 that, in the Solar System, a planet is a celestial body that:
Historically, astrological and astronomical symbols have overlapped. Frequently used symbols include signs of the zodiac and classical planets. These originate from medieval Byzantine codices. Their current form is a product of the European Renaissance. Other symbols for astrological aspects are used in various astrological traditions.
Detached objects are a dynamical class of minor planets in the outer reaches of the Solar System and belong to the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). These objects have orbits whose points of closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) are sufficiently distant from the gravitational influence of Neptune that they are only moderately affected by Neptune and the other known planets: This makes them appear to be "detached" from the rest of the Solar System, except for their attraction to the Sun.
Gonggong is a dwarf planet, a member of the scattered disc beyond Neptune. It has a highly eccentric and inclined orbit during which it ranges from 34–101 astronomical units from the Sun. As of 2019, its distance from the Sun is 88 AU, and it is the sixth-farthest known Solar System object. According to the Deep Ecliptic Survey, Gonggong is in a 3:10 orbital resonance with Neptune, in which it completes three orbits around the Sun for every ten orbits completed by Neptune. Gonggong was discovered in July 2007 by American astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown, and David Rabinowitz at the Palomar Observatory, and the discovery was announced in January 2009.
Quaoar is a large, ringed trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. It has an elongated ellipsoid shape with an average diameter of 1,090 km (680 mi), about half the size of the dwarf planet Pluto. The object was discovered by American astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory on 4 June 2002. Quaoar's surface contains crystalline water ice and ammonia hydrate, which suggests that it might have experienced cryovolcanism. A small amount of methane is present on its surface, which can only be retained by the largest Kuiper belt objects.
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", which moved relative to the fixed stars over the course of the year(s).
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Solar System:
