right human relations

Sun signs through the Western zodiac, part 1

In Hermetic Astrology, the Sun represents the first thing a person tends to do in reaction to real-life variables. It empowers and flavors a person’s virtues and relationship with virtue (it may be helpful to note here that the Moon, often seen as the Sun’s counterpart because of their similar prominence in our sky, is involved with virtue blossoming in a complementary way, through a person’s natural empathy and desire for comfort and a happy society). The Sun is nice. Our solar system’s physical sun gives Earth essential raw material for elaborated matter in many ways, and does so predictably and consistently. People’s kindliness and personal decency is championed by their natal Sun in whatever position it’s found in, whatever aspects it forms. It also represents one side of someone’s creativity, that of initiation and of virtuosity.

In a birth chart, a person’s Sun is sometimes a dominant theme in how they relate to others. In other cases the Moon is more dominant. And these can be very balanced in an individual as well. Sometimes the actual birth time is an indicator of which type one tends toward, with people being born in the daytime often picking up more solar dominance, and people born at night often picking up more lunar dominance, etc. but there are numerous factors.

The Sun in the first six signs:
And everyone has all the signs up in the sky…

Aries: Sun in Aries is in its exaltation, meaning that it can potentially feel very free and extravagant in its expression while it occupies that sign. This makes a certain sense, as here on Earth the astrological Sun is experiencing a naturally exciting beginning of yet another spring in the Northern Hemisphere, where Western Astrology and its zodiac were mostly born. Mars is the exoteric ruler of Aries, and its esoteric ruler is Mercury. Solar Aries is known for having an honest, bold, straightforward nature, and quickly becomes practiced at taking the initiative in situations. They are not too afraid to learn from failures. They prefer to be friendly whenever it’s reasonably justifiable to be so, and cannot tolerate their own sour moods well. They must learn introspection, no matter what. Quirk: Aries wants to believe in God.

Taurus: The Sun is gaining confidence in Taurus season, carefully building toward its summer expression on Earth. The richness and fecundity of that time of year is suggestive of its exoteric ruler Venus. Vulcan, an extinct esoteric planet that was reputed to break up etheric nonsense (a task still covered by Mars, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, and Pluto, fortunately), has been suggested as the esoteric ruler of Taurus, but some people believe its esoteric ruler to be the asteroid Chiron, which spends a lot of extra time in Taurus due to having an irregular orbit. Solar Taurus quickly becomes practiced in sorting out what it likes and dislikes, and has a task in life to make sure its tastes stay tasteful. They have a natural affinity for what is appropriate, if they do not distort it in themselves. They have a particular interest in being genteel and experiencing general gentility. Quirk: Taurus hates being confused, but they’re often good at dealing with it.

Gemini: During Gemini season, the sun is climbing to its summer height, the Summer Solstice. On Earth (Northern Hemisphere), much is blooming and moving during this time of year. Outdoor paradises have erupted. Gemini is a natural child of paradise, perhaps. Mercury, named after a young prodigy god, is its exoteric ruler, and its esoteric ruler is Venus. Gemini likes to do everything, in the sense of being busy. Gemini loves to talk. Gemini loves encouragement, and often gets fairly good over time at taking things as encouragement. Quirk: Gemini overthinks the Gemini twin motif.

Cancer: Cancer is the season that starts just at the apex of the physical sun’s ascent. Perhaps this is why Cancer is so prone to reminisce, having the vague idea that the big buildup is what happened in the past. It’s just a year, guys. The Moon rules Cancer exoterically, while its esoteric ruler is an advanced Neptune. Cancer season (Northern Hemisphere) tends to be uniformly fine and pleasant. Solar Cancers do well when they notice the ways that their lives are fine and pleasant for them, and keep in mind that any additional angst is often a choice. Cancer loves to affect people emotionally, but feels things have gone terribly wrong when they notice themselves having a negative effect. They must mature emotionally to make sure they have a firm grasp of cause and effect in the human world. Quirk: Cancer always cares who’s in a leadership position. They want leaders to be good and competent, and don’t like the idea of people having to work around a leadership deficit.

Leo: We feel the heat of the sun most in Leo season. The Sun is comfortable, ruling Leo both exoterically and esoterically. Solar Leo wants to notice what it’s doing. They often feel like noticing what they are doing will help them notice themselves better. They do understand that the world should not revolve around them as it does our solar cynosure, but that they must work to mature while meanwhile the sun marks time for us. Leo wants to feel normal, in a lot of ways, but sometimes panics and insists on people making them feel special instead. It doesn’t work. Leo prefers for things to be aboveboard. Quirk: Most Leos started liking astrology because they found out they were Leos.

Virgo: In Virgo, the solar year is building toward an equinox, and the weather is gracious and galvanizing. Virgo’s exoteric ruler is Mercury, and its esoteric ruler is the Moon. Solar Virgo has a tendency to set goals to become things, rather than setting goals to do things, which is known to convolute things sometimes. They usually understand that they still have to do things, though. They can be deep, and that goes well, but being shallow might become a bad and insidious habit. Sometimes Virgo focuses so much on looks that they forget about the concept of overall attractiveness. Yes, people will buy something just because it’s pretty, but people are people. Virgos tend to be better at organizing than prioritizing, so they must take care to think about the big picture often, and on purpose. They want to relax the relaxation of the just. They fear losing themselves and becoming one of the world’s problems. Quirk: Sometimes Virgo wishes the Virgo symbol was something symmetrical.

Sun Signs through the Western zodiac, Part 2