Here Comes the Sun

If you know nothing else about Astrology, you probably know your 'Sun Sign'. In fact, if you are like most North Americans, the first thing you will turn to in the newspaper is the 'Horoscope' section to see what is happening for your Sign that day (not that you take it seriously, of course).

Our calendar is based on Sol's annual trip through the Signs. Each year, the first moment of spring in the Northern Hemisphere is determined by the Sun's passage from the last sign of the Zodiac, Pisces, into the first, Aries. The movement of the Sun into the other Cardinal Signs, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, marks the beginning of our summer, fall and winter respectively. Of course, even Astrologers know that the Sun does not actually move around the Earth. The apparent motion of the Sun is really created by the rotation of the Earth and its tilt in relation to the Sun during its annual revolution. Thus the Sun appears to be over the Equator at the Equinoxes and at its northern and southern extremes (over the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn) at the Solstices. Astrology is Earth-centred because that is where we live. Your birth chart reflects your own unique geocentric perspective.

The Sun represents the energy that enables all else to exist; the basic energy of being. The light of the Sun is reflected by the Moon and other planets, so the Sun in the horoscope is the basic energy of which all the other planetary energies are specialized reflections. The Sun represents the light of consciousness. Whereas each of the other planets represent specific needs, drives, urges, faculties, the Sun represents the core of your being.

The Sun in your horoscope symbolizes your essential being. The qualities ascribed to your Sun sign are an innate part of you. How those qualities are expressed, and how much they are expressed, depends a great deal on how your Sun is positioned in relation to the other planets in your birthchart.

When people learn that I am an Astrologer, they often ask me to guess what Sign they are. However, many people do not strongly exhibit the qualities of their Sun sign. Instead they might be displaying the characteristics associated with their Moon sign or Ascendant (Rising Sign) or a particular planetary energy. If the Moon is particularly strong in your birthchart, you will probably resonate with the description of your Moon's sign, possibly more so than that of your Sun.

While some of you may have a very strong emphasis on one particular sign, with several planets highlighting the qualities associated with that sign, nobody is purely one sign. Each of you has all twelve signs somewhere in your birthchart. It is the arrangement of the planets within the framework of the Signs which describes your own unique personality. The combinations and permutations are literally astronomical.

Reading the horoscope columns in the newspaper you might think that there were only twelve kinds of people in the world. Now, wouldn't that be boring?