The Planetary Lines

How to read a planet page

Each page opens with the planet itself and what its four lines have in common. Then it walks the lines in the same order every time: the Ascendant line, the Descendant line, the Midheaven line and the IC line. For each one I say what the place brings, where the gift is, where the catch is, and what that place is good for.

How the Lines Work explains the four angles, how close to a line you need to be for it to count, and why the birth time matters so much. Read it first if you have not, because every page below assumes you have.

The seven planets

Sun Lines put you in the light. On a Sun line you are seen, your purpose comes forward and people notice you, which is a gift when you want to be noticed and tiring when you do not. The Sun page in The Planets tells you what your Sun is made of before you look for its lines.

Moon Lines are tender. They are the lines of feeling, of home and belonging and the past, and they reach you faster than any of the others. A Moon line can make a strange city feel like a place you have always known, and it can also bring up everything you thought you had put down. The Moon page describes the Moon you are carrying there.

Mercury Lines are busy. The mind speeds up, conversation comes easily, messages and paperwork and ideas pile up, and the place runs on talk. They suit study, writing and any work that lives in words, and they can leave you scattered if you do not give the mind somewhere to land. Mercury has its own page in The Planets.

Venus Lines are pleasant. Love, friendship, comfort and beauty come more easily, people are kinder, and life softens. The catch is in the softening, because a Venus line can make it very easy to let things slide and very hard to leave. Venus has its own page in The Planets.

Mars Lines are demanding. Energy, drive, competition and heat, the lines where things get done and tempers run short. They are good for a fight you have chosen and hard on a life that wanted peace. Mars has its own page in The Planets.

Jupiter Lines are generous. Doors open, people want to help, confidence rises and luck seems to follow you about. Jupiter also runs to excess, and these are the lines where it is easiest to promise more than you can deliver and spend more than you have. Jupiter has its own page in The Planets.

Saturn Lines are serious. Work, discipline, responsibility and time, the lines where foundations get built and where nothing is handed to you. They suit a season of a life that wants to build something lasting and they wear on a season that wanted rest. Saturn has its own page in The Planets.

The planet comes first

Every line on these pages is written the way it tends to run for most people, and the planet's condition in your own chart turns it up or down, so you need to know what you are carrying before you read about where it was rising.

A planet's condition is its sign, its house, its aspects and whether it is on the move or standing still, all of which the planet's own page in The Planets will help you judge. A well placed Saturn's line is steadying. A hard pressed one asks more of you. A Venus that is strong in your chart has lines that are warmer than the Venus pages describe, and a Venus that is squared and tucked away has lines that are quieter. The map is the chart taken outdoors, so the chart decides what the map means.

I read the two or three nearest lines to a place together, against the whole chart, and I say how close each one runs. One line on its own tells you very little. Two lines crossing tell you a great deal.

Start with your birthplace

The lines that run near the place you were born belong to the planets that were on or near your angles when you were born. Find those planets in your chart, read their pages here, and you will recognise the place you grew up in. It is the simplest way I know to learn what a line feels like from the inside, because you have already lived it.

After that, pick a place you have been drawn to or a place that treated you badly, and see which lines run near it. Then read the pages for those planets with the chart beside you. In my experience the map explains a surprising number of the places people have loved and the places they could not wait to leave.

Which planet was on your angles when you were born, and does the town you grew up in read like its line?

If you would like your own chart read, my readings are here.

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