Every planet has a personality. Some are warm, cheerful and easy to be around. Others run hot, speak sharply and prefer their own company. That personality is what astrologers mean when they call a planet auspicious or inauspicious.
In Part 1 we met the nine grahas. Now we look at how seven of them behave: their temper, their constitution and the places they like to call home.
Which planet do you take after? Take the 1-minute quiz ↓Read the planets’ natures side by side and a clear pattern appears. Four of them are jovial, kind and phlegmatic. Three are hot-tempered and harsh. The first group are the natural benefics, the auspicious planets. The second are the natural malefics, the inauspicious ones.
Cheerful, sweet-spoken and cool in temperament, these four soften whatever part of a chart they touch.
The Moon is pure warmth. It is good-humoured, wears a constant smile and chooses its words kindly. Cool and phlegmatic by nature, it is drawn to rivers, lakes and anywhere damp.
Jupiter is the scholar everyone wants to sit beside: deeply learned, good-natured and widely admired. Phlegmatic and calm, it is most at home in temples and other places of worship.
Mercury is the well-read, generous thinker, easy company and open to new ideas. It is mostly calm and phlegmatic, yet it can flare up quickly. Like Jupiter, it belongs to sacred places.
Venus is charm itself: a ready smile, a sweet tongue and a strong pull towards romance and the opposite sex. It loves comfort and lives for the good things in life. Phlegmatic like the Moon, it shares the Moon’s love of water.
Hot, blunt and quick to anger, these three bring intensity wherever they sit.
The Sun burns hot. It is sharp and quick-thinking, but its temper runs short. Its home is the wild jungle, and it is linked with four-footed animals.
Mars is fire with no filter. It is quick to anger, easily irritated and says exactly what it thinks. Its mind tends to run against the grain, and its temper is the fiercest of all.
Saturn is the loner of the group. Its temper is short and its thinking contrary, and when crossed its words strike like a snake’s sting. It keeps to deserted, isolated places.
Each planet is also tied to a kind of place: its natural habitat. It is a useful clue to the settings and surroundings a planet brings into a person’s life.
It is tempting to cheer for the Gentle Four and fear the Fiery Three, but a chart needs both. The fire of the Sun and Mars gives drive, courage and the will to lead. Saturn’s sternness teaches patience and discipline. Too much gentleness, on the other hand, can make life comfortable but aimless.
Two of the gentle planets can also change sides. The Moon is at its kindest when it is waxing and loses some of its warmth as it wanes. Mercury is the most easily influenced of all: it takes on the nature of the planets it sits with, gentle in good company and harsh in bad.
What matters most is where each planet sits in your own chart, and how strong it is there.