Intro
Planetary keywords offer a distilled vocabulary for understanding the core nature and psychological function of each planet. This glossary gathers the essential meanings of all ten major planetary bodies — from the Sun and Moon to the outer planets — and presents them in a clean, quick‑reference format. Each entry includes four components: the planet’s names, its core functions, its defining keywords, and its archetypal roles. These are not full interpretations; they are the foundational terms that help you recognize how each planet behaves and how its energy moves through the chart.
How to Use This Glossary and Keywords
✦ Core Idea: This glossary gives you the essential vocabulary for understanding each planet’s archetypal role and psychological function. It distills every planetary body into its most important qualities so you can grasp its nature at a glance.
✦ Definition: Each entry includes four parts — Names, Core Functions, Keywords, and Archetypal Roles. These sections provide the distilled language you’ll use throughout the ASTROFIX codex.
✦ Function: Use these keywords to compare planets, identify dominant themes in a chart, or clarify how planetary energies express themselves through signs, houses, and aspects. They help you articulate what a planet does, what it feels like, and how it operates.
✦ Why It Matters: A shared planetary vocabulary makes the entire codex easier to navigate. These keywords connect directly to the Planetary Master Pages, Brainstorm posts, Sign and House placements, and Aspect interpretations, giving you a consistent interpretive language across the whole system.
✦ Interpretive Note: Let these keywords guide your intuition, not limit it. They are starting points — sparks — that help you recognize the deeper archetypal choreography of the chart.
☉ SUN
- Helios
- Sol
- Conscious self
- Creative will
- Identity
- Purpose
- Vitality
- Attention (where the Sun goes is where you need to pay attention)
- Confidence
- Conscious self
- Core
- Creative potential
- Ego
- Energy level
- Exposure
- Fame
- Identity
- Life purpose
- Personal authority
- Reputation (fame or infamy)
- Self
- Self-expression
- Shine
- Spotlight
- Star power
- Vitality & willpower
- Where you cast a shadow
- Authority figure
- Boss
- Celebrity
- Central figure
- Go-to person / point person
- Hero
- Key player
- Powerful person
- Royal
- Self-confident individual
- Star of the show
☽ MOON
- Luna
- Selene (personification of the Moon)
- Bonding
- Emotion
- Instinct
- Need
- Response
- Behavior
- Bonding
- Caring
- Cause for concern
- Emotion
- Fluctuation
- Habit
- Instinct
- Mothering & nurturance
- Mood
- Response
- Safety
- Caregiver
- Caterer
- Parent
- Supporter
- Tender
☿ MERCURY
- Hermes
- Hermes Trismegistus
- The magician
- Communication
- Connection
- Learning
- Perception
- Translation
- Commerce & trade
- Communication, linking & connecting information
- Dexterity
- Direct observation (seeing it with your own eyes)
- Language & symbols
- Learning
- Lingo
- Local travel & between worlds
- Messenger & psychopomp
- Siblings
- Speech & hearing
- Tricksters
- Vernacular
- Where your mind goes
- Agent
- Alternate
- Assistant
- Bootlegger?
- Charioteer
- Courier
- Coyote
- Gossip
- Grifter
- Informer
- Journalist
- Mail carrier
- Mule? (with Pluto?)
- Neighbor
- Networker
- Page
- Pickpocket
- Postal worker
- Proxy
- Psychopomp
- Raconteur
- Reporter
- Representative
- Runner
- Scout
- Sibling
- Storyteller
- Student
- Substitute?
- Thief
- Travel guide
- Trickster
- Writer
♀ VENUS
- Afrodita
- Androphonos, “man-slayer”
- Aphrodite in Greek, meaning “foam born” (Venus is her Roman counterpart)
- Aphrodite Urania (eldest of the three Fates)
- Epitymbria, “of the tombs”
- Goddess of death-in-life
- Goddess of love
- Melaenis, “black one”
- Scotia, “dark one”
- The lesser benefic
- Attraction
- Bonding
- Desire
- Harmony
- Value
- Arts appreciation
- Beauty & good looks
- Charm & romance
- Love & flirting
- Love of peace
- Passivity & laziness
- Relationship commitment
- Style & aesthetic
- Values & self-worth
- Vanity & superficiality
- Wealth & assets
- Your taste in…whatever (al gusto)
- Art reviewer
- Artist
- Beautiful person
- Diplomat
- Eye candy
- Fashion designer
- Fashionista
- Graphic designer
- Illustrator
- Interior designer
- Negotiator
- Peacemaker
- Seducer
- Style icon
- Stylist
♂ MARS
- Ares
- God of war
- Action
- Drive
- Initiation
- Protection
- Will
- Active & action-oriented
- Aggravation
- Anger & rage
- Area of life to conquer
- Competition & rivalry
- Cutting or severing
- Drive & will
- Emergencies
- Force & coercion
- Fresh
- Front line of defense (especially in Cancer)
- Goalie (especially in Cancer)
- Guard (especially in Cancer)
- Guts & daring
- Heightened activity (code red)
- Immediacy
- Impatience & impulse
- Irritants
- National guard (especially in Cancer)
- New
- Night’s Watch
- Pointy stick
- Self-assertion
- Sentry
- Sharp edge of the blade
- Stress
- Take action now
- Unrefined
- Weapons of choice
- Aggravator
- Agitator
- Aggressor
- Attack dog
- Combatant
- Conqueror
- Defender
- Enforcer
- Entrepreneur
- Fighter
- Guard
- Independent contractor
- Instigator (they started it!)
- Leader
- Protector
- Ranger (probably with Jupiter)
- Solo artist
- Warrior
♃ JUPITER
- Jove
- King of the gods
- The great benefic
- Zeus
- Expansion
- Faith
- Growth
- Meaning
- Protection
- All-powerful / omnipotent
- Belief & fanaticism
- Benefits
- Bouncer (especially in Cancer)
- Culture & customs
- Cultural shifts (sweeping cultural changes in whichever house Jupiter falls in)
- Don’t believe the hype
- Exaggerated
- Faithful or philandering
- Foolish
- Force field
- Global & long-distance
- Gluttonous
- Grandiose
- Increase
- Inflated (too good to be true)
- Jolly
- Jupiter + Neptune = growing and expanding indefinitely
- Open, optimistic & foolhardy (gullible)
- Opinionated
- Opulent
- Overbearing
- Over-expansion
- Overwhelm
- Philanthropic & spendthrift
- Philosophical, worldview, & meaning
- Protection & cover
- Shield (especially in Cancer)
- Too much of a good thing
- Upgrade
- Wisdom
- Benefactor
- Big thinker
- Explorer
- Judge
- Mentor
- Optimist
- Philosopher
- Priest
- Sage
- Teacher
🪐 SATURN
- Chronus / Chronos / Cronus / Kronos — the Greek Titan of time (the word cronos may mean “crow”)
- Saturnus (Roman god of agriculture and order)
- The architect of reality
- The devourer of children
- The guardian of thresholds
- The lord of karma
- The taskmaster
- The wise old man (Jungian archetype)
- Boundary
- Discipline
- Endurance
- Form
- Time
- Ageing & maturation
- Burden
- Consequences
- Curb your enthusiasm
- Devotion / Saturn’s kind of love is devotion
- Discipline & restraint
- Fear & reality checks
- Integrity
- Karma
- Lack
- Limitation & boundaries
- Making do with less
- Manifestation & crystallization
- Quelling (especially with Neptune)
- Responsibility & hard work
- Scrimping and saving
- Seriousness & gravity
- Structure & order
- Struggle
- Wisdom gained through age & experience
- Working harder for the same outcome
- Builder of long-term success
- Initiator of maturity
- Planet of aging, endings, and earned wisdom
- Ruler of Capricorn (traditional) and Aquarius (traditional)
- Symbol of societal rules and personal ethics
- Teacher through limitation
- Tester of resolve and character
- Exalted in Libra
- Detriment in Cancer and Leo
- Fall in Aries
♅ URANUS
- King of the mountains
- Ouranos
- Awakening
- Breakthrough
- Disruption
- Liberation
- Rebellion
- Breaking out of a mold
- Chaos
- Coldness & distance
- Discomfort
- Disorder
- Disruption
- Disruption & upset
- Eccentricity & genius
- Erraticism
- Experimentation
- Extremism
- Freedom
- Futurism, invention, and flashes of insight
- Hacker
- Liberation & independence
- Odd
- Rebellion & anti-
- Revolution & uprising
- Shock & awakening
- The unexpected
- Tumult
- Unsettled
- Uprooted
- Disrupter
- Dissident
- Extremist
- Genius
- Innovator
- Inventor
- Liberator
- Objector
- Outcast
- Rabble-rouser
- Rebel
♆ NEPTUNE
- He who gives to drink from the wooded mountain (from *The Greek Myths*, by Robert Graves)
- Poseidon (Greek counterpart of Neptune)
- Potidan
- Dissolution
- Imagination
- Longing
- Permeability
- Transcendence
- Absorption
- Abyss
- Attrition
- Blurred
- Dazed & confused
- Dazzling
- Diffuse
- Disappear
- Disappointed & longing
- Dissolve
- Dreamer & visionary
- Drain
- Drift
- Drowning
- Encroach
- Enervate
- Entropy
- Erasure
- Erosion
- Ethereal & psychic
- Evasive & transient
- Fathomless
- Float
- Illimitable
- Immeasurable
- Imperceptible
- Indefinite
- Indirect
- Indistinguishable
- Infringing
- Invasive
- Invisible
- Like an ocean wave spreading out over the shore then shrinking back pulling millions of grains of sand with it down to the ocean depths never to be seen again.
- Jupiter + Neptune = growing and expanding indefinitely
- Limitless
- Lost
- Meandering
- Messy (Neptune is in detriment in Virgo)
- Mooch
- Mystical
- Nebulous
- Obfuscated
- Overrun
- Permeating
- Poetic & artistic
- Proliferating
- Raiding (with Aries or Mars)
- Refined & exquisite
- Replicating
- Seeping
- Sleazy
- Slippery
- Smooth & eroding
- Spiritual
- Spread
- Subtle
- Trespass
- Undermine
- Unseen
- Vast & boundless
- Vanish
- Wander
- Weaken
- Wither
- Abstractionist
- Artist
- DJ
- Dreamer
- Drifter
- Poet
- Musician
- Nurse
- Sensitive soul
- Lost person
- Druggie
- Spiritual guide
- Mystical guide
- Filmmaker
- Visionary
♇ PLUTO
- Hades
- Pluton
- “The rich one”
- Dispater
- Descent
- Elimination
- Power
- Purification
- Transformation
- Alchemy
- Area of life where you crave intense experiences
- Buried treasure (how dirty do your hands have to get?)
- Cleansing & renewal
- Corruption & annihilation
- Descent
- How much are you willing to change to get the power you want?
- How power transforms you (for better or worse)
- Indefatigable
- Magic & sorcery
- Manipulation & power struggles
- Passion & consumption
- Pluto *wasn’t* a nice guy!!!
- Rebirth
- Relentless
- Soul retrieval
- The thing that’s taking a toll on your life (the thing that’s killing you right now)
- “Transformation” and its synonyms: conversion, metamorphosis, alteration, modification, reformation, revision, transition, shift, transfiguration, adjustment, deformation, transmutation, distortion, mutation, disfigurement, supplantation, transmogrification
- Trash
- Underbelly & the seedy side of life
- Underground & mining
- Underworld & criminal activity
- What level of corruption will you stoop to in order to achieve the power you crave?
- You can transform only so much before you become unrecognizable (do the people you loved still know you?)
- Captive
- Conspiracy theorist
- Criminal
- Detective
- Dis-empowered person
- Garbage collector
- Hostage
- Kidnapper
- Paranoid person (in Aquarius = paranoid android)
- Powerful person
- Psychologist
- Rehabilitator
- Researcher
- Saboteur
- Shaman
- Spy
- Svengali
- Therapist
- Transformer
- Up-cycler
- Usurper
- Villain
Cross‑Links
Explore more tools and reference pages in the Planetary system:
Closing Note
The planets are the archetypal forces that animate the chart — the characters, instincts, and mythic intelligences that shape a life from within. This glossary offers the essential vocabulary for recognizing their roles and understanding how each planetary energy expresses itself across signs, houses, and aspects. Let these keywords be your starting points as you explore the deeper choreography of the planetary cast throughout the codex.