Astrology and Horoscopes


The Outer Planets

The Outer Planets of Astrology

The outer planets include: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto and symbolize our place in the bigger picture of life.

While the inner planets tell us about your personal characteristics, the outer planets of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto symbolize our place in the bigger picture of the world. They give us experience and knowledge which allow us to effectively participate with others in the game of life.

These planets are the farthest away from the Sun in the solar system, invisible without a telescope. Because of their distance, they rotate very slowly around the Sun and thus affect our lives primarily at an unconscious level.

In astrology, these distant planets signify the collective karma of the generation in which we were born. Karma in Eastern cultures is the sum of a person’s activity – past, present, and future. According to this view, we are each responsible for our own lives and the suffering and joy our behavior brings to us and others. Put simply, karma is the law of cause and effect. It’s the consequences of how we direct our energy. This is the biblical notion that we reap what we sow, even if the connection is not immediate or direct.

Let’s look at the generational benefits that the four outer planets provide.

Uranus_Planet_Icon 2Uranus in a chart shows how we are different from others and out of step with the people around us and it also relates to technology and automobiles. The planet of sudden and unexpected changes and upheaval. Uranus brings upset, disruption, sudden flashes of insight, and rebelliousness. In society, it rules radical ideas and the people who champion them. Uranus also rules revolutionary events that disturb established structures and traditional order. Uranus also represents the freedom to create, inventiveness, and uniqueness.

Read more about Uranus in astrology

NeptuneNeptune shows our dreams and wishes, it rules imagination, fantasy, delusions, disappointments, lies, drugs, and other intoxicants come under its influence. The planet of illusion, confusion, and deception. Neptune is connected to our imagination and spiritual enlightenment. Neptune also rules the misfits of society. On a higher level, it rules visionaries and those who are glamorous and charismatic. On a lower level, it represents wishful thinking and escapism.

Read more about Neptune in Astrology

PlutoFinally, we have Pluto which relates to large groups, forces beyond individual control, the internet, the police and anything which is impacting large numbers of living beings all at once. The planet of deep transformation. Pluto involves death, regeneration, and rebirth. It surfaces what has been hidden to destroy, purify, and renew. It rules intense energy, signifying the areas in which we consciously or subconsciously seek to exercise power or control. Linked to our karmic responsibility, Pluto indicates those areas where we need to find the deepest level of understanding. While it can stir up guilt, resentment, obsession, and fear, its rewards are usually positive and life changing.

Read more about Pluto in Astrology

The outer planets provide a unifying energy that influences each generation in a different way, allowing them to impact the world collectively.

The inner planets tell how personal characteristics will play out in specific life areas for each person.

Together, outer planets and inner planets provide a comprehensive picture of the energies that impact a person’s experiences from birth to death.

The Outer Planets’ Discovery Announcements

  • Uranus – March 13, 1781, between 10:00 and 11:00 pm LMT, Bath, England
  • Neptune – September 23, 1846, 10:00 pm LMT, Berlin, Germany
  • Pluto – February 18, 1930, 4:00 pm MST, Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.A.

Until planets are discovered (manifest to human consciousness in a spiritually emanated reality), for all practical purposes they have no existence. Hence Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have no meaning in charts for events or for people born before March 13, 1781, except that Pluto, for instance, would be inserted into the chart of a person living after Pluto’s date of discovery in the degree and minute it was in when it was discovered 17Cancer 47′ Retrograde.

In the chart of the United States for example, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto would be inserted according to the degree and minute they were in at the moment of their discoveries (not where they were theoretically at the time of the birth) with Uranus at 24· Gemini 29′ Direct, Neptune at 25· Aquarius 54′ Retrograde, and Pluto as previously mentioned.

This same principle would apply for study of the comet debris masses or “centaur bodies” named Chiron (discovered November 1, 1977, 9:53 am PST, Mount Palomar, California, 116W50:07, 33N21:48), Pholus and an as yet unnamed third body.

Last updated on February 15, 2017 at 10:05 pm. Word Count: 766