A handbook fof the humanistic astrologer
YOUR GUIDING PLANET
by Michael R. Meyer




This feature is divided
into eleven web pages:



Humanistic astrology holds that there are no "good" or "bad" planets, signs or astrological aspects. Everything, and every astrological planet, has its appropriate place and purpose.

The Planet of Oriental Appearance is the first planet to rise immediately before the Sun. In your natal horoscope, it symbolizes your special skills and faculties, and your inner guiding voice.








Each of us possess guiding qualities and innate skills
bestowed to help us fulfill our special destiny as individuals and as purposeful members of humanity. But conditions pervading in our schools, offices and factories, and the conforming pressures of society, usually conspire to force us to into predetermined molds, with little regard for our special faculties and talents, unless they happen to be useful in the business world. As a result, our inner faculties — our individual guiding compass that helps us navigate our own special way through both the calm and the stormy seas of life to our ultimate, fullest destination — is often inadequately developed, or family and social conditions may predispose us to ignore, suppress or distrust our guiding voice.
      In a less abstract and more practical way, each of us have a stock of innate special talents and skills which we may develop and exploit in life, or which may lie largely dormant or latent, flashing forth at moments of great need, crisis or inspiration. Most of us have a knack for something. One person may have a knack for getting along with people and self-promotion, another a special gift for teaching, counseling and helping others, and yet another may have a creative talent which is best expressed working alone in her studio or at the keyboard of her computer. Yet few of us are fortunate enough to find ourselves involved in the sort of work or study where we both naturally excel and find personal fulfillment and happiness.
      If you want to get closer in tune with your inner guiding faculties, or if you're one of the many who are frustrated with your current line of work and are not quite sure where your special skills lie, or if you are considering a career change, the easy-to-use astrological technique presented here will help you both tune into and enhance your inner guiding voice and discover your innate skills and faculties and how to best apply them.
      According to humanistic astrology, your entire birth-chart — the natal horoscope — is a seed-pattern of your birth potential, and any thorough interpretation of an astrological chart requires tuning into the chart "as a whole," as well as a consideration of how the individual planets — the ten fundamental variables of astrology – fit into the whole chart. Traditional, old-fashioned, natal astrology – which is, unfortunately, as strong and visible today as ever — usually places most of its attention on the signs occupied by the planets and the connections existing between one planet and another (the astrological aspects), with loads of baggage attached to where the "malefics" (the "bad guys" of astrology, the planets Mars and Saturn) are placed and how they hook-up with other planets. On the other hand, humanistic astrology shows that there are no good or bad planets, signs or aspects. Without Mars — the principle of mobilization – we couldn't act or move! Without Saturn – the principle of form and definition – we would be formless blobs of "mostly water" lacking individuality and a distinct function or character of being.

Humanistic astrology focuses on the core factors of an astrological chart, avoiding an overload of secondary and tertiary data and the side-issues specious data sidetrack us into obsessing about. Humanistic astrology has developed lots of simple and easy-to-use procedures, all dealing with core principles and issues, which allow us to learn and discover a very great deal which is usually entirely overlooked by or unknown to the mainstream, traditional astrologer. The procedure we'll explore here concerns the determination and interpretation of your Guiding Planet or Skill Symbol.
      From ancient times, the planet crossing the eastern horizon — the astrological Ascendant — immediately before the Sun has symbolized the practical channel through which solar will and vitality is expressed. The ancients called this body the "Planet of Oriental Appearance" because it appears in the eastern sky immediately before the Sun — that is, the planet rising directly before the Sun. Today, we refer to the Planet of Oriental Appearance at your birth time as your Guiding Planet or your Skill Symbol, because it represents both your inner guiding principle and your innate skills and special faculties, and how both may be best realized, enhanced and applied. Your Skill Symbol shows you how to best handle and cope with the demands and opportunities of daily life in a skillful, productive and fulfilling manner, and where your inherent skills and practical abilities lie. As your Guiding Planet, the planet rising immediately before the Sun symbolizes the faculties and inner senses scouting your path ahead, or your ability to navigate the best course to self-realization and fulfillment.
      In other words, as Skill Symbol the Planet of Oriental Appearance is seen in its more mundane aspect, as abilities and skills that can be tapped and applied for practical results; as Guiding Planet, the same body shows it more abstract aspect, operating on a more intuitive or instinctual level, and less in terms of immediate practical application than in terms of one’s destiny or life as a whole. And usually the balance is more one than the other, so we are often challenged to integrate both sides — the practical and the intuitive — of the planet’s principles and functions.
      Finding your Planet of Oriental Appearance is easy. If you have a copy of your birth-chart, simply look to see which planet is immediately before the Sun in a clockwise direction. If you haven't gotten around to having your birth-chart calculated, you can find your Oriental Planet by referring to an ephemeris for the day and year of your birth. Your Oriental Planet is the planet immediately preceding the Sun in the zodiac. For example, if the ephemeris shows your Sun as 22 degrees Scorpio and Neptune is shown as 10 degrees Libra, Neptune would be your Planet of Oriental Appearance — if there are no other planets between 10 degrees Libra and 22 degrees Scorpio. The depictions which follow describe each of the nine planets (the Sun is never in Oriental Appearance) when acting as a Guiding Planet and Skill Symbol.


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