Planets in Astrology - Planetary Traditions Compared

Planetary Traditions Compared

The three most popular Eurasian traditions, Western astrology, Chinese astrology, and Hindu Astrology, accordingly share a large amount of common themes in their zodiacs and concepts of planetary meanings. This could fallaciously inflect that the three have an ancient common origin, whereas in fact the three developed mutually over millennia by diffusion, assimilation, scholarship, and trade across the whole of Eurasia and Africa.

The Western and Hindu zodiacs essentially correspond to twelve similar archetypes, despite differences in tone, emphasis, motifs, and right ascension of their constellations, as do the twelve signs of the Chinese Zodiac; however, both Western and Hindu astrology are based on four elements: fire, earth, air, water; whereas the Chinese is based on five: metal, water, wood, fire, and earth. Chinese elemental conceptions of the planets clearly correlate to their Western and Hindu counterparts in the case of Mars (Fire), Saturn (Earth), and Jupiter (Wood). The Chinese linkage of Mercury with Water is alien to Western astrology, but this combination shares the water themes, much of what is coined "mercurial" in Western thought, such as intellect, reason and communication.

The Chinese association of Venus to Metal appears at first fundamentally different from Western notions of love and romance. In Babylonian mythology, her equivalent was Ishtar, goddess of both love and war. The Chinese metal representative is unyielding and forceful, set in their ways and taciturn; yet Venus' Western element is air, which is logical and sanguine. Metal is also sophisticated, and enjoys the good things in life. In Western astrology, Venus rules both Libra, which is sophisticated, logical, and romantic, and Taurus, which is reserved, sensual, and unyielding. In addition, some sources claim that Venus has an association with gold (metal) where counterpart of Venus is Freyja who is related to the element gold in Norse mythology. Some Western astrologers believe that metal is better associated with the qualities of the planet Saturn, arguing that metal equates to air in the western system, and that Saturn is linked to air in Vedic astrology.

The cycle of the five Chinese elements operate completely differently from the Western cycle of four. This discrepancy between elements can be clarified by their geomancy, which is locked with Chinese astrology. On the Feng Shui compass, the five elements and the five visible planets are placed on the cardinal directions and center point, with Mercury-Water to the north, Jupiter-Wood to the east, Mars-Fire to the south, Venus-Metal to the west, and Saturn-Earth in the center. This also suggests that Western air best corresponds to metal, while Venus rules the west in both traditions. Wood in Chinese philosophy describes characteristics found in the Western element of fire.