The following paragraphs are starting points to contemplate what the Planets represent.
In fact, an entire book could be written on any of the Planets, and indeed, such books are common in the literature of Astrology.
In addition to categorizing the Planets as the Elder Planets and the modern Planets, we can also categorize them by which level of the Self they most readily impact.
The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars are thought of as the personal Planets because their influence on the personality of individuals is easily seen.
The Planets Jupiter and Saturn are thought of as the social Planets because their influence is most apparent in the families and the communities that surround individuals, and in the learned societal patterns they internalize.
The Outer Planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, are both transpersonal and cultural as they affect deeper parts of individuals and also change the qualities of generations and epochs.
The Planets function at all the levels of reality that we experience from the most ethereal to the most mundane.
They also express, mediate, and structure the relationships between Spirit, Soul, and Matter throughout these levels, or planes, of existence.
In fact, the glyphs of the Planets are actually symbolic representations of the interactions of Spirit, Soul, and Matter.
People in different magickal systems and paths use different terms with different connotations and nuances to describe spiritual matters.
For the sake of clarity, and in this book, let us define the terms “Spirit,” “Soul,” and “Matter.” “Spirit” is the eternal essence that comes from and is made of the stuff of Divinity itself.
“Soul” exists within the frame of space-time and is shaped by and bounded by a container, a vehicle of incarnation.
In the case of individual persons, this vehicle is the physical body with all its attendant subtle bodies.
In the case of a collective entity—for example, group soul—the boundaries that are present take longer to perceive. “Matter” is soul made solid.
Another way of saying this is pattern, structure, and form are active in matter while Soul and Spirit are present but subsumed.
The three can also be seen as one thing. Just as water can easily be a vapor, a liquid, and a solid, so too can the primal Divinity express
phase changes as it exists in different planes and conditions.
