Astrological Earth

Author - Holly Westwood

We spend so much time looking up at the stars that we rarely think about astrology and its lore in terms of our own planet, but Earth has a pretty interesting origin story. Earth is the only planetary body in our solar system, other than the Moon, that isn’t named for a Greek or Roman god or goddess.

In Greek mythology the personification of the Earth was Gaia, this was the very first deity. At the beginning of time, Gaia emerged from Chaos as the great mother to all. Gaia mated with Ouranus (Uranus), giving birth to their twelve children–the original Titan gods. The sea gods were born from her union with Pontus, the ocean.

Now, just because Earth does not typically feature in astrology that doesn’t mean that it’s not important. Just as Leo is assigned to the Sun, Cancer to the Moon, Gemini to Mercury, etc the Earth has a sign too. However, Astrologers debate which sign Earth is associated with, the most common are thought to be Taurus and Libra. Taurus in part due to its position in the cosmos as well as its traits. The qualities of home, roots, mother, earthiness are very Taurean. But there are also some valid reasons to believe the Earth has more of a connection to Libra. As the sign of the scales, Libra likes to maintain a perfect balance and harmony of environment at all times and is thrown out of whack very quickly if that perfect balance is not maintained. Additionally, its air elements could also represent the intelligence of life on our planet.

We typically don’t talk about the Earth’s position because, obviously, in Heliocentric Astrology we view the sky from the centre of the solar system with the Sun in the middle and earth as a circling planet. But what this means is that the Earth is always 180 degrees opposite of the Sun and its sign. The two ends of any spectrum are both polarised and complementary. Opposition can denote balance or imbalance, cooperation or conflict.

Physically, but also symbolically, the Sun casts its light over the earth, this makes us think about the dependant relationship they have upon one another. Earth is our home, it’s for comfort and safety in the cosmos, it provides stability for us in the chaos, the Sun on the other hand is on the opposite side of the sky as far as we can see in daylight. We gaze up at it, it gives us something to admire and learn from. In this sense, the Earth speaks to our deepest needs and grounding while the Sun is the outer expression we aspire to.

In honour of Earth Day, Jane Goodall once said, ‘You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make’. I think we can apply this to both our physical and mental space. Perhaps next time you’re in the middle of a gratitude ritual spare a thought this beautiful, living being guiding us through the cosmos that we call home.

Happy Earth Day everyone