Who Rules? Discovering the Rulers of the Signs

In an ideal world, each planet would work well in each sign. But in fact, some placements are better than others. The sign in which a planet seems to function most effectively is the sign that it is said to rule. Two thousand years ago, when astrologers only had to worry about the Sun, the Moon, and five planets, they assigned the rulerships this way:

• The Sun ruled Leo.
• The Moon ruled Cancer.
• Mercury ruled Gemini and Virgo.
• Venus ruled Taurus and Libra.
• Mars ruled Aries and Scorpio.
• Jupiter ruled Pisces and Sagittarius.
• Saturn ruled Aquarius and Capricorn.

After Uranus was discovered in 1781, followed by Neptune in 1846 and Pluto in 1930, astrologers modified the system. Today, the most commonly accepted planetary rulers are as follows:

• The Sun rules Leo.
• The Moon rules Cancer.
• Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo.
• Venus rules Taurus and Libra.
• Mars rules Aries.
• Jupiter rules Sagittarius.
• Saturn rules Capricorn.
• Uranus rules Aquarius.
• Neptune rules Pisces.
• Pluto rules Scorpio.

In recent years, astronomers have discovered legions of asteroids, moons, and other celestial bodies in our solar system. One of them is Chiron, which was discovered in 1977. Some astrologers believe that Chiron is the ruler of Virgo. Others associate it with Sagittarius. Many donít bother with it at all, and it has yet to be assigned the rulership of a sign.