Last time I shared with you The Deeper Spiritual Meaning of the Planets, and today let’s talk medical astrology – and how you may use the chart for wellness and health insights. As a spiritual guide and astrologer I often have clients who are wondering about what might have triggered certain physical symptoms or health issues in their life. The root of physical symptoms is found in our emotional body, which is why we must analyze the natal chart, and especially the aspects, as these show a person’s inner emotional, belief and thought patterns, as well as early childhood experiences; and we must also understand what was happening in the client’s life around the time symptoms first appeared.
Another thing that I personally do is that I trace back to the time when symptoms first began, and what transits the client had. I also look at their overall natal chart, as sometimes things are just part of a bigger path taking place, or it could also sometimes serve as some protection from greater harm down the line.
Our bodies are intelligent. At all moments of time they will do the best they can to protect us and balance out our energy. Naturally, if we are on one end of the pole too extremely, the body would have to put more pressure on the other end of the pole, in order to balance us. This is why in Traditional Chinese Medicine when we experience some discomfort on the left, we must also take care of the right, and vice versa. When we have tension in our right shoulder, we also need to massage the left.
Healing essentially means to bring into balance. In general, to heal anything in life, we must experience its opposite. To heal betrayl, we need to experience loyalty; to heal shame, we need to experience honour; to heal abandonment, we must experience commitment; to heal rejection, we must experience belonging and acceptance; to heal feeling stuck, we need to experience moving; when we burn ourselves, we put ice; when our skin is dry, we moisturize; when the soil is dry, we water it; when our right shoulder is stiff and hurts, we need to massage both the right and the left one, to bring both yin and yang into balance.
While astrology cannot heal you nor fix your physical symptoms, it can certainly give you incredible insight on why something might be happening, what the root of it may be and when things may feel better and symptoms may be relieved.
Astrology can be seen as a measurement of a biological mechanism. All of the signs and planets basically represent organs of consciousness – a certain part of our body, a certain organ, a certain function; and all of them send their messages and signals to the brain, and the brain then piles up all of these messages to fulfill the biological needs. Astrology is a function of our body fulfilling these messages – it essentially describes cycles within cycles.
And then we also see that in the signs of Aries through Pisces is the entirety of the human cycle. All twelve stages of human development exist within these twelve signs and the wheel. Cycles within cycles within cycles is what astrology teaches us.
In today’s article, I will give you some guidance on what human body organs the signs and planets traditionally correspond to, and I’ll also give you some real life examples of how it may play out.
Please keep in mind that these are only general, and the totality of information cannot possibly ever be held within an article online. Please know that I am not a doctor nor a medical professional, and I do not give nor prescribe medical advise in any form nor capacity. Spirituality should never be taken as a substitute for medical or mental health help.
Zodiac Signs as Body Organs
Aries (Cardinal Fire): Head and Eyes
Taurus (Fixed Earth): Face, Throat, Neck and Shoulders
Gemini (Mutable Air): Hands, Lungs and Nervous System
Cancer (Cardinal Water): Chest, Breasts and Stomach
Leo (Fixed Fire): Heart, Spine and Upper Back
Virgo (Mutable Earth): Abdomen, Spleen and Digestive System
Libra (Cardinal Air): Kidneys, Bladder, Endocrines and Lower Back
Scorpio (Fixed Water): Genitals, Reproductive System and Rectum
Sagittarius (Mutable Fire): Hips, Thighs and Liver
Capricorn (Cardinal Earth): Bones, Joints, Skin and Teeth
Aquarius (Fixed Air): Shins, Calves and Circulatory System
Pisces (Mutable Water): Feet and Lymphatic System
Planets as Body Organs
There are slightly different explanations depending on which school of medical astrology you come from, such as Vedic or Western etc. As a professional, it is best to understand and know the different perspectives, so that you may offer more insight, as well as deepen in your discernment as to what may be the root of the issue.
For example, in Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra, the most comprehensive text on Vedic astrology, it states that “bones, blood, marrow, skin, fat, semen and muscles are the primary ingredients” and that “the lords of these are respectively the Sun and the other planets”. Therefore, bones are ruled by the Sun, blood by the Moon, marrow by Mars, skin and plasma by Mercury, fat by Jupiter, reproductive fluid by Venus and muscle by Saturn.
The Sun represents the ruling force in the horoscope which represents the skeleton – it is that which holds us up, just as our star keeps the planets spinning in space.
The bones are nourished by blood, represented by the Moon, which is the nurturing force in the horoscope.
In Vedic medical astrology,
The Sun represents the bones, the heart, the stomach and the right eye.
The Moon rules the blood tissue, lymph, breasts, uterus, ovaries, mucous membranes and the left eye. It also rules over the fluids in our body, and our mind and emotions i.e. our emotional and mental health of which all physical may stem. In a natal chart, it is the most important planet to be analyzed as it shows our inner world, what nurtures us and makes us feel healthy, and what we need to feel loved and nurtured. It is also connected to women’s fertility and overall health and wellness in life.
Mercury rules the chest, nervous system, skin, navel, nose, gall bladder, nerves, lungs, tongue, arms, face and hair.
Venus rules the face, eyes and body, the reproductive fluid, the kidneys, the endocrine and urinary systems, and the reproductive organs.
Mars rules the nerve tissue, which has its origin in the bone marrow. It rules the haemoglobin in the blood, the liver, spleen, gallbladder, bile, uterus, head and eyebrows.
Jupiter rules the fat tissue, belly, liver, spleen, gallbladder, pancreas and ears.
Saturn rules the muscle tissue, thighs, colon, rectum, knees, legs and joints, teeth and bones, ears, skin and hair.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it depends not necessarily on the planet or sign – but rather on the rulers of each house in your natal chart. For example, if you are a Taurus Ascendant, Venus is your chart ruler, so this is your significator of your body overall. Or another example is let’s say your 6th house of health is in Sagittarius – then Jupiter becomes your health significator, and you need to be mindful of hard transits to it, so that you can give your body what it needs.
Or let’s say your 6th house is in the sign of Scorpio – this is a fixed water sign ruling lakes, moist dark soils, and also icebergs. One manifestation of this may be that you have a cooler digestive system, so you may need warmer foods; and you also need more warmth, self love and emotional balance and emotional healing in order to “melt the ice” within.
Natal Aspects
You also need to be mindful of any natal hard aspects that you have and take care of them throughout your life. For example, if you hard aspects to your natal Moon, you need to look into your emotional inner world and work through anything that needs to be healed and balanced. Any transits over your Moon will be activating any deeper emotional wounds, and if undealt with may need to surface in some way physically, so that you can finally heal them.
Or let’s say you have a hard Neptune aspect, such as square or opposition to your natal Moon, Venus, Ascendant ruler etc. Firstly, you need to be very mindful of any addictions. I would strongly advise you to stay away from anything and everything that clouds your judgments, veils your vision – you need to stay grounded and sober. This means avoiding all substances, even in small quantities, and especially avoiding anything such as mushrooms, ayahuasca etc.
With Neptune squares the energetic body is more vulnerable and may absorb and attach to things and ideas and thoughts that may affect you negatively and in subtle ways for many years. Staying grounded and sober is key. You need to set clear boundaries in your life and be mindful of your environment – this is where human design can be a good compliment to your astrology, as it will show you the environment where your energy thrives. You need to be mindful of where and with whom you invest your energy, because you are prone to self illusions, delusions and self sabotage, and you need to be really honest with yourself and how you may be lying to yourself.
Neptune rules sugar, and a lot of it. So it may also relate to anything related to this in your life health wise such as glucose level, though the root of it may be in needing more nurturing in your life, or some imbalance related to giving and taking in life – maybe you take too much, and not give enough or not to the right people, or vice versa. Neptune’s sugar also speaks to addictions to escaping into anything that just feels sweet. We all need sweetness and sugar in our life, but too much of it can become very bad for us. Everything in nature can be either medicine or poison depending on its usage – and it needs to be in its appropriate usage and timing.
Uranus Transit Example
Another example is let’s take a Uranus transit; and currently Uranus is in Taurus, so let’s say you are a Taurus Ascendant, so you are having Uranus transit your Ascendant.
Uranus is like electricity, and in the Ascendant, or any planet ruling our body, will create almost like electricity running through you. This can feel like restlessness, or even stress, or just the need to do something, rush towards something, shake things up, and you become a bit like a thunderbolt! This can be really exciting and essentially it marks a totally new cycle in your life – one of absolute authenticity, new creative and even genius ideas, inspired creativity, and you become who you truly are. You shake all that isn’t working in your life or that you no longer align to and you re-invent yourself.
But the electricity is there, so you need to be mindful and pace yourself – you need to channel that energy towards exercise or something creative because it is a lot of energy within you now. You should also be mindful of minor injuries, like hurting your foot or hand, or even water pipes bursting at home; and you need to find a way to rest and relax because you might be feeling anxious or worried about things.
The way to deal with this is just pace yourself, and take time to relax, go to spas, saunas, get massages – all these are Taurus things, and also help relax the body from stress and too much energy, and spread the energy around through massage or exercise.
It is helpful to know that you might be going through this transit, because I had a client who had suddenly started experiencing anxiety – yet it wasn’t paralyzing, she just couldn’t sit still at all, and her mind was racing – both in worries and also in amazing genius creativity – she is absolutely talented. So for her it was just this Uranus transit her Ascendant that caused the “electricity”-like anxious feelings, but she also created amazing works during that time, and was really physically active, which she already was even before. Eventually she felt more relaxed after the Uranus transit. She did however experience some weird pipes bursting, minor injuries from hurrying up and hurting her foot, paper cuts, and had shoulder and neck pain, so she needed more massages and going to the sauna was helping her a lot – because it would relax her.
Health Issues Example: Blending Human Design & Astrology
And the last example I’ll give you is another client who was experiencing a lot of health issues for years – including chronic pain, auto immune issues and pre-diabetes symptoms.
So after analyzing her natal chart and human design body graph, I traced back to when the various health issues started – she was very diligent and had kept a diary of various health symptoms and years/months – and it was definitely transit related – but – it was mainly because for her she had a lot of unresolved trauma within her from childhood, which for her having her natal Pluto in the 4th house, she hadn’t dealt with at all – and she’d often minimize or downplay what happened.
She also had a natal Neptune square, and had gone through life without boundaries and has still problems with staying grounded. Spirituality itself had become almost an escapism hobby rather than real inner work, which is hard work on self, which is what spirituality essentially is.
And one of the things for her was symptoms of pre-diabetes, which was stemming from both her Neptune and human design bodygraph. In her human design bodygraph she has what’s known as hot digestion profile i.e. she has a cooler physiology digestion in her body her digestion; and she may not be giving her body the warm food it needs; and so, to balance that, the body begins to overproduce the “sugar or warmth” or store up energy i.e. not convert it, because the bodies were just trying to keep themselves warm.
This was also shown in her natal chart because her 6th house ruler (which is the house of health) is Jupiter and he is in the sign of Scorpio. Scorpio rules cool, wet, moist places on earth, and it is a fixed water sign i.e. can become an iceberg when it lacks warmth, compassion, nurturing and love. So this too essentially shows this cooler digestion or inner body one has, and thereby needing more warmth.
Furthermore, she had an open spleen center, open root and open emotional center – showing the need for boundaries, following her sacral response, staying grounded, and that overall she may often times keep herself busy in order to relieve the stress within her. So she needed to relieve the stress in other ways, rather than working like a horse all the time, which then contributed to physical injuries also.
The levels of glucose the doctors had found in her that were worrying were essentially going back to that digestion profile, in addition to her Neptune hard aspects: she has Neptune opposite her Moon, and Neptune square her Venus (who is her atmakaraka or soul planet). This shows the body overproducing sugar to keep itself warm when it doesn’t receive what it needs love and nurturing wise.
Neptune rules sugar as I mentioned above, and with her hard aspects to both her Moon and Venus, she needs to pay attention to wearing rose coloured glasses, she needs to be more grounded and discerning, she needs to set boundaries and learn to give to the right people, and she needs to really face her own self sabotage and self lying tendencies. She also needs to stay away from things like mushrooms, ayahuasca and anything promising quick fixes or what veils our vision, because these can harm her.
With her hard Neptune natal aspects, this refers to feelings of not being accepted or loved, and feeling isolated, rejected, not belonging fully, feeling victimized, not being accepted fully or even not being able to express your love in the way you may want or need to. And this is what causes the auto immune issues as well.
The spiritual causes of auto immune ailments usually relate to self attacking self, or an allergy to self; so many diabetes are usually rooted in “body being allergic to itself” i.e. body attacking itself because the individual is attacking themselves, not accepting themselves, being very harsh to themselves and self critical and self judgmental. This also includes self rejection, self accusation, self pity, self loathing, doubt, guilt, shame, blame.
She also had her Chiron return – which unearthed all wounds – and in her case her Chiron caused wounds related to rejection and abandonment – which further triggered the auto immune issues.
The way to heal anything in life is usually through experiencing the opposite; to heal betrayal we need to experience loyalty, and to heal abandonment we need to experience togetherness, acceptance, belonging, acceptance etc.
And last but not least was her chronic pain, which is triggered by Saturn – and she had Saturn transiting her Sun. Saturn rules our back, bones, stability in life and chronic issues. When we feel burdened by life we contract in our bodies, our bodies become more stiff, because it is like we are experiencing the limitations or restrictions of Saturn – which through the body looks like rigidity or stiffness.
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Cover art by Claude Monet, The Garden, 1872.