Ruling Planets & Why They're So Important

Identifying ruling planets of signs and houses to deepen your chart interpretations.

Today, we are returning to some astrology basics. We will be going over ruling planets, so that you’re able to deepen your understanding of both your birth chart and transits. Before we get into it though, let’s review the various parts of your chart. 

In your birth chart, you have the signs, the planets, and the houses. Typically, you start off in astrology by identifying which planets are in which signs. “I have my moon in Leo” or “My Venus is in Scorpio.” The sign a planet occupies shows how you express the qualities associated with that planet. After that, you can go a step further by identifying what houses these planets occupy in your chart. “My Moon is in Leo in the 3rd house” or “My Venus is in Scorpio in the 7th house.” The house a planet falls into indicates the area of life in which the themes of that sign and planet show up. I also go over the different elements of your birth chart in my book if you want to get more of a solid understanding of your own natal chart.

In the diagram above, circled is Jupiter in Taurus in the 11th house.

For the purposes of what we’re about to get into below, I want to linger on how each house is ruled by a sign. There are twelve signs and twelve houses. Looking at the diagram above, see how in the part that I circled, the 11th house is associated with Taurus. Then note how the 12th is ruled by Gemini, the 1st Cancer, the 2nd Leo, and so on. And because I use whole sign houses, only one sign rules one house. No interceptions, as you can see in this chart.

Each of these twelve signs, and therefore twelve houses is ruled by a planet. This is what we call a “ruling planet” or “planetary ruler.” Both terms can be used interchangeably. The ruling planet of a sign/house and its placement in your chart gives you further insight into how you embody those house themes. This is why I say there is no such thing as an “empty house” in your chart, because there is always a sign that rules that house, and a ruling planet associated with it. 

Before we go any further, let’s review which planets rule which signs. I work with traditional rulers only - no Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. Looking at the below list, you will notice that most of the planets rule two signs. The Sun and Moon are the only exceptions - they rule one each. Familiarize yourself with this list for a moment.

Aries - Mars

Taurus - Venus

Gemini - Mercury

Cancer - the Moon

Leo - the Sun

Virgo - Mercury

Libra - Venus

Scorpio - Mars

Sagittarius - Jupiter

Capricorn - Saturn 

Aquarius - Saturn

Pisces - Jupiter

Using Ruling Planets to Interpret a House

As a first exercise, pull up your birth chart and make sure you set it to whole sign (click on where it says extended settings, then select the drop down labeled house system), so that you can better follow along. Identify the signs that rule every house in your chart. Starting at your rising sign, which is house 1, the sign following your rising sign will automatically rule house 2, the next sign will rule house 3, and so on. 

In the above chart, house 1 is ruled by Aquarius, house 2 is ruled by Pisces, house 3 is Aries, house 4 is Taurus, etc.

Let’s choose one house in particular to start with. Identify the sign that rules your 10th house. Now cross checking with the above list, look to see what planet rules that sign, and therefore that house. Now locate where that ruling planet is placed in your chart. Identify both the sign and house in which it falls. If that ruling planet is placed in a different house than the 10th, you can tie the themes of this other house with the themes of the 10th house. In the case of the chart above, the 10th house is ruled by Scorpio. The ruling planet is therefore Mars, which is placed in Leo, the 7th house. So 7th house themes of partnership automatically find their way into this person’s career (10th house). If you need a refresher on house themes in general, revisit this past article I did on the houses.

To look at another example, in the diagram above you can see that the 10th house ruler falls in the 11th house. So you then know that 10th house themes of public reputation, as well as career and life calling automatically incorporate 11th house themes of cultivating a community, collaborating with friends or groups, or backing a cause that you’re passionate about. It may be that all of these 11th themes fit into what this person does career wise, or it may be that just a couple of the 11th house themes resonate. A possible example of this would be that maybe this person has started a successful podcast (10th house theme of work project and public attention) with a friend (11th house theme). 

The chart above is actually the birth chart of Judy Blume though, so let’s interpret it knowing that she is a famous children’s book author. You can see her 10th house (and her Midheaven angle) are both ruled by the sign of Cancer. The ruling planet of this 10th house is therefore the Moon. The Moon is placed in Leo, the 11th house of her chart. So you can get more insight into her specific career and life calling by also incorporating these Leo and 11th house themes into the mix. She is famous for writing children’s books (Leo theme of children, creativity, and entertainment), and she cultivated relationships with her community of readers by responding to letters that children wrote to her (11th house theme). 

And it may be that the ruling planet of a house is located in the sign it rules. For instance, if you have Jupiter in Sagittarius in your chart (literally everyone born in the year 1995 will have this), then Jupiter will automatically be located in the sign and house it rules. That’s great, this placement will strengthen that area of life for you, and the meaning of that house may be something that you want to lean into more. However, Jupiter rules more than one sign. It also rules Pisces. So you will want to identify the house ruled by Pisces and see how those house themes find their way into the Sagittarius ruled house as well. Look at the chart below for a visual. In this example, you would blend 5th and 8th themes together, so making money (8th house) off of creativity (5th house), or channeling more difficult experiences (8th house) into a passion project or creative work (5th house). Maybe also this person’s life carries themes of doing a lot of inner healing (8th house) in order to show up with greater self confidence creatively or when dating (5th house). So even if you have a planet in the sign it rules, make sure you’re also identifying if it rules another sign and house in your chart too.

Let’s look at a couple more examples, so that you can begin to get the hang of it. 

In this chart above, the 7th house is ruled by Scorpio. The ruling planet of Scorpio is Mars. Mars happens to be placed in Capricorn in the 9th house of this chart. So we’re blending 7th house themes with Capricorn and 9th house themes here. Therefore, this person may enjoy forming connections with people while traveling, or when dating they may be attracted to people who come from different cultural backgrounds or who have more of an open mind. You would also add in Capricorn themes of needing a lot of commitment from people (both friends and lovers), and not taking dating so casually. 

For a final example here, let’s also take note of aspects made to the ruling planet. 

In the chart above, you can see that the 4th house is ruled by the sign of Cancer. Therefore, the ruling planet of this 4th house is the moon. In this chart, the moon is placed in Virgo in the 6th house. This could mean a few different things, and you will want to blend the 4th house themes of home and family with the 6th house theme of everyday work. It might be that this person literally works with their family or for the family business, or other 4th house house themes like interior design or real estate might find their way into their work. In addition, it might be that a theme of the past, like history or healing your ancestry could be of interest in their career. 

Taking it one step further, you can see that the moon in Virgo is square to Saturn in Sagittarius in the 9th house. Since the ruling planet of the 4th house, the moon, is in a harsh aspect with Saturn, it may be that family life wasn’t the easiest for them. It could also mean that this person has a strong sense of responsibility to their family. Maybe they take care of their parents or they were the person in charge of their siblings growing up. Notice how you’re getting all of this extra information about the 4th house with planets that aren’t even placed in that part of the chart. 

Using Ruling Planets to Interpret the Angles

You can use the same exercise we did above with the angles in your chart as well. This is mainly relevant for when you are using whole sign houses, and your Midheaven (MC) and Imum Coeli (IC) angles fall in houses that are not the 10th and 4th houses. For instance, let’s say you have your Midheaven in the 9th or 11th house. Then you would locate the ruling planet of that Midheaven angle in addition to the ruling planet of your 10th house. When interpreting what this means for your career in the case of the MC, or for home and family in the case of the IC, I would personally place greater importance on the ruling planets of these angles than the ruling planets of the 10th and 4th houses. 

The ascendant and descendant angles are always in the 1st and 7th houses respectively, so they don’t need a separate interpretation aside from those houses. 

Using Ruling Planets to Better Understand a Transit. 

Now, let’s shift our attention to transits, specifically what happens when a major transit (like Saturn, Jupiter, the Nodes, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto) aspects the ruling planet of a house or angle. When a transit aspects the ruling planet of a house, it will bring up the themes of both that planet and the house in which it’s located AND also themes of the house it rules. I have actually noticed that when a ruling planet is aspected by a significant transit, you will often see greater results associated with the themes of the house it rules than if a transit is simply moving through that house. Let’s look at an example of this playing out below. 

In this diagram above, let’s zero in on this person’s 7th house. They have a Leo rising, so their 7th house is ruled by Aquarius. The ruling planet of Aquarius is Saturn, and Saturn is in Aries, their 9th house. Maybe from 2020-2022, when Saturn was actually transiting through Aquarius, their 7th house, they didn’t really have success forming a partnership or dating. However, when Saturn moves into Aries in 2025-2028, transit Saturn will conjunct their natal Saturn there (the 7th house ruler). That will likely bring up greater relationship activity than having Saturn in the 7th did a few years prior. Similar results would take place with Saturn transiting through the signs of Capricorn, Cancer, or Libra, because it still will be making a hard aspect to their natal Saturn in Aries.

Now looking at this chart above, let’s say you were curious about the timing of moving or tracking changes to the family. You would want to take into consideration not just transits to their 4th house or IC angle, but also transits to the ruling planet of their 4th house and IC. The 4th house and IC in this chart are both ruled by Saturn, and Saturn is placed in Virgo, the 12th house of the chart. Therefore, Virgo transits will be just as important to watch as Capricorn/Aquarius transits are. Above, you can see transits to this chart that would be very indicative of moving or experiencing major shifts in their home and family life. Not only is transit Pluto conjunct their IC in Aquarius, but there is also a lunar eclipse in Virgo taking place very close to their natal Saturn in Virgo (4th house ruler).

You can continue on and practice this same exercise with ruling planets of other houses to gain insight into when activity might happen in your career, home, health, friendships, love life, etc. I hope by now that you can see just how important ruling planets are both with birth chart interpretations and better understanding transits! 

If you enjoyed this article, I go even deeper in teaching about transits through the houses and to ruling planets in my workshop series, Trust Your Timing: The Workshops. Through a series of five workshops, I give a solid foundation on transits and how they work so that you can start timing changes and greater activity in all different areas of your life. The workshops can be found here.