Planets as Temperament: Understanding the Energetics of the Planets
In practicing Medical astrology for almost a decade I have been in contact with many different ways of thinking about the craft and am excited to begin sharing in written and video form. The clarity I have found recently is that Medical Astrology once was united with the medicine system of Unani Tibb (Greco-Arabic Medicine). I often came across people speaking about Greek medicine, but never saw someone teaching it as a complete system until recently. That’s what we are here to begin to break down piece by piece. Today we are going to start with one of the most important components of Medical Astrology, the planets. We will explore the planets from a variety of perspectives through time but today we are going to discuss part one of the Planets as Temperaments.
What are Temperaments?
Temperament (also known as Mizaj) is a concept that comes from Greco-Arabic Medicine. Temperament means, proportioned mixture of elements. [1] The word mizaj, essentially means the same thing, intermingling, mixture, etc. The temperaments speak to the mixture of the elemental forces within a being. This can be the environment, a plant, person, but for our purposes today, we are speaking to the planets. To simplify, you can think of temperament as the “energetics of the planets,” meaning that every planet inherently possesses the qualities of hot, cold, wet, and/or dry. This is foundational to understanding Medical Astrology because it integrates into the medicine system, allowing Medical Astrology to be truly holistic.
Temperaments & the Planets
I want to keep part one super simple and add on layers of ideas as we go forward in this series. The way I organized the information is intentional to allow you to see HOW I think about the planets instead of what to think. I do this to be sure static and inert ways of thinking are not promoted even with the basics. Each layer of information builds on one another and will be explained so that perceived contradictions are clear once we get to example charts.
The planets in relation to temperament have a few varying layers. The first layer is what I call the “universalized” context. This is a look at the temperaments of the planets when they are being expressed as energy alone and are not directly interfacing with other planets.
1st layer:
Saturn is Cold & Dry (The temperament of Melancholy)
Jupiter is Hot & Moist (The temperament of Sanguine)
Mars is Hot & Dry (The temperament of Choleric)
Sun is Hot & Dry (The temperament of Choleric)
Venus is Cold & Moist (The temperament of Phlegmatic)
Mercury is Cold & Dry (The temperament of Melancholy)
Moon is Cold & Wet (The temperament of Phlegmatic)
Take some time and contemplate on the energetics of the planets. Compare and contrast why you think this makes sense or does not. Allow this to be enough information for the moment and know that the next article will reveal more as to why this is the universal energetics of the planets.
As with every concept in Astrology, varying opinions exist and as we move further into this concept, that will be unpacked so that the seeming discrepancies can be understood in a way that is logical, applicable, yet still dynamic.