What Planet Dominates You?

Freddie Mercury by ~skull

As you may be able to tell from the image above… Mercury is the dominant planet of my natal chart. And it explains a lot about me. I am very Mercurial – subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind. I could blame that trait on other planetary placements and aspects, but why bother when I can blame Mercury!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… even if repetition causes massive eye-rolling in me, mostly when others repeat themselves, because I give myself semi carte blanche for behaviour which annoys me in others but is cute when I do it… astrology gives awesome excuses for things which other systems don’t, and since quite a few people are frightened of astrology, astrological references send them running for cover and makes them forget they had demanded an explanation from you for why you did or said something or other.

I’m still a complete astrology novice, but I do quite well with what I do, much of which is intuitive, at least where reading my chart… or more to the point, using astrology to figure myself out… is concerned.

The chart dominant flummoxed me for a while. WTF is it? How do I figure it out for my chart? And what does it mean? Is it astrological S&M?

What is a dominant planet?

I was trying to find a link to a really good description of what a dominant planet is, and how it works… I got bored after clicking on a few search results which led me to too much blah blah and not enough info. Precise info!

Apparently those with Mercury dominant can get easily distracted and bored.

Anyway, here’s my take on it.

It basically is your go-to energy and planet. Your default position. Your headquarters (I would say that, being dominated by Mercury means my head is the head). It influences how the energies in your chart organise themselves or disorganise themselves.

If say you’re a Leo but don’t feel your Leo self is anything like all the descriptions which you’ve read and heard about the sign, perhaps your dominant planet may explain to you why this is the case. You may have a dominant Saturn which contains your Leo roar and thus you may feel more like a Capricorn than a Leo.

The dominant planet is the boss of all the other planets whether they like it or not, or agreed to such a hierarchy.

Yup, when you figure out your dominant you can also find the hierarchy of planetary influences in your chart. Not sure if that is a good thing or not, but it adds dimension to working with your chart.

Mars is the second in command in my chart. Bet it really pisses my Mars off!

 

God of War by *njay

 

 

 

How do you figure out your dominant?

The easy way of doing it is to look at your rising sign – mine is Virgo – check the ruling planet of that sign – for Virgo it is Mercury – and voila! However… it is not always voila! or that simple. Mostly it is. I think. I haven’t done any research, so maybe it is.

The difficult and more detailed way of doing it, the way which also gives you the planetary hierarchy of your chart, plus loads of other stuff which is beyond my astrological capability at the moment, is as follows:

Start here –> go to Astrodienst. Then click on My Astro in the menu up top. If you don’t have a registered user profile with them, which is free, and you don’t want to create one, just use the Guest User. Input your birth data. Now you have a natal chart and can browse through all the Free Horoscope options they have to get to know your chart, and perhaps yourself, better.

One of my favourites, mainly because I keep forgetting what all the symbols and squiggles which represent aspects mean, is the Astro Click Portrait.

I also like the Personal Daily Horoscope… although I don’t check it daily, and usually when I do it is for a retrospective look rather than a forward one. To see if what happened or what I felt goes with a a transit affecting my chart.

For the dominant planet of your chart, a bit of working with fiddly things is needed:

On the Free Horoscopes page scroll down to the bottom (you can do this in the side bar too) and click on Extended Chart Selection. Don’t panic! Okay, panic, then when it’s over… See at the top, just above all the confusing bits and pieces and choices, it says – Methods: Circular charts | Special charts | Ephemeris | Pullen/Astrolog – click on Pullen/Astrolog – then where it says – Please select the type of chart you want: click the bar next to it and scroll to the last option – Simple chart delineation by Walter Pullen – click on click here to show chart.

(No, I don’t think you’re a moron, I’m basing my instructions on the way I like to have them when doing such things – ergo I’m the moron, not you! Just because I have Mercury dominant does not mean I’m intelligent, it just means that I think I’m smart… very different!)

Once you have the chart, which is really just loads and loads of words saying stuff about your chart, scroll… keep scrolling… no, no, don’t get caught up in all the data… not yet… and… oops, you scrolled past it… back up a bit… no too far… down a bit… and….The pic below is what you are looking for, perhaps I should have said this and posted this screen grab sooner (yes, it’s my chart info):

(Poor little Pluto whom I love so much is a middle man, as is bossy Uranus. Something has to balance their energy out in my chart, I’m crazy enough as it is having them in my 1st house, thank [insert – appropriate person or thing or swear word to thank – here] they’re not dominating my chart too!)

Look under Total Rank for the percentage and position – #1 is your dominant, the rest is hierarchy.And in the screen shot above you can see that you can also find which sign is dominant in your chart, in the graph under the dominant planet one – mine is Scorpio. Sting! That should make my Mars feel better!

What you do with all the other information of which you now have an abundance is up to you! Have fun!

ps. A couple of links to give you a general feel for what your dominant planet means – Few personality traits by certain dominant planets in a chart (weird site) – and – Astrology: meaning of the planets (this link goes to Astrotheme and they have a blurb on Dominants – Planetary Dominants in Astrology)

*This post was inspired by the palaver I went through trying to get this info. Hope it helps.