We all know what our sign is. But how many of us know that when we ask "What’s your sign" what we actually mean is "Which sign was the Sun pointing to, at the time you were born?"

We all have some notion about the twelve signs' behavior as well. But do we know that this behavior is meant to describe only a certain (major, but not all) part of our personality?

You see the Sun in astrology is meant to describe what we call in psychology "the conscious part" of our acting. It’s our free will, our decision, what we want to do in our lives, where we consciously put our energy in, where we think we can strive to succeed or survive.

The representation of the Sun manifests this in a different way. If the world is a circle, my conscious is in the centre. It’s my centre, where I’m focused, where I am me. The Sun signifies who we think we are, but not necessarily who others think we are, a concept which is close to other astrological symbols. Of course in our modern western world we always think that life is what we make it, and this is the reason indeed that the Sun describes a large part of our personality one way or another. In cultures where "free will" is not a primary principle, however, the sign of the Sun could very well not be evident in most people’s personalities.

In any case we can understand the Sun much better if we match him to faces, places, professions and administration.

So, as a person the Sun could be the way we see our father, our husband, people with authority, creative people like artists or businessmen, noblemen, people who like sports, children, entertainment, theatre and all sorts of creative art or play.

As a place the Sun could be considered a place a leader stays or a government building.

As a profession the Sun could be connected to a cardiologist, administration, jewelry, art and personal business.

In political astrology the Sun could represent the leader of a country, the prime minister, the one who makes the decisions.

Some other characteristics of the Sun are:

• It belongs to the element of Fire
• It is the ruler of the sign of Leo
• Its day is Sunday
• Its metal is gold
• Its color is orange
• Its musical note is DO
• Its place of the body is the heart
• Its ancient god is Apollo
• It’s a masculine planet
• It is said that it manifests mostly around the thirties.

Some positive qualities of the Sun are energy, dignity, willpower, persistence, leadership, courage, direction, owner, unity, daringness, faith, independence, self-expression, masculine beauty, joy, optimism, self-esteem, creativity, organizational skills, love for children, affection, and patience.

Some negative qualities of the Sun are authoritarian attitude, egoism, vanity, arrogance, grandeur complex, lack of limits, tendency to spend.

Or course these are all qualities which are differentiated according to the sign of the Sun. So, when we say this person is a Cancer (his Sun was in Cancer at birth), it means that any possible arrogance is expressed in ways of a Cancer, that is close to family, where he feels safe, etc.

Or his will power expresses in the ways of a Cancer, that is not with many words, mostly with an inside determination, mostly oriented to sustainability rather than manifestation, etc.

Now, to interpret the Sun in astrology (or any other planet for that matter) what we do is consider it as a potential for expressing some of the qualities above and through the sign, and examine how this expression could be differentiated.

More of the planets however in other primers…