In Astrology, the Sun represents your basic personality, the central cluster of traits and interests, strengths and personal issues that color and influence the various other parts of your character -- the inner selves and different roles described by the nine other planets in your horoscope. The Sun is an important component in Astrology, but as you see ... it is only one player among many.

Astrologers consider The Sun one of the three most essential elements in any horoscope ... along with the Moon and the Ascendant. To some, the Sun is the most important citizen in the celestial map. Others regard it with less reverence, but it is the centerpiece ... the starting point ... of any chart. It's position in the Zodiac on the day you were born is what determines your "Sun Sign" ... which is what people mean when they say someone is a Gemini, or a Capricorn, or a Libra.

The Sun owes some of its reputation to the fact that it's usually the easiest point in the native's character to identify. There is a good chance any given person's birthday will fall solidly and indisputably in one specific sign, and if you know the basic divisions of the Zodiac, you gain an essential piece of information about them by knowing their birthday and their Sun Sign qualities. For the other planet positions, you need books and tables or a good computer program ... things which aren't mobile, are rarely right at hand, and that take time and effort to use.

Sure, there are folks "born on the cusp" ... during the time when the Sun moves from one sign's territory to another, and in some cases even an astrologer has to cast a chart to find a person's Sun Sign for sure. But that's not the norm.

Your Sun Sign describes your fundamental character. It represents:

* Your core identity -- who you basically are * Your inherent sense of purpose, destiny or importance in life * Ego, drive, willpower, ambition * Your individual self-expression * Your self-image

When it is comfortable and expressing positively, Sun energy is ambitious, self-confident, proud, vital, powerful, and authentic -- colored inevitably by the characteristics and qualities of its sign energy. When it is uncomfortable and stressed, Sun energy is arrogant, conceited, self-absorbed, vain -- again according to the qualities of its sign energy.

Your Sun Sign describes the qualities you use to promote yourself, the traits that tell the world who you are. Thus a person with the Sun in Aries will be assertive, competitive, independent, self-assured, and pioneering while a person with the Sun in Cancer will be sensitive, intuitive, moody, compassionate, nurturing, and family-oriented.

Other elements in a native's chart ... described by those other nine planets I mentioned ... or special patterns between the various planets called "aspects" ... may color, or even distort or overshadow the clear expression of someone's Sun Sign energy, but that part of his character is always there somewhere, working out its own means of being. For one reason or another it may be deep in the background, hidden from view except to those who know the native extremely well ... but it is never lost.

(c) 2007 Rebecca Brents, All rights reserved.

About the Author

Rebecca Brents writes on astrology, tarot, feng shui, and self-improvement at Enchanted Spirit: http://www.enchantedspirit.org/, and offers online lectures and classes.