The Planets in Business & Creativity

The planets are the makers and the doers in astrology. When it comes to making your own creative project or running your own business, you can work with these celestial powerhouses and leverage their skills. Yep, each planet has a unique gift and skillset that you can “borrow” to enhance your work. In fact, I like to think of the planets as a team of helpers or employees that are itching to assist me in everything I do.

Each planet has a particular role to play in the creative process and business operations. In this blog post, I’ve given each of the seven traditional planets a job title and description so that you can easily remember how they can help you make your next thing.

How to Use This Information

To really make the information below useful, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of your birth chart or the “birth” chart of your business or latest creative project. For more information on calculating a birth chart for a creative project or business, see this post. Consider how the zodiac sign or house placement of each planet informs or changes the way it does its job.

The Sun: Vision Holder

The Sun is the Vision Holder of your project or business. You could also think of it as the CEO or the CPO (Chief Planet Officer). Its job is to set a clear vision and mission for your project or business. The Sun is our brightest, most prominent light and represents clarity. The Sun helps you see what you’re making clearly and honestly.

Let’s be real. Sometimes in the creative process, we’re not quite sure what the finished product will be. And that's okay—that's part of the messiness and beauty of the process. Projects tend to have a life of their own. But the Sun can help you identify what it is that you're actually making so that you can take your next step with confidence.

The Sun is also about visibility. It defines and upholds your public image, your brand, your reputation, and ensures that everything you do is in alignment with your greater mission. Speaking of visibility, try planning with the Sun when you want to release a creative project or receive some attention for your work. For example, share a project when the Sun is very strong (during Aries or Leo season) or when the Sun is making a positive aspect to your natal chart or the chart of your project or business.

The Moon: Team Manager

The Moon is the Team Manager of your project or business. It’s kind of like Human Resources. Its job is to make sure you and all the other planet team members have what they need to perform well. It preaches nourishment and work-life balance and wants you to create comfortable working conditions for yourself. Your natal Moon and the transiting Moon in the sky right now can give you clues as to what you might need to feel supported as you're making and creating.

As the Sun’s counterpart, the Moon’s job also includes setting the daily routine by dividing the Sun's vision into realistic and attainable actions. The Moon is a natural timekeeper and has a lot to do with your daily fluctuations and capacity. The Moon sets the pace. It helps you modify your plans and timelines based on your energetic capacity and the energy of the cosmos as a whole. For example, energy might be very low during a Balsamic Moon compared to a Full Moon. Or, a Moon aspecting Mars may describe higher energetic capacity than the Moon aspecting Venus.

If you don’t already, I highly recommend playing with the current Moon phase as an energy barometer. The idea is, the brighter the Moon, the more energy you have. The darker the Moon, the more rest you may need. All you need to figure this out is a weather app. If the Moon is more than 50% illuminated, it’s go time. If it’s less than 50% illuminated, you may want to put more buffer time into your schedule.

Mercury: Tech & Communications Manager

Mercury is the Tech & Communications Manager. Mercury’s task is to take the vision of the Sun and communicate it using language or numbers. It gets the word out there. It sends and receives all communications about your project, and it sets up all the systems that are needed to make and deliver it. This includes the technological systems that connect you and your project to the outside world.

Mercury also helps you brainstorm and network with like-minded individuals who can help push your project along. It’s a natural connector and facilitates the exchange of ideas, goods, and services.

Mercury is super analytical and you can use this brainy planet to analyze how your creative project or business is “performing.” This is an especially important role in business, as Mercury tracks and manages your key performance indicators and other metrics.

Mercury also loves to manage a calendar. It’s especially good at tracking and managing small details like deadlines and meetings. If you want to do a monster planning session, invite Mercury to tag along or do it during a time when Mercury is very strong.

Venus: Creative Relations Consultant

Venus is the Creative Relations Consultant. Its job is to take the Sun’s vision and, instead of using words or numbers like Mercury, use design, feeling and imagery to communicate your project's vision to others. Venus has a ton to do with the aesthetic of the business or the project, including branding or packaging.

But Venus doesn’t just want to look good, it wants to feel good too. Venus is also about value. A big part of Venus’s role is to make sure that what you’re creating is in alignment with your own personal values.

Venus is also the relationship planet. In creative and business astrology this translates to nurturing client relationships and business partnerships. A healthy Venus ensures that you create a delightful customer experience and establish mutually beneficial connections with collaborators.

Mars: Head of Short-term Operations & Strategy

Mars is the Head of Short-term Operations and Strategy. Its main job is to execute and get stuff done. It doesn’t excel at the long-term view, but it sure can take your urgent plans and check them off the list. It’s main job is to just do the work. Plan to do the bulk of your heavy-hitting work when Mars is highlighted in the sky.

A healthy Mars is very efficient and goes from A to B in the simplest, fastest way possible. Sometimes this means cutting things out. Mars is sharp like a knife and will help you identify and remove out what’s unnecessary. Whether this is a project, service or mindset, Mars helps you identify and remove the time wasters and other things that are spinning your wheels.

Mars's job is to identify and remove obstacles that prevent you from fulfilling your mission effectively. This planet is all about clearing the way for you to get your work accomplished. This includes plowing through external obstacles as well as internal obstacles like self-doubt or self-sabotage.

And finally, Mars’s job is to energize you. If you have a strong Mars, or if you're having a Mars transit, you're going to have more oomph and gumption to do more work than usual. Pay attention to Mars transits and cycles if you’re planning to put a lot on your plate.

Jupiter: Growth Consultant

Jupiter is the Growth Consultant. It’s job is to take what you’re making and 10X it. It has unmatched perspective. Jupiter has a great 30,000-foot view of your project and can help you make high-level decisions about direction and expansion.

Similar to Mercury, Jupiter spreads the word but on a larger, more global scale. It takes your creative project and disseminates and distributes it as far as possible. Jupiter has a megaphone and is screaming, “Look at this amazing thing. Buy it now!”

Jupiter is also a wisdom planet. It helps you develop your skills and refine your craft. Use Jupiter to time professional development and improvement, like taking courses and classes. And if teaching is a part of what you do, lean on Jupiter for offering your own classes and courses.

Jupiter is also the planet of happiness and contentment. Within business and creativity, it's the planet that helps you maintain your morale and purpose. We all want to feel like what we're doing matters and that it has meaning. Jupiter makes sure that you stay motivated and inspired by being connected to your greater why.

Saturn: Head of Long-term Operations & Strategy; Office Manager

Saturn is so eager to work hard that I've given it two jobs: the Head of Long-term Operations & Strategy and Office Manager. Saturn's job in creativity and business is to maintain and execute the long-term vision. Unlike Mars, Saturn isn’t interested in completing a task unless it matter for the long-haul. When you're planning with the Sun or Moon, you’re usually working with smaller timelines like weeks, months or years. But when you’re planning with Saturn, you’re working with really long spans of time like decades. Saturn demands commitment and endurance.

Saturn's job includes maintaining the structures and systems that allow your creative projects or business to run smoothly. And if anything breaks down or disintegrates, Saturn has to fix it. Saturn builds and rebuilds things, making sure everything is firm and has a good foundation.

Saturn also terminates or ends things. This is a tender part of business and the creative process, but a necessary one. Saturn helps you figure out when enough is enough. It’ll let you know when a project is no longer working. Saturn can help you terminate irrelevant projects, products, services, or even end collaborations with other people.

And of course, as Office Manager, Saturn does the things that we creatives often hate to do, like the financial and legal upkeep.

Taking It Deeper

Now that you know each planet’s role in creativity and business, you can personalize it a bit. If you’re intermediate or advanced in astrology and know how to assess if a planet is strong or weak, this can mirror areas in creativity or business where you too may be strong or weak. For example, if you have a weak Saturn, you might need outside assistance with bookkeeping or accounting. Or if you have a weak Jupiter, it might be a struggle for you to see the big picture. Perhaps hiring a coach who can help you think outside the box would be helpful.