☉Sun
The Sun is one of the two luminaries of the chart and represents identity, purpose, and vitality: who you are and where your life is heading.
The Sun is not a planet in the tradition: it is a luminary, one of the two lights. Together with the Moon it forms the pair that structures the whole chart—they are not wandering stars among others, they are the eyes of the sky.
It rules the day and heads the diurnal sect. If you were born with the Sun above the horizon, your chart is diurnal and the Sun is its principal luminary: the piece that orders the entire reading.
What the Sun represents
Identity and purpose: not the social personality but the center a life organizes itself around. What you want to become.
Also vitality and, in ancient doctrine, the father in a diurnal chart. And figures of authority: the king, the boss, the one who commands.
The Sun's sign is what nearly everyone calls “their sign”—but in the tradition it is only one piece. The Ascendant and its ruler weigh as much or more.
Dignities of the Sun
Domicile in Leo, its only sign. Exaltation in Aries, the start of the astrological year: identity affirming itself by beginning.
Exile in Aquarius—the sign of the collective, opposite Leo—and fall in Libra, where identity is subordinated to agreement with another.
Combustion and cazimi
The Sun has an effect no other body has: it burns whatever comes close. A planet within 8°30′ of the Sun is combust, and the tradition reads it as weakened, invisible, unable to act on its own.
But there is one remarkable exception: within 17 minutes of arc of the exact center, the planet is cazimi—“in the heart of the Sun”—and instead of burning, it is enormously strengthened. It is one of the most powerful conditions in traditional astrology.
Between 8°30′ and 15° the planet is under the beams: not burned, but overshadowed.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Sun a planet in astrology?
Not in the tradition: it is a luminary, along with the Moon. The two lights are distinguished from the five wandering planets and structure the entire chart through the doctrine of sect.
What does it mean to have the Sun in house 10?
That identity and purpose are played out in public terrain: vocation, the body of work, recognition. Since the house is angular, it also manifests forcefully and in plain sight.
What is a combust planet?
A planet within 8°30′ of the Sun, which the tradition reads as weakened and unable to act on its own. The exception is cazimi: within 17 minutes of the exact center, the planet is strengthened rather than burned.