Many people fall into the trap of thinking that their ruling planet is the one that rules their star sign, as I alluded to in the discount section. In other words, Capricorns assume themselves to be ruled by Saturn, Sagittarians by Jupiter, etc. This is only the case when your rising sign is also (using these sign examples) Capricorn or Sagittarius. For it is the ruler of the rising sign (ascendant) that is the overall ruler of the chart. I have just gone through my Saturn return, a major testing part of my life path, and so has a friend of mine. But she didn’t feel the consequences anything near as hard going as me, for she is not Saturn ruled. She has Gemini rising, so her chart ruler is Mercury. It’s at times like important returns, or when the ruling planet is making a heavy transit at the time, that we really feel them if it happens to be our ruler. For example, a Grand Cross configuration occurred in the summer of 2011, comprising Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto. If any of those planets happen to be your chart ruler, you would have specifically felt the actions of that said planet the most. It works in positive ways too, of course. If you are Mars ruled and Mars makes some nice transits to your chart, you will greatly pick up on these transits, more though than say if a Jupiter transit was also evident, despite Jupiter being considered the most beneficial of the planets. Rulerships can also play an important role when there are conflicting transits abounding. For example, if Saturn and Pluto were both making very powerful but contrary transits to your natal chart at a given period, and one of them happened to be your chart ruler, then the effects of that transit would overrule the other. All fascinating stuff, and depends totally on you knowing your birth time, for it is the birth time that determines the accurate positioning of the ascendant in your chart: the sign that the ascendant is passing through at your time of birth becomes your rising sign. Here are the associated rulers:

• SUN ruler of LEO and the 5th house.
• MOON ruler of CANCER and the 4th house.
• MERCURY joint ruler of GEMINI (3rd house) and VIRGO (6th house).
• VENUS joint ruler of TAURUS (2nd house) and LIBRA (7th house).
• MARS ruler of ARIES and 1st house.
• JUPITER ruler of SAGITTARIUS and 9th house.
• SATURN ruler of CAPRICORN and 10th house.
• URANUS ruler of AQUARIUS and 11th house.
• NEPTUNE ruler of PISCES and 12th house.
• PLUTO ruler of SCORPIO and 8th house.