Classical planet

A classical planet is an astronomical object that is visible to the naked eye and moves across the sky and its backdrop of fixed stars, appearing as wandering stars. Visible to humans on Earth there are seven classical planets. They are from brightest to dimmest: the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn.
Greek astronomers such as Geminus and Ptolemy recorded these classical planets during classical antiquity, introducing the term planet, which means 'wanderer' in Greek, expressing the fact that these objects move across the celestial sphere relative to the fixed stars. Therefore, the Greeks were the first to document the astrological connections to the planets' visual detail.
Through the use of telescopes other celestial objects like the classical planets were found, starting with the Galilean moons in 1610. Today the term planet is used considerably differently, with a planet being defined as a natural satellite directly orbiting the Sun and having cleared its own orbit. Therefore, only five of the seven classical planets remain recognized as planets, alongside Earth, Uranus, and Neptune.

History

Babylonian

The Babylonians recognized seven planets. A bilingual list in the British Museum records the seven Babylonian planets in the following order:

The Moon, Sin.
The Sun, Shamash.
Jupiter, Merodach.
Venus, Ishtar.
Saturn, Ninip.
Mercury, Nebo.
Mars, Nergal.
Mandaean

In Mandaeism, the names of the seven planets are derived from the seven Babylonian planets. Overall, the seven classical planets are generally not viewed favorably in Mandaeism, since they constitute part of the entourage of Ruha, the Queen of the World of Darkness who is also their mother. However, individually, some of the planets can be associated with positive qualities. The names of the seven planets in Mandaic are borrowed from Akkadian. Some of the names are ultimately derived from Sumerian, since Akkadian had borrowed many deity names from Sumerian.
Each planet is said to be carried in a ship. Drawings of these ships are found in various Mandaean scriptures, such as the Scroll of Abatur. The planets are listed according to the traditional Mandaean order of the planets as mentioned in Masco.

Planet	Mandaic	Mandaic script	Akkadian	Other names	Associations
Sun	Šamiš		Šamaš	Adunai ← Hebrew Adonai	light and life-powers Yawar Ziwa and Simat Hayyi ; Yazuqaeans
Venus	Libat		Delebat	Amamit, Argiuat, Daitia, Kukbat, Spindar, ʿstira, and Ruha or Ruha ḏ-qudša	success in love and reproduction
Mercury	Nbu		Nabû	Maqurpiil, Mšiha ← Messiah; ʿaṭarid ← Arabic	learning, scribes; Christ and Christianity
Moon	Sin		Sīnu	Agzʿil, Ṭaṭmʿil, Ṣaurʿil, and Sira	miscarriages and abnormal births
Saturn	Kiwan		Kayyamānu	Br Šamiš	Jews; Saturday
Jupiter	Bil		Bēlu	Angʿil	male; "hot and moist"
Mars	Nirig		Nergallu	Marik	violence; Islam

Symbols

The astrological symbols for the classical planets appear in the medieval Byzantine codices in which many ancient horoscopes were preserved. In the original papyri of these Greek horoscopes, there are found a circle with one ray for the Sun and a crescent for the Moon.
The written symbols for Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn have been traced to forms found in late Greek papyri. The symbols for Jupiter and Saturn are identified as monograms of the initial letters of the corresponding Greek names, and the symbol for Mercury is a stylized caduceus.
A. S. D. Maunder finds antecedents of the planetary symbols in earlier sources, used to represent the gods associated with the classical planets. Bianchini's planisphere, produced in the 2nd century, shows Greek personifications of planetary gods charged with early versions of the planetary symbols: Mercury has a caduceus; Venus has, attached to her necklace, a cord connected to another necklace; Mars, a spear; Jupiter, a staff; Saturn, a scythe; the Sun, a circlet with rays radiating from it; and the Moon, a headdress with a crescent attached.
A diagram in Johannes Kamateros' 12th century Compendium of Astrology shows the Sun represented by the circle with a ray, Jupiter by the letter zeta, Mars by a shield crossed by a spear, and the remaining classical planets by symbols resembling the modern ones, without the cross-mark seen in modern versions of the symbols. The modern Sun symbol, pictured as a circle with a dot, first appeared in the Renaissance.

Planetary hours

The Ptolemaic system used in ancient Greek astronomy placed the planets by order of proximity to Earth in the then-current geocentric model, closest to furthest, as the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In addition the day was divided into seven-hour intervals, each ruled by one of the planets, although the order was staggered.
The first hour of each day was named after the ruling planet, giving rise to the names and order of the Roman seven-day week. Modern Latin-based cultures, in general, directly inherited the days of the week from the Romans and they were named after the classical planets; for example, in Spanish Miércoles is Mercury, and in French mardi is Mars-day.
The modern English days of the week were mostly inherited from gods of the old Germanic Norse culture – Wednesday is Wōden’s-day, Thursday is Thor’s-day, Friday is Frige-day. Equivalence here is by the gods' roles; for instance, Venus and Frige were both goddesses of love. It can be correlated that the Norse gods were attributed to each Roman planet and its god, probably due to Roman influence rather than coincidentally by the naming of the planets. A vestige of the Roman convention remains in the English name Saturday.

Alchemy

In alchemy, each classical planet was associated with one of the seven metals known to the classical world. As a result, the alchemical glyphs for the metal and associated planet coincide. Alchemists believed the other elemental metals were variants of these seven.
Image:Alchemy-Digby-RareSecrets.png|thumb|right|300px|Extract and symbol key from 17th-century alchemy text
Alchemy in the Western World and other locations where it was widely practiced was allied and intertwined with traditional Babylonian-Greek style astrology; in numerous ways they were built to complement each other in the search for hidden knowledge. Astrology has used the concept of classical elements from antiquity up until the present day today. Most modern astrologers use the four classical elements extensively, and indeed they are still viewed as a critical part of interpreting the astrological chart.
Image:Alchemical table Valentine.jpg|200px|thumb|A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine’s The Last Will and Testament,
Traditionally, each of the seven planets in the Solar System as known to the ancients was associated with, held dominion over, and "ruled" a certain metal.
The list of rulership is as follows:

The Sun rules Gold
The Moon, Silver
Mercury, Quicksilver/Mercury
Venus, Copper
Mars, Iron
Jupiter, Tin
Saturn, Lead

Some alchemists adopted the Hermetic Qabalah assignment between the vital organs and the planets as follows:

Planet	Organ
Sun	Heart
Moon	Brain
Mercury	Lungs
Venus	Kidneys
Mars	Gallbladder
Jupiter	Liver
Saturn	Spleen

Contemporary astrology

Western astrology

Planet	Domicile sign	Detriment sign	Exaltation sign	Fall sign
Sun	Leo	Aquarius	Aries	Libra
Moon	Cancer	Capricorn	Taurus	Scorpio
Mercury	Gemini and Virgo	Sagittarius and Pisces	Virgo	Pisces
Venus	Libra and Taurus	Aries and Scorpio	Pisces	Virgo
Mars	Aries and Scorpio	Libra and Taurus	Capricorn	Cancer
Jupiter	Sagittarius and Pisces	Gemini and Virgo	Cancer	Capricorn
Saturn	Aquarius and Capricorn	Leo and Cancer	Libra	Aries

Indian astrology

and astrology recognise seven visible planets and two additional invisible planets ; rahu and ketu.

Sanskrit Name	English name	Nakshatras	Guna	Represents	Day
Surya	Sun	Krittika, Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha	Sattva	Soul, king, highly placed persons, father, ego	Sunday
Chandra	Moon	Rohini, Hasta and Shravana	Sattva	Emotional Mind, queen, mother.	Monday
Mangala	Mars	Mrigashira, Chitra and Dhanishta	Tamas	energy, action, confidence	Tuesday
Budha	Mercury	Ashlesha, Jyeshta and Revati	Rajas	Communication and analysis, mind	Wednesday
Brihaspati	Jupiter	Punarvasu, Vishakha and Purva Bhadrapada	Sattva	the great teacher, wealth, Expansion, progeny	Thursday
Shukra	Venus	Bharani, Purva Phalguni and Purva Ashadha	Rajas	Feminine, pleasure and reproduction, Luxury, Love, Spouse	Friday
Shani	Saturn	Pushya, Anuradha and Uttara Bhadrapada	Tamas	learning the hard way. Career and Longevity, Contraction	Saturday
Rahu	Ascending/North Lunar Node	Ardra, Swati and Shatabhisha	Tamas	an Asura who does his best to plunge any area of one's life he controls into chaos, works on the subconscious level	none
Ketu	Descending/South Lunar Node	Ashwini, Magha and Mula	Tamas	supernatural influences, works on the subconscious level	none