Superior vs Inferior Planets

Definition

The classical distinction between superior and inferior planets divides the seven traditional planets based on their orbital relationship to the Sun and Earth in the geocentric model. Superior planets — Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars — orbit beyond the Sun relative to Earth and are capable of reaching any angular distance from the Sun, including opposition, where they appear on the opposite side of the sky from the solar position. Inferior planets — Venus and Mercury — orbit between Earth and the Sun and therefore can never stray far from the solar position, always remaining within a maximum elongation from the Sun: approximately forty-seven degrees for Venus and approximately twenty-eight degrees for Mercury. This geometric difference produces fundamentally different behavior in the sky and different astrological meanings. Superior planets have outer conjunctions when they are on the far side of the Sun from Earth, and oppositions when they are closest to Earth and most visible. Inferior planets have two types of conjunction: superior conjunction when they are on the far side of the Sun, and inferior conjunction when they pass between Earth and the Sun at their closest point, which is when Venus and Mercury can be seen in retrograde. The inferior planets also produce the rare phenomenon of transits across the solar disk when inferior conjunction occurs near the ecliptic plane. In ancient and medieval astrology the distinction influenced interpretations of the planets' relationships to both solar and terrestrial conditions and contributed to understandings of their respective roles as personal, immediate planets versus more distant, transpersonal principles.

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