How to Read Planets, Signs, and Nakshatras — and Why Most People Get It Wrong

Astrology is not misunderstood because it is vague. It is misunderstood because its components are misread.

Most people treat planets, zodiac signs, and nakshatras as if they all describe the same thing: personality. They don’t. Each operates at a different structural layer. When those layers are collapsed into one, astrology turns into a list of stereotypes, contradictions, and arbitrary rules.

This article exists to calibrate the reader before any deeper enquiry begins.

The Core Problem: Category Error

The biggest mistake in astrology is not wrong interpretation. It is wrong categorisation.

People ask questions like:

• Is Mercury good or bad?
• Is Pisces emotional or spiritual?
• Is Ashlesha dangerous?

These questions are malformed because they assume all components play the same role. They do not.

Astrology works only when its components are read hierarchically, not interchangeably.

What a Planet Actually Represents

A planet does not describe personality, events, or morality. A planet represents a function of consciousness.

• Sun → identity, coherence, sense of self
• Moon → perception, memory, emotional processing
• Mars → action, assertion, survival response
• Mercury → cognition, analysis, communication
• Jupiter → meaning-making, expansion, belief
• Venus → valuation, attraction, harmony
• Saturn → structure, limitation, time
• Rahu/Ketu → disruption and disengagement

A planet answers only one question:

What function is operating here?

Nothing more. Planets do not decide how the function behaves, where it acts, or why it activates. They only tell you which function is in play.

What a Zodiac Sign Actually Represents

A zodiac sign does not create traits. A sign represents the operating environment of a function.

It defines:

• constraints
• rules
• style of expression
• allowable behaviors

Mars does not become a different Mars in Leo or Cancer. Mars remains Mars. What changes is how Mars is permitted to express and what kind of action is rewarded or resisted.

A sign answers this question:

Under what conditions must this function operate?

Signs are contexts, not personalities.

What a Nakshatra Actually Represents

Nakshatras are the most misunderstood component because they operate at an internal layer.

Nakshatras do not override signs. They do not decide outcomes directly.

Nakshatras describe:

• motivation
• inner narrative
• psychological orientation
• unconscious intention

Two people can have the same planet in the same sign and house, yet behave differently. The difference often lies in nakshatra.

A nakshatra answers this question:

Why does this function want to act?

This is why the Moon depends heavily on nakshatras: the Moon governs perception and mental narrative, not external action.

The Missing Hierarchy (This Is Critical)

Astrology only becomes coherent when this hierarchy is understood:

• Planets decide what is operating
• Signs decide how it operates
• Houses decide where it operates
• Nakshatras decide why it operates
• Degrees decide how mature or developed it is

Most confusion in astrology exists because this hierarchy is never stated. People try to answer “why” questions using signs. They try to answer “how” questions using nakshatras. They try to assign morality to planets.

The system breaks when roles are mixed, making it unrelatable and distant from reality.

Why Most Interpretations Feel Contradictory

Once roles are confused:

• Mercury ruling Revati but being debilitated in Pisces looks illogical.
• Jupiter and Venus both being gurus feels redundant.
• Exaltation degrees appear arbitrary.
• Nakshatra meanings clash with sign meanings.

These are not flaws in astrology. They are reading errors.

When each component is allowed to do only its assigned job, contradictions disappear.

Astrology Is a Layered Language, Not a Trait List

Astrology is closer to grammar than to storytelling.

• Planets are verbs (functions).
• Signs are adverbs (modes).
• Houses are nouns (domains).
• Nakshatras are intent clauses.
• Degrees are proficiency markers.

Reading astrology without respecting layers is like reading a sentence by mixing verbs, adjectives, and punctuation into one word.

It will sound mystical. It will not make sense.

Why This Calibration Matters Before Any “Why” Enquiry

Without this framework:

• Deep questions are misunderstood.
• Structural explanations are rejected as contradictions.
• Astrology degenerates into belief or disbelief.

With this framework:

• Questions become precise.
• Logic becomes visible.
• Astrology stops being mystical and starts being intelligible.

This article is not an explanation of astrology. It is an instruction manual for how to read the system itself.

Only after this calibration does it make sense to ask why Mercury behaves paradoxically, why exaltations occur at specific degrees, and why nakshatra lordship does not override sign lordship.

Those questions come next. This one comes first.