Episode 122. Every so often, you’ll hear an astrologer refer to a planet as “out of bounds.” If you’re wondering what that means, here’s the deal:

The Sun travels through a particular area in the sky which is a band of about 23° 27 minutes on both sides, north and south of the equator. The planets follow along for the most part but on occasion, they might stray off this path and reach higher declinations. When that happens, the planet is considered “out of bounds.”

Think of it as a planet that is marching along a well-trod path behind all the others, and suddenly, they see another path that appears more interesting. They break ranks and go off on their own, which may disrupt the formation in some way.

When this shows up in a chart, it means the planet is marching to the beat of its own drum, and not according to the rules. That means the planet is uncontrolled and perhaps a bit wild. Some people may consider the expression to be unconventional or creative. I’ve also seen people refer to it as “outlaw” energy. In other words: the planet isn’t doing what’s normal. Is it genius or just crazy? Maybe both.

There are a few planets that never go out of bounds: the Sun, Lunar Nodes, Saturn, Neptune, and Chiron. The ones that tend to break off and do their own thing are the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, and Pluto. Jupiter can be out of bounds too, but not as common as the others.