Looked up Niamh's
Apparently she's going to be attracted to the medical profession, love history and the Arts, love to travel and marry a foreigner and have lots of children
The thing about astrology (as my friend says) is that its more based around "trends" and "symbols" etc. So it's better to understand what each house and sign and planet represent. Mostly these are based on old customs, myths and cultures etc. The ones we have are based mainly on the Gods from Roman/Greek times.
As a general guide:
Lesson 1.
Take all these explanations as trying to get at an essence.
Sun: Sense of self, pride.
Moon: Emotions. Motherhood. Subconscious. Nurturing. Womanly.
Mercury: the messenger. Flighty, communicative, cognitive.
Venus: Love, beauty, femininity, can be unstable and changeable but generally very good.
Mars: Powerful, aggressive, masculine.
Jupiter: (the best one in my opinion!!!!) Luck. Abundance. Generosity. (either given or received)
Saturn: (blueargh!!!! the worst one in my opinion!) Restriction, limitations, difficulties, hard work, karma.
Uranus: Explosive, creativity, Genius. (but a quite unstable)
Neptune: Deep subconscious, artistic, Dreams, sometimes associated with loss.
Pluto: (this is the newest so its not as well known as the rest) governemnt, structure, control, power.
In addition to these there are LOTS of things that each planet is associated with. e.g. Jupiter: Long journeys and travel, Mercury: Short journeys, Saturn: Agriculture, and most have colours associated with them.
The romans believed they could invoke the spirit of the Gods (planets) by wearing certain colours. Wearing Gold was supposed to invoke Jupiter. (Which is a little unfair and self fulfilling as those rich enough to afford Gold would obviously feel Jupiter was kinder to them!
)
Lastly, the WAY these planets interact with each other (the relationships they have due to the angles in a natal chart) will apparently heavily define whether the influence is good or bad.
So although Jupiter is a good influence, a bad aspect with another planet might mean that although you have a lot of wealth, you spend more than you make, or spend on bad things, or get it in the wrong ways etc.
Same with Saturn being a generally bad influence, it can be fruitful if aspected well with other planets.
