The element water—represented in astrology by the signs Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces—symbolizes many things: emotion, feeling, empathy, relatedness, maternity, nurturance, compassion, vulnerability, change, the unconscious, the soul, the past, the sea, and the non-rational, subjective and personal realms. It is the most yin of the four elements, and in our patriarchal culture, the most difficult to apprehend.

No (or only outer) planets in water

With no planets in water you may have difficulty understanding or penetrating the deeper meanings of things. Your emotions may not be easily engaged, and your intuitive skills not readily available. You may have difficulty forming close relationships, and may feel smothered or threatened by the strong emotional demands of others. You recover quickly from emotional setbacks, however, and depression is rarely a problem, but need to guard against becoming callous, cold, detached or unfeeling. Some people with no water in their chart even feel unlovable.

Famous people with no planets or their ascendant in water are/were Muhammad Ali, Ann-Margaret, Lance Armstrong, Barbara Bach, Joan Baez, Ludwig Van Beethoven (misanthrope, loved unattainable women), Lucrezia Borgia, Georges Braque, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Bennett Cerf, Graham Chapman, Chevy Chase, Maurice Chevalier, Connie Chung, Bill Clinton, Gary Cooper, Ted Danson, Angela Davis, Catherine Deneuve, Alan Dershowitz, Rene Descartes, Neil Diamond, Marlene Dietrich, Faye Dunaway, Dwight D. Eisenhower, T. S. Eliot, Henry Ford, George Foreman, Elliott Gould, Rutger Hauer, Steven Hawking, Haydn, Heidegger, Hitler, Ho Chi Minh, Paul Hogan, Herbert Hoover, Mick Jagger, Andy Kaufman, Carole King, Jessica Lange, H. P. Lovecraft, Edouard Manet, Slobodan Milosevic, O. Henry, Al Pacino, Valerie Perrine, The Rock, Pete Rose, Jerry Springer, Jim Thorpe, Loudon Wainwright, Lech Walesa and William Butler Yeats.