For Belatrix -- assumptions?
It is my opinion that each of our individual birth charts are first and foremost defined by the time and location of birth -- in other words, the four angles and the house system forms the framework for our chart! If our moment of birth is very important to us, each of us, then the angles and the houses are highly important.
So, what about signs. No one sign, no three signs (such as Aries, Leo, Scorpio) are more important than any other. They are each a sequential and intragal part of the whole set of signs, a system of meaning that is bound up by the whole "statement" or description that they provide. Since the signs (for those who use the Tropical zodiac -- most of those on this list) are defined by the Earth-Sun plane and the Earth's axis-tilt relative to that plane, the signs are subservient to the season of the year we are born into as well as the time of the day that we are born.
Now, what about the planets. The planets are part of our solar system, they are physical bodies that exert various influences upon the Earth and upon us. This is different from the signs which are spatial constructs that are dependant upon the Earth's axis tilt and orbital relationship to the Sun -- this makes the seasonal ebb-and-flow a possible general influence, but not the signs themselves. The signs, then, can be said to be a derivative influence in this context. The planets have energies of expression, their presence and movement in our chart can be quite easily seen and felt. Dave