One explanation for the suite's structure, presented by Holst scholar Raymond Head, is the ruling of astrological signs of the
zodiac by the planets:
[24] if the signs are listed along with their
ruling planets in the traditional order starting with
Aries, ignoring duplication and the luminaries (the Sun and Moon), the order of the movements corresponds. Critic
David Hurwitz offers an alternative explanation for the piece's structure: that "Jupiter" is the centrepoint of the suite and that the movements on either side are in mirror images. Thus "Mars" involves motion and "Neptune" is static; "Venus" is sublime while "Uranus" is vulgar, and "Mercury" is light and
scherzando while "Saturn" is heavy and plodding. This hypothesis is lent credence by the fact that the two outer movements, "Mars" and "Neptune", are both written in rather unusual
quintuple meter.