Essential dignities and configurations
How the Greek tradition weighs a planet's standing in its sign and judges the rays it casts across the wheel: domicile, exaltation, triplicity, bounds, decans, overcoming, bonification and maltreatment.
The five kinds of rulership
Every degree of the zodiac belongs to several planets at once, layered from the whole sign down to a few degrees. A planet standing in a place where it holds rulership acts like a person in their own house or office; a planet with no claim on its sign acts like a stranger or guest:
- Domicile (house). Each sign is the home of one of the seven planets. The Sun rules Leo and the Moon rules Cancer; the other five planets each rule one diurnal and one nocturnal sign outward from the lights.
- Exaltation (hypsoma). A sign — and within it a specific degree — where a planet is raised to high honour: the Sun in Aries (19°), the Moon in Taurus (3°), Saturn in Libra (20°), Jupiter in Cancer (15°), Mars in Capricorn (28°), Venus in Pisces (27°) and Mercury in Virgo (15°).
- Triplicity (trigonon). The four triangles of fire, earth, air and water signs, each governed by a day lord, a night lord and a cooperating third lord according to Dorotheus of Sidon.
- Bounds (horia). Five unequal degree bands in every sign, ruled by the five planets other than the lights.
- Decans or faces (prosopa). Three ten-degree segments in every sign.
Domicile, exaltation and Dorothean triplicity table
| Sign | Domicile lord | Exaltation | Element | Triplicity lords (Day · Night · Partner) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | Mars | Sun (19°) | Fire | Sun · Jupiter · Saturn |
| Taurus | Venus | Moon (3°) | Earth | Venus · Moon · Mars |
| Gemini | Mercury | — | Air | Saturn · Mercury · Jupiter |
| Cancer | Moon | Jupiter (15°) | Water | Venus · Mars · Moon |
| Leo | Sun | — | Fire | Sun · Jupiter · Saturn |
| Virgo | Mercury | Mercury (15°) | Earth | Venus · Moon · Mars |
| Libra | Venus | Saturn (20°) | Air | Saturn · Mercury · Jupiter |
| Scorpio | Mars | — | Water | Venus · Mars · Moon |
| Sagittarius | Jupiter | — | Fire | Sun · Jupiter · Saturn |
| Capricorn | Saturn | Mars (28°) | Earth | Venus · Moon · Mars |
| Aquarius | Saturn | — | Air | Saturn · Mercury · Jupiter |
| Pisces | Jupiter | Venus (27°) | Water | Venus · Mars · Moon |
Whole-sign configurations, overcoming and maltreatment
In Hellenistic astrology, aspects are first and foremost relationships between whole signs that can see one another: the trine (four signs apart, same element), square (three signs apart), sextile (two signs apart) and opposition (six signs apart). Signs one or five places apart are in aversion (asyndetos) and do not behold one another, which is why the second, sixth, eighth and twelfth whole-sign places are harder ground.
- Overcoming (kathuperteresis). Looking forward in zodiacal order from a planet, a second planet standing earlier in the zodiac (in the tenth, eleventh or ninth sign from it, on its right-hand or dexter side) casts its ray down upon it and holds the upper hand.
- Bonification and maltreatment. Jupiter and Venus improve a planet they aspect by trine, sextile, conjunction or superior square, especially in their own sect; Saturn and Mars afflict a planet when they oppose, square or enclose it contrary to sect, unless softened by reception or dignity.
- Enclosure (besiegement) and spear-bearing (doryphory). A planet hemmed between Mars and Saturn with no benefic ray intervening is besieged; a luminary attended by dignified planets of its own sect in the adjacent signs or on the pivots has spear-bearers that elevate the chart's rank.
How Occult Astrology shows it
The chart page scores every planet across all five dignities, lets you switch between Dorothean and Ptolemaic triplicity lords and between Egyptian and Ptolemaic bounds, identifies the predominator and chart ruler, and lists every whole-sign configuration, overcoming ray, reception, bonification and maltreatment.
Read next: the Egyptian bounds, sect in astrology, or all the techniques.
Questions
- What are the five essential dignities in Hellenistic astrology?
- Domicile (sign rulership), exaltation, triplicity (elemental rulership by day and night), bounds or terms (five unequal divisions of each sign), and decans or faces (three 10-degree divisions of each sign).
- How do Dorothean triplicity rulers work?
- Dorotheus assigns three planets to each element: a day ruler, a night ruler and a participating third ruler. Fire belongs to the Sun by day, Jupiter by night and Saturn as partner; Earth to Venus, the Moon and Mars; Air to Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter; Water to Venus, Mars and the Moon.
- What is overcoming in Hellenistic astrology?
- A planet that stands earlier in the zodiacal order and casts a dexter (right-hand) square, trine or sextile onto a later planet is said to overcome or dominate it, especially by a superior square from the tenth sign.
- What is bonification and maltreatment?
- Bonification is the strengthening or protection of a planet by a ray or conjunction from the benefics (Jupiter or Venus); maltreatment is the affliction of a planet by the malefics (Saturn or Mars), weighed strongly by whether the malefic is of the chart's sect and whether reception is present.
Occult Astrology reads a birth chart the way the Greek-language astrologers of antiquity did. Cast a chart and compare it with a Vedic and a modern reading of the same sky.
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