Dignities Overview

Dignity and Rulership. Dignity describes how comfortable and empowered a planet is in the sign it occupies. A planet with strong dignity acts with ease and authority, like a person at home in their own house, while a planet in a sign of weak dignity, called debility, has a harder time expressing itself well. The system of essential dignities is one of the oldest tools in astrology for judging the condition of a planet. The most important dignity is rulership, also called domicile, where a planet occupies the sign it governs. The next is exaltation, where a planet is honored like an esteemed guest. The two debilities are detriment and fall, where a planet is weakened. Triplicity adds a gentler dignity based on the elements. Together these describe whether a planet is strong, supported, or struggling. Rulership comes in two systems. Traditional astrology assigns all twelve signs to the seven visible planets. Modern astrology adds Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto as rulers of three signs. This section defines each dignity in turn, along with the related ideas of the dispositor and sect, and gives the traditional and modern rulership schemes their own subsections.