Exaltation!

The exaltations are part of the knowledge of traditional astrology that were forgotten by modern astrology. Modern astrologers usually are too busy trying to remove rulership from one of the 7 traditional planets to even bother to learn this old system. But as with the other dignities (triplicities, terms, faces), it is time well spent.

To help the reader to remember, the traditional exaltations of the 7 planets are:

• Aries is the exaltation of the Sun
• Taurus is the exaltation of the Moon
• Cancer is the exaltation of Jupiter
• Virgo is the exaltation of mercury (Warning!!!! Bad books of modern astrology changed recently this exaltation into aquarius! If you want to ignore the tradition and bet in authors with poor knowledge, do it at your own risk!)
• Libra is the exaltation of Saturn
• Capricorn is the exaltation of Mars
• Pisces is the exaltation of Venus

Unfortunately no one really knows why the exaltations are where they are. Contemporary followers of Hellenistic astrology like the hypothesis of the Thema Mundi. Unfortunately, the Thema Mundi was a greek invention, and academic sources states that the exaltations were probably older. In fact, they could be older than the greek conception of rulerships of the zodiac.

So, no scheme that pretends to “explain” the exaltations can be based on the rulerhips. So, why I am doing exactly this? Just for fun, really! It is always a joyful opportunity for an student of astrology to explore the infinite symmetries in our symbols.

Rules of Exaltation

I use a finite and logical set of rules to relate the signs of exaltation to the ones of rulership.

Yes, I know, there are only seven exaltations, and my rules are arbitrary. Ok. Now, let´s have some fun.

Rule 1- the exaltation of a planet should be in sextile or trine one of its domiciles, so they would have some sort of affinity or agreement.

Rule 2 – Diurnal planets (Sun, Jupiter and Saturn), will like trines to one of their domiciles.

Rule 3-  Nocturnal planets (Moon, Venus and Mars) will like sextiles to one of their domiciles.

Rule 4 – Diunal planets will like to have their exaltation counting from their diurnal sign (example, the diurnal domicile of Saturn is Aquarius)

Rule 5 – Nocturnal planets will like to have their exaltation counting from their nocturnal sign (example, the nocturne domicile of Venus is Taurus)

Rule 6 – Planets will “cast” the trine or sextile in dexter aspect, meaning, against the order of the signs.

Rule 7 – If the sign is already the exaltation of a planet, we will try the sinister aspect.

Rule 8 – If none of these two signs are free, we will try the other aspect (trine or sextile). But as we are reversing the nature of the planet, we will also reverse the aspect and use the sinister aspect.

Exceptions

Hmmmm, just 7 planets, but 8 rules, and we need exceptions? Unfortunately we do. There are two exceptions to make the system symmetrical:

Exception 1 -The house of the sun can´t have exaltations – In the house of a king, no one can receive greater honors than the King himself!

Exception 2 – Mercury is neither diurnal or noctunal.

With these two exceptions, we can now play!

Exaltations from rulerships

The sun will be our first candidate. After all, he is the King!!

Sun

The sun is a diurnal planet. He only has one domicile, Leo. He is diurnal so he will “cast a trine” in dexter order (against the order of signs) and that will fall in Aries. The exaltation of the sun is in Aries. So far, so good!

Moon

The moon is the queen so she is next. Moon is a nocturnal planet. She only has one domicile, Cancer. She is nocturnal, so she sill like a sextile. The sextile against the order of signs is in Taurus. Ok!

Mercury

The next domicile after the luminars are those of mercury, gemini and virgo. But mercury is neither diurnal or nocturne as stated on “exception 2″! So, what to do? Let´s cheat and use the conjunction instead! So, we will put mercury´s exaltation in one of his domiciles. But which one? Although 9 in 10 modern astrologers would put mercury in gemini, in ancient tradition mercury was considered to be “cold and dry”, and so to share the nature of the element earth. So, virgo wins over Gemini, and Virgo will be the exaltation of Mercury.

Venus

The next domiciles are those of Venus, Taurus and Libra. Taurus is the nocturnal domicile of a nocturnal planet (venus), so her exaltation will be a sextile from taurus, in the sign of Pisces.

Mars

The domiciles of mars are aries and scorpio. Mars is nocturnal, so we will use the nocturnal domicile of scorpio. A sextile will fall in virgo.

But wait a minute! Virgo is already occupied! So, by rule 7, we have to use the other sextile from scorpio! This will fall in Capricorn, which  as we know, is the exaltation of mars.

Whew, that was close!

Jupiter

Finally we reached the great benefic, but our problems have just began!

Jupiter is a diurnal planet, so we will cast a dexter trine from his diurnal domicile (Sagittarius). Unfortunately this will fall on Leo. Remember exception 1? The damn Sun will not share his toys with anyone!

No problem! We will do the same we did mars, and take the sinister aspects, which fall in Aries, the exaltation of the Sun. Damn the sun again!

In desperation we have to take the nocturnal domicile of Jupiter, Pisces, and cast a trine.

But wait, as we are reversing Jupiter´s diurnal nature by casting a trine from his nocturnal domicile (pisces) let´s also reverse the direction of the aspect. Instead of the dexter aspect, that would go to scorpio, let´s take the sinister one to Cancer.

As your math teacher would say, two negatives make a positive.

Saturn

The old great malefic is a no brainer. He is diurnal. His diurnal domicile is Aquarius. He is diurnal, so he likes trines. The dexter trine from Aquarius is in Libra. Libra is the exaltation of Saturn.

Warning

This was just for fun. Don´t use it as a teaching tool. It has no historical value.

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Tagged: exaltation, greek, thema mundi

Posted in: Astrology For Dummies, Traditional Astrology