Reference
Lexicon
The terms of traditional astrology, one page each: what the term means, where it comes from, how astrologers have used it and where they disagree, with the sources cited.
55 terms
Essential dignities
- Degree rulersThe planets that rule the triplicity, term and face at a planet's exact degree: the ones it answers to there.
- Detriment−5The sign opposite the planet's domicile, where it is out of its element and has difficulty acting in its own way.
- Domicile+5The planet is in a sign it rules, its own home, where it acts most fully in its own nature.
- Essential dignityThe strength or weakness a planet has from where it stands in the zodiac: its own sign, exaltation, triplicity, term or face, or their opposites.
- Exaltation+4The sign where a planet is especially honoured and raised up, like a guest of honour; the second-strongest dignity.
- Face+1Each sign is divided into three 10° segments, each ruled by a planet in the Chaldean order; a planet in its own segment has the smallest dignity.
- Fall−4The sign opposite the planet's exaltation, where it is brought low and least honoured.
- Mutual reception+5 by domicile / +4 by exaltationTwo planets each stand in a sign (or other dignity) of the other, so each hosts the other and they support one another.
- Peregrine0The planet has none of the five dignities where it is: a wanderer without standing of its own, dependent on the planets it meets.
- ReceptionOne planet is in a sign (or other dignity) belonging to another, so the owner "receives" it as a host receives a guest; in older use, the host must also see the guest by aspect.
- Term+2Each sign is divided into five unequal segments, each ruled by one of the five planets; a planet in its own segment has a small dignity.
- Triplicity+3The planet rules the element (fire, earth, air or water) of the sign it is in, by day or by night; the third of the five dignities.
Accidental condition
- Accidental DignityStrength or weakness a planet gets from its circumstances in a particular chart (its house, its motion, its distance from the Sun) rather than from the sign it is in.
- Angular+4In the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th house, the houses of the four angles: the most prominent and active positions in a chart.
- Besiegement−5The planet is hemmed in between the two malefics, Mars and Saturn, with nothing to relieve it; a serious accidental debility.
- Cadent−2In the 3rd, 6th, 9th or 12th house, the houses that fall away from the angles: traditionally the weakest positions, least able to act.
- Cazimi+5Within about 17′ of the exact position of the Sun, "in the heart of the Sun": instead of being burned, the planet is greatly strengthened.
- Combust−5Within about 8° of the Sun (8°30′ in Lilly), close enough to be "burned up" by its light: one of the most serious accidental debilities.
- Direct Motion+2Moving forward through the zodiac in the normal order of the signs, as planets usually do: a small accidental strength.
- Oriental and Occidental+2 / −2Oriental: rising before the Sun, a morning star. Occidental: setting after the Sun, an evening star. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are strengthened oriental; Mercury and Venus occidental.
- Planetary Joys+3Each planet has one house where it "rejoices": Mercury the 1st, the Moon the 3rd, Venus the 5th, Mars the 6th, the Sun the 9th, Jupiter the 11th, Saturn the 12th.
- Retrograde−5Appearing, from the Earth, to move backwards through the zodiac for a time: traditionally one of the most serious accidental debilities.
- Succedent+2In the 2nd, 5th, 8th or 11th house, the houses that follow the angles: moderately strong, building towards the next angle.
- Under the beams−4The planet is close enough to the Sun to be hidden in its glare (on this site, between 8° and 17° away): weakened, though less badly than when combust.
Sect
- Day and night chartsA chart is a day (diurnal) chart when the Sun is above the horizon, and a night (nocturnal) chart when it is below; this decides which planets are in sect.
- Halb+1A planet is on its own side of the horizon: a day planet above the horizon by day or below it by night, and a night planet the reverse.
- SectThe division of the planets into a day team (Sun, Jupiter, Saturn) and a night team (Moon, Venus, Mars), with Mercury joining either; a planet whose team matches the chart is "in sect".
Aspects
- Declination parallelTwo planets the same distance north or south of the celestial equator. Same side is a parallel, read like a conjunction; opposite sides is a contra-parallel. The usual orb is about 1°.
- OrbHow far from exact an aspect or midpoint contact may be and still count. Traditional orbs belong to the planets; midpoint work uses very small orbs, around 1½°.
Midpoints
- Aries Point0° Aries, the spring equinox point; on the 90° dial it stands for 0° of all four cardinal signs. In midpoint astrology it is read as the point that links a chart to the wider world.
- CosmobiologyReinhold Ebertin's streamlined form of the Hamburg School: midpoints and hard aspects read on a 90° dial with small orbs, without Witte's hypothetical planets and with little use of houses.
- Hamburg SchoolThe school of astrology founded by Alfred Witte in Hamburg in the 1920s, built on midpoints, planetary pictures and the 90° dial, and known for its eight hypothetical planets beyond Neptune.
- MidpointThe point exactly halfway between two planets or points in the zodiac. A third planet at that point, or in hard aspect to it, is read as joining the two.
- Midpoint clusterSeveral midpoints bunched closely together on the dial. The spot they share is treated as a sensitive zone of the chart, whether or not a planet sits there.
- Midpoint dialA chart folded so that a smaller arc (usually 90°) is drawn as a full circle. Planets in hard aspect then sit together, and midpoints can be read off with a rotating pointer.
- Midpoint sortEvery midpoint in the chart listed in order of its place on the dial, with the planets slotted in among them, so you can see at a glance which midpoints fall together and which planets sit on them.
- Midpoint treeOne planet or angle with every pair whose midpoint falls on it listed beneath, tightest first: all the planetary pictures of one factor gathered in one place.
- Planetary pictureThree or more factors tied together by midpoint arithmetic, most often a planet on the midpoint of two others, written A/B = C.
Antiscia
- AntiscionThe mirror image of a degree across the axis 0° Cancer – 0° Capricorn: the degree where the Sun gives the same length of day. A planet on another's antiscion is joined to it as if by an aspect.
- Commanding and obeying signsPairs of signs the same distance from an equinox, which take equal times to rise. In Ptolemy's usage the northern (summer) sign of each pair commands and the southern (winter) sign obeys.
- Contra-antiscionThe mirror image of a degree across the axis 0° Aries – 0° Libra, which is also the point opposite its antiscion. Lilly likened it to a square or opposition; earlier authors saw a bond of sympathy.
- Equinox axisThe line through 0° Aries and 0° Libra, where the Sun crosses the celestial equator. It is the mirror for contra-antiscia: degrees equally far from it have equal and opposite declination.
- Signs of equal powerPtolemy's name for pairs of signs the same distance from a solstice. While the Sun is in either one, days and nights have the same length, and both rise and set at the same points on the horizon.
- Solstice axisThe line through 0° Cancer and 0° Capricorn, where the Sun reaches its farthest north and south. It is the mirror for antiscia: degrees equally far from it give the same length of day.
Declination
- DeclinationHow far a planet or point lies north or south of the celestial equator, measured in degrees: the sky's version of latitude on Earth. The Sun's declination swings about 23°26′ either side of zero over the year.
- Lunar standstillThe two ends of the Moon's 18.6-year cycle in declination. At a major standstill the Moon swings to about 28°43′ north and south each month, far beyond the Sun; at a minor standstill only to about 18° either side.
- Obliquity of the eclipticThe angle between the ecliptic (the Sun's yearly path) and the celestial equator, the tilt of the Earth's axis: about 23°26′ today and very slowly getting smaller. It is the Sun's greatest declination.
- Out of boundsA planet is out of bounds when its declination is greater than the Sun's greatest declination (about 23°26′): it goes farther north or south than the Sun ever does. The Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars do this often.
Relationship charts
- Combined midpointThe point halfway between one person's planet and the other person's, such as his Sun and her Moon. The composite chart is made of these for like planets; a planet of either person on one ties all three together.
- Composite chartOne chart made from two: each planet is placed at the midpoint of its positions in the two birth charts, and the chart is read as the chart of the relationship itself.
- Contact cosmogramReinhold Ebertin's way of comparing two charts: both people's factors on concentric 90° dials, read for near-exact contacts and for each person's factors on the other's midpoints.
- Davison chartA real chart for a relationship, cast for the moment halfway between two births and the place halfway between the two birthplaces.
- House overlayOne person's planets placed in the other person's houses, to show which areas of the other's life they touch. It needs the birth time of the person whose houses are used.
- Inter-aspectAn aspect between a planet in one person's chart and a planet in another's, such as one person's Sun square the other's Mercury. The main material of synastry.
- SynastryComparing two people's birth charts to see how they meet: the aspects between their planets, where each person's planets fall in the other's houses, and charts made for the pair.