Detriment

Meaning

A planet is in detriment when it occupies the sign opposite one of its own signs. If domicile is being at home, detriment is being as far from home as possible, in a place arranged for the opposite kind of planet. The planet can still act, but not easily in its own way: its expression is strained, contrary or awkward, and it may produce its significations in a damaged form.

Detriment is the counterpart of domicile, just as fall is the counterpart of exaltation. It is the heaviest of the essential debilities in most scoring schemes.

The English word comes from Latin detrimentum, "loss" or "damage". The Arabic term, recorded by al-Biruni, is wabāl, often translated "harm" or "evil consequence"; he also gives the Persian equivalent [2]. Some modern writers prefer the word exile.

Origin and history

The idea follows directly from the scheme of rulerships. Ptolemy built the domiciles out of a solar half and a lunar half of the zodiac and gave Saturn the two signs opposite the lights [1]; the opposition between a planet's sign and the sign facing it is built into the design. But Ptolemy, who explains the domiciles, triangles and exaltations at length, gives no separate account of detriment [1], and modern historians disagree about how far the idea was developed as a named debility before the medieval period.

By the Arabic period it is explicit. Al-Biruni states that the signs opposite the domiciles are called the planets' detriments, and adds that the Indian astrologers, though recognising the domiciles, did not use this expression [2]. In his discussion of dignity he describes a planet in its detriment or fall as suffering calamity on top of being a stranger in its place [2]. Lilly includes detriment in his table of essential dignities alongside fall, and scores it at −5, the exact reverse of domicile [3].

How it is used

Detriments of the seven classical planets

Where modern rulerships are used, Uranus is in detriment in Leo, Neptune in Virgo and Pluto in Taurus, the signs opposite their modern domiciles. These are modern conventions and have no traditional basis.

Points. Lilly scores detriment −5 [3], and this site does the same.

Detriment is not the same as peregrine. A planet in detriment may still hold other dignities in the same place. The Moon in Capricorn is in detriment but, in a night chart, is also ruler of the earth triplicity; Venus in Aries is in detriment but rules the third face of Aries. The site shows both the debility and any dignity, and adds their points. If a planet in detriment has no dignity at all there, it is also peregrine; see that entry for the disagreement over whether peregrine and detriment can overlap.

Reading detriment. Traditional astrologers read detriment as a planet acting against its own nature or against the interests of what it signifies: Mars in Libra having to fight by negotiation, Venus in Scorpio loving under strain, Saturn in Cancer trying to build order in a place of feeling and nurture. Modern astrologers often stress that detriment does not make a planet "bad"; it means that the planet's strengths have to be won in unfamiliar terms. Both readings agree that the planet is less at ease than it would be in a neutral sign.

Reception can help. A planet in detriment is a guest in the house of the planet that rules the sign. If that ruler aspects it, or is in mutual reception with it, the difficulty is eased; see reception.

Examples

• The Sun in Aquarius: detriment (−5). The Sun, which rules Leo, stands in the sign ruled by Saturn, its opposite in nature. It has no triplicity in air, no terms, and no face in Aquarius, so it is also without any dignity there.
• Mercury in Pisces: detriment (−5) and fall (−4) together, −9 before any term or face.
• Mars in Taurus, day chart: detriment (−5). If Mars is at 27°–30° Taurus it is in its own Egyptian term (+2), leaving a net −3.
• Jupiter in Virgo: detriment (−5), but Jupiter holds the Egyptian term at 17°–21° Virgo (+2).
• Saturn in Leo at 15°: detriment (−5), but 11°–18° Leo is Saturn's Egyptian term (+2).