Domicile

Meaning

A planet is in its domicile when it occupies a sign that it rules. Each of the twelve signs has one ruling planet, and the planet in its own sign is compared to someone at home: in charge of the house, using its own resources, and acting freely according to its own nature. It is the strongest of the five essential dignities.

The same relationship works in the other direction. The planet that rules a sign is called that sign's ruler or lord, and every planet in the sign is said to be in that lord's house. This is the basis of reception: a planet in Aries is a guest in the house of Mars, and Mars is its host.

The word domicile comes from Latin domicilium, a dwelling. The Greek authors called it the planet's oikos, "house"; the Arabic authors bayt, also "house"; and medieval Latin domus. In older English, including Lilly, a planet's "house" means its sign of rulership [5]. Modern writers usually say domicile or rulership to avoid confusion with the twelve houses of the chart.

Origin and history

The scheme of rulerships is fully formed in the earliest Greek-language manuals. Dorotheus gives it in his first chapter [2], and Valens opens his description of each sign by naming its ruler ("Aries is the house of Mars…") [3].

Ptolemy explains the pattern [1]. Cancer and Leo, the signs the Sun passes through in the hottest season, go to the two lights: Leo to the Sun, Cancer to the Moon. The zodiac is then split into a solar half (Leo to Capricorn) and a lunar half (Aquarius to Cancer). Each of the other five planets receives one sign in each half, in order of their distance from the Earth outwards: Mercury takes the signs next to the lights (Virgo and Gemini), then Venus (Libra and Taurus), Mars (Scorpio and Aries), Jupiter (Sagittarius and Pisces) and Saturn, the slowest and coldest, the signs opposite the lights (Capricorn and Aquarius). Ptolemy also ties the arrangement to the aspects: Saturn's signs oppose the lights, Jupiter's are in trine with them, Mars's in square, Venus's in sextile [1]. Al-Biruni gives the same explanation with a diagram of the two halves [4].

A related tradition presents the rulerships through the thema mundi, the "birth chart of the world". Firmicus Maternus (4th century CE), who attributes it to Nechepso and Petosiris, places Cancer rising with the Moon at 15° Cancer, the Sun at 15° Leo, and each of the other planets at 15° of one of its own signs: Mercury in Virgo, Venus in Libra, Mars in Scorpio, Jupiter in Sagittarius and Saturn in Capricorn [6].

Dorotheus adds that a planet with two signs rejoices more in one of them: Saturn in Aquarius, Jupiter in Sagittarius, Mars in Scorpio, Venus in Taurus and Mercury in Virgo [2]. Al-Biruni gives the same list with one difference: Mars prefers Aries. He also reports an Indian scheme in which each of the seven planets has a favoured sign, among them the Moon in Taurus and Venus in Libra [4].

How it is used

Domicile rulers of the twelve signs

The sign opposite a domicile is the planet's detriment.

Points. In Lilly's table a planet in its own house receives 5 points, the largest single dignity [5]. This site uses the same value (+5).

Domicile rulers in interpretation. Beyond strength, the domicile lord is the most important link in chart reading. The ruler of the Ascendant sign represents the native; the ruler of the sign on any house cusp governs the affairs of that house; and a planet's dispositor (the ruler of the sign it occupies) shows what it depends on. Lilly's horary method rests on this chain of rulers [5].

Outer planets. Uranus (discovered 1781), Neptune (1846) and Pluto (1930) have no place in the traditional scheme. Many modern astrologers assign them as rulers or co-rulers of Aquarius, Pisces and Scorpio, keeping Saturn, Jupiter and Mars as the older rulers. Practice varies:

• Traditional astrologers use only the seven classical rulers.
• Many modern astrologers use the outer planets as the main rulers of those three signs.
• Others treat them as co-rulers alongside the traditional lords.

The reasoning behind these modern assignments is analogical (for example, Uranus with the independence associated with Aquarius) rather than derived from Ptolemy's geometric scheme. This article does not trace who first proposed them. On this site the classical rulers are used by default; outer-planet rulerships appear only under the modern co-ruler option.

Examples

• Saturn in Capricorn is in its own house: serious, structured and effective, working with its own tools. The same holds for Saturn in Aquarius, the sign Dorotheus and al-Biruni both name as Saturn's favourite [2][4].
• Venus in Libra or Venus in Taurus is in domicile. Venus in Taurus is the one she "rejoices" in, according to Dorotheus [2].
• The Moon in Cancer is at home; the Moon has only this one sign.
• Mars in Aquarius is not in domicile. Saturn rules Aquarius, so Mars is Saturn's guest there: its affairs depend on Saturn's condition.
• Lilly's image. Lilly describes a significator in its own house as someone who is lord of his own house, estate and fortune and wants for little, unless the planet is retrograde, combust or afflicted by a malefic [5].