Essential dignity

Meaning

Essential dignity describes how well a planet is placed by its position in the zodiac alone: which sign it is in and, within that sign, which degree. It is called essential because it concerns the planet's own nature meeting the nature of the place. What happens to the planet in a particular chart (its house, its speed, its distance from the Sun) is a separate matter, called accidental dignity.

Tradition recognises five dignities, from strongest to weakest:

1. Domicile: the planet is in a sign it rules.
2. Exaltation: the planet is in the sign where it is especially honoured.
3. Triplicity: the planet rules the element of the sign, by day or by night.
4. Term (or bound): the planet rules the small, unequal slice of the sign that it occupies.
5. Face (or decan): the planet rules the ten-degree third of the sign that it occupies.

There are two matching debilities: detriment, the sign opposite a domicile, and fall, the sign opposite an exaltation. A planet with none of the five dignities where it stands is called peregrine, a wanderer.

An old comparison helps: in its domicile a planet is the householder; in exaltation, an honoured guest; in triplicity, among family; in its term or face, someone with a small foothold; peregrine, a stranger. The comparison is a modern teaching aid, but Lilly gives a similar human picture for each dignity: a planet in its own house is like a man master of his own estate; one with nothing but its face is like a man about to be turned out of doors [5].

Origin and history

The dignities were not invented as a single system. They grew up separately and were gathered together over several centuries.

• Domiciles, exaltations and triplicities are already fully set out in the earliest detailed Greek-language manuals. Dorotheus of Sidon (1st century CE) opens his book on nativities with the triplicities and the houses of the planets, followed by the exaltations with their degrees [2].
• Terms appear in Vettius Valens (2nd century CE), who lists the "Egyptian" terms and describes the character of each one [3]. Ptolemy gives the same Egyptian table, criticises its logic, and offers alternatives [1].
• Faces derive from the Egyptian decans, the 36 star groups used to tell the hours of the night. The version with planetary rulers in the Chaldean order became the standard fifth dignity in the Arabic and Latin traditions [4].

The Greek authors weighed these rulerships against one another. Ptolemy, for example, finds the ruler of a degree by counting in how many of five ways (triplicity, house, exaltation, term, and phase or aspect) each planet is related to it, and prefers the one related in all or most of them [1]. But the Greek texts cited here give every kind of rulership the same weight; a graded scale of points appears in the medieval Arabic writers. Al-Biruni (1029) treats "testimony" and "dignity" as two names for the same thing: the favourable standing a planet has in its place [4]. He gives an order of precedence (house, then exaltation, then term, then triplicity, then face) and a scale of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points in that order [4]. He also reports a quite different weighting, used by astrologers of Babylon and Persia, that valued the face highly, and adds that the astrologers of his own day tended to put triplicity ahead of term and often ignored the face altogether [4].

William Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647) passed the system into English. Lilly ranks the dignities domicile, exaltation, triplicity, term, face, and gives the familiar scores of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1, with −5 for detriment and −4 for fall [5]. He follows Ptolemy's terms and Ptolemy's version of the triplicities, remarking that the Greeks and the Christian astrologers of Europe had followed Ptolemy since his time, while the Moors of Barbary and those of their nation who had lived in Spain still differed somewhat [5]. Lilly's table lies behind most scoring schemes in use today, including the one on this site.

How it is used

The five dignities and the two debilities at a glance (classical seven planets):

Triplicity, term and face depend on the element of the sign and on the exact degree, so they have their own tables; see triplicity, term and face.

Point values used on this site (after Lilly [5]):

A planet can hold several dignities at once, and the points are added. It can also hold a dignity and a debility together (for example, a face in its sign of detriment).

Why it matters. Essential dignity describes the quality of what a planet can deliver; accidental dignity, how much opportunity it has to act. A well-dignified planet in a weak house is capable but hindered; a debilitated planet on an angle is prominent but awkward.

Points of disagreement.

• Which terms? Ptolemy [1] and Lilly [5] use Ptolemy's own terms; Valens [3] and, according to al-Biruni, most working astrologers of his day [4] use the Egyptian terms. This site uses the Egyptian terms.
• Which triplicity rulers? Dorotheus gives three rulers to every element [2]; Ptolemy gives a different arrangement for the water signs [1]. This site uses Dorotheus's day and night rulers.
• How to weigh them. Al-Biruni's scale ranks term above triplicity; Lilly's ranks triplicity above term [4][5]. Graded point totals are a later, medieval refinement, not a doctrine of the earliest texts.
• Peregrine. Lilly deducts 5 points for a peregrine planet [5]; this site gives it 0 (see peregrine).
• Outer planets. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were unknown to the tradition and have no terms, triplicities or faces. Modern astrologers often give them domiciles (Aquarius, Pisces and Scorpio) but there is no agreement on their exaltations. See domicile.

Examples

• The Sun at 20° Aries in a day chart. Aries is the Sun's exaltation (+4). Aries is a fire sign, and the Sun rules fire by day (+3). In the Egyptian terms, 20°–25° Aries belongs to Mars, so no term. The second face of Aries (10°–20°) belongs to the Sun, but 20° falls in the third face, which is Venus's. Total: +7.
• The same Sun in a night chart. Jupiter rules fire by night, so the triplicity is lost and the total drops to +4. Lilly works through this very case: the Sun in Aries at night keeps its four points for exaltation but gets nothing for triplicity [5].
• Mercury at 5° Pisces. Pisces is both Mercury's detriment (−5) and its fall (−4). The first Egyptian term of Pisces belongs to Venus and the first face to Saturn, so there is nothing to offset it: −9, one of the weakest essential placements in the scheme.
• Jupiter in Aquarius. Jupiter neither rules nor is exalted in Aquarius, is not a day or night ruler of air, and (depending on degree) may have no term or face there. If so, it is peregrine.

See also

Dignity score combines essential and accidental conditions; degree rulers lists the planets that rule a planet's exact degree.