Exaltation

Meaning

Each of the seven classical planets has one sign of exaltation, where it is lifted up and honoured. If domicile is being at home, exaltation is being an honoured guest: the planet may not own the house, but it is treated with great respect and its good qualities are shown at their best. In most traditional scoring schemes it is the second-strongest dignity after domicile.

The sign opposite the exaltation is the planet's fall, where it is brought low.

The Greek word is hupsoma (often written hypsoma), "height" or "elevation"; the Arabic is sharaf, "honour" or "nobility"; the Latin exaltatio. Al-Biruni compares the exaltations to the thrones of kings and other high positions [3].

Origin and history

The exaltations are older than the Greek horoscopic tradition. Since the early twentieth century historians have recognised that the exaltation signs correspond to the Mesopotamian "places" and "houses of secrecy" (ašar niṣirti, bīt niṣirti), which are attested in cuneiform sources well before the Greek texts. A recent study argues that the exaltation degrees also come from Babylonian astronomy: most match the positions of reference stars (the "Normal Stars") in those signs, the Sun's being the exception [5].

In the Greek texts the scheme is already fixed. Dorotheus lists each planet's exaltation (its "ascent") with a specific degree, and adds that the planet's "descent" is the place opposite [2]. Ptolemy gives the same signs, but without degrees, and explains them through the seasons and the natures of the planets [1]:

• the Sun is exalted in Aries because there the days begin to lengthen and its heat grows, and it falls in Libra where they shorten;
• Saturn, cold, is exalted in Libra, where the Sun falls, and falls in Aries;
• the Moon is exalted in Taurus, the first sign of her own triangle after the Sun's exaltation, where she first shows her light after the New Moon in Aries;
• Jupiter, bringer of fertile north winds, is exalted in Cancer and falls in Capricorn;
• Mars, hot by nature, is exalted in Capricorn, the coldest part of the year, and falls in Cancer;
• Venus, moist, is exalted in Pisces where the moist spring begins, and falls in Virgo;
• Mercury, drier by nature, is exalted in Virgo and falls in Pisces.

Al-Biruni reports that there was no disagreement about the signs but plenty about the degrees: some held the exaltation lay only at the exact degree, some a few degrees either side of it, some from the start of the sign to that degree, and others that it covered the whole sign [3]. He records that the Indian astrologers placed the Sun's exaltation at 10° Aries, Jupiter's at 5° Cancer and Saturn's at 20° Libra [3]. He also gives exaltations for the Moon's nodes (3° Gemini for the North Node, 3° Sagittarius for the South Node), a later addition not found in Ptolemy [3].

How it is used

Exaltations and falls, with the traditional degrees (Dorotheus [2], al-Biruni [3]; Dorotheus does not give the Nodes)

The Nodes' exaltations are medieval and not used by all astrologers. A few ancient sources give Saturn's degree as 20° Libra rather than 21° [5]. Note that Mercury is the only planet exalted in one of its own domiciles (Virgo), and so it falls in a sign where it is also in detriment (Pisces).

Whole sign or exact degree? Lilly settles it for scoring purposes: a planet anywhere in its sign of exaltation receives 4 points, whether or not it is at the exact degree [4]. The degree is still used where precision matters: some astrologers treat a planet close to its exalted degree as especially strong, and the degrees are used when calculating the degree-by-degree degree rulers and the almuten of a place. This site scores exaltation by sign (+4).

Interpretation. Lilly observed that an exalted significator, if unafflicted and angular, describes someone of haughty, arrogant condition, claiming more than is due [4]. Exaltation shows a planet raised up and given a platform, sometimes more than it can sustain. Some modern authors describe the exaltation as showing a planet at its most idealised.

Outer planets. There is no traditional basis for exaltations of Uranus, Neptune or Pluto. Modern authors have proposed several, but the proposals conflict and none is generally accepted. This site does not score exaltations for the outer planets.

Examples

• The Sun at 19° Aries is at the exact degree of its exaltation: the classic image of the spring Sun gaining strength.
• The Moon in Taurus is exalted; a Taurus Moon is traditionally steady, fertile and well-supplied.
• Saturn in Libra is exalted. Saturn's traits of order and restraint find their most dignified form in the sign of balance and just measure.
• Venus in Pisces is exalted, while Venus in Virgo is in fall.
• Mutual reception by exaltation. The Sun in Capricorn and Mars in Aries each stand in the other's exaltation. Some astrologers count this as a reception, though weaker than one by domicile; see mutual reception.