Reception

Meaning

Reception describes a relationship between two planets through the signs they occupy. Every sign has an owner: the planet whose domicile it is, and also planets with lesser rights there (exaltation, triplicity, term and face). When a planet stands in a place that belongs to another planet, the owner is its host. If the host takes the visitor in, the host is said to receive it.

The image is hospitality. A guest in a stranger's house depends on the owner's goodwill. If the owner welcomes the guest, the guest is looked after; if the owner ignores or dislikes the guest, the guest is on its own. In astrology, reception tends to soften difficulties between two planets and to make co-operation between them easier.

The Greek word is hupodochē, "reception" or "welcome" (from hupodechesthai, to receive a guest). The Arabic is qubūl, "acceptance". The Latin receptio passed into English.

Origin and history

Reception is old, but its definition changed over time, and the change matters.

Hellenistic reception. In the Greek material that survives, notably the introduction attributed to Porphyry, reception involves two things at once: a planet is in a sign belonging to another planet, and that owner is configured to it, by being in the same sign or by casting an aspect [1]. The host must be able to see the guest. Brennan argues that this is the core of the Hellenistic concept: the domicile lord's ability to look after the planets in its signs depends on its being in contact with them [2]. (The chapter numbers in Holden's Porphyry and the pages in Brennan have not been checked for this article.)

Medieval reception. In the Arabic tradition reception became part of a larger doctrine of how planets "apply" to each other and pass on (or "push") their significations. Sahl ibn Bishr and Abū Maʿshar define reception in terms of an applying planet: when one planet applies by aspect or conjunction to another, and the applying planet is in a dignity of the one it applies to, the second planet receives it [3] [5]. Al-Bīrūnī gives the same picture: the faster planet, which makes the application, arrives in one of the dignities of the slower one and "makes known" the relation, and the two exchange courtesies [4]. Here any of the five dignities can count, though domicile and exaltation count most. Dykes explains this medieval framework and its terms at length [5].

Lilly and later. By the seventeenth century the aspect requirement was often dropped in practice. Lilly defines reception as two significators each being in the other's dignity, gives reception by house as the strongest kind, and says it can also be by triplicity, term or face [6]. As Houlding notes, this is more exactly a definition of mutual reception [7]. Modern astrologers mostly use "reception" in this static sense, and often only by domicile.

How it is used

Reception answers the question: will the planet whose territory this is help the planet that is in it?

In horary and in electional work, reception between the significators is one of the main signs that a matter can be completed, even when the aspect between them is difficult. Lilly says that mutual reception between the principal significators can bring a thing to pass even where the aspects deny it or there is no aspect at all [6]. In natal work it shows which planets support each other and which are dependent on hosts that cannot see them.

Where authorities differ.

• Is an aspect required? The Hellenistic and medieval traditions say yes, in different ways [1] [3]. Modern practice usually says no.
• Which dignities count? Medieval authors accept all five, with domicile and exaltation weightiest [3] [4]. Many modern authors accept only domicile, sometimes exaltation.
• Who receives whom? In the medieval doctrine the direction matters: the planet being applied to is the one that receives [3] [4]. In casual modern use it is often treated as symmetrical.

On this site, reception is shown in each planet's detail as a relationship. Only mutual reception by domicile (+5) or by exaltation (+4) adds points to the score; one-way reception and reception by the lesser dignities are described but not scored.

Examples

• Venus is in Aries, Mars's sign. Mars is in Leo, trine Venus. On the older definitions Mars receives Venus: he is her host and he sees her. If Mars were in Taurus instead, he would be in the sign next door and have no aspect to her: Venus is in his house but he cannot see her, so in the Hellenistic and medieval sense there is no reception.
• The Moon at 5° Cancer applies by sextile to Jupiter at 8° Taurus. Cancer is Jupiter's exaltation, so in the medieval sense Jupiter receives her by exaltation.
• Mars in Leo (the Sun's domicile) and the Sun in Capricorn (Mars's exaltation): each is in a dignity of the other, which is mutual reception, though "mixed" rather than like for like.

See also

For planets that exchange signs, see mutual reception. A planet that has no dignity of its own where it stands, and so depends heavily on its host, is peregrine.