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Planets in the Signs
How to read this
A birth chart is seven of these, chosen by where the planets stood when you were born. This is the whole table: every classical planet in every sign, written here rather than licensed, and read the traditional way.
Each entry names the classical dignity first — domicile, exaltation, detriment, fall, or peregrine, which means none — because that is the part you can look up. Ptolemy's table has not changed in eighteen centuries, and where modern astrologers disagree with it the entry says so rather than picking a side.
None of it describes a person. An entry describes where a planet was and what has been written about that; which entries are yours is a matter of the date, and the chart page will tell you.
To find your seven: Calculate your birth chart
The Sun
Domicile in Leo — the one planet given a single house rather than two — exalted in Aries, in detriment in Aquarius and in fall in Libra. The tradition reads the Sun as the light itself: where it stands is where a chart is lit from.
The Sun in Aries
Exaltation — the Sun's strongest placement after its own sign.
Ptolemy puts the Sun's exaltation at the nineteenth degree of Aries, and the reason given is seasonal rather than mystical: this is where the light begins visibly winning in the northern year. Aries is cardinal fire and Mars's own sign, so the tradition reads the combination as beginning rather than continuing — the appetite for a start, with less written about what happens after it. It is a dignity of vigour, and the older texts are careful to say vigour is not the same as judgement.
The Sun in Taurus
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Fixed earth, ruled by Venus, and the part of spring where growth stops being news and starts being work. Tradition reads a Sun here through Venus rather than through itself: the light lodged in what can be touched, kept and returned to. The classical texts give it no formal dignity, which they treat as unremarkable rather than unfortunate — most planets are peregrine in most signs.
The Sun in Gemini
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mutable air, Mercury's sign, and the tradition's usual image for it is the pair rather than the individual — twins, two hands, the letter and its reply. A Sun here is read through Mercury: identity expressed in what is said and carried rather than in what is held. The old writers note the doubling more than they judge it.
The Sun in Cancer
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Cardinal water and the Moon's own sign, beginning at the June solstice — the exact turn of the year, which is why tradition ties it to the threshold and the door. A Sun in the Moon's house is read as light kept somewhere rather than shown: the hearth rather than the beacon. Sources differ on whether that is a softening of the Sun or simply a different setting for it.
The Sun in Leo
Domicile — the Sun's own sign, its strongest placement of all.
The Sun rules Leo and only Leo; unlike every other planet it was given one house rather than two, and the texts treat that singularity as the point. Fixed fire in the height of summer, where the light is neither arriving nor leaving but simply at its full. Tradition reads a planet in its own domicile as being at home — able to act as itself without translating through another ruler — which is a statement about condition, not about character.
The Sun in Virgo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mutable earth, Mercury's other sign, and the harvest: the point of the year when the work is sorting what grew. Tradition reads a Sun here through the accounting rather than the sowing — attention paid to the particular, and to the difference between nearly right and right. Virgo is also where Mercury is both ruler and exalted, which is unusual, so a Sun here sits in a sign the tradition regards as unusually Mercury's own.
The Sun in Libra
Fall — the sign opposite the Sun's exaltation.
The Sun's fall is in Libra by simple opposition: Aries is the exaltation, so the sign across from it is the fall. Again the reason is seasonal — the September equinox, where the light stops winning and begins to give way. Modern astrologers argue about whether a fall is a weakness at all or only a placement asked to work through something other than itself; the classical texts are blunter about it than most people writing now are, and the disagreement is worth knowing about rather than being handed one side of it.
The Sun in Scorpio
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Fixed water, Mars's night house in the older scheme and Pluto's in the modern one, at the point of the year turning decisively toward the dark. Tradition associates the sign with what is beneath rather than upon the surface, and reads a Sun here as light in a place that does not readily show it. Which ruler is taken changes the reading, and astrologers have not settled it — the traditional Mars and the modern Pluto give different pictures.
The Sun in Sagittarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mutable fire, Jupiter's day house, and the archer — the sign the tradition ties to distance, to travel and to the pursuit of a thing rather than the holding of it. A Sun here is read through Jupiter: expansion, and the older texts' particular association of Jupiter with law, belief and the making of meaning. It is the last of the fire signs and the one furthest from where fire began.
The Sun in Capricorn
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Cardinal earth, Saturn's day house, beginning at the December solstice — the longest night, and the exact moment the light turns back. Tradition reads a Sun here through Saturn: structure, limit and time, and the long slow climb the sign's goat is usually drawn making. That it begins at the darkest point and moves toward light is the detail the old texts return to.
The Sun in Aquarius
Detriment — the sign opposite the Sun's own.
A planet is in detriment in the sign opposite its domicile, so the Sun's detriment is Aquarius, across from Leo. Fixed air, Saturn's night house traditionally and Uranus's in modern practice — the water-bearer, which tradition is careful to note is the vessel that carries rather than the water. The classical reading is of the Sun somewhere it cannot simply be itself; whether that is a difficulty or a redirection is one of the places modern and traditional astrology part company.
The Sun in Pisces
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mutable water, Jupiter's night house, and the last sign — the close of the zodiacal year, which is why tradition associates it with dissolving edges rather than drawing them. A Sun here is read through Jupiter in its watery house, and the sign's usual images are tidal: the sea, the dream, the thing without a firm boundary. It is also Venus's exaltation, so the sign carries more dignity than a Sun in it does.
The Moon
Domicile in Cancer, exalted in Taurus, in detriment in Capricorn and in fall in Scorpio. The fastest of the seven, changing sign every two and a half days, which is why the older texts treat it as the planet of what shifts rather than what stays.
The Moon in Aries
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The Moon crosses a sign in roughly two and a half days, so of the seven classical planets it is the one a birth time actually moves. In Mars's cardinal fire the tradition reads it through a ruler it shares nothing with — the fast body in the fast sign, immediacy rather than accumulation. Older texts note the pairing more than they rank it; the Moon holds no dignity in Aries either way.
The Moon in Taurus
Exaltation — Ptolemy puts it at the third degree.
Fixed earth, Venus's day house, and the Moon's exaltation at the third degree. The classical logic is straightforward: the Moon governs what is received and kept, and Taurus is the sign the tradition ties to keeping. Writers from Ptolemy onward treat it as the Moon's most settled position — not its strongest, which is Cancer, but its least disturbed.
The Moon in Gemini
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mutable air under Mercury, and the tradition reads a Moon here as the receptive body lodged in the sign of speech and the pair. Nothing is claimed about strength; Gemini gives the Moon no dignity and takes none away. What the older texts do note is the doubling — two of everything is Gemini's oldest image, and the Moon is already the planet of change.
The Moon in Cancer
Domicile — the Moon's own sign.
Cardinal water, ruled by the Moon, and beginning at the June solstice — the exact turn of the solar year, which is why the sign is tied to the threshold. A planet in its own house is described as being at home: able to act without translating through another ruler. For the Moon that means the sign and the planet are saying the same thing, which the texts treat as clarity rather than intensity.
The Moon in Leo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The two lights meet here in a sense — the Moon in the Sun's only house, fixed fire at the height of summer. Tradition has no formal dignity to assign and generally reads the pairing through the Sun's rulership instead. The luminaries are the two bodies every system uses, whatever else it disagrees about, and Leo is the one sign where the Moon is entirely the Sun's guest.
The Moon in Virgo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mercury's mutable earth, and the sign where Mercury is both ruler and exalted — an unusual doubling that makes Virgo more thoroughly Mercury's than any sign is any other planet's. A Moon here is read through that: the receptive body in the sign of sorting and the particular. The harvest is the season's own image, and the older texts make the work of a harvest — discrimination — the sign's whole character.
The Moon in Libra
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Cardinal air, Venus's night house, opening at the September equinox where day and night are equal. Tradition reads a Moon here through Venus and through the scales: the sign is about the point between two things rather than either of them. Saturn is also exalted in Libra, so the sign carries a dignity the Moon in it does not.
The Moon in Scorpio
Fall — the sign opposite the Moon's exaltation.
A fall sits opposite an exaltation, so the Moon's is Scorpio, across from Taurus. Fixed water, Mars's night house traditionally and Pluto's in modern practice. The classical writers are direct about the Moon here and modern ones generally are not, reading it instead as depth rather than difficulty — this is one of the clearest places the two traditions diverge, and the divergence is worth knowing rather than being handed one half of.
The Moon in Sagittarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The archer is the tradition's image of a thing aimed at a distance, and the Moon — the fastest body in the chart — holds no dignity in it. and tradition reads the placement through Jupiter — the classical planet of expansion, and in the older texts of law, belief and the making of meaning. Fast body, far sign, is roughly how the pairing is described.
The Moon in Capricorn
Detriment — the sign opposite the Moon's own.
Detriment is simply the sign across from a planet's house, so the Moon's is Capricorn, opposite Cancer. Cardinal earth under Saturn, beginning at the December solstice — the longest night, and the moment the light turns back. The classical reading is of the Moon somewhere structured against its nature; whether detriment names a weakness or only an unfamiliar setting is argued over now in a way it was not then.
The Moon in Aquarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The water-bearer is the tradition's own careful joke — an air sign named for a vessel of water, and the texts are insistent that the sign is the carrying, not the water. A Moon here is read through Saturn or Uranus depending on which scheme is used, and the two give noticeably different pictures.
The Moon in Pisces
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Jupiter's mutable water and the last sign of the zodiac, where the tradition's images turn tidal: the sea, the dream, the edge that will not hold. Venus is exalted here and Mercury is both in detriment and in fall, so Pisces is a sign of strong opinions about other planets and none at all about the Moon. Its associations are the ones the Moon already carries, which older writers noticed without turning into a dignity.
Mercury
Domicile in Gemini and Virgo, and exalted in Virgo as well — the only planet the tradition makes both ruler and exalted in one sign. Detriment in Sagittarius and Pisces, fall in Pisces. Read as the planet of speech, reckoning and exchange.
Mercury in Aries
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mars's cardinal fire, the first sign, and the start of the astrological year. Mercury holds no dignity here; the tradition reads the placement through Mars instead — the planet of speech and carrying in the sign of the beginning. Mercury never travels far from the Sun, so it can only ever be in the Sun's sign or one either side, which quietly limits which combinations are possible at all.
Mercury in Taurus
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Venus's fixed earth, the settled part of spring. Read through Venus rather than through Mercury, since Mercury has no standing in the sign: the messenger in the sign that keeps things. The old texts give it no rank and spend their attention on the ruler.
Mercury in Gemini
Domicile — Mercury's day house.
Mutable air, and Mercury's own sign. A planet in its domicile is described as at home, acting as itself rather than through another ruler, and Gemini is where the tradition's Mercury — speech, letters, the pair, anything that carries a message — is simply the sign's own character. Mercury rules two signs, and this is the one the older writers call its day house.
Mercury in Cancer
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The Moon's cardinal water, beginning at the June solstice. Mercury has no dignity here and is read through the Moon: the planet of carrying in the sign of the threshold and what is kept behind it. Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, which gives the sign a dignity the classical texts do not extend to this placement.
Mercury in Leo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The Sun's only house, fixed fire at the height of summer. Since Mercury never strays more than about twenty-eight degrees from the Sun, a Mercury in Leo is common in a way most placements are not — it is a near neighbour of every Leo Sun. Tradition assigns it no dignity and reads it through the Sun's rulership.
Mercury in Virgo
Domicile and exaltation — the only sign where one planet holds both.
Mercury rules Virgo and is also exalted in it, at the fifteenth degree. No other planet holds both dignities in the same sign, which makes Virgo more thoroughly Mercury's than any sign belongs to any other planet. Mutable earth and the harvest: the tradition's associations are sorting, the particular, and the difference between nearly right and right. This is the placement the classical texts rate most highly for Mercury, and the reason is arithmetic rather than poetry.
Mercury in Libra
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Venus's cardinal air, opening at the September equinox with day and night equal. Mercury holds nothing here; the reading goes through Venus and through the scales, the sign the tradition ties to the point between two things rather than to either. Saturn is exalted in Libra, so the sign has a dignity to give and does not give it to Mercury.
Mercury in Scorpio
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mercury has no standing in Scorpio — fixed water at the turn of the year toward the dark, Mars's night house in the older scheme and Pluto's in the newer — and which ruler is used changes the reading substantially — the traditional Mars and the modern Pluto describe different things. The Moon's fall is here too, so Scorpio is a sign the tradition treats as difficult for several planets and neutral for this one.
Mercury in Sagittarius
Detriment — the sign opposite Mercury's day house.
Detriment is the sign across from a domicile, so Mercury's are Sagittarius and Pisces, opposite Gemini and Virgo. Jupiter's mutable fire, tied to distance and to the pursuit of meaning — which the older texts contrast directly with Mercury's business of the particular and the near. The classical reading is of the messenger asked to work at a scale it does not naturally use; modern writers are gentler about detriment than the sources are.
Mercury in Capricorn
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Saturn's cardinal earth, opening at the December solstice on the longest night. Mercury holds no dignity and is read through Saturn: structure, limit and time. Mars is exalted in Capricorn, so by the classical reckoning this is another sign with a dignity to give that Mercury does not receive.
Mercury in Aquarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Two rulers compete for Aquarius — Saturn in the older scheme, Uranus in the newer — and Mercury has no dignity under either. The water-bearer carries the water rather than being it, a distinction the tradition keeps insisting on. and the two rulership schemes give different accounts of what the placement means — traditional Saturn and modern Uranus are not describing the same thing.
Mercury in Pisces
Detriment and fall — the only sign where one planet holds both.
Pisces sits opposite Virgo, which is both Mercury's house and its exaltation, so Mercury lands in detriment and in fall at once. No other planet is doubly weakened in a single sign, and it is the exact mirror of what happens to Mercury in Virgo. Jupiter's mutable water, the last sign, where the tradition's images are of edges dissolving — which the classical writers set against Mercury's work of drawing them. Modern astrology reads this far more kindly than the sources do; the disagreement is real and worth naming.
Venus
Domicile in Taurus and Libra, exalted in Pisces, in detriment in Scorpio and Aries and in fall in Virgo. The lesser benefic in the old scheme: what is drawn together, valued and made pleasant.
Venus in Aries
Detriment — the sign opposite Venus's night house.
Aries lies across from Libra, one of Venus's two houses, so it is one of her two detriments. Mars's cardinal fire against the planet the tradition assigns to what is valued and found beautiful — the classical texts frame it as a mismatch of method rather than a fault. The Sun is exalted here, which is worth knowing: a sign can be strong for one planet and awkward for another, and dignity is always about a pairing, never about the sign alone.
Venus in Taurus
Domicile — Venus's night house.
Fixed earth, and Venus's own. The tradition's Taurus is the settled and the sensory — green, copper, things pleasant to touch — and Venus in her own house is described as acting as herself, without translating through another ruler. The Moon is exalted here too, so Taurus carries two dignities at once and the texts treat it as an unusually well-disposed sign.
Venus in Gemini
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mercury's mutable air, the sign of speech and the pair. Venus holds nothing here and the reading runs through Mercury instead: what is valued expressed in what is said and carried. The older writers give the placement no rank at all, which is the ordinary case — most planets are peregrine in most signs.
Venus in Cancer
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Cancer holds Jupiter's exaltation and gives Venus nothing — the Moon's cardinal water, beginning at the June solstice, tied by tradition to the threshold and the hearth. The reading goes through the Moon, and the sign's associations — what is kept, what is sheltered — are ones Venus is often described as sharing without the texts making it formal.
Venus in Leo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Venus never travels more than about forty-seven degrees from the Sun, so a Venus in Leo sits near any Leo Sun by necessity rather than by meaning. Tradition assigns no dignity and reads the placement through the Sun.
Venus in Virgo
Fall — the sign opposite Venus's exaltation.
Venus is exalted in Pisces, so her fall is Virgo, directly across. It is also the sign Mercury both rules and is exalted in, which makes Virgo an unusually strong sign for one planet and the weakest of the twelve for another — a useful demonstration that these rankings describe a relationship, not a quality of the sign. Whether a fall is a real weakness or only an unfamiliar footing is one of the live arguments between traditional and modern practice.
Venus in Libra
Domicile — Venus's day house.
Cardinal air, opening at the September equinox where day and night stand equal, and Venus's second house. The scales are the zodiac's only inanimate sign, and the tradition makes something of that: the sign is about the balance rather than the things being balanced. Saturn is exalted here as well, so Libra is another sign carrying two dignities.
Venus in Scorpio
Detriment — the sign opposite Venus's day house.
Scorpio faces Taurus, Venus's other house, and is therefore her other detriment. Fixed water under Mars traditionally and Pluto in modern practice, at the year's turn toward the dark. The classical reading is of Venus in a sign whose ruler works by a method she does not use; the modern reading, particularly with Pluto substituted, is a different account entirely, and the two are not reconcilable so much as parallel.
Venus in Sagittarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Jupiter's mutable fire, the archer, the sign of distance and pursuit. Venus has no standing and the reading goes through Jupiter — expansion, and in the older texts law, belief and the making of meaning. The placement is unremarkable in the technical sense, which is not the same as uninteresting.
Venus in Capricorn
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Saturn's cardinal earth, beginning at the December solstice. Mars is exalted in Capricorn and Jupiter is in fall, so the sign has strong opinions about other planets and none about Venus. Tradition reads the placement through Saturn: structure, limit, and the long slow climb the sign's goat is drawn making.
Venus in Aquarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Venus holds no dignity in the water-bearer's sign, which is fixed air under Saturn traditionally and Uranus in modern practice. The vessel is not the water, a point the tradition makes repeatedly, and as with every Saturn-or-Uranus sign the reading depends on which scheme is being used — a choice astrologers make differently and do not always announce.
Venus in Pisces
Exaltation — Ptolemy puts it at the twenty-seventh degree.
The last dignity before the zodiac closes is this one: Venus exalted at the twenty-seventh degree of Pisces. Jupiter's mutable water, where the tradition's images are tidal and the edges are the thing that will not hold. It is also where Mercury is doubly weakened, so Pisces is the clearest case in the scheme of a sign being excellent for one planet and worst for another. That is the whole logic of dignity in one sign.
Mars
Domicile in Aries and Scorpio, exalted in Capricorn, in detriment in Libra and Taurus and in fall in Cancer. The lesser malefic: heat, division and effort — which the tradition is careful to call a function rather than a fault.
Mars in Aries
Domicile — Mars's day house.
Cardinal fire, the first sign, and Mars's own. A planet in its domicile is described as at home — acting as itself rather than through another ruler — and Aries is where the tradition's Mars is simply the sign's character. The Sun is exalted here as well, so Aries carries two dignities and the older texts treat it as an unambiguous sign in a way few are.
Mars in Taurus
Detriment — the sign opposite Mars's night house.
Taurus sits across from Scorpio, Mars's other house, and is therefore one of his two detriments. Venus's fixed earth, the settled and the sensory, against the planet the tradition assigns to action and appetite. The Moon is exalted here too — another sign that is generous to one planet and awkward for another, which is the whole point of a system that ranks pairings rather than places.
Mars in Gemini
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mars holds no standing in the sign of speech and the pair — Mercury's mutable air, and the older texts spend little on the combination. it is one of the many placements the tradition simply does not rank, and pretending otherwise would be inventing a status.
Mars in Cancer
Fall — the sign opposite Mars's exaltation.
Mars is exalted in Capricorn, so his fall is Cancer, directly across. The Moon's cardinal water, beginning at the June solstice, tied to the threshold and to what is sheltered behind it. The classical writers are blunt about the pairing and modern ones generally are not, reading it as action turned inward rather than as weakness — one of the places where knowing both readings is more useful than being handed either.
Mars in Leo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Three planets hold three different standings in Leo: it is the Sun's only house, Saturn's detriment, and nothing at all to Mars. Fixed fire at the height of summer, and Leo is a sign the tradition treats as difficult for one planet, neutral for this one, and home for a third. The reading runs through the Sun's rulership.
Mars in Virgo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mercury's mutable earth, the sign Mercury both rules and is exalted in, and the harvest. Mars has no standing at all. Venus's fall is here and Jupiter's detriment, which leaves the tradition with pronounced views about three planets and nothing to say about this one.
Mars in Libra
Detriment — the sign opposite Mars's day house.
Libra faces Aries and is therefore Mars's other detriment. Venus's cardinal air, opening at the September equinox with day and night equal — the scales, which the tradition reads as being about the balance rather than either thing weighed. Saturn is exalted here, so the sign is at once the strongest available to one planet and among the weakest for another.
Mars in Scorpio
Domicile — Mars's night house in the traditional scheme.
Fixed water and Mars's second house in the older scheme; modern practice gives Scorpio to Pluto instead, which is the single most consequential disagreement in the whole rulership question. Under Mars the placement is a domicile and the planet is at home. Under Pluto it is not a domicile at all. Both readings are in wide use, and the honest thing is to say which one is being applied rather than to let a reader assume there is only one.
Mars in Sagittarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Fire meeting fire is the one thing the older writers note about Mars here; the sign gives him no dignity, and the reading goes through Jupiter instead. Mutable fire, the archer, distance and pursuit — the sign and the planet share an element without the tradition turning that into a rank.
Mars in Capricorn
Exaltation — Ptolemy puts it at the twenty-eighth degree.
Of the seven classical planets it is Mars the texts place best in Saturn's day house — exalted at the twenty-eighth degree of Capricorn, cardinal earth beginning at the December solstice on the longest night. The classical account pairs the planet of action with the sign of structure and limit and calls the result the most effective version of Mars available — vigour with something to push against. Jupiter is in fall in the same sign, which is the usual reminder that dignity describes a pairing.
Mars in Aquarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The Sun is in detriment in Aquarius and Mars holds no dignity at all — fixed air, Saturn's house in the older scheme and Uranus's in the newer, and the water-bearer is the vessel rather than the water. Which of the two rulers is used changes the reading, and the schemes are not interchangeable.
Mars in Pisces
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Jupiter's mutable water, the last sign, where the tradition's images are of edges dissolving. Mars holds no standing. Venus is exalted here and Mercury doubly weakened, so Pisces has the widest spread of opinion of any sign in the scheme — and nothing at all to say about Mars.
Jupiter
Domicile in Sagittarius and Pisces, exalted in Cancer, in detriment in Gemini and Virgo and in fall in Capricorn. The greater benefic: increase, and the older texts' particular association with law, belief and the making of meaning.
Jupiter in Aries
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mars's cardinal fire and the Sun's exaltation. Jupiter holds nothing here and the classical reading runs through Mars instead. Jupiter spends about a year in each sign, so this placement is shared with roughly everyone born in the same twelve months — closer to a cohort than the inner planets, though nothing like the seven-to-twenty years of the slow three.
Jupiter in Taurus
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The Moon's exaltation sits in Taurus and Jupiter's does not. Venus's fixed earth, the settled part of spring, and the tradition reads the placement through Venus: the classical planet of expansion in the sign that keeps things. The older texts do not rank the pairing.
Jupiter in Gemini
Detriment — the sign opposite Jupiter's night house.
Gemini faces Sagittarius, one of Jupiter's two houses, and is one of his two detriments. Mercury's mutable air, the sign of the near and the particular, against the planet the tradition associates with scale, law and the making of meaning. The classical framing is a mismatch of range rather than a fault, and modern writers treat detriment far more gently than the sources do.
Jupiter in Cancer
Exaltation — Ptolemy puts it at the fifteenth degree.
Jupiter is exalted in Cancer at the fifteenth degree: the Moon's cardinal water, beginning at the June solstice, the sign of the threshold and what is sheltered. The classical reading pairs the largest of the visible planets with the sign of keeping, and rates it the most benign position Jupiter can hold short of its own houses. Mars is in fall in the same sign, as usual pointing out that these are rankings of pairs.
Jupiter in Leo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Saturn is in detriment in Leo and Jupiter is simply a guest: the Sun's only house, fixed fire at the height of summer, and no dignity on offer for either. The reading runs through the Sun's rulership, and the tradition treats the two — Jupiter and the Sun — as broadly compatible without making that formal.
Jupiter in Virgo
Detriment — the sign opposite Jupiter's day house.
Virgo lies across from Pisces, Jupiter's other house, and is his other detriment. It is also the sign Mercury both rules and is exalted in, and the sign of Venus's fall — a remarkable concentration of dignity and its opposite in one place. The classical account sets Jupiter's scale against Virgo's particularity and reads the planet as working against the grain of the sign.
Jupiter in Libra
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Venus's cardinal air, the September equinox, the scales. Jupiter has no standing and Saturn's exaltation is here instead. Tradition reads the placement through Venus, and generally regards Jupiter and Venus — the two the older texts call benefics — as an easy pairing without assigning it a rank.
Jupiter in Scorpio
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The Moon falls here and Jupiter holds nothing: fixed water at the year's turn toward the dark, under Mars in the traditional scheme and Pluto in the modern one. Which ruler is used changes the account substantially, and this is the sign where the traditional and modern schemes disagree most.
Jupiter in Sagittarius
Domicile — Jupiter's day house.
Mutable fire, the archer, and Jupiter's own. In its domicile a planet is described as at home — able to act as itself rather than through another ruler — and Sagittarius is where the tradition's Jupiter, expansion and distance and the pursuit of meaning, is simply what the sign already is. The last of the fire signs and the furthest from where fire began.
Jupiter in Capricorn
Fall — the sign opposite Jupiter's exaltation.
Capricorn lies directly across from Cancer, where Jupiter is exalted, and is therefore his fall. Saturn's cardinal earth, the December solstice, the longest night. Mars is exalted in the same sign, which is the sharpest illustration in the scheme of a sign being the best available position for one planet and the worst for another. Modern astrology argues about whether a fall is a weakness at all; the classical texts do not.
Jupiter in Aquarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Nothing here for Jupiter, and detriment for the Sun. Fixed air, ruled by Saturn or by Uranus depending on the scheme, and the tradition insists the water-bearer is the vessel and not the water. The water-bearer carries the water rather than being it, which the tradition keeps insisting on, and the two rulership schemes describe the sign differently enough that saying which is in use is not pedantry.
Jupiter in Pisces
Domicile — Jupiter's night house.
Mutable water, the last sign, and Jupiter's second house. The zodiac's closing sign, where the tradition's images are tidal and the edges dissolve. Venus is exalted here and Mercury doubly weakened, so Jupiter shares his own house with the strongest and the weakest positions two other planets can hold — the widest spread of dignity anywhere in the scheme.
Saturn
Domicile in Capricorn and Aquarius, exalted in Libra, in detriment in Cancer and Leo and in fall in Aries. The greater malefic and the slowest of the seven: limit, structure and time, and the farthest planet the old astronomers could see.
Saturn in Aries
Fall — the sign opposite Saturn's exaltation.
Saturn is exalted in Libra, so his fall is Aries, directly across. Mars's cardinal fire, the first sign, carrying the Sun's exaltation. The classical account sets the planet of limit and time against the sign of the beginning and reads it as the least comfortable footing Saturn has. Whether a fall names a weakness or an unfamiliar setting is argued now in a way it was not in the sources.
Saturn in Taurus
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Earth is one of Saturn's two elements — his houses are Capricorn and Aquarius, earth and air — and Taurus is earth belonging to Venus instead. No dignity is assigned, and the reading runs through Venus. Earth and earth is the thing the older texts note — Saturn's own houses are earth and air, and the shared element is remarked on without becoming a rank.
Saturn in Gemini
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Mercury's mutable air, speech and the pair. Saturn receives nothing here, and Jupiter's detriment is in this sign instead. Air is Saturn's other element, through Aquarius, which the tradition mentions in passing and does not formalise.
Saturn in Cancer
Detriment — the sign opposite Saturn's day house.
Cancer faces Capricorn, one of Saturn's two houses, and is one of his two detriments. The Moon's cardinal water, the June solstice, the threshold. Jupiter is exalted in the same sign and Mars is in fall there — four planets with four different standings in one sign, which is as clear a demonstration as the scheme offers that these rank pairings and not places.
Saturn in Leo
Detriment — the sign opposite Saturn's night house.
Leo lies across from Aquarius, Saturn's other house, and is his other detriment. The Sun's single domicile, fixed fire at the height of summer. The classical framing is the plainest opposition in the scheme: the planet of limit in the sign of the light at its full. The older writers make more of this pairing than of almost any other.
Saturn in Virgo
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Saturn holds no dignity in the harvest sign, where Venus falls and Jupiter is in detriment. Mercury both rules Virgo and is exalted in it, an unusual doubling, so the tradition ranks four planets in this sign and leaves Saturn unranked.
Saturn in Libra
Exaltation — Ptolemy puts it at the twenty-first degree.
Ptolemy sets Saturn's exaltation at the twenty-first degree of Libra: Venus's cardinal air, opening at the September equinox where day and night stand equal. The classical logic is the scales themselves — the planet of limit and measure in the only inanimate sign, the one about balance rather than about either thing weighed. The Sun is in fall in the same sign, which is the usual corrective to reading a dignity as a property of the sign.
Saturn in Scorpio
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Scorpio is where the two rulership schemes part company most sharply — Mars's night house to the older writers, Pluto's to modern ones. Saturn has no standing either way, and the Moon's fall is here. This is the sign where the two rulership schemes diverge most sharply, and a reading that does not say which it is using is leaving out the part that decides the answer.
Saturn in Sagittarius
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
Saturn and Jupiter are the two outermost planets the ancients could see, and the tradition casts them as opposites in temperament — which makes Saturn in Jupiter's own fire sign a pointed pairing. No dignity is assigned, and the older texts find a pointed pairing, since Saturn and Jupiter are the two outermost visible planets and the tradition casts them as opposites in temperament.
Saturn in Capricorn
Domicile — Saturn's day house.
Cardinal earth, beginning at the December solstice on the longest night, and Saturn's own. In its domicile a planet acts as itself rather than through another ruler, and Capricorn is where the tradition's Saturn — structure, limit and time — is simply the sign's character. Mars is exalted here and Jupiter in fall, so Saturn shares his house with both the best and the worst positions available to other planets.
Saturn in Aquarius
Domicile — Saturn's night house in the traditional scheme.
Fixed air, and Saturn's second house in the older scheme; modern practice assigns Aquarius to Uranus, which removes the domicile entirely. Under Saturn the planet is at home; under Uranus it is a guest. The water-bearer is the vessel and not the water, a distinction the tradition keeps making. Which scheme is in use decides whether this is one of Saturn's strongest placements or an ordinary one.
Saturn in Pisces
Peregrine — no classical dignity here.
The planet of boundaries in the sign that has none is how the older writers describe this, without turning the observation into a rank. Jupiter's mutable water, the last of the twelve, where the edges dissolve. Venus is exalted here and Mercury doubly weakened.
The slow planets
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto spend between seven and twenty years in a single sign — Pluto was in Scorpio from 1983 to 1995. Their sign is shared with everyone born in the same stretch of years, so tradition reads it as describing a generation rather than a person, and this page does not pretend otherwise. Where they fall in a chart is the part astrologers treat as individual; the sign on its own is a birth cohort.
Which seven are yours
The chart page works it out from your date, time and place of birth, and shows these same readings beside each planet's position — with the rising sign and houses too, if the time is known.