RECEPTION

Dignity shows the power to act.
Reception shows the inclination to act.
Aspect shows the occasion to act.

Emblazon this on your soul, and become the astrologer you were meant to be. Let’s look at them one at a time.

Dignity shows the power to act.

What is dignity? There are two kinds: essential dignity and accidental dignity. Essential dignity is the planet being most like itself. Jupiter is much more expansive in Sagittarius than he is in Gemini. The five essential dignities are rulership, exaltation, triplicity, term, and face. Mars in rulership, Aries or Scorpio, is highly dignified. Mars in exaltation, Capricorn, is dignified almost as much. Mars in triplicity, any water sign, is also dignified, but not so much as he is in Capricorn. These are the three main dignities. They each cover the entire sign. Mars is in his triplicity in Cancer no matter what degree. The same is true for rulership and exaltation.

Triplicites are a bit different in that there are day and night rulers. A day chart is a chart set for a time when the Sun is above the horizon. A night chart is a chart cast for when the Sun is below the horizon. Mars rules all the water signs by triplicity regardless of whether the chart was cast for daytime or nighttime. Fire signs are ruled by the Sun during the day and by Jupiter at night. Venus rules Earth signs in the day and the Moon rules Earth at night. Saturn rules Air signs during the day, and Mercury rules Air at night.

Let’s say the chart shows Venus in Virgo. Venus is in her fall in Virgo as Virgo is the opposite of her exaltation, Pisces. However, if the chart under consideration is cast when the Sun is above the horizon, a day chart, Venus is in triplicity, and not as bad as she is at night when the Moon is the triplicity ruler of all earth signs. She can act more like Venus in a day chart than she can in a night chart.

The two minor dignities are called term and face, or sometimes bounds and phases. The origin of the terms is a bit of a mystery. The signs are divided up into five not necessarily equal sections and a planet is assigned to each one. Confusing matters more, there is more than one set of terms, but we’ll use the set Lilly used. Using our Venus in Virgo example, if she is at 9 Virgo, she is in her own terms, and helped a bit, but not as much as she would be if she was placed in a day chart.

The faces are three equal divisions of the signs (10 degrees each). They are the forerunner of modern decans. In fact, in some of the ancient literature, the word "decan" is used. Faces are the weakest of the dignities. Without some help somewhere else in the chart, this planet is barely able to act on his own. Lilly says that if a planet is only in his face, we can only say that he is not peregrine. The full table of dignities follows:

ESSENTIAL
DIGNITIES

Triplicity

TERMS

FACES

Detriment

Fall

Signs

Rulers

Exaltation

Day

Night

q 19

y 6

r 14

e 21

t 26

u 30

t 10

q 20

r 30

w 3

r 8

e 15

y 22

u 26

t 30

e 10

w 20

u 30

L 3

e 7

y 14

r 21

u 25

t 30

y 10

t 20

q 30

y 15

t 6

y 13

e 20

r 27

u 30

r 10

e 20

w 30

u 6

e 13

r 19

y 25

t 30

u 10

y 20

t 30

e 15

e 7

r 13

y 18

u 24

t 30

q 10

r 20

e 30

u 21

u 6

r 11

y 19

e 24

t 30

w 10

u 20

y 30

t 6

y 14

r 21

e 27

u 30

t 10

q 20

r 30

L 3

y 8

r 14

e 19

u 25

t 30

e 10

w 20

u 30

t 28

r 6

e 12

y 19

t 25

u 30

y 10

t 20

q 30

u 6

e 12

r 20

y 25

t 30

r 10

e 20

w 30

r 27

r 8

y 14

e 20

t 26

u 30

u 10

y 20

t 30

Ruler

Exaltation

Detriment

Fall

[Note on reading the above table. The numbers are ordinals, not cardinals. In other words, Jupiter is the ruler of the terms of Aries from 0 degrees Aries through 5° 59". Venus rules from 6° 0" to 13° 59". The exaltations are the same. The exaltation degree of the Sun is listed as 19, but that means 19^th degree. The 19^th degree is from 18° 00" to 18° 59". Think of it this way: a newborn is in his first year of life. From his first birthday until his second, he is in his second year even though is one year old.]

What is a planet without any essential dignity? It is said to be peregrine. The Sun, anywhere in Cancer or Pisces, has no essential dignity, and is therefore peregrine. Some modern astrologers define peregrine as a planet that makes no major (Ptolemaic) aspect to any other planet. This is an unwarranted hijacking of a valid term, plain and simple. The two concepts have nothing to do with each other.

Accidental dignity is dignity by placement either by aspect or house position. For example, a planet in the 10^th is accidentally dignified because he is in an angular house. So all Cancers and Pisceans have hope, for if their Sun is in houses 1,4,7, or 10 it helps them act a bit better. Also a planet trine or sextile to Jupiter or Venus is accidentally dignified, but can still be peregrine because peregrine means no essential dignity.

One more note before we get to reception: one modern horary astrologer taught that a planet in mutual reception is not peregrine. Balderdash. Jupiter at 25 Gemini and Mercury at11 Sagittarius are in mutual reception and they are both still peregrine.

Reception Shows the Inclination to Act

Reception is all but dead in modern astrology. All that is left is mutual reception by rulership, and even that is only vaguely defined. And despite, gentle reader, what you may have heard elsewhere, planets in mutual reception do not "swap places." Mutual reception is when two planets are in each other’s dignities: for example, Mercury in Capricorn and Saturn in Virgo. Mutual reception can occur with any of the essential dignities. Sun in Pisces and Venus in Aries is a mutual reception by exaltation. Jupiter in Aries, Mars in Sagittarius is a mutual reception by triplicity.

Then there is plain old reception. Mercury in Taurus for instance, Taurus is the house of Venus; therefore Venus receives Mercury into her house. Mars in Gemini means that Mars is received into the house of Mercury. So Mars, being a nice type of guest, acts like Mars in a Gemini sort of way, which may not be that nice, after all, he is Mars.

Althotgh reception may be used in any kind of chart, it shows itself best in horary relationship charts. If the question asked by Mary is, "Does John love me and will we get together?" Mary is given the ascendant and its ruler, the Moon, and Venus (as long as we don’t need Venus or Moon to signify something else in the chart that is important). Venus is the natural significator of women, and the Moon is always given to the querent. John gets the 7^th house, its ruler and the Sun, the natural significator of men, with the same caveat as above.

We need to determine whether they like each other first, which is shown by reception. If they don’t like each other, there is no inclination to act. Then we look to see whether they have the power to do anything about it, which is dignity, and finally will they get the opportunity, which is aspect.

Lets give Mary Libra rising, Venus in Scorpio, and the Moon in Pisces. John gets Aries, Mars in Taurus and Sun in Libra. Right off there is a powerful mutual reception between Mary and John. They love each other warts and all. If Venus was in Capricorn, and Mars was in Pisces, it would mean that they exalt each other. They are blindly in love and can’t see the shortcomings of the other. If Venus was in Cancer and Mars in Virgo, they would most likely be just friends. Mutual reception by term: They’ll eat lunch with each other, if there is no one else available. Mutual reception by face: They say hello because it is expected.

Note the Sun in Mary’s sign of Libra, this is additional testimony that John loves her dearly as he is in her house. Mary’s Moon in Pisces describes her emotional state, and Moon exalts Venus, so Mary loves John, she is also pretty impressed with herself. Sun would likely be in the 5^th house in this chart and that might signify John’s desire for children.

Aspect shows the occasion to act

Lets say Venus is at 15 Scorpio and Mars is at 20 Taurus. This is an applying square. Mary is coming to John, but it is a square. The square means they will come together after some difficulties or delays. Perhaps one of the parents objects to the union. Or possibly there is an illness that prevents it, but it will happen. If the significators apply to an opposition, it means the event will happen, but break up afterwards. If the significators are trine or sextile, they will get together without difficulty.

Notice we only used one aspect, the square, and that aspect was only needed to determine if they could be brought together. All the other information comes from reception. However, even the lack of an aspect can tell us things. Suppose Venus was at 10 Scorpio and Mars was at 29 Taurus. The square will not ever perfect in these signs, unless Mars goes retrograde. What would this mean? It means John is going somewhere. Mars is moving into Gemini and Gemini most likely would rule the 9^th house in this chart, foreign places. John could well be going abroad. Maybe he is in the service or he’s taken a job in Europe or he changes his mind (Gemini) and joins a religious order (9^th house). Without the applying aspect, no matter how much they love each other, they will not get together. [This isn’t true in all cases. There are other techniques, such as translation of light, that are not covered in this essay, that could bring them together without an aspect between them, but that’s another topic]

Other possibilities

What about mixed reception? Mixed reception is one planet is in one dignity of another, and he other is in a different dignity than the first. For example: Venus in Capricorn, Mars in Libra. Mary exalts John and is blindly in love and unrealistically puts him on a pedestal, but John truly loves Mary. With nothing else in the chart, this might not last after she discovers that John doesn’t clean the sink after he shaves. John, however, is so in love with Mary that he even loves her in curlers and flannel nightclothes.

Mixed receptions can also help get to what the person is really after. In the above example, John loves Mary, Mary exalts John but what does she love? If Saturn, ruler of Capricorn is on the 5^th cusp, she wants John in order to have children. John is secondary.

Reception may be used between natal charts as well. If John’s natal chart has Mars in Pisces, and Mary’s has Venus in Aries, there is a nice mutual reception between the planets that matter most in sexual relationships. However if Venus is in Taurus and Mars is in Aries, they receive each other into detriment: Venus is in the detriment of Mars and Mars is in the detriment of Venus. No problem here, really, they can’t stand each other. An applying aspect will only indicate an upcoming fight. Besides who pays an astrologer to ask, "Will I ever get together with this man that I hate?"

Another rather tedious but interesting technique is to make a composite chart for John and Mary, then look for receptions between the individual natal chart, and the composite. This will show how the native will react to the relationship. Let’s say John has Saturn as the ruler of his 10^th house, his career, and the composite chart has Cancer on the 2^nd house cusp. John’s career may not produce very much income since the second cusp is the fall of the ruler of his career. So we look to the Moon, ruler of the 2^nd. The Moon in the composite may well be in Leo and receive Saturn into his fall. This is not good for the financial health of the marriage. But what if they love each other madly? I would say they would then be willing to do without the material things, so they can have each other. You don’t have to be rich to be happy.

We’re only scratching the surface here, and we pretty much stuck to rulerships and exaltations, and we stayed with sexual relationships, because they are the easiest to demonstrate. Potential business partnerships can be studied as well, but it is not necessary that the partner’s like each other. If they are both in dignities of the 8^th house ruler, other people’s money, then they both love the money and will work to get it despite their differences.

A simple example of mundane astrology might go like this: George W Bush has the Moon in Libra in his natal chart. It is ruled, obviously, by Venus. Venus is in Cancer in the USA chart, ruled by the Moon. A mutual reception. If we use Dane Rudhyar’s Sagittarius rising chart we find Venus in the 7^th house ruling the 10^th. In the chart of a nation, the 10^th represents the king or in the case of the USA the President. Mr. Bush loves his job, and his job loves him back. It is good to him. He is, as of this writing, very popular, and therefore, according to the people polled, getting along nicely with his job. Why is he popular? Venus is in the 7^th and the 7^th house is "open enemies." He is well received (pun intended) because of his involvement with of the nation’s enemies (Venus in the 7^th). Who is he popular with? The ASC shows the general public. In this chart it is Sagittarius ruled by Jupiter. Jupiter is exalted in Cancer. The Moon (W) "rules" the people (Jupiter), and the President (Venus, ruler of the 10th) exalts the people as well. Sort of a mutual admiration society. We aren’t promoting one chart of the US over another, much less guaranteeing Mr. Bush’s continued popularity; we are just using it as an example of how reception can be used in mundane astrology.

In the end all receptions are about love. We may love our spouse, our job, our children, our future prospects, our auto mechanic, or anything else. Reception shows that love in all astrological charts. Horary does the best showing us the here and now love, but natal and mundane charts show the power of reception as well. Any time spent studying this topic will pay large dividends..