Page 40 - Talented Astrologer • Volume 2 Number 1 • Winter 2019

and responsible approach to your money; at worst, you’re experiencing lack and deprivation. The sign that Saturn occupies provides more details about your money, and, most importantly, the Essential Dignity of Saturn, based on the specific degree of the zodiac Saturn occupies, tells how strong or weak your financial situation is. The house Saturn occupies shows where your money is with regards to the question — for example, if it’s in the Eighth House, your money is in someone else’s bank account. This could suggest debt, or it might indicate that you will lose money in the current situation.
Now that we’ve cleaned up the definition of rulership, we can explore how things got so confused.
Part 2: The History of Modern Rulership
During the 17th and 18th centuries, astrology in the west fell into a deep decline. Many factors contributed to this, including
the growing popularity of “The Age of Reason,” which included
a Newtonian, materialistic view of the Universe, and the rejection of large portions of astrological knowledge. J. Lee Lehman notes in her book, Essential Dignities, that the astrologer Jean-Baptiste
Morin, known as Morinus rejected three of the five Essential Dignities (Triplicity, Term, and Face) as being “unnatural.”
By the middle of the 18th century, there was no longer a body of recognized authorities on astrology. Astrology was no longer taught in universities or respected as a science. The practice of astrology was left to a handful of well- meaning amateurs who could publish their theories without peer review or critical discussion.
In the middle of the dark ages of astrology, a new planet was discovered. True to its nature, the discovery of Uranus in 1781 utterly disrupted the structure and status quo of astrology. It wasn’t enough that astrologers had
to define the nature of this new planet. Astrologers attempted to figure out how Uranus fit in with the system of Essential Dignities, and this planted
the seeds of the modern debate over rulership.
The English astrologer, Robert Cross Smith, who wrote under the pseudonym of Raphael (and is known as Raphael I), was the first astrologer to attempt to integrate
Uranus into the system of dignities. Raphael assigned Rulership (Aquarius) and Exaltation (Scorpio) to Uranus, but
did not attempt to integrate Uranus into the rest of the dignities.
Neptune was discovered in 1846, shortly after Cross’ death, prompting another round of speculation about rulership. It’s
worth considering that according to the uber-Astrology Librarian, Phillip Graves, the originators of the idea that
Neptune rules Pisces are anonymous.
Some unknown astrologer suggested the idea to J. T. Campbell, who repeated this in a letter to the editor of the journal The Astrologer, published in
November 1888.
40 Talented Astrologer