Page 41 - Talented Astrologer • Volume 2 Number 1 • Winter 2019

No one debated, evaluated, or tested the practical value of these new rulerships.
There were no peer reviews, no challenges, and no body of research to determine if and how these new planets, and the proposed rulerships, worked within the practice of astrology. Astrology was no longer a central part of life. It was a curiosity and a hobby, not to be taken seriously. In England, it was
classified as fortune telling, and was illegal to practice. Withoutthiscontext,theproposalsofthenewrulershipsoftheouterplanets
became a part of the history of astrology. And when astrology was reborn in the late 19th century, the new rulerships were accepted without question.
The problems with outer planets and rulership come from the fact that
There is no affinity between Uranus and Aquarius.
There are many reasons Smith may have considered when assigning Uranus as ruler of Aquarius, but affinity was not one of them. The defining quality of Uranus is disruption and sudden, unexpected change. On this, all astrologers agree. Aquarius, however, is a fixed
astrologers at the time didn’t differentiate between natural rulership (signification) and sign rulership (dignity).
Natural rulerships are based on affinities, and the outer planets play an important role here.
“No one debated, evaluated, or tested the practical value of these new rulerships. There were no peer reviews, no challenges, and no body of research to determine if and how these new planets and the proposed rulerships worked within the practice of astrology.”
The discovery of the outer planets
coincided with significant, even
exponential advancements in
society, science, and technology. The ancients couldn’t imagine the miracles of the modern age, and it’s understandable that inventions such as nuclear power, the Internet, petroleum, drugs and pharmaceuticals, and the film industry don’t integrate well with the existing set of symbols of the inner planets. These concepts are bigger than any individual, so it’s appropriate to associate them with the outer planets. The outer planets are not personal; they operate on a grander scale.
sign. The nature of Aquarius is to abhor change and adhere to routine and the status quo at almost any cost.
Aquarius is of the nature of Saturn, and the entire purpose of Uranus is to disrupt and combat Saturn.
Both Capricorn and Aquarius cause planets to care about rules, boundaries, and structure — the affairs of Saturn. The difference is that planets in Capricorn value tradition above all else, and will
On the other hand, sign rulerships are part of a broader system of Essential Dignity that evaluates the relative power of a planet. The modern assumption is that sign rulerships are based on affinity between a planet and a sign, the way that natural rulerships operate, but this has never been
the case.
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