Page 42 - Talented Astrologer • Volume 2 Number 1 • Winter 2019

enforce the rules because they are the rules, while planets in Aquarius care about freedom and justice. A planet in Aquarius will enforce the rules until those rules are shown to be ineffective or unfair. The planet will then break the rules (which has some affinity to Uranus) but then will replace them with new rules that support greater freedom and justice (which is anathema to Uranus). Aquarius relates to freedom, but Uranus represents anarchy; they’re not the same thing.
Neptune dissolves form and structure and planets in Pisces have difficulty recognizing boundaries. I suspect that the more obvious similarities between Neptune and Pisces is what caused astrologers to accept the incongruous marriage of Uranus and Aquarius. This cemented the modern approach to Rulership as a system of affinities. When Pluto was discovered in 1930, the only debate was whether Pluto ruled Aries or Scorpio. No one questioned what Rulership meant or how it actually functioned in astrology.
That’s a big part of the problem and another reason for the ongoing arguments between astrological factions. Sign rulerships play a distinct and important role in astrology. And this brings us to the practical argument against the modern sign rulerships.
Part 3: Practical Rulership
Whether or not a tool is practical depends on the context. Before you can
“Sign rulerships have two related applications. First, sign rulerships determine the planet that represents the affairs of a given house. The ruler of he sign on the cusp of the house is that house. Second, sign rulership is part of the system of Essential Dignities that evaluates
the relative power of a planet at a particular degree of the zodiac.”
evaluate how practical something is, you first have to define when and
how it is used.
The natural rulerships, including
the new outer planet significations, are primarily used in mundane astrology, the astrology of world events. There’s little controversy over this and virtually everyone agrees that the outer planets deserve to be used as significators in this context, so we’ll set it aside.
Sign rulerships have two related applications. First, sign rulerships determine the planet that represents the affairs of a given house. The ruler of the sign on the cusp of the house is that house. Second, sign rulership is part of the system of Essential
There is greater affinity between Dignities that evaluates the relative power of a planet at a particular degree Neptune and Pisces, because ofthezodiac.RulershipasanEssentialDignityisakeycomponentof
42 Talented Astrologer