What I understand about essential dignitaries is rulership based, for instance the significance of a ruling planet which start with the ASC which is the ruling planet over the whole chart following on down to each contributing sign, house and planet. For instance My ruling planet is Mercury which is in Libra. Now I will look to Libra and it's ruling planet which is Venus. This procession continues throughout the chart.
So I have a basic understanding of the essential dignitaries and the Synastry involved.
While attempting to further my knowledge I was practicing with my own chart and came across this question, regarding Triciplities rulership.
I have a Nocturnal chart. My Moon is Taurus, Venus/Scorpio, Mars/Scorpio. and what happened is the dignitaries and debilities within, naturally followed the nocturnal sect without me noticing or applying the set formula.

For instance, if the Moon was in Aries one would look to Jupiter in the Triciplities rulership sects regardless of the attributing placement whether it be dignified or debilitated is irrelevant. So my question is, does one look to the sign dispositor or the next ruler in the nocturnal/diurnal sects. Such as Moon Aries would be ruled by Jupiter, not mars, so then the next action would be to look to the secondary ruler which is Sun followed by Saturn. So I think I answered my own query but in my case all the planets lead one into the other naturally how would this be applied if the Triplicities were debilitating through the succession of the planets.
I apologize for my incongruent thoughts I am not sure how to ask my question. Maybe I will be able to clarify over time. It does not help that I am also over complicating the matter to an extremes. I see many avenues and welcome insight from seasoned Astrologers..

Hi there!

I've tried to read your post, but had to re-read some times, and that is really hard. It seems to me that you are "shooting" everywhere and see what falls down.. It is not the best approach to learn traditional astrology, and it is not even a great approach to anything!

What is your idea? You want to interpret a chart? Do you know how to interpret the subject of an house, for instance?

I'm asking this because essential dignities are not something you should interpret on its own, but as auxiliary to a delineation. I'll give a small example: consider the Asc. Ruler (the planet which rules by essential dignities the Ascendant), which signifies the person "expression" in a Natal chart.

The position where that planet is located is interpreted as the conditions for his "expression". For instance, with the ruler in House 10 we could say that that person is strongly motivated to be publicly known, or to express himself through his career, etc. But the essential dignities will say the quality of that expression. For instance, if the planet is in rulership/exaltation/triplicity, one could say that he can express himself easily (in the career, etc., subjects belonging to House 10). If it is debilitated, it will mean difficulties..

I hope this small example illustrates somehow the idea of how a chart can be interpreted. In the same way, if you did the same for house 2 and its ruler, you could interpret how a person manages its resources (money, possession, etc.); house 10 for carreer, house5 for children/romantic affairs.. The essential dignities will only aid you to say the quality of the expression of something. But that something can mean "money/resources", or "relation with the children", "career", depending on the house it rules or is located.

If you really want a structured approach to astrology, Traditional Astrology is indeed that approach, but you should consider to go through a course with someone renowned in Traditional Astrology.

I also suggest some literature, as for instance "On the Heavenly Spheres" by Helena Avelar and Lu?s Ribeiro. You can read reviews in the Amazon site (4/5 stars) and in http://www.skyscript.co.uk/rev_HeavenlySpheres.html.


Regards,
Jo?o Ventura

Hi again,

I see you edited your question, but I still can't understand what are you looking for.

However, although I do not consider myself a complete novice, I'm not definitely a seasoned astrologer, so maybe I'm interpreting wrongly your question and someone else may answer you..

But, to make things easier to give an answer, are you trying to apply a specific technique? What is the name of that technique, or where did you find it? If it is in the Internet, can you post a link?


Regards,
Jo?o Ventura

jup6 - welcome to skyscript! i find your question/s confusing too.. there is a difference between triplicity rulers and traditional rulers of signs.. basically tripicity rulers hinge on sect and element, while sign rulers connect regardless of sect. you seem to be trying to determine the ruler of moon in aries.. the ruler is mars.. the triplicity ruler if it is a nocturnal chart is jupiter.. the concept of triplicity rulers has a connection to issues in life whereby the first triplicity ruler has bearing over the planet during the first part of life - it's celestial and terrestrial state help give some insight onto how affairs connected to that planet it governs will play out over that period of time.. the 2nd trip ruler governs the 2nd time frame, and the 3rd governs the last period.. some astrologers only use the first 2 trip rulers and don't factor in the 3rd for this..

basic rulers of signs give more insight into the nature of a moon in aries.. if for example mars is in cancer in a particular house, it gives a certain colour, verses if it was a mars in cap for example..

the 2 concepts are different!

essentially triplicity rulers play a different role then sign rulers and to understand how all this works, you need to examine it all - separately..
fwiw - synastry is an astrology word typically used in comparing 2 charts with the thought of how the 2 people whose charts they represent would get along/connect.. you have also used this word in your post making it more confusing what you are trying to figure out! i hope this helps some.. it is not an authoritative viewpoint, but a rough sketch to get you going...