Introduction

I am presenting a very simple horary question to highlight the dilemma of rulerships between astrologers of the tradition and modern astrologers. When I presented this chart to my students, two out of twenty four were able to find the aspect required – the problem being that they did not know the ruler of electricity. That was my reason for presenting them with the chart – to highlight the importance of knowing your rulerships. An electrical circuit blew at my complex and after being without power for 24 hours, I needed to see when power would be restored so that I could plan my schedule.

The Judgement

When will the electricity be restored at my complex? Sunday 13 July 2008, 10.43AM, Johannesburg, SAFR, 00Libra29 Asc.

This is one of the most basic charts – provided you know your rulerships. I needed an aspect between the electricity and my home, even an aspect of the electricity coming to me would have sufficed if I viewed Lord 1 as the situation as it was then. Lord 4, my home (fixed asset) is Saturn, and electricity is ruled by Mercury. We have an applying aspect with Mercury perfecting this sextile in a time unit of 1.30. The applying planet is in an angular house (longest unit of time) and in a cardinal sign (shortest unit of time) so we then use a medium unit of time. It is common sense to assume that the shortest time unit cannot be minutes as this power failure occurred over a weekend, and although they were working on the problem they could not purchase the parts needed, and the longest could not be months – we couldn't remain in darkness for one and a half months. So I used hours, days, weeks, and with days thus being the medium unit of time, I judged that power would be restored in one and a half days. And so it proved, we were back up and running on Monday evening.

Traditional stance on rulerships

It is wrongly stated that traditional astrology does not acknowledge the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. We most certainly acknowledge their existence, but they are treated differently. In the tradition of astrology that which has no light has no power, and these three planets cannot be seen with the naked eye. Some may argue that neither can some of the seven traditional planets but that is being obtuse. In ancient times all seven of the traditional planets could be seen by the naked eye – the fact that we now have smog and pollution to cloud our vision is probably highly symbolic of mans current situation at this moment in time anyway. Therefore, the outer planets do not have any power and thereby no rulerships. They were discovered long after the model of astrology was born, and as I state, cannot be seen with the naked eye.

The outer planets are treated in a very similar fashion to fixed stars in the tradition. They may have bearing on a significator when in very close aspect – I do not even consider them unless they are partile – and they have bearing in very specific ways. Neptune shows illusion, delusion or deceit, Pluto is a malefic, and Uranus shows divorce or separation. That is the sum total of their jurisdiction.

Modern Rulerships

Modern astrology has allocated rulerships to these planets which in the tradition we do not acknowledge. Uranus is allotted electricity over Mercury, Pluto death over Saturn, and Neptune – I must admit that due to the vague rulerships here I cannot recall what he is meant to govern. A fundamental error that is made is that a basic understanding of the nature of the planets is not sought. All planets are either cold and dry, hot and dry, hot and moist or cold and moist. It is only when one understands this plus the triplicity rulerships that the planets govern that the student of astrology can then begin to understand planetary rulerships.

Conclusion

As we know, everything that exists can be found in the chart and it is therefore impossible, I believe, to write a book on rulerships as the list is infinite. In the tradition one moves away from cook book astrology and learns to replace that dependency on reference material with common sense and a true understanding of the craft with which one is working. It also makes sense to say that more than one planet can rule an object depending on what aspect of that object is being examined – but this still does not detract from the true essence of the object itself. I believe that the chart above highlights this perfectly.