I'm listening to the first class of Bernadette Brady's Medieval Tools for Today's Astrologer course and Brady just emphasized that the concepts of strengthened positions and weakened positions in the chart is based on what the culture values. 1/

The hierarchy we ascribe to essential dignity and house placement has to do with what society deems necessary to function. I see this talked about in queer astrology circles, but the cultural context astrology is in needs to be examined, for traditional and modern astrologies. 2/

Planets in strong positions (with essential or accidental dignity) have a lot of power according to society. Planets in weak positions (with essential or accidental debility) are interested in behavior and activities outside of the mainstream values of independence and power. 3/

Said another way, having a planet in detriment or fall (or in the 12th, 6th, or 8th, I would say, but Brady is focusing on essential dignity in this lecture) means you are interested in things that are counter to the mainstream values in some way in this and previous societies 4/

If societal rules were different, would the rulerships be different? Are they more linked to the planets and how they function or to society and how it functions? Or is it a combination of the two?

Or, would we simply look at detriment and fall in different ways. 5/

If we valued imagination, collaboration, consensus, and outside-the-box thinking, would that mean that the so-called detriment and fall placements would be beneficial?

I always think of mercury in pisces as a great example of the power of detriment and fall placements. 6/

Mercury in Pisces might make it difficult to be a technical writer, but it makes for amazing poets.

There are plenty of misconceptions with dignity and debility, including the incorrect notion that having a planet in detriment or fall means something bad or wrong about you. 7/

However, I've heard essential dignity described as "how well can this planet do what it likes to do," but if I understand what Brady is describing, essential dignity means "this planet can act in ways that society appreciates." Sometimes these are the same, but sometimes not. 8/

Is it the Sun itself that prefers to be confident, independent, and in control (Leo or Aries) to collaboration, connection, and agreement (Aquarius and Libra)? Is it really that the Sun there acts in ways contrary to its nature, or is that our own biases? 9/

We can look to the physical properties of the planet, in this case the Sun, to understand it deeper. It is bright and strong in and of itself, surely. It is the center of the solar system. Does it not also connect, though pulling in and holding the planets within its orbit? 10/

Does it not also give by shining its light, sending solar energy through space to feed us and give us life? Is it simply doing that to be radiant, bold, confident, in control? Or is its vitality tied up with our own, then in some way?

Can collaboration also be a solar power? 11/

We can look at all the planets this way, of course. I don't see astrologers that work with dignity saying that planets in detriment or fall are bad (this is a misconception), but we do say the planet is made to act in a way contrary to its nature.That it is weak or conflicted 12/

If our understanding of power, of what power is on a fundamental level, changes (as must happen as we move from capitalism and towards justice and equity) how will that change our understandings of the planetary rulerships, if at all?

What is immovable and what is societal? 13/

Ultimately, this may not be something we can ever fully know or understand. Like the nature v. nurture debate, we are inseparable from our society, but we also create sub- and counter-cultures as well as make up our own minds about how much we agree or not with societal norms 14/

Looking at/to the planets and interacting with them as living beings is another way of addressing this, but we need to be aware of our biases here as well.

Understanding debility as interest in aspects if planetary abilities that are not culturally valued is useful, though 15/15

Also, to be clear as this thread is getting more attention than most of my other tweets, I'm a big fan of essential and accidental dignity and I don't think this is a flaw in the system, it is a feature.

However, examining what we consider to be weak and strong is useful...

Both as astrologers and as humans.

And there is a certain kind of power in planets in debility that is maybe counterintuitive if you're used to looking at astrology through the lens of the establishment

The physical nature of the planets and universe is built in to astrology...

...but so is our own way of interpreting things, including nature.

I don't think this is a flawed system at all. I do think it is one built upon our own understanding of the universe, which also shifts and changes and we shift and change and as culture shifts and changes.