Lord of the Geniture

1
My birth data: August 23, 1963 Detroit, Michigan USA 6:42 pm EST

I am curious if I understand this process. According to what I have read, the Lord of the Geniture would either be Mercury (which disposes of every planet save Saturn) or Saturn, which is both lord of the Ascendant and in the Ascendant. Mercury being in the eighth house should rule out Mercury as Lord of the geniture. Would any angular planet, or planet in the ninth, with some essential or accidental dignity out rank Saturn?

(My money goes with Saturn, just because of it being angular and having essential dignity.)

Thanks in advance.

2
This is tough because there are two strong candidates. You didn't say what house system you used, but I get Mercury in 7 using Placidus. The five-degree rule wouldn't apply since the sign on the 8th is Libra, not Virgo.

There is no hard and fast rule in a case such as this, and finding the planet that most engages all the others makes sense. Although Mercury seems to engage all the planets except Mars, Saturn is no slouch in that dpartment either.

I'd lean towards Mercury because of the influence on the other planets and because Saturn is retrograde, an accidental debility that Mercury doesn't share. Others might argue that Saturn's close proximity to the ASC should be taken into consideration.

The idea is to make a conscious effort to utilize that which the lord of the geniture gives us. If there are two candidates, then he native is lucky and gets to choose I suppose. Talents probably lie in both areas.

Tom