Transits to dignified vs. debilitated natal planets

1
Hello Folks,

I wanted to visit a topic familiar to horary - dignified planets act dignified and debilitated are likely to act with deceit or some other lack of dignity.

So, I was wondering how we can apply this to natal transits and in the spirit of honesty I'll be forthright and say I looked forward and found Saturn and Neptune to be transiting my Mars and 7th house in about 10 years. Both transits to conjoin Mars, my 7th house ruler, but Mars is dignified in Aries in a night chart.

At the same time I have a close friend who will be experiencing this same transit by square (his Mars is in Cancer).

Does the dignity of the ruling planet/place indicate the outcome will be more positive? Elaborate please. Thank you!

2
Hi Tiggy,

Surely, transits will activate whatever potential there is in the birth chart, for better or worse.

However, the classical dignity/debility concept should be taken with a grain of salt. In thus regard, I found a recent comment by Paul on my thread "How do the houses interact with the planets?" quite telling:
Paul wrote:In this analogy then the signs describe an essential quality. Mars in Cancer is operating from a different Mars-like nature than Mars in Aries. But how much efficacy or how much 'strength' of force that this mars has will not be determined by the sign. Those things will be determined by, amongst other things, the houses, precisely because the houses show accidental qualities.

In traditional astrology Mars in Cancer is 'weak' by which it is implied that Mars does not perform its mars-like nature in a typical mars-like way, and so mars does not do mars-like things in an orthodox way. There can be a connotation of not being put together very well within its own mars-like sense - we expect Mars to do Mars things in a clear orthodox Mars-like way and there is a sense that this expectation is compromised or changed or weakened or altered when Cancer. Instead, the way I read Mars in Cancer is that Mars operates in an unorthodox way which can bring stress or difficulty in accessing Mars-like qualities in a straight forward way (in the case of Cancer as its in fall) and instead will have to adapt to find or recognise its own essential approach. With that in mind, Mars in Aries is much more orthodox in its expression and much more straight forward in doing Mars-like things in typically Mars-like ways, but Mars in Cancer is forced to be more creative and to do it in more unorthodox ways. Typically Mars in another sign outside Aries or Scorpio, when found in athletes, will be doing something novel, different, creative, unorthodox with their mars. Consider Muhammad Ali who was noticeable precisely because of this innovation and how he adapted martial qualities to the game of boxing and so he floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee and he built up a lot of momentum precisely because of how novel and unorthodox his approach was. His mars is in detriment. Mars in signs of dignity, tends toward the orthodox instead.

But how much Mars there is, if you like, is not determined by the sign. We can have a highly potent and very effective and very embodied and noticeable Mars, whether its in Cancer, Aries or any other sign. This how much of Mars is a quantitative thing and is therefore an accidental quality shown by the houses. A powerfully placed Mars will be a mars increasing in accidental and therefore situational circumstances and have greater strength behind it in terms of battery power. This is normally referred to as accidental strength or accidental fortitude. Whereas sign based 'strength' is more internalised kind of togetherness and is referred to as essential dignity.
To clarify, Ali's Mars is in Taurus, thus in one of his exiles. Further down the thread, I mention master mind Isaac Newton, whose Mercury was in his exile in Sagittarius.
_________________

Visit my blog:
https://michaelsternbach.wordpress.com/