← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 136/235
Accidental dignity
Accidental dignity is the strength or weakness a planet has from its circumstances rather than its sign. Where essential dignity asks whether a planet is in a place that suits its nature, accidental dignity asks whether it is in a position to act: is it prominent or hidden, moving freely or held back, clear of the Sun or burnt by it, supported or attacked by the planets around it?
The usual comparison: essential dignity is a person's character and resources, accidental dignity their situation on the day. A capable person locked in a cellar can do little; a modest one standing on a stage, with friends at their side, can do a good deal.
The main conditions
Lilly's table of "fortitudes and debilities" scores each condition. The main groups:
By house — the most important single factor.
- Angular houses (1st, 10th: +5; 7th, 4th: +4), where a planet is visible and effective.
- The 11th (+4), 2nd and 5th (+3), 9th (+2), 3rd (+1).
- The 12th (−5), 8th and 6th (−2): the hidden, troubled or "cadent from the Ascendant" places.
By motion
- Direct +4, retrograde −5 (the Sun and Moon are never retrograde).
- Swift in motion (faster than its average) +2; slow −2.
By relation to the Sun
- Free from combustion and the Sun's beams +5.
- Cazimi, in the heart of the Sun, +5.
- Combust −5; under the beams −4.
- Oriental (rising before the Sun) for Saturn, Jupiter and Mars +2; occidental for Mercury and Venus +2; the reverse −2. The Moon increasing in light +2, decreasing −2.
By aspect and company
- In partile conjunction with Jupiter or Venus +5, partile trine to them +4, sextile +3; partile conjunction with the North Node +4.
- In partile conjunction with Saturn or Mars −5, opposition −4, square −3; conjunct the South Node −4.
- Besieged between Saturn and Mars (the last planet it separated from and the next it applies to are the two malefics) −5.
By the fixed stars
Later authors added further conditions, among them the joys of the planets and sect-based conditions such as hayz, and their numbers vary from book to book. The figures above are Lilly's; other traditions weight the same ideas differently.
How it is read
Added together, essential and accidental scores give a rough sense of a planet's condition, and horary astrologers weigh both for every significator. The two answer different questions, and the combination is often the interesting part:
- Essentially strong, accidentally weak — a capable planet in a poor position. In horary, someone with the right qualities but no opportunity, or hampered by circumstance: Jupiter in Sagittarius in the 12th house, retrograde.
- Essentially weak, accidentally strong — a planet with little of its own but a great deal of reach. Someone with influence or visibility but not the substance to match: Venus in Virgo on the Midheaven.
In birth charts, modern astrologers rarely add up the points, but the ideas survive. A planet near an angle is widely read as prominent; a retrograde or combust planet as working differently; a planet closely conjunct a benefic as eased. Deborah Houlding's work on the houses explains much of the reasoning behind the house scores: the angles are where a planet is seen to act, the cadent houses where its effect falls away.
Accidental dignity is about prominence and freedom to act, not about good or bad fortune for the person. A strong Saturn is a Saturn that makes itself felt.
In a reading here
Horary and electional charts here weigh each significator's accidental condition with Lilly's scores — its house, whether it is direct or retrograde, swift or slow, oriental or occidental, its relation to the Sun (cazimi, combust, under the beams) and partile contacts with the benefics and malefics — alongside its essential dignity.