#william lilly

First of all, I recommend Demetra George's book¹, where she goes into depth about all these different types of Hellenistic "lords" and "masters".

The ruler of the Ascendant and the first house signifies the person, it's more likely to point to things related to health, appearance, temperament, mind and life focus. Its placement, its relationship to the rest of the chart and aspects will point to where and how the native will find themselves frequently in their life, with those things being very central or defining of their personal narrative. If you have a planet conjunct your ascendant ruler or a very close aspect it could represent another person who's always there in your life, or some thing that's more present in your story than anything else.

But the ascendant ruler is not necessarily the strongest planet in your chart. Sometimes the native will have a 10th house ruler that's a lot stronger; and this could cause, let's say, the personal to be less imperative than the professional. But this doesn't mean that the 10th house ruler won't mean anything about who you are.

Throughout the history of astrology, all authors disagreed on the correct way to elect the most influential or most important planet in a nativity. "Lord of the Geniture" is what William Lilly (17th century England) called his own version of it while offering his point of view on that concept. Here's what he said:

I am cleerly of this opinion, viz. That Planet who hath most essentiall and accidentall dignities in the Figure, and is posited best, and elevated most in the Scheame, that he ought to be Lord of the geniture, and am confident the whole actions of the Native will more or lesse pertake of the nature of that Planet and so his Conditions, Complexion, Temperament and Manners shall be much regulated unto the properties assigned that Planet (consideratis, considerandis;) yet doubtlesse if any other Planet be very neer so strong as him whom we formerly mentioned, he shall much participate, and a kind of mixture must be framed according to the severall fortitudes each Planet hath, together with the aspects good or evill of the other Planets intervening.²

Well, here he says the lord of geniture will also have to do with someone's actions, conditions, complexion, temperament and manners, all things we normally assign to the ascendant ruler. That's where it becomes a philosophical problem because astrology is older than our contemporary idea of identity or the individual. Our contemporary ontological theory is that you are your interiority, or your brain, or your mental illnesses, or your mannerisms, your manias, you're just interacting with the world as a removed being; but the astrological chart is about all of your life and everything that happens in it and those things form character. Astrology studies fate and your fate isn't removed from who you are. That's possibly some of what Heraclitus means by "ethos anthropos daimon". ³

Although it's important to be clear that I'm talking about an ontological theory where destiny/fate is involved, but the astrological chart itself isn't you at all, of course, because it's just an oracle, a symbolic tool that helps understand life. My point here is NOT to have you identify with your chart and think that all the planets in a chart have profound subjective meaning. The ruler of the ascendant is symbolic of you, yet the Lord of Geniture can also signify things about you and those things may feel and actually are very personal, because it's your life.

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¹ The book is "Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice: A Manual of Traditional Techniques, Volume II: Delineating Planetary Meaning". It's all of the Part Nine, but Lilly's Lord of Geniture is more similar to the ancient Lord of the Nativity (Kurios) which she talks about in chapter 94. If you can't find that book you can talk to me through chat and I'll help.

² William Lilly - Christian Astrology, book 3 chapter CV Of the Lord of Geniture. If you go there to the chapter, you'll possibly notice that in the paragraph that I cut out from the citation he mixes the Kurios with the Oikodespotes. Those different versions from other authors that he's rejecting were different concepts entirely.

Twilight Sparkle is looking at the place where there used to be a house, where the astrologer William Lilly lived.

(The site now has a closed tube station on it - it was once The Strand tube station, then Aldwych, then closed.)

That is certainly ambiguous. There's a lot of ways Venus can be afflicted and badly placed.

Venus in Aries is totally different from Venus in Scorpio, or Venus in Virgo, or Venus combust, or Venus in a malefic house, or ruling one (there are at least three), or receiving a harsh aspect from Saturn... Do you want me to talk about all of them??

William Lilly talked about well and ill dignified planets in Horary Astrology in his book Christian Astrology. The descriptions are valid for the planets in the signs of their joys or detriments, not necessarily for when they're in bad houses or afflicted. This is useful for horary when you're asking about someone and the planet representing them can describe their nature. For Venus, he said that when she's well dignified:

"She signifies a quiet man, not given to law breaking, quarrel or wrangling, not vicious, pleasant, neat and spruce, loving mirth in his words and actions, cleanly in apparel, rather drinking much than gluttonous, prone to venery, oft entagles in love matters, zelous in their affections, musical, delighting in baths, and all honest merry meetings, or masks and stage plays, ease of belief, and not given to labor, or take any pains, a company keeper, cheerful, nothing mistrustful, a right vertuous man or woman, oft had in some jealosy, yet no cause for it."

So, why does he say all of this? Venus doesn't like dryness and/or heat. She doesn't like infertile places. She's cold and moist and likes places that are propitious to life, so she can create, love, celebrate, enjoy, reconcile and harmonize things. Some things he says are expected. First of all, he explains a lot about how she's contrary to Mars: simply pleasant and enjoying pleasure. She also likes cleanliness (not Mercury). He randomly says she's more inclined to drinking instead of eating too much and I can only guess why he says that... in my opinion is probably because eating too much isn't pleasant or "graceful". And she's prone to venery of course, duh.

He talks about her having ease of belief. Interestingly, he says the same thing about Mercury when he's badly placed. So, to Venus this is a good quality and to Mercury this is a fault. Veneration is her topic. Venus, especially exalted, talks about faith. It's about an openness, a surrender and belief in the beauty of everything. A lot of incredibly religious people are venusian. I'm not necessarily talking about religious leaders with power and influence over the masses, I'm talking about real people with a lot of faith. Venus in detriment can definitely show lack of openness, hope or faith.

And when she's ill dignified:

"Then he is riotous, expensive, wholly given to loosenesse and lewd companies of women, nothing regarding his reputation, coveting unlawful beds, incestuous, an adulterer; fennatical, a meer skip jack, of no faith, no repute, no people; a meen lazy companion, nothing careful of the things of this life, or anything religious; a meer atheist and natural man."

"A natural man", he says lol. He most definitely means a person who's attached to "nature" in an "animalistic" way. Lustful, undignified. And again emphasizing the lack of faith.

Disclaimer: This is not modern astrology. Planets do not talk about you unless they're related to the 1st house. But still, all of these qualities are not necessarily applicable to someone ruled by Venus in detriment in their natal chart either, he just made a choice to talk about the nature instead of the state of a person. A Libra rising with Venus in Aries for example could show a person who's all of that, but could also show a venusian, harmonious person who's very uncomfortable in their ungraceful (Aries) circumstances, a fish out of water. That's what being in exile means too: being completely uncomfortable.

So, a lot of this tells us about the nature of Venus and we can imagine what she's going to manifest as when she's linked to house topics. She might represent family, a partner, or a career, or death, or sickness. Let's say your Venus in detriment is related to the 6th house. She's going to indicate any diseases involving the reproductive organs, the digestive system, the belly; the kidneys; impotency; all STDs; also diabetes, because Venus rules sweetness etc.

So, you know, it always depends on what she's talking about and what kind of affliction she's having. A combust Venus ruling the 7th house could talk about hidden relationships; Venus in detriment could may be related to a career about helping women in dangerous situations if she's in the 10th house. Related to the 3rd house, Venus could talk about a religiousness that involves a very feminine use of intuition, adornments, the senses, plants, oils. And a lot of herbal medicine makes me think of Venus in Mars signs, especially Venus in Scorpio.