Developing A New Weighting System

This topic was created in the Astrology forum by TMV on Thursday, May 15, 2014 and has 10 replies.

How a Custom Weighting System Enhances Planetary Significance

A custom weighting system assigns points based on planetary placements, aspects, and configurations to determine planetary dominance. This approach considers domicile, exaltation, angles, aspects, and more to provide a nuanced view of planetary influence beyond traditional methods. It helps astrologers identify key planets in a chart with greater precision.

Profile picture of TMV
@TMV
12 Years1,000+ Posts

I've been playing around with a different way of weighting planetary dominance and importance than relying on the Pullen or astrotheme's calculations. Questions, comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

Based on a point system.

+1 point if the planet is in domicile by sign

+1.5 points if the planet is in exaltation by sign
(Only 1.5 points for exaltation should be granted if a planet is both in domicile and exaltation simultaneously as with Mercury in Virgo.)

+1 point if the planet is in domicile by house

+1.5 points if the planet is in exaltation by house

+1 point if the planet is conjunct an angle

+0.5 point if the planet is in a cardinal house

+1 point if the planet is positioned at a —critical?? degree

+1 point if the planet is a singleton

+1 point if the planet is unaspected

+1 point if the planet has the most aspects

+0.5 point if the planet has the second most aspects

+0.25 point if the planet has the third most aspects

+1 point if the planet is a part of a configuration (grand trine, grand cross, t-square, etc.) post orb reduction and not including an asteroid, angle, or theoretical point.

BONUS —
(No points are granted if the sign is intercepted.)

+0.25 point if the planet is in its domicile or exalted house by default

+0.25 point if the planet is in a house with its ruler on the cusp.

Profile picture of TMV
@TMV
12 Years1,000+ Posts

Planets?? Domicile Signs:

Sun — Leo
Moon — Cancer
Mercury — Gemini or Virgo
Venus — Taurus or Libra
Mars — Aries or Scorpio
Jupiter — Sagittarius or Pisces
Saturn — Capricorn or Aquarius
Uranus — Aquarius
Neptune — Pisces
Pluto — Scorpio

Planets?? Exalted Signs:

Sun — Aries
Moon — Taurus
Mercury — Virgo
Venus — Pisces
Mars — Capricorn
Jupiter — Cancer
Saturn — Libra

Planets?? Domicile House:

Sun — 5th house
Moon — 4th house
Mercury — 3rd or 6th houses
Venus — 2nd or 7th houses
Mars — 1st or 8th houses
Jupiter — 9th or 12th houses
Saturn — 10th or 11th houses
Uranus — 11th house
Neptune — 12th house
Pluto — 8th house

Planet's Exalted Houses:

Sun — 1st house
Moon — 2nd house
Mercury — 6th house
Venus — 12th house
Mars — 10th house
Jupiter — 4th house
Saturn — 7th house

Angles:

Ascendant (Asc), Imum Coeli (IC), Descendant (Dsc), Midheaven (MC)

Cardinal Houses:

1st house, 4th house, 7th house, 10th house

Critical Degrees:

*0 degrees should be considered critical for all planets regardless of sign

Cardinal Signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) — 0, 13, 26

Fixed Signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) — 8, 9, 21, 22

Mutable Signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) — 4, 17

Singletons:

A singleton is a planet that stands out by being the only one in a particular type of element (fire, earth, air, water) or mode (cardinal, fixed, mutable). A planet may also be considered a singleton if it is the only planet occupying an extensive amount of space such as being the only planet in all of a chart's northern hemisphere as divided by the angle axis.

Aspects:

For the purposes of this experiment aspect orbs should be reduced to 80% or a maximum of 8 degrees to prevent overly wide orbs. Only major aspects (conjunctions, trines, sextiles, squares, oppositions) should be considered to prevent any one planet from gaining weight from an overabundance of minor or relatively insignificant aspects.
Aspects to asteroids, angles and theoretical points (lunar nodes, black moon Lilith, vertex, etc.) should NOT be counted at all. This places all planetary bodies on an even scale.

Configurations:

http://www.astrotheme.com/files/figures-composed-aspects.php

Defaults:

A planet is considered to be shifted from its

Profile picture of TMV
@TMV
12 Years1,000+ Posts

Defaults:

A planet is considered to be shifted from its native position by —default?? when it is repositioned in the house with its ruling sign on the cusp. For example, if a person has Mercury in the sign of Sagittarius in their 4th house, and Gemini on the cusp of their 10th house, then Mercury is also positioned in the 10th house by default because Gemini is Mercury??s ruling sign.

Profile picture of TMV
@TMV
12 Years1,000+ Posts

Using this system my own planets are weighted:

#1 Pluto - 4 points
#2 Venus - 3.75 points
#3 Saturn - 2.75 points
#4 Uranus - 1.5 points
#5 Moon - 1.25 points + 0.25 bonus points
#6 Mars - 1 point
#7 Sun - 0.75 point + 0.25 bonus points
#8 Mercury - 0.5 point
#9 Neptune - 0.25 point
#10 Jupiter - 0 points + 0.25 bonus points

As compared to the Pullen's rankings:

#1 Venus
#2 Uranus
#3 Mercury
#4 Saturn
#5 Sun
...

In the event of a tie in point values, the winning planet should be the one with more points before any bonuses are added. Or the planet that wins with domicile/exalted sign/house status, is conjunct an angle, or has more aspects.

Profile picture of TMV
@TMV
12 Years1,000+ Posts

Posted by LilliLou

Do you also think there should be more weight given to personal placements rather than the generational ones?

A very good point.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto already get a bit of shaft because they lack exaltations, but they could still overthrow the system's balance if positioned in home sign and house simultaneously. Of course, because it takes so very long for any of them to reach their domicile it could be argued as more significant. I'll have to think about that one for a while. Either way, house values would remain the same.

As per personal aspects vs. more generational ones, I would like to see the personal ones weighted differently but would have to devise a more extensive point system to do so which would confuse the crap out of a lot of people. Generational aspects like the Neptune/Pluto sextile help to even the field as everyone alive has that one.

Profile picture of LilliLou
@LilliLou
13 Years1,000+ PostsScorpio

Posted by TMV

Posted by LilliLou

Do you also think there should be more weight given to personal placements rather than the generational ones?

A very good point.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto already get a bit of shaft because they lack exaltations, but they could still overthrow the system's balance if positioned in home sign and house simultaneously. Of course, because it takes so very long for any of them to reach their domicile it could be argued as more significant. I'll have to think about that one for a while. Either way, house values would remain the same.

As per personal aspects vs. more generational ones, I would like to see the personal ones weighted differently but would have to devise a more extensive point system to do so which would confuse the crap out of a lot of people. Generational aspects like the Neptune/Pluto sextile help to even the field as everyone alive has that one.

click to expand

hehe! very true 🙂 I was wondering who would take pity on me already!

Profile picture of Astrobyn
@Astrobyn
12 Years1,000+ Posts

So I was making an attempt to format the Vulcan Delineation, and I'm getting stuck on "planet is conjunct an angle".

Where the hell are you pulling your aspects for IC and Dsc from?

I mean I happen to have mine calculated already, along with every other point on my chart... because I have problems. But I don't know of any site or chart that will show you that?

Profile picture of TMV
@TMV
12 Years1,000+ Posts

Probably easier to just count the degrees manually for aspects to the IC and Dc.

With a max orb of +8 or -8 degrees:

conjunctions are 0

trines are 120

sextiles are 60

squares are 90

oppositions are 180

Profile picture of TMV
@TMV
12 Years1,000+ Posts

You know... I've seen it go both ways. I'm not really sure.

If someone wants to make domicile stronger than exaltation all they have to do is flip the points around. No biggie.