Why are the zodiacal dignities attributed to their planets?

[nuitdelenfer]

I'm trying to learn the dignities for the planets (so the ruling sign, detriment, fall, exaltation). I know different systems vary a bit on which signs they assign, but I would really like to know the reasoning behind them. For example, Jupiter rules Sagittarius, but why? If there are any good sources where I can get into this I'd love to know. I think learning itlike this will not just help my understanding but will also be a quicker/more effective way to remember them than brute memorization would be.

 

[Dascent]

This helped me grasp an extended perspective in my esoteric reading system

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[stalkinghyena]

The reasoning behind the aspects is geometric, with attitude qualities assigned based on ancient assumptions about the energetic qualities of numbers and their effect on life. These relationships are measured against the First House and the Ascendant, where the soul is thought to come into the world and its struggles around the wheel. Think Pythagoereanism here as a base, but there is a lot of accretion from the ancient Hellenes and now, and much of this is entangled in periods of development as astrological theories bounced from culture to culture.

You can check out the Thema Mundi for an early model that informed later ones.

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Chris Brennan's Astrology Podcast on Youtube has some good videos on the history of astrology as it developed from Egypt and Mesopotamia up through the syncretism of the Greeks, to India and the Muslim world, then to Medieval Europe on into the 19th century where most of our modern understandings developed (or were further distorted, if you prefer).