Depression (Fall)

greek: Ταπείνωμα (Tapeinoma)

Definition

Depression — also called fall — is the sign opposite a planet's exaltation, where the planet is judged to be weakened and at a disadvantage. The Greek term is ταπείνωμα (tapeinoma, "depression" or "lowering"), the opposite of ὕψωμα (hypsoma, exaltation). Each planet has one fall sign: Sun in Libra, Moon in Scorpio, Jupiter in Capricorn, Mercury in Pisces, Saturn in Aries, Mars in Cancer, Venus in Virgo.

In Tradition

Across the Babylonian-to-Hellenistic transmission, the depression is read as the point opposite the place-of-secret, or exaltation, and it is the second main essential debility — a weakness built into a planet's position. (The first is detriment, the sign opposite a planet's own.) Hunger and Pingree (*Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia*) document the early form in cuneiform; the Hellenistic codification (Dorotheus, Ptolemy, Valens) scores depression as a -4 against exaltation's +4, with the lord of the depression sign softening it in some Hellenistic schemes.

In Practice

For a transmission-focused or Hellenistic reading, you note which planets sit in their depression sign and read that as dimming the planet's favourable meanings: it works with friction, the outcomes it wants are delayed or qualified, and its surrounding conditions and aspects steer the result more than they would for a planet in dignity. Lilly's 5-point essential-dignity scoring assigns -4 points for fall, against +4 for exaltation and +5 for a planet's own sign. Depression also interacts with sect, the day-or-night birth: a planet in fall but in-sect produces difficulty that is at least orderly, while a planet in fall and out-of-sect compounds the weakness. The lord of the depression sign — the planet that rules the sign another planet falls in — sometimes acts as a softening significator in classical horary and natal work.

Historical Origin

The Akkadian, cuneiform early form is attested in 1st-millennium-BCE Babylonian astronomical and astrological texts as the point opposite the ašar niṣirti place-of-secret. The Hellenistic codification appears in Dorotheus of Sidon's *Carmen Astrologicum* Books I-II (1st c. CE), Ptolemy's *Tetrabiblos* I.19 (2nd c. CE), and Vettius Valens' *Anthologiae* (c. 145-175 CE). It is preserved in the medieval Arabic-Persian transmission as one of the five Hellenistic essential dignities.

Further Reading

  • Hermann Hunger & David Pingree, Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia
  • Francesca Rochberg, The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture