Fall

Definition

A planet is in its fall when it sits in the sign opposite its exaltation. The Greek name is tapeinōma ("a low place, a depression, a humbling," from tapeinos, "low, humble"); the Latin is casus ("a falling") or dejectio ("a casting down"). The per-planet falls are: Sun in Libra, Moon in Scorpio, Mercury in Pisces, Venus in Virgo, Mars in Cancer, Jupiter in Capricorn, Saturn in Aries. Fall is the major debility opposite exaltation, and in many dignity-point schemes it scores −4. Some authors also call this condition depression or, more pointedly, exile — Lehman cites the synonymy and notes that where exaltation reads as honoured-guest, fall reads as the opposite: cast down from height, far from home.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic astrology a planet in fall has difficulty bringing its themes through cleanly. Avelar and Ribeiro describe the planet as clumsy, with action that is inadequate or unstable. Charles Obert sharpens the image — for him a fallen planet is the Rodney Dangerfield of the dignities, not heard, not seen, despised. A fallen planet often works hard to be noticed, sometimes acting in an unbalanced or overcompensating way because it has the sense that no one is paying attention. Lehman frames it more lightly than detriment: with fall you are only two steps back, not three. Obert recovers an important historical point — in the earliest Hellenistic texts, fall was emphasized as the primary debility, more than detriment.

In Practice

When you find one of your planets in its sign of fall, read it as a place where that planet's themes carry but with little built-in support — the planet has to push uphill against a sign that doesn't hold it. The dispositor of the fallen planet matters more than usual, because the planet has no dignity of its own to draw on. Watch for compensation patterns: a fallen Mars may flare to be heard, a fallen Sun may grasp at recognition. The reading is mitigated when the planet picks up other supports — a triplicity ruler, mutual reception, a strong aspect from a benefic. Firmicus stresses the exact-degree fall as the most severe case; in the Bram translation he warns that planets sitting at their exact fall-degrees can mark a chart for the harshest conditions of life. Modern traditional astrologers read the doctrine with care rather than fatalism.

Historical Origin

Tapeinōma is the Greek pair to hupsoma (exaltation) and the doctrine is canonical across the Hellenistic corpus. Ptolemy in Tetrabiblos derives the fall-degrees as the diametric opposites of the exaltation-degrees; Vettius Valens and Paulus Alexandrinus carry the same; Hephaistio preserves the verse table; and Firmicus gives the exact fall-degrees in Mathesis 2.III. The English "fall" follows the Latin casus / dejectio metaphor of being cast down. The Arabic term hubūṭ ("descent") carries the same image into the medieval transmission.

Etymology

Origin: Greek (rendered through Latin). Meaning: A low place, depression, casting down; the pair to exaltation.

Further Reading

• Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos
• Lee Lehman, Essential Dignities
• Charles Obert, Introduction to Traditional Natal Astrology