Domicile
Domicile is the sign a planet governs and where it sits most at ease. Mars is in domicile in Aries and Scorpio, Venus in Taurus and Libra, and so on. A planet at home acts with strength and clarity, unhindered: it is the highest of the essential dignities in traditional astrology, the opposite of detriment, where the planet sits in the contrary sign.
A planet at home
Think of a planet in domicile as someone in their own house: it knows the place, has its belongings to hand, acts without awkwardness. Its function then expresses itself with ease, neither amplified as in exaltation nor thwarted as in detriment. It is a solid placement, a clear point of support in the reading of a chart.
The base of the dignities
Domicile structures the whole system of rulerships: it is what names the lord of a sign, and so the lord of a house in your chart. If an important planet in your map is at home, it gives you stable ground to act from. Read it less as luck than as a natural resource, already available within you.
Sources
- , Christian Astrology (1647)
- , The Houses: Temples of the Sky (1998)