A Table of Planetary Dignities, with the Rulerships and Exaltations Correlated with the Four Sections of Plato's Divided Line

Divided Line (Plato)

If you consider the planetary glyphs on the far left as forming a column, this diagram can be viewed as a 6-column by 4-row table. The four rows, reading from top to bottom, are composed of rulerships, exaltations, detriments, and falls. (For ease of reference, the columns will be referred to as columns 1-6, reading from left to right, and the rows will be referred to as rows 1-4, reading from top to bottom.)

Column 1, labeled “the One above being,” consists of the rulerships, exaltations (excluding the Dragon’s Head), Soul detriment, and fall of houses 1-3 (the first quadrant).

Column 2 consists of the rulerships of houses 4-6, and the exaltation, detriment, and fall of house 4.

Column 3 consists of the rulerships of houses 7-9, the exaltation of house 7, the detriments of houses 7-9, and the fall of house 7. (The glyph in the bottom row looks like a hybrid of the glyphs for the Sun and Venus and the sign looks like Virgo. The pattern of listing the third-quadrant dignities in this column suggests that this dignity should be the Sun in Libra, which is in fall in house 7.)

Column 4 consists of the dignities of house 10, column 5 consists of the dignities of house 11, and column 6 consists of the dignities of house 12.

In row 2, labeled “Subjective” and “Intellect,” the four dignities in columns 2, 3, 4, and 6 are labeled with the four gnostic functions of Plato’s Divided Line: intuition, rational cogitation, sensation, and phantasy.

Row 1, labeled “Objective” and “Intelligible” refers to the different types of objects known by the four gnostic functions in row 2. Columns 2 and 3 are labeled “Intelligible” and “[the One] as being.” Columns 4-6 are labeled “Sensible” and “[the One] after being.”