The Application of the Categories of Being to Plato's Divided Line

Divided Line (Plato)

The top diagram depicts Plato’s Divided Line. The lower two sections of the line are presided over by the sensible Sun, represented by the Sun in Aquarius, and the upper two sections are presided over by the intelligible Sun, represented by the Sun in Libra. The planets above the line, labeled “Intelligible,” represent the types of objects known in each section of the Line, and the planets below the line, labeled “Intellectual,” represent the types of knowers, or knowing, that know these objects.

Reading from left to right, the intelligibles for each section of the Line are the rulerships of houses 12, 10, 7, and 4 (with the other rulerships of the fourth, third, and second quadrants in parentheses), and the intellects for each section are the corresponding exaltations of houses 12, 10, 7, and 4 (though the last section of the line also lists Mercury in Virgo, the exaltation in house 6).

At the right end of the Line are the two planets in exaltation in the first quadrant, and these, together with the other exaltations listed below the Line, constitute the Intellectual monad.

At the bottom is a second Divided Line. Above the Line are the exaltations correlated with each section of the Line, as in the diagram above, but below are the detriments for the corresponding houses—that is, houses 12, 10, 7, and 4.