Psyche(1977), Astrological Triptych(1978), Beyond Individualism(1979), Astrological
Insights(1979), Astrology of Transformation(1980), and Rhythm of Wholeness(1983).
Rudhyar died in California on September 13, 1985.
—Aidan A. KellySources:
Brau, Jean-Louis, Helen Weaver, and Allan Edmands. Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology.New
York: New American Library, 1980.
Melton, Gordon, Jerome Clark, and Aidan A. Kelly. New Age Encyclopedia.Detroit: Gale,
1990.
Rudhyar, Dane. The Astrological Houses.Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972.
———. The Astrology of Personality.New York: Lucis Publishing, 1936.
———. The Lunation Cycle.The Hague: Servire, 1967.
———. The Planetarization of Consciousness.New York: Harper, 1972.
———. The Pulse of Life.Philadelphia: David McKay, 1943.
“Seed Man: Dane Rudhyar,” Human Dimensions4, no. 3, 1975.
RULERSHIP(RULER)
In astrology, rulership is an association of the planets with the signs of the zodiac
whereby each planet is said to “rule” a certain sign (or signs) and, secondarily, certain
sets of objects and activities. Since the discovery of Uranus and the other newly
detected planets, the question of which planets rule which signs has been a subject of
hot debate among astrologers. However, prior to the advent of Uranus, a general con-
sensus about these relationships had endured since the time of Ptolemy. The tradition-
al system held that the Sun and the Moon (the two luminaries) ruled one sign apiece,
Leo and Cancer, respectively. The known planets each ruled two signs: Mercury ruled
Virgo and Gemini, Venus ruled Taurus and Libra, Mars ruled Aries and Scorpio,
Jupiter ruled Sagittarius and Pisces, and Saturn ruled Capricorn and Aquarius. This is
still the rulership system held by the great majority practicing Vedic astrology.
The relationship between the planets and the signs is one of kinship in their
basic traits and associations. Thus, when the new planets were discovered, astrologers
placed them in horoscopes and attempted to determine precisely what the nature of
their influence was. From these observations, it was determined that Uranus ruled
Aquarius, Neptune ruled Pisces, and Pluto ruled Scorpio, leaving Saturn, Jupiter, and
Mars as the rulers of Capricorn, Sagittarius, and Aries. (There often appears in late nine-
teenth- and early twentieth-century transitional astrological works the term “coruler,”
an appelation that allowed astrologers to keep the old schema while introducing new
rulerships—e.g., Saturn and Uranus were at one time said to be the corulers of Aquar-
ius.) Only Mercury and Venus are still viewed as ruling two signs each.
Because of the attractiveness of a balanced system in which 12 heavenly bod-
ies rule 12 signs, twentieth-century astrologers have often speculated that two new
planets would eventually be discovered that would come to be accepted as the rulers
of Virgo and Libra. For example, the hypothetical planet Vulcan, which some
astronomers said might be found between the Sun and Mercury, was thought to be the
ruler of Virgo, while an as-yet-undiscovered planet lying beyond Pluto was thought to
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Rulership (Ruler)