Truths and Myths of Exaltation and Debilitation of Planets

The exaltation doesn’t mean strong and the debilitation doesn’t mean very weak. There is always a misconception that prevails in the analysis of chart that debilitated planets give bad result always and behaves as malefic, whereas exalted planets are always strong, do good and are benefic. In every individual’s chart, this dignity of planets depicts the purpose of the planet’s signification in the current birth.

The exaltation and debilitation of the planets narrate the journey of the soul. It is more to do with the soul than the materialistic things.

The planet Sun exalted in any horoscope explains that the soul has reached his higher level and now it is the time to help others and uplift them. Similarly, exalted Mars says the person is born with good strength and in this lifetime his duty is to support the needy with his strength. These people fight less and are good-natured.

Whereas, debilitated Sun in the horoscope says, in this birth, the soul has to take energy from others, work hard to reach the higher state. These people will be more materialistic than exalted ones. And also, the debilitated Sun natives will be more into politics than exalted ones. As the exalted ones are mostly introvert, egoistic and less talking people than debilitated ones, they will never try to go for name, fame positions etc.

The Exaltation and Debilitation of Planets has always been a mysterious and exploratory topic in the Astrology world.

Now, let’s start with some basic explanations to understand more on this topic.

The highest level of dignity of a planet is called exaltation of the planet.

A planet in exaltation sign procures all the strength and gives positive, happy and smooth time in life where it is associated in the native’s horoscope. This is the state where a planet knows about where, when and how to act and react as well – that means it is highly aware of its significance and knows its strength to make all the possibilities to enjoy its positive results.

Debilitation means least strong or feels weak to help the native to experience its beneficial characteristics and makes its signification suffer to an extent.

So, the native has to energize the debilitated planet to gain strength. It is also understood as; they tend to use their energy in promoting the negative signification/traits of the planets. It is also known that the debilitated planet will not do what it is supposed to do as it is not in the comfortable zone. Hence the native has to work towards providing strength to that particular planet in order to experience the positive results.

Let us understand why a planet exalts and debilitates in a particular house with an example.

Example: "WHY" Sun exalts in Aries and Debilitates in Libra and Moon exalts in Taurus and Debilitates in Scorpio.

Sun being the king among the planets does not favor closeness to everyone. Being the king, it demands protection that can only be delivered by a bodyguard/commander-in-chief. Mars happens to be the commander-in-chief of the Gods. So, SUN exalts in the Aries zodiac which happens to be Mars’ sign.

Sun debilitates in Libra which is ruled by Venus, the sign of balance where mind will be in a wavery state - the state of indecision, influenced by others, will make the ruler poor decision-maker, therefore unfit for ruling over large territory and long duration. Libra is also sign for Sun set and the house of conjugal life. If a king indulges in too much pleasure or luxuries of conjugal life, it harms the bright future prospects of his kingdom. So, Sun debilitates in Libra.

Similarly, Moon (Mind) is most happy when it gets wealth, food, comfort and that too within its own family and acquaintances. So, Moon is exalted in Venus sign, Taurus, while in Scorpio, it gets mysterious setbacks, conspiracy from near and dears, death and unexpected loss, so mind has to get most unhappy there, hence debilitates here.

Now having understood the reasons for exaltation and debilitation, we need to understand that when Sun exalts in Aries, it brightens the good results for the house where Aries zodiac is placed in the horoscope. But it exhibits more egoistic nature and expects everything to be served at its place. Since Sun is aware of all his qualities and strengths, it may develop the distant relationships around and also might make the native ignorant of further enhancement in those areas associated with Sun.

Likewise, a debilitated Sun may not harm the good results flowing from the house where Aries is located. Such a Sun may cause marital discord, late marriage yet making the native full of enterprising nature, bold, entrepreneur abilities etc as this Sun knows that it has to work hard to reach its higher state and also while in the process of progressing it will achieve more positive results as this native will work well and fits in all those positions and areas associated with planet Sun.

Thus, the native who is having exalted Sun should be guided that his soul (Sun signifies the one’s soul) has achieved higher state or platform, now it is the time to execute his duty of helping or guiding others to improve or uplift their life/soul to the higher state and he has to let go off their ego, become more extrovert, should increase their interactions and also the relationship with their superiors should be cordial. Following these advices will keep Sun’s charisma in higher state through out the native’s life. Similarly, the native who has debilitated Sun should work hard using all the materialistic things and superiors’ advice to reach the higher, elevated life.

Similarly, exalted mercury suggests the native to teach more and bring them to the good state in learning field. And exalted Mars native should be more down to earth and should feel compassion for others and should be free to distribute his strengths. And the exalted Saturn person should take work from others in a good manner.

The person who is having exalted planets should never take things from others as their birth indicates to give as much as possible as they are born with higher energies. Similarly, the native who is having debilitated planets should not be taking more things and help from others all the time as he is born to work hard and travel alone to achieve the higher state.

There are numerous myths and misunderstandings about exalted and debilitated planets. We should not judge the horoscope just by looking at the dignity of the planets but must consider their House Placements, Aspect, and Conjunction (PAC), the degree and the Nakshatra pada and also their functional role for different ascendants. They do not cause harm on all the significations related to the planet. Such planets have a unique ability to bestow favorable, positive results to the native in disguise.

The one who is analyzing the chart should come out from the myth that, the exalted planets give good results and the debilitated gives bad results always to the native. In many cases the exalted planets create problematic situation and the debilitated planets come as boon in their life.

Let us take one example for understanding when does an exalted planet create problems in one’s life.

In the above Chart (1), the Venus is exalted as placed in Pisces. At first glance, we analyse and conclude that this person will have very good married life, and his life will be filled with all materialistic things, good relationships, love, and wealth etc. But the reality is, this person might have very troublesome relationships especially with partner as 7th lord is placed in 6th house. This is very painful situation because Venus signifies marriage, relationships and here the planet is fully aware of it but not able to enjoy it. Being highly aware of Venus qualities, the native is devoid of happiness and love from the relationships.

And also, one more painful and suppressed situation for Venus is that it is in papakartari yoga caused by Saturn and Rahu planets. At one side Rahu amplifies the Venus significations whereas Saturn obstructs it or delays on the other side, so in between all these obstructions the Native might go through painful situations whenever he/she tries to look for the Venus related results.

If the Venus is not afflicted and the entire chart also supports the Venus and associated houses, then the native will have very beautiful life.

So, being an astrologer, one has to check if the entire chart promises the Venus to feel positive and then guide the native accordingly.

In Chart 2, the Venus is debilitated. Here, Venus is not aware of its significations and also it won’t even bother about relationships or the native might show disinterest in marriage itself. So, for this person if marriage life is not good, it will not affect much as he/she is not aware of the actual significations of Venus. On the other side, it can also happen that the native would be very extreme about relationships and finds happiness in unnecessary things and finding faults in most of the relationships. This doesn’t mean that the native will have a bad married life. These all depends on the aspect, conjunction and the entire chart strength.

Most of the time the debilitated Venus gives very good materialistic life to the Native as this Venus work hard towards it as it lacks in those significations of Venus.

We can also analyze this exaltation and debilitation in terms of soul journey as, the exalted Venus in male chart indicates that the karmas related to his wife soul is almost taken care and hence such male might find great difficulty to find their better half as pending Karma for partner is served in the past. Whereas the debilitated VENUS in the male chart might force the native to have multiple relationships with females as it requires more female energy to gain more Venus strength.

The above example explains that the placement, aspect, conjunction and the Dasha periods (current planet period) together define whether the exaltation or debilitation will give good results or you can experience their significations in the native’s life.

Let us understand the debilitation and exaltation of planets in connection with Nakshatras and Padas with couple of examples.

The planet Sun is our soul and it gets exalted in Ashwini nakshatra 3rd pada till 10 degrees of Mesha Rasi. The star lord is Ketu and the pada lord is Mercury. This reveals that the soul is very much visible outside and this birth is expecting the native to learn more in this lifetime to reach the purpose of life. Here the planet Mercury will give good support and strength to learn in a better way.

Where as, the planet Saturn gets debilitated in the same sign (where Sun gets exalted) in Bharani Nakshatra, 2nd pada, till 20 degrees. The Nakshatra lord is Venus and pada lord is again Mercury. The Karma planet Saturn doesn’t have anything to do in Lagna bhava (ascendant), the first house, so it gets debilitated. But the pada lord Mercury indicates that the soul has to start its duties by learning with the support of planet Mercury. Here the native will have to work hard to progress in his Karma.

The planet Mars gets exalted in the 10th house of Chart i.e. Capricorn Rasi of Saturn, in Dhanishta Nakshatra, 2nd Pada of planet Mercury. It covers almost full house as it exalts till 28 degrees. This also indirectly signifies the Shani Mangal Yuthi (Conjunction).

A traditional astrologer might have a conception that this yuthi is negative as they are not friend to each other. Actually, if the native knows or is advised to use or manage the energies of Mars and Saturn in very good, positive way then this conjunction will turn out as a boon for the native to execute his duties perfectly with good strategies. The planet Mars should know how to use Saturn energy or Saturn should understand how to make use of Mars energy.

Again here, the Nakshatra Pada lord is Mercury. So, the native has to be explained that he has to perform his karmas with good learning and has to apply his right intelligence. This also says that one has to control the marshal energy of Mars with his intelligence, discipline and hardwork as it exalts in Saturn’s zone.

The Karma field requires more of your hard work, strength and courage. When you have complete knowledge, there is no space or interest in learning. So, the Jupiter gets debilitated in Capricorn the Karma Sthana (place) of the horoscope. The planet Jupiter gets debilitated till 5 degree which means you need knowledge only upto 5 degrees means here more than knowledge, discipline, hardwork and good learning is required as Jupiter debilitates in Uttarashadha Nakshatra, 2nd Pada of planet Saturn.

Logically, the exalted planets will not make the native to work more to enhance the significations of the planet as it has reached its highest level, where as the debilitated planet in Kendra might give very good results as it will work towards its enhancements. So, always understand the meaning of the state of the planet and work accordingly for the progress.

So, when you have the knowledge of exaltation, debilitation and others states of planets in depth as explained above, there will be no chance of being very happy or very sad for having the good and bad state of planets in the chart.

The article cannot end without talking about the Neecha Bhanga Raja Yoga. Those whose planetary placement is giving Neecha Bhanga Raja Yoga can rejoice but just to an extent.

Know more about Neecha Bhanga Raja Yoga