On the Guest - Host Relationship
© 2011, Apr 11 Curtis Manwaring
It is the domicile lord that is playing the host (this is what an oikodektor is as Schmidt laid out from the Greek texts of Valens, etc...). A planet in it's domicile asks/petitions for something of the domicile lord. So Mars in the domicile of Venus, Mars asks and Venus provides... Venus has the power here. Can you see why Mars is in a bad position? (Just think of the planets as people in their character roles) Take in the political situation for instance. Say the chart is diurnal so both of these planets are contrary to the sect and lets say that Saturn is in superior position to Venus (she is like the minority leader here because of her domicile status). She wants to maintain some pull with Saturn (the exaltation lord who finds worthy) and so she has a harder time giving what Mars asks for in the senate chambers. Mars is a sect mate and would naturally be pissed at Venus for crossing the Isle to aid Saturn which is the exaltation lord of Libra and she is in the middle of a problem between a Saturn in Cancer squaring off with a Mars in Libra, so Mars, not being in a position (in any of its own dignities) where he can do things for himself (assuming he's not in his own confines) can only trash the significations of that sign. All the while Venus is not that pleased with Saturn who is probably going too far in Cancer. But they still have to deliberate their subject matters (houses, lots, universal hermetic considerations, etc...).
So if the subject matter is career and Venus is lord of the 10th at the MC, Venus being a benefic by nature will ask for benefits for the native in career according to the nature of Venus (such as in the arts, the priesthood, modeling, etc). Both Saturn and Mars will have something to say about it as well. Mars will want to trash the "look" if the career is modeling, or cause problems with superiors due to insubordination because that is the nature of Mars. In a diurnal chart this would be especially so because the associations are bad (Mars potentially controls the 11th and 4th) and something hidden (4th) being brought to light. If the chart is nocturnal and Mars receives help, then the problems will be coming from the 7th house where potentially marriage that goes bad affects the career somehow.
In a nocturnal chart, this switches the other way around and Saturn is left out in the cold with Venus and Mars of the opposite opinion (Venus is now majority leader). This shift in power shows what wins out. These are the kinds of things you should be thinking about because there is a destination for the native to arrive at and it has to conform to the planets that have the greatest power in the chart (this begins with the lights summoning the wind at birth as Schmidt would say).
The exaltation lord is lifted up on a pedestal (presumably by the domicile lord) which is the host of the sign. In most of these cases, the politics are between planets of the opposite sect which is why Schmidt says that the planets joy in the signs where there is no exaltation for the most part (because only the feminine planets like to share power). So a planet in exaltation is found worthy (or possibly when the exaltation lord witnesses something the subject is "deemed worthy" of consideration in the cosmic courtroom.
The confine lord is within limits of a given sign. It is axiomaticos by setting the terms by which other planets operate. In the old cosmic courtroom scenario, Schmidt used to think that this was a criterion for whether the subject matter fit the rules for evidence in court (because the domicile/trigon lord and confine lord need to see each other in the anareta calculation (hyleg/alchocoden)). Notice that this ruler is said to set the horizon (terms/limits/confines) for the lifespan (the Greek word is "hoirion" which is where our English word horizon comes from). There is a broader context that is the inverse of the planet in domicile relation that happens with the confines, where the confine lord imposes limits upon the planet within its confines. I think the way modern astrologers think of planets in signs as "meaning something" is evidential and is theoretically similar to what Hellenistic astrologers thought of planets in confines. That is axiomaticos as well.
