Domicile planets are exhausting—not necessarily to be around but to have. Sam Reynolds, in his presentation on essential dignities at ISAR, talks about how having domicile planets or natural talents towards something can entrench a fixed mentality around learning rather than support a growth oriented one.

Domicile planets are fucking heavy! Have you ever been at home for an extended period of time? You stretch out, your stuff gets everywhere, and you take up a lot of space. Domicile planets take up a lot of space in a chart. At home, you start to fear leaving the home, feeling as though you are too small and vulnerable to exit your shell. You start to feel like other people are braver than you are. Domicile planets are big and heavy. They take up a lot of space—but, they feel small on the inside.

Domicile planets are like gifted children. They have all that they need but their own sheer potential terrifies them. They wear the expectations of other people like great, big stilettos that force them to stand higher than they’re used to or than they need to.

People with a lot of domicile planets tend to behave like the eldest child in a family. They are great at supporting other people when they witness someone making a mistake! They’re great role models and mentors! They can teach! But, when they themselves fuck up? Oh my god, it feels like an identity crisis,

A lot of the time, when people with a lot of domicile planets feel stuck, it’s not because they’ve made too many mistakes but because they haven’t failed enough. They haven’t learned how to actively fail, which is a thing that is very different from passive failure. Passive failure is when you stick at a thing that bores you and sickens you because you know that you’re good at it. Passive failure drives disillusionment and apathy. Active failure is when you terrify yourself.

Domicile planets deal with a lot of shame. There’s shame around not fitting in or trying to fit in too much. There’s shame around not trying hard enough or trying too hard. A lot of the time, domicile planets retreat when they suspect that they will not succeed in their efforts on the first try because, being expected to do well, they have trouble imagining what to do when they don’t know how to do something.

I’ve noticed that detriment planets can be much more confident than domicile planets. This is because detriment planets have no idea what people want from them. They don’t give a shit. Domicile planets do give a shit. Domicile Moon cares about fitting in, domicile Sun cares about being admired, and domicile Mercury cares about the results.

If you have a chart that is saddled with a lot of domicile planets or have a domicile planet as your chart ruler, it is very important to deconstruct embarrassment for yourself. It is important to deconstruct this emotion in particular because it is an emotion that is so strongly related to self awareness. Domicile planets are self aware planets, which means that they are often embarrassed planets when they are not in control of control.

If you have a chart heavy laden with domicile planets, you might have a set way of doing certain things. You might do things this way not because it is the best way for you to learn but because you don’t know any other way. If you have a lot of domicile planets, you might feel a tad bit burned out, now and then, not with anything in particular but with being who you are, because being who you are takes an immense amount of work. You might be more bored than you need to be as a domicile heavy person.

If you have a domicile heavy chart, your potential might terrify you because it thrills you. Your intelligence or beauty or charisma might have terrified authority figures into disciplining you when you were a kid. You don’t have to be as scared of your potential as you were taught to be. You don’t need anyone telling you how you need to live your life or how you’re supposed to be.