The funny thing about an exalted planet is that it is a planet that never feels comfortable. This isn’t a domicile planet that is living in its own house and able to shield itself with expertise or familiarity or even control and rigidity. This is a planet that lives in another one’s house, expecting to make a big splash.

The Sun exalts in Aries, the Moon in Taurus, Mercury in Virgo, Venus in Pisces, Jupiter in Cancer, and Saturn in Libra.

It’s funny because the planets, with the exception of the Moon, tend to exalt in houses that are ruled by planets that are out of sect to themselves. Diurnal planets tend to live ruled by nocturnal planets when they exalt and vice versa. The Sun is ruled by Mars when it exalts. Saturn by Venus and Jupiter by the Moon. Venus is ruled by Jupiter when it exalts and Mars is ruled by Saturn. Only the Moon, alone, seems to beam when it is in a friend’s house.

So, there is an element of struggle with most exalted planets. These are planets that expect, because they seek to shift and disturb, to have to overcome something.

But exalted planets also sextile, for nocturnal planets, or trine, for diurnal ones, the places that they themselves rule. The Moon in Taurus sextiles its home in Cancer. Venus in Pisces sextiles Taurus and Mars in Capricorn sextiles Scorpio. The Sun in Aries trines Leo, Jupiter in Cancer trines Pisces, and Saturn in Libra trines Aquarius.

There exists social support, even if they expect to disturb the conditions of someone else’s house. Exalted planets are able to mobilize not only themselves but other people as well.

Exalted planets are about visibility. The Sun is increasing in light when it is in Aries. The Moon exalts in the next sign over. However, there is less difference in light periods between equinoxes than there are between solstices. The winter solstice is very dim while the summer solstice is very bright. Equinoxes? Both are somewhere in between.

I saw a map somewhere the other day where different people were told to try to walk in a straight line under either sunny or cloudy conditions. The lines of people walking in a straight line in sunny conditions were very straight. The lines of those walking in cloudy conditions were very loopy. If fallen planets are loopy planets that go somewhere when they try to go elsewhere, then exalted planets are hurried planets that try to go to a place as quickly and directly as possible.

This is why I call exalted planets hungry planets, because they’re fast planets. They’re planets that had to grow up fast, stretching themselves in postures and stances before they were really ready. Exalted planets behave like they’re athletes. They’re always training themselves to move better and faster. They expect to see themselves do better and can, sometimes, feel fraught with anxiety around the prospect of not being able to.

Imagine an athlete who, having trained for something their entire life, stakes it all on one game. That type of exhilaration is breathtaking. This is how exalted planets deal with what they feel is promised to them.

The hunger of an exalted planet is immediate and pressing. Venus in Pisces is hungry for love. Taurus Moon is craving wholeness the way you crave voluptuous food at the end of a long day. Aries Sun wants you to just notice them already. Virgo in Mercury rip ideas towards themselves like someone who has been intellectually starved their whole lives. Jupiter in Cancer is ready to move, always ready, because they’re absolutely sick of talking about the same old shit all the time. Saturn in Libra craves finally, fucking finally, knowing that they are able to carry the weight that they’re sick of carrying for so long.

Exalted planets don’t just exalt out of the blue. They exalt because of the conditions of life. Exalted planets aren’t always fun. I see a lot of people with an exalted Saturn who felt like they had to figure out how to hold order in a chaotic environment as children. I see a lot of Pisces Venus people who thought that they had to be anyone to everyone.

And, somewhere in every exalted planet, is the harrowing fear of not getting what they do desperately want. That’s a part of the hunger too, isn’t it? Exalted planets behave as they do also because of the terror of their hunger not being sated. Taurus Moon is often anxious around the prospect of not having home or family. Aries Sun is often anxious around the prospect of being ignored. Virgo Mercuries often volunteer their own labor because anxious around the prospect of something not getting done.

That’s the athlete's fear, the one that tries to act as though everything must be riding on every decision being made at the right time. It’s a preoccupied fear. Exalted planets don’t like losing. They sometimes feel very depressed or angry because of it. But, like athletes, they sing when they learn to integrate failure into their identities.

The point of a game, a race, or a performance isn't really to win. It's to do it with other people. Doing a sport alone is training. It's community that turns something into something more.

The best way to work with an exalted planet is to ask it “so what?” Ask a Pisces Venus “so what if you feel lonely sometimes?” Ask an exalted Jupiter “so what if there are moments in life where you lose meaning and everything feels senseless?” Ask an exalted Saturn “so what if you lose control?” Ask this question seriously because there will be lonely times, meaningless things, and unmanageable situations.

What you might find is that, despite there being loving moments and lonely ones too, despite there being meaningful moments and meaningless ones too, and despite there being organized things and uncontrollable things, that people find a way to be themselves anyway. Exalted planets are planets that live in unfriendly houses that, somehow, find a way to mobilize social support towards the things that they love, create, and believe in.

So, exalted planets are planets that live like athletes. They’re always training themselves, always attempting to move faster or in more surprising ways. Sometimes, they are put in situations before they are ready. But exalted planets, just like planets in fall, fail more often than they succeed. Exalted planets, just like planets in fall, are here to show us where we can go together.