Welcome to my Astro Advice Column! If you subscribe to my Astro-Kats or Star Kids Club groups you are able to ask me questions about astrology for this advice column.


Every possible ruler of my ascendant is debilitated. My domicile ruler is in detriment, my exaltation ruler is in fall, my triplicity and bound ruler is in detriment. Even the ruler of my sect light is in detriment! How do I work with this? What strengths might come from this? How do I boldly present myself in my full authenticity when I have no one to support me, no guidelines that work for me?

—Your Friend in Debility


What a great question, My Friend in Debility! It sounds like you have a bunch of debilitated planets in your chart or, perhaps, just a couple that all seem to relate somehow to your ascendant?

There are four “sins” (I use the term jokingly) in astrology—the domicile sin, the detriment sin, the exalted sin, and the fallen sin. I’m using the word sin to point out that each of these types of conditions might have something that they struggle over. Domicile planets always need to be in control. Exalted planets never quite feel satisfied.

Detriment planets know exclusion. Fallen planets are often too satisfied with too little. All of these conditions can feel painful or hard.

But detriment planets also are chaotically, madly creative. Planets in fall also make a person utterly hilarious. Domicile planets get the job done. Exalted planets ask us to dream bigger.

I once had two clients back to back—one had a chart full of debilitations. The other had a chart full of dignities. It turns out, they had very, miraculously similar issues. They both had issues around belonging. They just expressed this in very different ways.

A dignified planet might feel that it is possible to earn belonging and struggle for far too long trying to do so. A debilitated planet quits early. It’s too angry to earn goodness. It’s cuts its losses. What a wonderful relief—a debilitated planet already knows how to build a life, how to support life lived how it’s not supposed to be lived.

I have many debilitated planets in my chart. These are the planets that remember and know the famine of my homeland. Being planets that know scarcity, they also know a certain type of magic that dignified planets don't know. They know how to make stiff things tender. They know how to laugh at power.

That’s a beautiful thing. Debilitated planets are incredible. They know how to live how one is not supposed to live. We need more of this. We need an abundance of debilitated planet wisdom. We need to know how to build alternative futures together.

Debilitated planets are a kind of ruins. They, like ruins, resemble many things at once. They resemble many timelines. They know many timelines. That's why they bow and buckle around guidelines.

So, no guidelines support you. That’s great. Fuck guidelines. Your chart rulers are all debilitated. You’re not supposed to follow the rules. You’re trying to do something else here. It doesn’t matter if you feel confident or strong about this. It matters that you’re trying to support a life that is lived. Be hesitant. Be chaotic. Be confusing. But feel alive.

You mentioned that you’re sensing that you have no one to support you. That broke my heart a little. I also wondered—when does this statement feel heartbreaking true and are there any places or instances where it does not feel true?

Your triplicity ruler is in detriment, sure. Maybe you feel a little indescribable. Maybe your relationships don’t follow any rules. But your chart will always have some kind of support or be able to find some kind of support. Maybe it’s a ruler of another house that can witness some of its rulers. Maybe all of your debilitated planets create some kind of magical reception when another debilitated planet shows up through synastry or transits. Maybe there’s some kind of funky mixed reception going on between two planets in your chart where the ruler of one is in the other’s triplicity.

You always have some kind of support. You didn’t get here all by yourself.

I understand that this statement might feel odd. It might make you uncomfortable, like you have to distance yourself from something. It might even make a part of you angry. It might also relieve another part of you simultaneously.

This recognition of already existing support is here to try to support you in growing the love that you know. It doesn’t matter when that love can feel scarce or frightening. It often does for most of us, especially those of us who know exclusion. That’s okay. It still needs your support.

Find that support. Nourish it and enjoy it. Enjoy the chaos of debilitation also. There’s a lot of magic in debilitation—there is humor, there is satire, there are open ended questions, outer space, and things that no one who follows the rules will have ever thought of.

Some articles on debilitation that I like also include Kirah Tabourn’s Chart Ruler in Detriment and Blair Bogin *Sisterbride’s Debilitated Planets are Clowns.