Exalted and debilitated planets in Vedic astrology, by sign

In Vedic astrology, a planet is exalted when it stands in the one sign where its good strength counts in full^3.51, and debilitated when it stands in the sign straight across from that one, the seventh sign along^3.39. In the sign across, the kind strength it had at its peak drops to nil^8.11. So an exalted planet is a planet at its best address, and a debilitated one is the same planet as far from that address as the zodiac allows.

That label is a real clue, but it's one clue in a chart full of them. Where your planet lands by house, who it keeps company with, and whose years you're in right now can lift a fallen planet or mute an exalted one. That's the reason the free personal reading looks at everything in your birth chart together before it says a word about you.

Which planet is exalted in which sign?

If a chart app has printed the word "exalted" or "debilitated" beside one of your planets, this is the list it was checking. Seven planets get an exaltation sign in a single line of the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, a centuries-old Sanskrit text: in order from the Sun, they are Aries, Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo, Cancer, Pisces and Libra^3.38. Here they are side by side with the sign each one falls to, and the stretch of sign the book calls its root sign, its moolatrikona.

The degrees come from a verse that writes its numbers as words, the way an old poem might say "the directions" for ten or "the nails" for twenty. Its words are the directions, the three qualities, eight-and-the-twins, the lunar days, the elements, the lunar mansions and the nails. Read the usual way, that's ten, three, twenty-eight, fifteen, five, twenty-seven and twenty, one per planet in the same order, with the fall in the seventh sign at the same degree^3.39.

Two of those numbers come back a few lines later in plain figures. The Moon is exalted only through the first three degrees of Taurus, and its root sign fills the rest of Taurus^3.40. Mercury's exalted stretch in Virgo runs to fifteen degrees^3.41.

The same two verses hold two more root signs: the Sun's is the first twenty degrees of Leo, with the rest of Leo its own sign^3.40, and Mars's is the first twelve degrees of Aries^3.41.

The rest of the column comes from the next two verses. Mercury's root stretch runs five degrees past its exalted zone, and Jupiter's covers the first ten degrees of Sagittarius^3.42. Venus has the first fifteen degrees of Libra and Saturn the first twenty of Aquarius^3.43.

What about Rahu and Ketu?

The two lunar nodes, Rahu (the North Node) and Ketu (the South Node), aren't in that line of seven. Their exaltation turns up much later, where the book starts reading Rahu's years: Taurus for Rahu, Scorpio for Ketu, with Cancer and Gemini as their root signs^36.29.

What you won't find is which sign that fall would be. Rahu's years do speak of a Rahu in its sign of debility, but we searched every verse for the words for debilitation next to every name it uses for Rahu and Ketu, in English and in Sanskrit, and no verse names the sign for either node. We leave that open, as the verses do.

How do I know if my planet is exalted or debilitated?

You need your Vedic chart, not a Western one. A Western chart starts its zodiac where the Sun sits at the spring equinox, while a Vedic one starts it against the fixed stars. The Earth's slow axial wobble has pulled those two zero points roughly 24 degrees apart, and our explainer of sidereal vs tropical zodiacs shows the gap in detail.

What that does to your planets: a placement in the first 24 or so degrees of a Western sign usually lands in the sign before it in your Vedic chart, and a late one stays put but moves near the sign's start. So a Western Sun at 15° Aries sits at about 21° Pisces in Vedic terms, and isn't exalted there at all. A Western Sun in early Taurus can turn out to be a Vedic Sun in Aries, its exaltation sign.

Once you have your Vedic positions, three steps settle it:

• Read each planet's sign against the table above.
• If your Moon is in Taurus, or your Mercury in Virgo, check the degree as well, because only part of each sign counts as exaltation for them.
• Note how near the planet is to its deepest degree. The text grades a planet's years by that distance, as you'll see below.

What does an exalted planet do for you?

Picture the part of your life where things seem to go right without much pushing: the class you aced without trying, or the skill people keep asking you to teach them. That's the closest everyday picture of an exalted planet in the matters it rules.

The book's own word for a planet in exaltation is dipta, "radiant", the first of nine named states^26.6. Exaltation is dipta, its own sign is svastha, "comfortable", and a great friend's sign is mudita, "delighted", with two more grades below that^26.7.

When a radiant planet's years arrive, they read as lordship over land, enthusiasm and courage, wealth and vehicles, a partner and a son, honorable work, respect from your relatives, and esteem and learning from a king^26.9. Today that can look like a home of your own, a boss or a client who backs you by name, and family who start taking your plans seriously.

Those are the text's readings, set out here for reflection. A decision about money, health or your family belongs with the people and professionals who know your actual situation.

A second label fits here too. A planet in its exaltation or its root sign is called garvita, "proud"^26.26. Its reader is also told to weigh a planet's kindness and its strength together, and to treat the strength as especially great in exaltation^26.52.

Even the planets with the hardest names get a good word here. One short list near the end counts Mars and Saturn as favorable when they stand in their own exaltation^47.11. If you've read that Saturn is the planet to fear, an exalted Saturn in Libra is the clearest case against that; our page asking whether Saturn is always bad goes further.

Is an exalted planet always good?

Think of someone you know who has every advantage on paper and still can't seem to get started. An exalted planet can be like that.

Take the Sun. Its strong years bring sons, intelligence, wisdom, a rise in authority, knowledge, wealth, fame, courage and happiness^36.1. But the conditions it gives for those strong years go beyond the sign: the Sun in its root sign, its own sign, its exaltation or its deepest exaltation, and also in an angle, a trine or the 11th house, and joined with the rulers of the 9th and 10th^36.2. When that Sun has strength and stands in its own divisions, the reading is great happiness and money coming in^36.3.

So exaltation opens the door, and the house and the company decide how far you walk through it. In plain terms, an angle is one of the four houses that start at your rising sign and each quarter after it (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th), and a trine is your 5th or your 9th. An exalted Sun in your 12th, keeping company with no one helpful, is still an exalted Sun, but the verse asking for the full result isn't describing it.

The angles add something else. Planets in their own sign, exaltation or a friend's sign, sitting in one of those angles, become helpers for each other, most of all when they stand in the 10th^12.22. An exalted planet tucked away from the angles misses that bonus.

Why does the exact degree matter?

Two people can both say "my Saturn is exalted" and still have very different years ahead of them. The book divides a planet's standing into eighteen grades, beginning with the exact degree of exaltation, then the exaltation sign in general, then just before and just after that degree, then the root sign, its own sign and a great friend's^36.105. A planet at its exact degree of exaltation, with great strength, gets years called Sampurna, "fully complete", with the enjoyment of a kingdom and good results^36.109.

One step down is a planet that stands anywhere in its exaltation sign and still has plenty of strength. Its years carry the marks of the goddess of fortune's kind glance and a fitting place to live^36.110. Those years are called Purna, "full", and they give many kinds of prosperity, though the same verse says they also bring illness^36.111. If that line touches something you're already worried about in your own body, take it to a doctor.

So a Saturn at 20° Libra and a Saturn at 2° Libra are both exalted, and even with equal strength their years are graded differently. If you only know the sign, you know half the label.

What does a debilitated planet mean?

Think of the skill you've worked hardest on that still doesn't come easily, the one where effort goes in and less seems to come out than other people get for the same work. That's the everyday shape of a planet in its fall.

The strength scale is plain about it. A planet gets an eighth of its good strength in a neutral's sign, and none at all in three places: its fall, an enemy's sign, or so near the Sun that it's lost in the glare (combust); and the wise, the verse adds, read the harsh strength in reverse order^3.52. That last clause matters. A planet in its fall isn't a blank. Its capacity to give the hard side of what it rules runs highest exactly where its kind strength runs out.

You'll see that in the hard verses. Take the Sun again: debilitated, or in the 6th, 8th or 12th, or weak, or with harsh planets, or with Rahu or Ketu, or beside the lords of your 6th, 8th or 12th^36.7. Its years then read as great trouble, damage to wealth and stores, a ruler's displeasure, travel abroad and loss through a ruler's punishment^36.8. Today the ruler can be an employer, a court or a tax office, and the travel can be a move you didn't plan.

Saturn's hard case is told in the same frank way. Saturn in the 6th, 8th or 12th, debilitated, or combust brings trouble from poison and weapons, loss of position and great fear^36.49. The next verse adds separation from father and mother, trouble for a partner and children, discord with authority, work that ends in loss, and confinement^36.50. One way to hold these today is as the outline of a hard stretch: years that ask you to guard your standing and look after the people closest to you.

At the far end of the scale, a weak planet deep in its fall gets years called Rikta, "empty", with harsh results, illness and misfortune; the verse also speaks of longevity, and we leave that out^36.112. Notice how the lists are built. In the Sun's and Saturn's verses the fall is one route among several to the same hard years, beside a hard house, weakness or harsh company, and the empty years ask for a planet that is both weak and deep in its fall.

Can a debilitated planet give good results?

Yes. In this text a planet in its fall can still be read as the maker of a king, if it has a clear view of your rising sign. Every planet that looks at your rising sign gives good results, and even a debilitated planet that looks at it is said to make a person a king^22.26.

A debilitated planet in the 6th, 8th, 3rd or 11th that still looks at the rising sign is called a giver of royal rank^22.27. The next verse adds that an exalted planet looking at the rising sign makes the same kind of royal combination^22.28.

Which planets can look at your rising sign from where they sit depends on the planet and its distance, which is a topic of its own. The point here is simpler: in this text, a fallen planet that looks at your rising sign is read as a royal combination. The guide to neecha bhanga raja yoga sets the popular "cancellation" checklists beside what these verses actually say.

There's a catch in the other direction. Planets that are combust, beaten in what the book calls a planetary war, debilitated, weak, in the sleeping state or one like it, or badly placed break a good combination that has already formed^7.12. A fallen planet can lift a chart through the rising sign, and the same fallen planet can undo a combination it belongs to. Which of the two your chart shows depends on where it sits.

What about exaltation in the navamsa (D9)?

The navamsa is your partner chart (D9), a chart built by dividing each sign into nine parts; our D9 guide explains how it works.

The text counts it when it reads a planet's years. Saturn's good years list its exaltation, own sign, a friend's sign, its root sign or the 9th house, and also an exalted navamsa or its own navamsa^36.45. The list goes on to Saturn in the 3rd or 11th, and the years it describes for all of these bring a ruler's honor and prosperity, good fame, money coming in and a love of learned talk^36.46.

Jupiter's good years list an exalted navamsa among their conditions in the same way^36.38. So a planet that isn't exalted in your birth chart can still pick up some of that standing from where it falls in your D9.

Which version is yours?

Run these on your own birth chart to see which of the readings above belong to you:

• Find each planet's Vedic sign and compare it with the exaltation line^3.38.
• Check the degree. For the Moon in Taurus, only its first three degrees count as exaltation, and the rest of the sign is its root sign^3.40. For anyone else, note how close it sits to its deepest degree, since the full-strength years belong to the exact degree^36.109.
• If one of your planets is debilitated, find out whether it looks at your rising sign. A fallen planet that does is read as a maker of royal rank^22.26.
• Find whose years you're in now. A radiant planet's years read as land, courage and respect^26.9, and a waning or fallen Moon reads as loss of wealth^36.19.

A single grade is never the reader's whole story. An exalted Venus in your 12th, a debilitated Mars that looks at your rising sign and a Moon in its root sign can all live in one chart, and they don't all speak at once. The free personal reading takes your birth details and writes you a page from all of it together. More beginner guides sit on our Vedic astrology learning hub, including what your planets' friends and enemies add to these grades.

Questions to sit with

• Where in your life does effort seem to pay back more than you put in, and where less?
• If one of your planets is in its fall, what would it mean to treat that area as a place for patience instead of a verdict?
• Which of the readings above felt familiar, and which felt like someone else's chart?
• When an exalted planet's years come around, what would you want to have ready?

Exalted and debilitated planets: short answers