When Your Ascendant Ruler Is In Detriment

General

Oct 9

I find great joy in reading for folks who have their ascendant ruler (aka chart ruler) in detriment, as I have this myself and I’ve spent a lot of time unpacking what that means for me, which gives me the opportunity to provide folks with an experience of being seen.

I’m a Pisces rising with Jupiter in Virgo, sitting on my Descendant. In addition to that, the ruler of my DSC, Mercury, is also in detriment in Sagittarius, sitting right smack on top of my Midheaven. So the two planets that rule my angles, are both in detriment, and angular, and in each other’s signs.

What I’ve learned from this is that my “functional” looks completely dysfunctional when compared to the dominant culture. Where a typical person might go from A > B > C with relative ease, for me it might look like A > D > E > B > A > C.

For example, this post was originally 2x as long as it is now. I had to go, write too much, in order to edit it down to where it is now.

It’s frustrating AF to feel like you have to do a trillion extra steps to get to C when everyone else seems to do so with ease. But I’ve come to learn that those mental detours I take actually give me a greater perspective on things, like taking the scenic route even though it adds an hour to your trip. Yeah, you’re delayed, but you go to take in way more, which adds to your overall understanding.

This tends to be the case with mutable risings with Mercury or Jupiter in detriment. When it comes to other planets, it looks a little different, however there is a common theme with folks who have their ASC ruler in detriment––feeling like you just don’t fit in most of the time, or that you're not "good enough". The way you go about living your life is always going to look different than those around you (and that’s ok).

Detriment describes the condition of a planet that is in an environment (sign) that is contrary to its nature. Every planet has their homes, or domiciles. This is a place that is suitable to their basic nature, and it contains the resources they need to carry out their individual missions or jobs.

For instance, Venus just wants to form relationships, find commonalities between people, and unify. It does this really well in Libra, one of its domiciles. Venus in Libra can charm the pants off of folks and create beautiful, harmonious things like art & music, things that can bring pleasure and spark joy. Libra is an environment that allows Venus to do Venus things with a level of ease and comfort. However, when Venus is in Scorpio, Mars’ sign, it’s thrown into an environment that isn’t built for it, and it’s actually contrary to its nature. It’s like putting a penguin in the desert.

This doesn’t mean that Venus simply doesn’t function while in Scorpio, it just does it in a way that isn’t typical or “normal” by societal standards. Venus in Scorpio still finds ways to relate to others, but does so in a deep, penetrative way. Venus in Libra is pretty good at making surface-level connections (an air sign), while Venus in Scorpio cannot stand to hover on the surface, it NEEDS to go deep (water sign). And that can be difficult, to require deep, intimate connections in order to form relationships because, well, not everyone is ready for that! This frustration can lead to an overall rejection of getting to know new people unless there’s an intention of forming deeper ties.

Another example––Mercury is highly functional at doing Mercurial things (writing, reading, ingesting information, drawing connections between things) while in its domiciles of Gemini & Virgo. Those signs provide Mercury with the necessary environment and resources to do what it wants to do, with some level of ease and comfort. However, when Mercury is in Sagittarius, a sign opposite of its domicile of Gemini, it’s far away from home, and in a place where its resources aren’t available to it. It basically has to figure out how to make it work, how to do Mercurial things in an environment that is contrary to its nature. It becomes really difficult for Mercury to do the detailed work it wants to do in Sagittarius, which is basically a vast galactic landscape of BIG IDEAS. Little Mercury is left trying to make sense of concepts, beliefs, philosophies, which can lead to a lot of sensory overload & brain exhaustion.

There’s a lot more to say about this topic, especially in regards to health and vitality too, as folks with the ASC ruler in detriment might have a harder time feeling OK in their bodies, but I’ll save that for another post. Maybe I’ll do a webinar or write something more extensively on this topic, because it’s one I’m really passionate about! Let me know if you’d like to hear more.

If you have your ASC ruler in detriment, just know that I see you, and more importantly, know that there isn’t anything “wrong” with you, it’s just that you function in a way that doesn’t fully align with the dominant culture that you’re in, and that’s ok. It’s frustrating, it’s annoying, it can be debilitating at times, but know that your differences give you a perspective that not everyone has, and with some acceptance and appreciation of that, it can end up being your greatest strength.

Hope my detrimentals out there feel seen with this one.

I love you!