What's the Deal with Sect?
What is Sect? Why is it important in Astrology? Let's find out.
What’s poppin? It’s your girl Christydabull, your local Taurus coming with another post for the girls who here to learn! If you’re new to my content, take some time to read through my work and heavily consider following (or subscribing) to my Substack for more Astrology content. I’m also accepting Anonymous Astrology questions for my column that I will be responding to on the monthly basis, so do keep your eyes out for the scoop. You are able to ask me any astrology question that you want; Spill the tea, or keep it simple, either way, your question will get answered in some sort of fashion. I highly advise you to describe me some scenarios that you want to look into more, in an advice column style, but if you just have astro questions, that is perfectly fine as well. Here is the link to the form and now…Let’s jump into the post now, shall we?
When I first came into Astrology, I learned the basics of Modern Astrology very quickly, less than a month for the symbols, what planets mean, what do signs mean etc. Even though I learned the basics very quickly, I started to engage with people about Astrology and learned even more. I still consider it an impressive feat to learn a whole new topic in such a short time, but Astrology is such an everlasting learning journey a person will face. One part of it is because no two charts are the same, nor will they say the same thing.
Eventually, I started to branch out into Traditional Astrology, just for a historical foundation and wanted to get a deeper message from it. The goal is to learn traditional roots/concepts/techniques and then make it digestible for those who are trying to understand astrology via tradition. I come from a Modern Astrology background, and while I still appreciate and utilize this system of Astrology, I feel like I need to be more familiar or understand the traditional techniques more so that I am able to discover new ranges within the Modern Sphere. Thus, it’s not an abandonment, but a Jupiter styled expansion(-ship?)
Great! We’re all on the same page now.
Let’s talk about Sect.
You’ve probably heard Astrologers or seen Astrologers refer to the concept of sect.
Let’s say it’s your first year of college, usually you have to go through an orientation before actually registering for classes. The orientation serves the purpose of you getting familiar with the organization, its environment, and the flow of it all. You may be split into mini groups, depending on how big your freshman class is, so this is a way to learn everything in smaller groups + socialize with people who may have common interests within that group.
Let’s say you actually get along with this group and you guys become close because you are all similar and share a common major that you’re studying for. You have now created a sector (sect) of a bigger organization. You have your own community within that organization, but still are apart of that organization regardless of who it is you align with.
Now Sect on its own is just the planets being formed into two different groups. We have 7 traditional planets, 3 belong to one sect, 3 belong to the next sect, and 1 is neutral. We can literally think of this as you being divided into your orientation groups at college.
The first thing that you should do as an Astrologer, or if you’re just trying to understand your chart you need to identify if your sun is a diurnal (day) or nocturnal (night) chart.
When you look at a chart, you will notice that the chart is usually divided into 4 parts. There is a line going horizontal and vertical to split up the pie like that. The in-between would be the houses, so houses 1,2,3 are all apart of one section of the chart, Northwest, and it keeps going to different sections.
Depending on the chart style, the lines may not be equal and they may be uneven. This is why you should always look for the ASC/DSC line on the chart to know where the line starts. For the Whole Sign’s system, the ASC/DSC line will always be labeled whereas if we look at a Placidus or Quadrant House System, then you would have to look at the 1H cusp to see what degree and sign the Ascendant falls in.
The horizontal line or the ASC/DSC line is the horizon. If the Sun in your chart is above that horizontal line, or the horizon, then you have a day chart.
Another way to look at this is that the 1st House is when sunrise starts. The bottom half of the 1H is still considered night but when the sun moves above the horizon, it’s starting to rise, thus making it a day chart.
The 7H is similar, but slightly different. Above the horizon for the 7H, the Sun is still a day chart, but once it goes below the horizon then the sun is currently setting thus turning the chart to a Night chart. It then will travel the bottom half of the chart until it reaches the ASC line again, and once it passes the day and night cycle continues.
I purposely drew a chart to show you guys that the Sun is not considered above the Horizon until it hits/crosses that ASC line.
It can be slightly confusing at first, but this is why I included visual examples for you guys to understand this concept a little more easily.
Moving on, now that we know how to determine whether a planet is diurnal or nocturnal, it’s time to move on to the planets within those two sects. Know that each sect comes with 3 planets: a luminary, a benefic of sect, and a malefic of sect.
For Diurnal charts: Sun is the luminary, Jupiter is the benefic, and Saturn is the malefic.
For Nocturnal charts: Moon is the luminary, Venus is the benefic, and Mars is the malefic.
There is also an easy way to remember what planet belongs to what sect, but this is if you know where the planet’s rejoice.
The Sun has joy in the 9th House.
Jupiter has joy in the 11th House
Saturn has joy in the 12th House
All of those houses fall on the Diurnal (DAY) side of the chart.
The Moon has joy in the 3rd House
Venus has joy in the 5th House
Mars has joy in the 6th House
All those houses fall on the Nocturnal (NIGHT) side of the chart.
Planetary joy is a scheme that classifies a planets “natural” place in the birth chart. This is also another way for us to include how the planets make their aspects to each other and what houses are associated with good or evil. Now, this is a traditional technique, do not look at your natal chart and think that if you have a planet in a “bad” house that it means you are an evil person. No…instead, just realize that those houses are going to discuss the darker part of life. For example, Mars has joy in the 6H, the house of bad fortune, which then shows us the connection of Mars being those irksome, negative feelings when something disrupts you from that straight path.
Note how I did not include Mercury within either sect. That is because Mercury is neutral and can bend between either sect. The easiest way to see which sect Mercury leans towards is if Mercury is in front or behind the sun as it rises.
Mercury is considered diurnal if it rises before the Sun.
Mercury is considered nocturnal if it rises after the Sun.
When it comes to the rejoice scheme, Mercury has joy in the 1H, which is interesting as you can see this represents the neutrality that it has. The 1H can be either diurnal or nocturnal depending on where the horizon (ASC-DSC) line is, thus this shows the predicament that Mercury can evolve to either side when he chooses to.
Now, what is even the point of knowing this information?
You need to understand the range of sect for this reason. If you are a day chart, then the planets that are on your side, or will give you the least amount of trouble will be Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn. Jupiter is going to be the planet that gives you the most beneific qualities, and Saturn is going to be the malefic that doesn’t causes as much distress to you. The qualities of that Saturn are suppressed, it doesn’t mean that it’s not Malefic anymore, but it’s in its own territory.
Now a few authors that I’ve read that talks about sect for their briefly allotted time slots is Chris Brennan and Joseph Crane. In Chris Brennan’s book Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune, ancient astrologers said that malefic in sect are going to be the more positive qualities of that malefic vs the malefic out of sect. Just as the benefic of sect will be more benefic than the benefic out of sect.
Let’s look at two chart examples to see how we could utilize sect in its basic form.
This is a chart of a real person! Let’s go back in our steps to identify what sect this chart is in.
First let’s look at where the ASC-DSC line is. Our Ascendant is in Virgo, but the ASC-DSC line is at 20°. Thus we have to check if the Sun falls above or below that.
Sun is located in the 5th house, it’s below the ASC-DSC line, thus we know this is a night chart.
Let’s take a look at the planets within the night sect. For this person, we would look at the conditions of the Moon, Venus, and Mars.
The Moon in this chart is in an angular house, in Virgo. This indicates to me that lunar qualities are working strong in this person’s chart. Angular houses are the strongest, most felt places for a planet to be. Since this Moon is in the 1H, these lunar qualities are directed towards self, so the moon is going to explain what the person feels about themselves.
I haven’t gone into essential dignities with you guys yet, but this will be a completely different post, however I know that her moon has triplicity, so there’s this feeling average about self, it isn’t the most highest of confidence, but it is not low either. This person has a self awareness about themselves, may not connect to it all the way, but it’s there.
Think of significations of the moon: nurturing, thoughts, emotions, and she carries this presence of knowing what goes on in matters in relation to others. So these very well may be inherent goals that the person has within themself and wants to carry that on through their life.
The next planet we would look at is Venus, due to her being the benefic of sect. It’s interesting because Venus is opposing the Moon in this person’s chart. So both of these planets are making their presence known in this chart, very well. Venus is also in an angular house, so its qualities are brought forth strongly.
Venus in the 7H signifies that these planets qualities are being spread or shared with other people. Venus in Pisces makes this the exaltation of Venus, meaning this planet is doing very well. This person may have an easier time sharing their resources with others. This shows us the benefic qualities regarding love for others, close knit connections, and enjoyment of activities with other people.
So we know this person on the inside is already considerate, generous, and has nurturing quality upon them. This then connects to the gifts they share with others, the feel good nature they bring to the table. We can even say that this person is often looking out to bettering others and giving them quality, nothing less.
Let’s talk about both malefics before we move on to the next chart example. This person’s malefic OF sect would be Mars, which sits in the 3H. Here’s an extra bit of information I’m going to throw out to you guys. Malefic planets in sect, in NIGHT charts do better on the day side of the chart. This means that if the sun is on the nocturnal side, mars would flourish more on the opposite side. However, this doesn’t take away too much from Mars being the malefic in sect, it just mutes the qualities a bit.
Since their Mars is in the 3H, this could show up as this person maybe experiencing competitions, or complications with siblings and/or communication styles. They have forward thoughts, their speech can get a bit muddy because Mars does cause disruptions, however it won’t get as much reaction as it would if it was out of sect. The tension is real, but it may not bring too much adversity out of it, at least long lasting adversity.
Now since Mars is the planet of sect, that means Saturn would be the planet OUT of sect. This means Saturn is going to be the planet that gives this person a harder time. Saturn for them is in the 9H of Taurus. Now Saturn has some strength here, so this also can subdue some of the qualities of the planet; however, this planet still struggles due to some of these 9H topics, such as morality, traveling long distances, and their belief systems. It doesn’t mean they don’t have an idea of what they support or don’t, but it can be a lack of expression, and sharing of these ideas.
One more example for you guys, and I’ll wrap this little session up.
Let’s look at this next chart.
Same step process, is the Sun above or below the ASC-DSC line?
Well would you look at that? The Sun is in the 8H! It is definitely above the DSC line, therefore this is our Day Chart.
For Diurnal Charts, we consider Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn as our planets in sect.
Looking at the Sun, we have it in the 8H. The Sun has Face, which is a last ditch effort being made to express the qualities of the Sun. Remember, our Sun is our individuality, it’s our demeanor, a part of our ego, a sense of authority, etc….
It’s our sect light as well! This can show up as this person attempting to make a name for themselves, although there is some fear/insecurity happening here. We could say their fears can drive them to make moves, and set goals. Since Venus is connected to that Sun via combustion, we could say one of the goals could be harmony.
The next planet we would look for is our benefic, which would be Jupiter. Jupiter in this chart is in Pisces, in its domicile. Jupiter is expressing generosity to its fullest, towards self and their community. Its position in the 12H makes the person confused in some ways, mostly about the abilities they have, that other’s may see in them, but that they may not see in themselves. The 12H is a dark house, symbolic for its undoing, the subconscious behaviors of ourselves, and where things, people, lessons come to an end. There’s an innate understanding, or perhaps awareness of these themes. So although the conditions of Jupiter may face some struggles because of the house it’s in, but through sect and dignity we know that Jupiter is utilizing it’s power to the utmost to act in it’s benefic grace.
Finally our Malefic in sect is Saturn, which is in the 1H at 29° of Aries. Saturn in an angular house brings out the conditions of the planet greatly; however, this Saturn is in its fall. Thus this means that Saturn in this chart, even though it’s in sect, is still giving this person somewhat of a hard time. When I get into Essential dignities, I will give you guys pointers on how to interpret these concepts more in-depth, but for a planet to be fallen, to me it shows that planet having internal struggles that prevents it from act out in the manner that it wants to approach. Thus, we could say that this person may have internal struggles towards a type of focus, or limitations that get set upon them. Still, Saturn can provide its own aid by having the person learn how to stand on their own two feet, firmly. This is honestly an interesting case viewing this because the in sect planet is undergoing it’s own struggles, so let’s look at the out of sect planet to see what’s going on with it.
Mars is the out of sect malefic, and it’s located in this person’s 6H. The 6H is a cadent house, it doesn’t have the strength of what an angular house would provide. However, this mars has enough strength in itself to perform how it needs to. Funny enough, Mars has his joy in the 6H, in short terms, that implies that Mars acts his best in that house. The 6H is known as a house of health, and Mars can act as this disruption figure towards the individual’s wellbeing. The interesting thing is that Mars is connected to Jupiter via opposition, we could say that in sect benefic is giving it’s grace to the out of sect malefic, but it also could be aiding Mar’s qualities. Regardless, Saturn and Mars are undergoing a connection, the ruler of the 1H, which has Saturn in it, is in the 6H. The malefics happen to be doing two different types of works with this person, although still acting on their own.
Ladies and Gentlemen, there you have it! Sect! Magnificent.
Let me reiterate a couple of points and then I will leave you all to look at interpretation in a new way.
It is important to know what Sect your planets belong to. You do this by determining if your chart is a day or night chart. The benefic in sect will be more beneficial to you vs the benefic out of sect. The point of understanding this concept is to help you guys layer your understanding of how the planets play out in your chart. Some people will hear about how Mars is the big bad planet that only is here to ruin your life and not relate to that fully. Why is that? Maybe because Mars is your malefic in sect and it’s tempering the qualities of Mars, making it work more for you rather than against you.
Even in the last chart example, we see how layered this topic can make for interpretations. We see how houses play a role in this, how dignity play a role in this. This post is just the set up for more information. You need this information to move on to the other topics I want to discuss. And with that, I’m excited for the lessons we will all learn from this. Make sure to hit my forum box if you have any more questions on this topic or how to use it in your own chart and until next time!
~ Christydabull
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This is so informative and helpful. I’ve never even heard of sects before. Thank you for sharing!
BETTER THAN I EVER WAS BEFORE !!!!