Dispositor · the sign-lord

Every planet sits in a sign, and every sign has a lord. That lord is the planet’s dispositor. Mars in Cancer is disposited by the Moon, since the Moon rules Cancer; Venus in Leo is disposited by the Sun. The word simply names the sign-lord in its role as host of whatever it shelters.

The classical principle is that a planet’s results pass through the condition of its dispositor. The dispositor’s strength, its dignity, the house it sits in, the glances it receives, all color what the first planet can actually deliver. A well-placed planet held by a weak or afflicted dispositor is read as giving less cleanly than its own placement alone would suggest, and the reverse holds too.

The relationship chains. A planet’s dispositor has its own dispositor, and so on, until the chain reaches a planet standing in its own sign, which disposits itself and closes the loop. Two special cases are named: when two planets each occupy the sign the other rules they exchange dispositors, called parivartana, and a debilitated planet whose dispositor is strong and well-placed can have its weakness lifted, called neecha bhanga.