Venus in Virgo: debilitated, and what the texts read into it

Venus in Virgo is Venus in its sign of debilitation, the lowest of the sign dignities in BPHS, and this engine labels it Debilitated across the whole sign. That label is only the starting point. What the placement does in a chart is a separate question, answered by the house Virgo occupies from your Lagna, the houses Venus rules from there, and the planets that aspect it. This page sets out each of those, with the classical statement for this exact combination.

It covers the combination only. For Venus as a graha - its significations, strength and dashas - start with Venus in Vedic astrology. For the sign itself - its lord, its nakshatras and what a rising Virgo means - see Virgo, Kanya Rashi. What follows is a map of rules and of what the texts say, not a forecast about anyone.

Venus in Virgo: dignity, and how this app decides it

BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50 lists the exaltation signs of the seven grahas and their deepest degrees; for Venus (Shukra) the sign is Pisces and the deepest point 27 degrees. The same sloka puts debilitation in the 7th sign from exaltation, at the same degree, which for Venus is Virgo at 27 degrees. Saravali Ch. 4 Sl. 35-36 gives the same signs and degrees. So Virgo is where Venus is debilitated (neecha), with the lowest point at 27 degrees.

How the engine decides

The function that labels every planet in your chart, dignityOf, runs its tests in a fixed order: exaltation first, then Moolatrikona, then debilitation, then own sign, and only then the relationship between the planet and the sign's lord. For Venus in Virgo the debilitation test decides it at every degree of the sign, so the label is Debilitated from 0 to 30 and no other planet's position can change it. Whether a classical cancellation applies is a separate rule, covered under neecha bhanga; this page does not apply it.

The scoring is the engine's, not the text's. BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 59-60 grades the results - exaltation full, Moolatrikona three quarters, own sign half, a friend's sign a quarter, a neutral's an eighth, an enemy's sign or debilitation nil. The engine gives Exalted and Moolatrikona a sthana strength of 10, Own sign 7.5, Friendly sign 6.25, Neutral 5, and Enemy sign and Debilitated 0. The order is the same; the gaps between the steps are not. The general idea is under dignity. Neighbouring placements show the contrast: Venus in Leo and Venus in Libra, the exaltation case Venus in Pisces.

The nakshatras Venus moves through in Virgo

Virgo holds padas 2, 3, 4 of Uttara Phalguni, all four padas of Hasta and padas 1, 2 of Chitra. Each pada is 3 degrees 20 minutes, so the spans below follow from the pada count. The dignity label is the same in all of them; the nakshatra adds its own lord and pada to the reading, which the nakshatra pages take up: Uttara Phalguni, Hasta and Chitra.

What the classical texts say about Venus in Virgo

Saravali Ch. 28 Sl. 11-12

Virgo is Venus's debilitation. Saravali's line is mixed: gentle, skilful, helpful and sweet-spoken, earning through several sources, visiting shrines and a scholar in assemblies; and also lacking discrimination, mean, without happiness or pleasures, with bad company and more daughters than sons, in the text's words.

The lines on either side make the contrast clear. For Leo (Sl. 9-10) the chapter gives comfort and kindness, with an unease beneath them; for Libra (Sl. 13-14) it gives earned wealth, duty and fame. For Virgo the short form is skill and many sources of income, with little contentment. See Venus in Leo and Venus in Libra for those lines in full.

Saravali Ch. 28 Sl. 37-42: the aspect lines

Saravali then reads Venus in Gemini or Virgo under the aspect of each other planet. These lines often change the verdict more than the sign line does, because they are where the chapter turns praise into censure or the reverse. In paraphrase:

• Aspected by the Sun: good relations with the king, mother and spouse, learning and wealth.
• Aspected by the Moon: dark eyes and beautiful hair, comforts and conveyances, splendour, beauty and fortune.
• Aspected by Mars: strong passions and good fortune, with wealth wasted through women.
• Aspected by Mercury: learning, sweetness, wealth, conveyances and children, fortune, and leadership of people.
• Aspected by Jupiter: great happiness, radiance, courage, learning and the role of a preceptor.
• Aspected by Saturn: great misery, insult, fickleness, envy and dullness.

The Bhrigu Sutras commentary notes that Venus is never more than 48 degrees from the Sun and Mercury never more than 28. A planet seven signs away is at least 150 degrees off, so neither the Sun nor Mercury can ever stand in the 7th sign from Venus, and their lines describe a configuration the sky does not produce. The pattern is the useful part: the same sign reads well or badly depending on what aspects it, so the sign line is only half of Saravali's verdict. Which of these lines applies to a given chart is a matter of counting houses, as the worked example below shows.

Saravali Ch. 45 on the dignity itself

Saravali Ch. 45, "Effects of Planetary Dignities", adds a short line for each class of dignity, independent of the sign. For Venus debilitated (Sl. 15-18) it gives subordination, loss of the spouse and a crooked disposition. These are the text's statements; this app reports them and does not turn them into predictions.

BPHS and Bhrigu Sutras

BPHS does not give a sign-by-sign line for Venus. Its Ch. 75 Sl. 1-2 rule for Malavya Yoga needs Venus in its own or exaltation sign in a Kendra, so Venus in Virgo never forms it, whatever the Lagna. The Venus section of the Bhrigu Sutras commentary agrees on the signs (own Taurus and Libra, exaltation Pisces at 27 degrees, debilitation Virgo at 27 degrees) and on the friends (Mercury, Saturn), enemies (Sun, Moon) and neutrals (Mars, Jupiter). It differs on one number: it gives the first 20 degrees of Libra as Moolatrikona, where BPHS gives the first half, 15 degrees. This engine follows BPHS. The Bhrigu Sutras proper is arranged by house rather than by sign, so it has no line for Venus in Virgo as such.

Where the texts agree, and where they part

• Agreed: Venus's exaltation is Pisces and its debilitation Virgo, deepest at 27 degrees (BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50, Saravali Ch. 4 Sl. 35-36, the Bhrigu Sutras commentary).
• Agreed: dignity is not the whole reading. Saravali weighs it by the aspecting planet (Ch. 28 Sl. 37-42); BPHS by rules such as the Kendra test for Malavya Yoga.
• Silent: BPHS has no character line for Venus in Virgo as such. Of the texts used here, Saravali is the only one that writes one.
• Different numbers: the Moolatrikona span in Libra is 15 degrees in BPHS and 20 degrees in the Bhrigu Sutras commentary. This engine uses BPHS.
• Different scales: BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 59-60 puts Moolatrikona a step below exaltation; this engine gives both the same sthana strength.

What Venus rules from each Lagna, with Venus in Virgo

Venus rules Taurus and Libra. With whole-sign houses the table below is mechanical: the second column is where Virgo falls, the third and fourth are the houses Venus rules. The planned house pages, such as Venus in the 1st house and Venus in the 10th house, take each house further.

Two groups of rows are worth singling out. For Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn rising, Virgo is a trikona (the 1st, 5th or 9th). For Aries, Libra and Aquarius rising, it is a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th), and the engine's planet table names that house type alongside the dignity. Neither fact changes the dignity label; both change how the planet is read.

Worked example: 19 October 1985, 17:44 IST, New Delhi

An illustrative birth, not a real person, computed in this app's engine and found by a deterministic search. Aries rises at 2.43 degrees. Venus is at 10.03 degrees of Virgo, in Hasta pada 1, in the 6th house, not retrograde and not combust. The engine labels it Debilitated. Anyone can re-enter the date, time and place in the Birth Chart calculator and see the same chart.

Why Debilitated. At 10.03 degrees Venus falls in the 0 to 30 degree band, and because the label comes from Venus's own dignity table, no other planet's position enters into it.

Lordship. For a Aries Lagna, Taurus is the 2nd house and Libra the 7th, so Venus rules the 2nd and the 7th and sits in the 6th. The 6th is a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th), which the engine notes beside the dignity.

Aspects. Saravali's aspect lines need a planet whose drishti reaches Virgo. Using the rule this engine applies - every graha aspects the 7th house from itself, Mars also the 4th and 8th, Jupiter the 5th and 9th, Saturn the 3rd and 10th - Jupiter in the 10th aspects the 6th. So this Saravali line applies alongside the sign line: for Jupiter, great happiness, radiance, courage, learning and the role of a preceptor. Where lines pull in different directions, the text does not say which wins, and this page does not decide it.

Company. Mars (1.25 degrees) shares Virgo with Venus. Saravali's Ch. 28 sign and aspect lines cover aspects, not planets in the same sign, so this page adds no reading of its own for the conjunction.

The rest of the chart. Sun is debilitated in Libra and Jupiter is debilitated in Capricorn. That is a reminder that one placement describes one part of a chart, and the reading of Venus in Virgo is never the reading of the whole.

How often Venus is in Virgo

Across 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060, Venus was in Virgo in 234 of them, 7.8 per cent. That is a property of the sky in the sample, not a count of people. The Bhrigu Sutras commentary notes that Venus is never more than 48 degrees from the Sun, so Venus moves through the signs roughly alongside the Sun over the years, with retrograde loops that can hold it in one sign for longer. The share therefore moves with which parts of the year the sample happens to cover.

Checking Venus in Virgo in your own chart

1. 1.Cast your chart with the Birth Chart calculator. Confirm Venus is in Virgo and note the label the planet table gives it.
2. 2.Note the house Virgo occupies and the houses Taurus and Libra occupy: those are where Venus sits and what it rules.
3. 3.The label will not move with other planets, so go straight to the aspects.
4. 4.List the planets that aspect Virgo: anything in the 7th sign from it, Mars when the sign is 4th or 8th from Mars, Jupiter when it is 5th or 9th from Jupiter, Saturn when it is 3rd or 10th from Saturn. Only those bring a Saravali Ch. 28 Sl. 37-42 line into play.
5. 5.Look at strength with the Shad Bala calculator, the ninth-part chart with the Navamsa calculator, and timing with the Vimshottari Dasha calculator and the Venus Mahadasha page.

Is Venus debilitated in Virgo?

Yes. Virgo is the 7th sign from Venus's exaltation in Pisces, so it is the sign of debilitation, deepest at 27 degrees (BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50). This engine labels it Debilitated at every degree. Classical cancellation is a separate rule; see neecha bhanga.

Does the degree of Venus in Virgo matter?

Not for the label, which is the same at every degree of Virgo. The degree still sets the nakshatra and pada, and how close Venus is to the Sun for combustion.

Can another planet change the dignity of Venus in Virgo?

No. The label comes from Venus's own dignity table, so the engine never reaches the relationship test. Other planets change the reading through aspect, as in Saravali Ch. 28 Sl. 37-42, but not the label.

Does Venus in Virgo give Malavya Yoga?

No. BPHS Ch. 75 Sl. 1-2 needs Venus in its own or exaltation sign in a Kendra, and Virgo is neither for Venus.

Which nakshatras can Venus occupy in Virgo?

Uttara Phalguni (padas 2, 3, 4), Hasta (padas 1, 2, 3, 4) and Chitra (padas 1, 2), per this engine's nakshatra table.

How common is Venus in Virgo?

In this app's sample it was in Virgo in 234 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060, 7.8 per cent. That describes the sky in the sample, not a share of people.