There are several versions of Essential Dignities by Triplicity and by Terms.  The   original system of Triplicity Rulers was that which we now attribute to Dorotheus of Sidon, though he did not develop it.  The original system of Term rulers was that which we now call ‘Egyptian’

In the second century CE Claudius Ptolemy suggested an alternative system, though it is not even clear whether he used it himself.  His system does not seem to have been used to any significant extent until William Lilly and other Seventeenth Century English Astrologers, introduced it into their own work.  By Lilly’s time it was thought that Ptolemy was much more central to the original system of Astrology than he actually was and genuine Hellenistic methods, including the Lots and the Dorothean and Egyptian Terms were thought to be later Arab innovations.  So Lilly thought he was helping in a return to the original Astrology.

There is some variation between the rulers or the Water Triplicity as attributed by Lilly and those attributed by Ashmand in his 1882 translation of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos. This led to some speculation that Lilly’s attribution was wrong and that Ashmand’s was the better version.

When Astrolabe developed Solar Fire 3, they used a table of Essential Dignities that effectively accepted Ashmand as their default.  They also added a Lilly version and later a Dorothean/Egyptian version but these are difficult to change so what follows is a set of instructions for editing the Essential Dignities in Solar Fire.  I’m using Version 9 but this should work on earler versions.

Step 1:

You need to edit at least one of the essential dignity files contained in the Solar Fire program folder using the Almuten/Dignities editor found under the utilities menu . That means finding out where that folder is on your computer. For me it was in Program Files (x86) but earlier versions may be in Program Files.  Solar Fire also saves user files in a folder in My Documents, called Solar Fie User Files.  You will need to save any new dignity files into that folder (in the Almutes and Dignities sub folder)

Then start up Solar Fire and open the Almuten /Dignities editor from the Utilities menu. You will need to use the File/Open menu to navigate to your Solar Fire folder and select one of the files with a .alm file to edit. I chose essdig.alm and this is probably the easiest one to do.  There are others and you can edit them as well if you wish.

 

The Almutens/Dignities editor with essdig.alm loaded

Step 2:

Once loaded into the editor click on the Options button top right (see screenshot above) and alter the Triplicity and Terms rulers to Dorothean and Egyptian respectively (see screenshot) and click OK to return to the editor screen.

Step 3:
Now edit the full name description to read Essential Dignities (see screenshot)

It’s not essential to edit the description but you might chose to do so if you wish to be completely tidy.

Step 4:

You need to save the file but it is important to change it’s name and to save it in the Solar Fire user folder in My Documents.

So in the editor use File Save As and rename it to myessdig (Solar Fire automatically supplies the file extension) and navigate to the Solar Fire User Files folder, open it and find the Almutens & Dignities folder (should be the top one) open it and then save myessdig to it.

That completes the use of the Editor, so you can safely exit it.

Step 5:

From the Utilities menu select Page Designer. You can then use File Open, to find and load the Horary Page. from the list of pages displayed.

Step 6:

Once the page has loaded click on the Essential Dignities Object and it should become framed in a red outline with sizing points. This will bring up the properties, of the Essential Dignities object over on the right. By default the Dignit File box (next to the bottom on the list) is empty, meaning that Solar Fire uses it’s own default dignities. You need to change that to show myessdig  as the Dignity File. If you highlight the box you will see an entry window open at the top. type myessdig in there and press return (see screenshot). Remember to save the page using File Save. You don’t need to change its name but you can do if you want to use the default and the new dignities interchangeably.

If you are using the horary page which shows mutual receptions, you will need to click on that object and repeat the process of making myessdig the Dignity file.

Page designer showing the loaded Horary page.  The lower screeshot shows a close up of the  Properties box and the box for entering the Dignities file name (you should leave the extension off) .  Once entered the file name shows up in the dignity file box.

Selecting the horary page for any chart will now provide you with the Dorothean Triplicity Rulers and Egyptian Terms and if you are using mutual receptions, the adjustment to that object will reflect the chosen Essential Dignities file

My view is that this procedure is almost Kafkaesque in it’s complexity but there is one advantage. You can now change any page where Essential Dignities are used in the same fashion and you can even create your own page.

If you create further dignity files by re-editing myessedig and, say, choosing Lilly Triplicities and then saving it as lillyessdig you can have pages for all three of Solar Fire’s Dignities options. Even so, they should have made this much easier and much more clear.

A technician form Esoteric Technologies (Solar Fire’s publishes) told me that closing Solar Fire and then right clicking on the Desktop Icon allows Solar Fire to be run  as an Administrator.  This allows you to edit and save the Solar Fire program folder versions and to save them under their existing name back into the program’s folder.  Doing this has a bonus feature.  The Reports, Current Chart, Tabulations, gives an Essential Dignities table that reflects your chosen preferences.  it also saves you having to edit in Page Designer.  However it’s even more arcane than method described in detail above.  So if you’re at all concerned about causing damage, it’s better to use the system of creating a new dignities file.  If it doesn’t work properly all you need do is delete it put the Page Designer properties back to their original state.

To me this is something of an exercise in masochism.  I tried the same basic change of dignities for Delphic Oracle and it took me sixteen seconds.  That’s because DO like virtually every other program that features the essential dignities allows them to be changed in settings.  It would take another sixteen seconds to switch them back.

You do lose the chance of producing a page that brings all the information together but then the reports in Delphic Oracle always reflect the settings, where relevant.  So it’s still possible to obtain the information.  The same holds for the freeware Morinus.