Veto Power: Your Final Significator
by Raven Kaldera
(Astrologer’s Note: This series of articles is geared toward people who already have some grounding in astrology - for example, they have a copy of their charts and have studied it, know what the different signs and planets are already, and aren't going to scratch their heads in confusion when I use the term “aspects” or “houses”. If you are still a beginner, I strongly recommend Steven and Jodie Forrest’s book The Inner Sky as a good beginning astrology manual. Once you’ve gotten through everything in it, you should have no trouble following my discussions.)
The final significator of a chart is something that is rarely calculated; it’s considered rather “quaint”, “archaic”, something mentioned briefly in old-time astrology books (usually dry and full of tiny print) but is mostly skipped over by more modern, humanistically-centered astrologers. I believe that this is a mistake, because the final significator can tell you a lot about your thought processes and how you make decisions and take actions.
So what, exactly, is the final significator? Think of your chart as a big board meeting, noisy and controversial. (If you don’t like the big-business metaphor, think of it as a political meeting of activists, each with their own passion and agenda.) Each planet represents a particular voice in your head, a need or desire, a part of you that must be satisfied. Sometimes they disagree. All right, to be honest, it’s unlikely that you won’t have some disagreement going on somewhere about something. After all, since when have Saturn and Uranus agreed on anything? Even when they’re conjunct they disagree! And any planets with hard aspects, such as a square or opposition between them, will pretty much be in a constant state of disagreement, just on principle. It’s why people are so complex; we are tugged by inner tides represented by these urges. Your Sun wants to change jobs and your Saturn thinks that would be a terrible idea, what with the rent coming due and all. Mars wants the sexy lover; Venus wants the one who can dance, and Moon wants the one who fusses over you and cooks you dinner. If they’re not all the same person, you’re in for a noisy board meeting.
Anyway, that meeting. Someone, some planet, will get the job of being the facilitator, or dictator, or something in between. The final significator is the planet with the gavel, the executive, the one who has the power to say NO, and override everyone else. It may not be the loudest planet in your chart, or the strongest, or the one that rules most of your impulses. It may not even choose to speak up with each decision, perhaps standing aside if the issue isn’t important to that part of you. In fact, the only time you hear it may be the moment that it says NO.
This will vary depending on which planet you’ve been stuck with. Having Venus for a final significator is like having a facilitator – “We’re all going to pass the talk stick now, and behave, and no fistfights, please,” while having Saturn in that position is very like having a South American dictator running your meeting – “No. I said no. Too bad. Next!” In my wife’s case, her Cancer Moon significator won’t bother adjudicating an argument unless it has strong emotional reverberations; Saturn and Mercury can fight over when to do homework to their heart’s content. In my case, my Pluto significator loves to get in there and growl, “No!” at the slightest provocation, and as it’s heavily aspected, it does end up being one of the strongest forces at work in me.
The position of final significator is not chosen, or voted in. It is hereditary, like everything else in your chart. To calculate it, look at the chart in question and follow these steps. First, note any planet in its own sign. Just for those of you who aren’t sure what I mean, they are, as follows: Sun in Leo, Moon in Cancer, Mercury in Gemini or Virgo, Venus in Libra or Taurus, Mars in Aries, Jupiter in Sagittarius, Saturn in Capricorn, Uranus in Aquarius, Neptune in Pisces, or Pluto in Scorpio. A planet in its own sign has a very good chance at being a final significator, depending on the rest of the chart.
(Note: I am not using the traditional rulerships of Mars/Scorpio, Jupiter/Pisces, etc. For some reason, they don’t seem to work for this, in my experience. If you feel differently, so be it.)
Now move on. Pick any planet and determine its ruler. For example, if you have Mars in Libra, its ruler is Venus. (See #1 above to determine the rulership of each sign.) Now you’d go look at your Venus; let’s say it’s in Sagittarius, which is ruled by Jupiter. If Jupiter is in, say, Scorpio, then you’d move on to its ruler, Pluto. Sooner or later, following this chain, you’re going to wind up with one of three endings.
1. All roads will lead to one planet. Congratulations, you’ve found it.
2. All roads will lead to a pair of planets that are in each others’ signs. This is called being in “mutual reception”. Examples are: I have Mercury in Scorpio and Pluto in Virgo. My daughter has Jupiter in Aquarius and Uranus in Sagittarius. Perhaps you might have Sun in Aries and Mars in Leo. One of these two planets is the final significator; it’s up to you to figure out which one by checking and counting which strong aspects (squares, conjunctions, trines, within 5 degrees) each has. The more heavily aspected one is the culprit. If neither of them are particularly strongly aspected AND you have an additional planet in its own sign, then you will default to that planet.
3. All roads lead in a big circle, and there is no end to the chain. This happens sometimes. If you have a planet in its own sign that is apart from that circle, there’s your culprit. If you don’t, then you have no final significator. Don’t despair; some people just don’t. This means that there is no executive at your board meeting. Planets can speak out of turn, shout each other down, and all decisions have to be achieved by consensus with no facilitator. Planets that are stronger and more heavily aspected may get their way at first; weaker planets may quietly sabotage the action when the stronger ones aren’t looking. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make decisions or get anywhere; it just means that it’s trickier and takes longer. You’ll have to be more conscious about your decision-making - in effect, you’ll have to learn to separate yourself from all these voices and force yourself to be your own final significator, being careful not to speak from any one planet’s needs or desires. Otherwise, it’ll just go around and around and take a lot longer to get resolved.
In reading charts for other people, figuring out their final significator will tell you a lot about what makes them tick. It’s not so much about which part of them starts actions so much as which part finishes them; who will “sign off” on the completed action and in so doing, lend it their particular style. Once you pick it out, you’ll be able to see the final significator’s fingerprints over all the major decisions in the person’s life - not what dress they’re wearing or what job they’re working this year, but what they’ve accomplished toward their hopes and dreams, what changes they’ve made in their lives that are permanent. If you want them to invest themselves in you or your dreams in a big, life-changing way, this is the planet that you’ll have to get busy and appeal to. Knowing who the veto power is in someone’s life goes a lot further towards creating willing friends and partners in your own.