Traditional Degree Qualities

Traditional Degree Qualities: Pitted, Azimene, Increasing and Decreasing Fortune, Light, Dark, and Smoky Degrees

Abstract

Traditional astrology assigns certain individual degrees of the zodiac qualitative conditions that modify the expression of planets, angles, Lots, and other significators occupying them. Among the most important are pitted or deep degrees, azimene or deficient degrees, degrees increasing or decreasing fortune, and the light, dark, smoky, and void classifications.

These conditions survive through several layers of the astrological tradition: Hellenistic material, Arabic and Persian astrology, medieval Latin authors, Renaissance compilers, and seventeenth-century practitioners such as William Lilly. Yet the tables transmitted by different authors are not perfectly identical. Even where the terminology appears similar, the interpretation may differ.

For this reason, traditional degree qualities should never be treated as a single universal system. They are best understood as minor but potentially significant modifiers whose importance increases when they coincide with the Ascendant, Moon, ruler of the Ascendant, principal significator, Part of Fortune, or another point central to the judgement.

1. What Are Traditional Degree Qualities?

The twelve signs provide the primary zodiacal environment in which planets operate, while domicile, exaltation, triplicity, term, and face describe different forms of essential dignity. Traditional authors, however, also preserved more granular classifications operating at the level of individual degrees.

These include such categories as:

• Light, lucid, or bright degrees
• Dark degrees
• Smoky or cloudy degrees
• Void degrees
• Pitted, deep, or welled degrees
• Azimene, lame, or deficient degrees
• Degrees increasing fortune
• Degrees decreasing or diminishing fortune
• In some traditions, elevated or raised degrees
• Masculine and feminine degrees

They should not simply be added to the familiar essential-dignity table as if a bright degree were another domicile or a pitted degree another fall. They belong to a secondary layer of judgement.

Renaissance authors nevertheless sometimes incorporated them into systems of planetary fortitudes and debilities. Johannes Schöner, preserving the scoring attributed to Antonio de Montulmo, gives positive weight to bright degrees and degrees increasing fortune, while dark, pitted, azimene, void, and smoky degrees appear among the weakening conditions.

The safest formulation is therefore:

Degree qualities modify the ability, visibility, integrity, or prosperity of a significator; they do not replace the fundamental judgement of the planet’s essential and accidental condition.

2. Why the Sources Disagree

There is no single uncontested list of traditional degree qualities.

This is not unusual in traditional astrology. Tables were transmitted for centuries through Greek, Middle Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and vernacular sources. Copying errors, numerical conventions, translation choices, local schools, and attempts to reconcile older authorities inevitably produced variations.

William Lilly’s Christian Astrology preserves one influential seventeenth-century form of the doctrine. Similar but not identical classifications occur in al-Biruni and Johannes Schöner. Modern comparative work therefore finds recognizable continuity alongside numerous individual discrepancies.

This has an important practical consequence:

Never present a table simply as “the traditional degrees.”

A scholarly table should instead state:

• Lilly
• al-Biruni
• Ibn Ezra
• Schöner
• Bonatti
• or another specific authority or reconstruction.

Combining several lists without identifying their sources creates a synthetic system that may never have existed historically.

3. Pitted, Deep, or Welled Degrees

The Basic Principle

Pitted degrees are among the most interesting degree conditions because their symbolism is not simply “malefic.”

The image is that of something lying in a pit, hollow, depression, or well. A planet there possesses difficulty raising itself out of its circumstances or freely projecting its power.

William Lilly describes the condition through the image of a person fallen into a ditch who cannot easily escape without assistance. When the Moon, Ascendant, or ruler of the Ascendant occupies such a degree, he associates it with being brought to a standstill and not knowing how to proceed.

Thus the central ideas are:

obstruction, containment, entrapment, inactivity, difficulty escaping circumstances, and reduced agency.

A pitted planet is not necessarily “evil.”

This distinction is essential.

Al-Biruni gives a particularly sophisticated interpretation. His degrees diminishing fortune are compared with pits, where planets become weakened in their ability to act. A benefic cannot produce its good as effectively, but a malefic may likewise become less capable of producing evil. He consequently describes the result as tending toward a kind of inactivity or peace.

This makes pitted degrees fundamentally different from a simple malefic testimony.

Consider:

Jupiter pitted:
Its generosity, expansion, protection, wealth, or promotion may fail to develop fully.

Mars pitted:
Its aggression and capacity for damage may also be obstructed.

The question is therefore not merely:

“Is the planet good or bad?”

but:

“Do I want this planet to be capable of acting?”

4. Decreasing or Diminishing Fortune

The expression Degrees of Decreasing Fortune should be handled carefully because terminology varies.

In al-Biruni’s treatment, degrees which increase fortune are explicitly contrasted with degrees which diminish it; the latter behave like pits in which planetary action becomes enfeebled.

William Lilly later refers in his treatment of profections to degrees that are:

light, deep, pitted, dark, cloudy, azimene, augmenting or decreasing fortune

showing that the conceptual polarity between augmentation and diminution remained part of the Renaissance tradition.

Later astrological reconstructions sometimes equate:

Increasing Fortune ≈ elevated / raised degrees

and

Decreasing Fortune ≈ pitted / deep degrees.

This is useful as a working model, but it should not be assumed that every historical author’s tables or terminology are perfectly interchangeable.

Practical Meaning

A degree decreasing fortune signifies primarily:

• reduced effectiveness;
• diminished productivity;
• inability to capitalize upon opportunities;
• delays in fruition;
• loss of momentum;
• containment of what the planet signifies.

It may therefore be undesirable for:

• the ruler of an election;
• the Moon;
• the ruler of the Ascendant;
• the ruler of the relevant house;
• Jupiter or Venus when their benefits are required;
• the Part of Fortune or its ruler in financial work.

Yet it may sometimes be deliberately useful when the purpose is to restrain an undesirable significator.

This is one of the rare cases where a traditional debility can become strategically useful.

5. Degrees Increasing Fortune

The opposite principle is the augmentation of fortune.

Al-Biruni states that certain degrees increase fortune and strengthen the prosperity or power associated with important significators such as the luminary governing the period, the Ascendant, and the Part of Fortune.

William Lilly gives a specifically financial interpretation. He recommends attention to these degrees when occupied by:

• the cusp of the second house,
• the ruler of the second,
• Jupiter,
• or the Part of Fortune,

and considers such placement an argument for wealth.

This does not, however, mean that an increasing-fortune degree automatically turns a ruined planet into a magnificent one.

A combust, retrograde, cadent, essentially debilitated significator afflicted by malefics remains seriously compromised.

The degree should instead be viewed as an additional current of augmentation.

Best Uses

Increasing-fortune degrees are especially desirable for:

• Ascendant and ruler of the Ascendant;
• Moon;
• ruler of the elected matter;
• Jupiter;
• Venus where appropriate;
• Part of Fortune;
• ruler of the second house for wealth;
• ruler of the tenth for advancement and reputation;
• rulers of relevant succedent houses when durability or accumulation is required.

In a well-constructed chart they can act as a useful finishing dignity.

6. Azimene Degrees

Meaning

Azimene degrees are traditionally called lame, deficient, defective, or infirm degrees.

They must be distinguished sharply from pitted degrees.

A pitted planet is primarily trapped or obstructed.

An azimene planet is symbolically associated with deficiency, impairment, incompleteness, or damage to normal functioning.

William Lilly applies azimene degrees very literally in natal and horary astrology, linking them with bodily defects, blindness, deafness, lameness, chronic disease, and similar conditions when they strongly involve the Ascendant, its ruler, or the Moon.

Such language reflects seventeenth-century medical and astrological assumptions and should not be transplanted uncritically into modern natal work.

Responsible Modern Interpretation

An azimene degree alone should never be used to diagnose disease or predict disability.

A more defensible symbolic interpretation is:

• reduced integrity;
• incomplete functioning;
• damaged capacity;
• something unable to operate in its intended manner;
• structural weakness;
• persistent imperfection;
• compromised execution.

Only in explicitly historical medical astrology would the older bodily interpretations become the primary subject of study.

7. Azimene vs. Pitted: The Critical Difference

These two categories are frequently confused.

Imagine two craftsmen.

The first possesses excellent tools and skill but is locked inside a room.

That is pitted.

The second is free to work but his principal instrument is damaged.

That is azimene.

The distinction is extremely useful in horary and electional astrology.

8. Light, Lucid, or Bright Degrees

Another family of degree qualities concerns luminosity.

Bright degrees are traditionally associated with:

• clarity;
• visibility;
• openness;
• manifestation;
• stronger expression;
• sometimes beauty or fairness;
• greater perceptibility of whatever occupies them.

William Lilly uses light and dark degrees particularly in descriptions of physical appearance. A light degree rising was considered to moderate deformity and incline toward a fairer appearance, while darker degrees intensified obscurity.

Other traditional treatments use brightness more generally as a planetary fortitude. Schöner’s preserved scoring system gives a small positive value to a bright or lucid degree.

Important Qualification

Brightness is not identical with beneficence.

A bright degree can make something more manifest, not necessarily morally or practically better.

If Venus signifies popularity, brightness can aid visibility.

If Mars signifies conflict, however, greater manifestation may mean that conflict becomes more obvious or effective.

Therefore:

Light should first be interpreted as clarity and expressive capacity, and only secondarily as favourable.

9. Dark Degrees

Dark degrees represent the contrary principle:

• obscurity;
• concealment;
• reduced visibility;
• weakened expression;
• uncertainty;
• difficulty perceiving the matter clearly.

In late traditional scoring systems dark degrees could be treated as minor debilities. Schöner lists darkness among weakening planetary conditions.

Yet darkness is not automatically destruction.

A dark degree may sometimes be appropriate when the purpose itself requires:

• secrecy;
• invisibility;
• concealment;
• privacy;
• withdrawal from public scrutiny.

For public reputation, publicity, recognition, commercial visibility, or anything requiring clear manifestation, however, bright degrees are normally preferable.

10. Smoky or Cloudy Degrees

Smoky degrees are particularly subtle.

Smoke is neither complete light nor complete darkness.

It allows something to be seen, but poorly and ambiguously.

The corresponding qualities include:

• ambiguity;
• mixed testimony;
• obscured perception;
• distortion;
• uncertainty;
• intermediate manifestation;
• lack of clean definition.

Lilly describes a smoky Ascendant or Moon as producing something intermediate rather than strongly one extreme or the other.

Some later interpreters therefore associate smoky degrees with weakened or obscured expression rather than straightforward misfortune.

Schöner’s transmitted system even gives void or smoky degrees a notable weakening score, demonstrating that at least some Renaissance practitioners regarded lack of clarity as a real debility.

Electional Implication

Smoky degrees should usually be avoided when the desired outcome requires:

• transparency;
• accurate communication;
• recognition;
• legal clarity;
• clean agreements;
• public reputation;
• precise judgement.

They may be less objectionable where ambiguity or concealment is intentional.

11. What About Void Degrees?

Although not always included in modern summaries of degree qualities, void degrees occur alongside light, dark, and smoky classifications in several traditional tables.

They should not be confused with the Void-of-Course Moon.

These are entirely different doctrines.

A void degree is a zodiacal degree classification.

A Void-of-Course Moon is a condition derived from lunar application.

William Lilly associates void degrees of the Ascendant or Moon with reduced judgement or understanding.

For practical electional purposes, void degrees are therefore generally unattractive for:

• the Moon;
• Ascendant;
• ruler of the Ascendant;
• Mercury in intellectual or commercial work;
• rulers of matters requiring judgement, decision, learning, or planning.

12. Source Differences: Why One Table Cannot Be Treated as Absolute

The largest mistake made with traditional degrees is to find one online list and assume that it represents the entire tradition.

It does not.

Al-Biruni

Al-Biruni preserves several classes of special degrees, including luminosity and degrees that increase or diminish fortune. His explanation of pitted degrees is especially valuable because it emphasizes reduction of planetary efficacy rather than simple evil.

William Lilly

Lilly gives perhaps the most familiar English-language tables in Christian Astrology, Book I, around pp. 116–118.

His practical emphasis is often horary:

• light/dark/smoky degrees for appearance and condition;
• pits for obstruction;
• azimene for bodily deficiency;
• increasing-fortune degrees particularly for wealth.

His Book III also confirms that these qualities continued to be consulted in natal and predictive work.

Johannes Schöner and Antonio de Montulmo

Their tradition demonstrates another usage: the qualities become components within a larger system of planetary strength and weakness.

Bright and increasing-fortune degrees contribute small fortitudes; dark, pitted, azimene, void, and smoky conditions contribute debilities.

This is extremely instructive because it shows their appropriate scale:

They matter, but generally much less than major conditions such as domicile, exaltation, combustion, retrogradation, angularity, reception, or conjunction with benefics and malefics.

Ibn Ezra and Other Medieval Lists

Medieval Jewish, Arabic, and Latin traditions transmit related lists of pits and elevations, but individual degree assignments differ.

Later authors and contemporary traditional astrologers sometimes favour Ibn Ezra’s tables, others Lilly’s, and others reconstruct earlier Arabic traditions.

None should simply be declared “the correct list” without qualification.

13. The Degree-Numbering Problem

This issue is absolutely essential when working with historical tables.

Traditional texts commonly refer to degrees ordinally:

• 1st degree
• 2nd degree
• 3rd degree
• …
• 30th degree.

Modern astrological software displays longitude cardinally:

• 0°00′
• 1°00′
• 2°00′
• …
• 29°59′.

Consequently:

the 1st degree of Aries = 0°00′–0°59′59″ Aries

the 2nd degree = 1°00′–1°59′59″

the 30th degree = 29°00′–29°59′59″

This seemingly trivial issue has produced numerous one-degree errors in modern reproductions of ancient tables.

Therefore a professional database should explicitly distinguish between:

Historical ordinal notation: “19th degree of Aries”

and

Modern longitude notation: “18°00′–18°59′59″ Aries.”

Never silently mix them.

14. How Much Weight Should Degree Qualities Receive?

Traditional degree qualities should normally be used after the major testimonies have been established.

A sensible hierarchy is:

Primary Conditions

1. Essential dignity and debility
2. Sect
3. House placement and angularity
4. Combustion, cazimi, and solar proximity
5. Direct or retrograde motion
6. Planetary speed
7. Major applying and separating aspects
8. Reception
9. Condition of the Moon
10. Relevant house rulers

Secondary Refinements

Then examine:

• fixed stars;
• Lots;
• lunar mansions where appropriate;
• planetary joys;
• degree qualities;
• other minor traditional conditions.

A pitted degree should not outweigh Jupiter in domicile, angular, direct, in sect, and receiving the Moon.

Likewise, a degree increasing fortune cannot rescue a combust, retrograde and cadent ruler in detriment.

Degree qualities work best as confirming, refining, or discriminating testimonies.

15. Natal Astrology

In natal work, special degree qualities should be concentrated primarily around important points:

• Ascendant;
• ruler of the Ascendant;
• Moon;
• Sun;
• ruler of the nativity;
• Lot of Fortune;
• Lot of Spirit;
• rulers of major topical houses.

Pitted

May indicate an area where the individual experiences repeated containment, difficulty gaining momentum, or dependence upon external assistance.

Azimene

May describe structural weakness, compromised functioning, or something requiring adaptation. It should never alone be converted into a medical diagnosis.

Increasing Fortune

Can strengthen prosperity and facilitate development when connected with already promising significators.

Bright

May increase visibility and manifestation.

Dark

May internalize, obscure, conceal, or weaken outward expression.

Smoky

May make the planet’s effects more ambiguous, mixed, or difficult to perceive clearly.

In every case the natal promise established by the whole chart remains primary.

16. Horary Astrology

Degree qualities are especially natural in horary because they can describe the immediate state of the matter.

Pitted Significator

The person or matter is stuck.

Progress requires assistance, changed circumstances, reception, translation of light, or another planet capable of pulling the significator out of its difficulty.

Azimene Significator

Something is wrong with the instrument itself.

The matter may be defective, incomplete, damaged, or incapable of functioning normally.

Increasing Fortune

The matter possesses unusual potential for improvement, especially if supported by reception and favourable application.

Bright

The situation becomes visible, understandable, disclosed, or clearly manifested.

Dark

Important information remains hidden or the matter struggles to become manifest.

Smoky

The testimony is unclear, mixed, obscured, or misleading.

This distinction can provide remarkable descriptive precision when the primary horary testimonies already point in the same direction.

17. Electional Astrology

Electional astrology is perhaps where these degrees become most practically useful.

Because the astrologer can choose the time, even small improvements become worthwhile once the major conditions have been secured.

Prefer Increasing-Fortune Degrees For

• Ascendant;
• ruler of the Ascendant;
• Moon;
• target planet;
• Part of Fortune;
• ruler of the relevant house;
• second-house significators in financial elections;
• tenth-house significators for reputation and honours;
• eleventh-house significators for patrons, support, gains, and alliances.

Prefer Bright Degrees For

• publication;
• advertising;
• public launches;
• reputation;
• recognition;
• artistic display;
• petitions to authorities;
• ceremonies;
• anything meant to become visible.

Avoid Pitted Degrees For

• rulers that must act decisively;
• Moon when rapid development is required;
• financial significators when accumulation is desired;
• Mercury for negotiations;
• rulers of journeys or communications;
• rulers of operations requiring freedom of movement.

But consider pitted degrees deliberately when the objective is containment.

For example, symbolically they may suit attempts to:

• restrict conflict;
• contain an enemy;
• reduce an unwanted influence;
• immobilize a harmful process;
• prevent escalation.

This follows directly from the older idea that the pit weakens the planet’s capacity to produce either beneficial or harmful effects.

Avoid Azimene Degrees For

• Ascendant;
• ruler of the Ascendant;
• Moon;
• target planet;

especially where the election concerns:

• health;
• craftsmanship;
• construction;
• machinery;
• contracts that must remain intact;
• long-term stability;
• operations requiring precision or structural integrity.

Avoid Smoky Degrees For

• contracts;
• negotiations;
• legal matters;
• communication;
• publication;
• judgement;
• education;
• reputation;
• anything requiring transparency.

18. Do Not Turn Minor Degree Conditions Into Absolute Rules

One of the greatest dangers in advanced traditional astrology is the accumulation of so many secondary rules that a usable election becomes impossible.

Suppose Jupiter is:

• exalted in Cancer;
• direct;
• angular;
• in sect;
• free from combustion;
• received by the Moon;
• applying favourably to the ruler of the Ascendant;

but occupies a dark degree.

Rejecting the entire election solely because of the dark degree would usually be poor judgement.

Conversely, suppose Jupiter is:

• in detriment;
• cadent;
• retrograde;
• under the beams;
• applying to Saturn;

but occupies a degree increasing fortune.

The favourable degree cannot reverse the overall condition.

Traditional astrology is hierarchical.

Major testimony governs; minor testimony qualifies.

19. When Several Degree Qualities Overlap

It is possible for a degree to receive more than one classification depending upon the tables used.

For example, a degree might be:

• dark according to one luminosity table;
• pitted according to another classification;
• azimene according to yet another list.

Do not mechanically add numerical penalties unless you are deliberately reproducing a historical scoring system.

Instead interpret each category according to its function.

If a significator is simultaneously dark and pitted, it may be both obscured and incapable of acting freely.

If it is bright but pitted, its condition may be visible and obvious, yet still blocked.

If it is increasing fortune but smoky, there may be real potential for growth surrounded by uncertainty or unclear circumstances.

Traditional symbolism becomes more useful when categories are allowed to describe different dimensions of the same condition rather than being reduced to a single number.

20. Recommended Working Method

For serious traditional practice, the following procedure is recommended.

Step 1 — Judge the Chart Normally

Determine:

• sect;
• essential dignity;
• accidental strength;
• angularity;
• combustion;
• speed;
• direction;
• reception;
• aspects;
• Moon;
• relevant house rulers.

Step 2 — Identify the Critical Significators

Do not check every planet indiscriminately.

Prioritize:

• Ascendant;
• ruler of Ascendant;
• Moon;
• target planet;
• relevant house ruler;
• Part of Fortune or Spirit when applicable.

Step 3 — Apply Degree Qualities

Ask specifically:

• Is the significator free or trapped?
• Is its function whole or deficient?
• Is its fortune augmented or diminished?
• Is its action clear, obscure, or smoky?

Step 4 — Compare Sources

If the degree becomes important to the judgement, examine at least two historical traditions rather than assuming one table is universal.

Step 5 — Record the Source

Write:

Pitted — al-Biruni

or

Increasing Fortune — Lilly

rather than simply:

Pitted.

This prevents historical systems from being unconsciously blended.

Step 6 — Use Degree Qualities as Tie-Breakers

In electional astrology especially, they are excellent for comparing two otherwise similar windows.

If two elections are equally strong but one places the Moon in a clean bright degree while another places it in a pit, the degree quality becomes genuinely useful.

21. Practical Priority Scale

For practical work, a useful qualitative scale is:

Strongly Worth Avoiding

Azimene on ASC, Moon, L1, or primary significator

when integrity, health, successful functioning, or durability is essential.

Often Worth Avoiding

Pitted / decreasing-fortune degree on a principal significator

when that significator must accomplish something.

Moderately Important

Dark or smoky degree

especially when clarity, publicity, communication, judgement, or visibility is required.

Desirable Bonus

Increasing-fortune degree

especially on financial or success-related significators.

Desirable Bonus

Bright degree

when manifestation, clarity, recognition, or visibility matters.

This hierarchy prevents minor degree lore from overwhelming the chart.

22. The Deeper Logic of the System

The traditional classifications become much more coherent when understood not as arbitrary labels of “good” and “bad,” but as a form of celestial topography.

Some regions of the zodiac are imagined as elevated.

Others are depressed.

Some are illuminated.

Others are dark.

Some are clouded with smoke.

Some signify bodily or functional deficiency.

The planet is therefore not merely located at a numerical longitude. It occupies a symbolic landscape.

A bright height exposes and strengthens.

A dark place conceals.

A smoky place obscures.

A pit contains.

An azimene place compromises integrity.

An increasing-fortune degree augments.

A decreasing-fortune degree diminishes.

Seen in this way, the doctrine becomes far more intelligible than a simple catalogue of fortunate and unfortunate numbers.

Conclusion

Traditional degree qualities form one of the most subtle layers of pre-modern astrological judgement. They survived because astrologers found value in distinguishing not merely which sign a planet occupied, but the particular qualitative terrain within that sign.

Yet their correct use requires restraint.

Pitted degrees signify containment and reduced capacity for action rather than simple evil.

Degrees decreasing fortune diminish effectiveness and may therefore suppress both beneficial and harmful influences.

Azimene degrees concern deficiency or compromised functioning and should not be confused with pits.

Degrees increasing fortune augment prosperity and effectiveness but cannot replace genuine planetary strength.

Light degrees favour manifestation, clarity, and visibility.

Dark degrees obscure or reduce expression.

Smoky degrees create ambiguity and imperfect visibility.

Most importantly, the surviving lists differ. Al-Biruni, medieval authors, Renaissance astrologers, and William Lilly do not provide a perfectly uniform doctrine. The professional astrologer should therefore identify the historical source being used rather than creating an undocumented composite table.

In practical work the correct order is:

build the chart from major dignities and conditions first; refine it through degree qualities afterward.

When used in this way, these degrees become neither superstition nor decorative trivia. They operate as a sophisticated secondary language for describing whether a significator is elevated or depressed, visible or obscured, functional or impaired, free or trapped, increasing or diminishing.

That is precisely where their enduring value lies.

Selected Traditional and Historical Sources

Al-Biruni — The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology
An exceptionally important medieval source for special zodiacal degrees, including degrees increasing and diminishing fortune and the doctrine of pits.

William Lilly — Christian Astrology (1647), Book I, pp. 116–118
The standard early-modern English presentation of light, dark, smoky, void, deep, azimene, and increasing-fortune degrees.

William Lilly — Christian Astrology, Book III
Demonstrates continued use of light, dark, pitted, cloudy, azimene, augmenting, and decreasing-fortune degrees in natal and predictive judgement.

Johannes Schöner — Opusculum Astrologicum
Important Renaissance evidence for incorporating bright, dark, smoky, pitted, azimene, and increasing-fortune degrees into calculations of planetary strength and weakness.

Antonio de Montulmo — planetary fortitude and debility scheme preserved by Schöner
Useful for understanding the relatively modest weight assigned to these degree conditions compared with major dignities and debilities.

Ibn Ezra — medieval astrological works
An important witness to related traditions of pits and elevated degrees, although transmitted tables should be checked carefully against edition and degree-numbering convention.

Helena Avelar & Luís Ribeiro — On the Heavenly Spheres
A useful modern traditional reference preserving tables of light, dark, smoky, void, pitted, azimene, and fortunate degrees while placing them within the broader hierarchy of traditional planetary condition.

Research Recommendation

For rigorous work, maintain separate selectable tables rather than one allegedly universal list:

Al-Biruni tradition
Lilly tradition
Ibn Ezra / medieval tradition
Schöner / Renaissance tradition

Always store the original historical ordinal degree together with its modern longitude equivalent.

This preserves the history of the doctrine, prevents one-degree conversion errors, and allows the astrologer to discover through practice which transmission produces the most reliable results.

Above all:

Never reject a fundamentally excellent chart because of one minor degree condition, and never accept a fundamentally damaged chart because one significator happens to occupy a fortunate degree.

Traditional degree qualities are refinements of judgement—not substitutes for judgement.