Aquarius

Who rules this sign depends on which book is open. Ptolemy, in Ashmand's 1822 translation, gives it to Saturn, and Lilly 1659 calls it the principal house of Saturn and the place he most enjoys. Adams 1928 hands it to Uranus outright, Heindel 1919 makes the two planets co-rulers, and Alan Leo, writing before 1917, names Saturn as the ruling planet when the first decanate of this sign ascends and lets Uranus share in it only when strongly placed. Any Uranus claim is necessarily later than 1781, when the planet was found.

Lilly lists this sign as the detriment of the Sun, since it stands across from Leo. The word marks a position and nothing more. Alan Leo 1899 reasons from the mix of fixed quality and air and arrives at thoughts held steady, with patient and unconventional people as the result.

The 1697 English Manilius lists builders of aqueducts, waterworks, spheres and globes, a nicely literal use of the Water Bearer. Adams says flatly that nothing about the sign is eccentric, which runs against the modern popular picture of the lovable rebel. That eccentric streak comes from writers on the planet Uranus, such as Zadkiel 1833.