The ‘superiors’ are the planets which were traditionally conceived to be placed above the sphere of the Sun: Mars, Jupiter and Saturn; the ‘inferiors’ those which fall beneath its sphere: Moon, Mercury and Venus. Modern definitions say inferiors are those whose orbits fall within that of the Earth, superiors those outside of it, which amounts to the same result but misses the point about the Sun being a central factor. The outer planets are included in modern definitions but fall outside the traditional notion of ‘superiority’ because of their limited signification. It is a principle of traditional astrology that the heavier, superior planets are less subject to the detrimental influences of the lighter, inferior planets, but the inferior planets are readily susceptible to the influences of the superiors.