Triplicity

Meaning

The twelve signs fall into four groups of three, each group sharing an element and standing in trine (120°) to one another:

• Fire: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
• Earth: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
• Air: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
• Water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

Each group is a triplicity, and each has planetary rulers. A planet that rules the triplicity of the sign it occupies is in its own triplicity, the third of the five essential dignities. Tradition likens it to being among one's own people: not the householder, but supported and at ease.

The Greek authors called the groups trigōna, "triangles" (hence trigon), because joining the three signs on the zodiac circle draws an equilateral triangle. Arabic muthallatha and Latin triplicitas both mean "a group of three".

The rulers change according to whether the chart is a day chart (Sun above the horizon) or a night chart (Sun below). This makes triplicity the one dignity tied directly to sect.

Origin and history

Triplicity rulers held a central place in early Greek horoscopy. Dorotheus opens his book on nativities with them and says that everything which is decided or indicated comes from the lords of the triplicities [2]. He gives three rulers for each element: one for day, one for night, and a third that shares in the rulership at all times [2]. Valens gives the same rulers, in the same day and night order, and explains them through sect: the Sun rules the fiery triangle and takes the other day planets, Jupiter and Saturn, as helpers; the Moon rules the earthy triangle with Venus and Mars; and so on [3].

Ptolemy gives a different arrangement [1]. He names two rulers for fire, earth and air, but for the water signs he makes Mars the ruler, with the Moon by night and Venus by day as partners. His reasoning rests on the feminine, nocturnal character of the water signs and on the rulerships of the signs themselves.

The Dorothean scheme passed into the Arabic tradition intact: al-Biruni gives exactly Dorotheus's three rulers for each element [4]. Lilly, following Ptolemy, uses only the day and night rulers and gives the water triplicity to Mars both by day and by night [5].

How it is used

Triplicity rulers (Dorotheus scheme) [2][3][4]

Dorotheus adds that Mercury has a share in Virgo [2].

Ptolemy's and Lilly's variant

The two schemes agree on fire, earth and air; they differ over water.

Scoring. Lilly gives 3 points to a planet in its own triplicity, but only if it is the ruler for the time of the chart. He works through the Sun in Aries at night: it keeps its four points for exaltation, but because Jupiter, not the Sun, rules fire by night, the Sun gets no triplicity points; Jupiter in the same place would get them [5]. Mars is the exception in his table, since it rules water both by day and by night [5]. This site follows the Dorotheus scheme and scores +3 to the day ruler in a day chart and to the night ruler in a night chart. The participating ruler is not scored by default.

Ranking. Lilly places triplicity above term [5]. Al-Biruni's older scale places term above triplicity, but he notes that the astrologers of his own time already preferred triplicity [4]; see essential dignity.

Triplicity lords of a place. In Hellenistic and medieval practice the three lords of a triplicity are also read as a sequence through life or as a set of supporting witnesses. Dorotheus judges the native's upbringing from the three triplicity lords of the Ascendant, and his fortune from the triplicity lords of the sect light (the Sun by day, the Moon by night): if the first lord is well placed and the second badly, the native does well in the first part of life and declines towards the end [2]. The lord of the triplicity at a planet's degree is one of its degree rulers.

Examples

• Jupiter in Sagittarius, night chart. Jupiter is in domicile (+5) and is night ruler of fire (+3): 8 points before term and face.
• Jupiter in Sagittarius, day chart. Still in domicile, but the Sun rules fire by day, so no triplicity: +5.
• Mars in Scorpio, night chart. Domicile (+5) and night ruler of water (+3). In a day chart, under the Dorotheus scheme, Venus rules water and Mars loses the triplicity; under Lilly's table he keeps it.
• Saturn in Aquarius, day chart. Domicile and day ruler of air: +8.
• The Moon in Capricorn, night chart. The Moon is in detriment in Capricorn (−5), but as night ruler of earth she has triplicity there (+3). Both conditions stand; see detriment.