Trigons, Triplicities, and Joint Domicile Masters
© 2010, May 7 Curtis Manwaring
There was more than one logic that involved the triplicities. In the Hellenistic texts pre-Valens, the trigons were associated with the winds (See Antiochus - Schmidt's most recent translation). But before the formal assignments of trigon lords to the signs (primary, proxy and assisting) there was the idea of joint domicile mastership which seems to predate the trigon lords proper and the idea here is that the domicle lord or exaltation lord has rulership over a given sign depending upon an almuten like factor (which planet is witnessing the sign it rules). If neither the domicile or exaltation lord are configured to the place, then the domicile lords of the places that are trine to the place in question might watch over that place. Schmidt says that the ruler that is in agreement with the sect of the chart is preferred. For example, if Leo is the sign in question and the Sun does not witness (there is no exaltation lord), then either Mars (for Aries) or Jupiter (for Sagittarius) would rule Leo and this according to the sect (Mars by night and Jupiter by day). As you can see, this is not quite the trigon lords as we know them today.
Valens seems to be aware that one does not always default to the domicile lord when the domicile lord is in aversion as he has used the exaltation lord in such cases. See the example on pg 35-36 of the Anthology (book II, part 1) where he says that the Moon is "the lady of Taurus". In this case Venus happened to be in Aries which is in aversion to the place in question, whereas the Moon was in Aquarius and was able to witness Taurus.
