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Triplicity is a word that sounds decorative and is not. The Moon is in Virgo today, at eight degrees, in a waning crescent phase. Virgo belongs to Mercury, who rules it and, in much of the tradition, is exalted in it as well. The Moon does not rule this sign, is not exalted here, and holds neither her detriment nor her fall. By the four major dignities she has no standing. The tradition’s word for that condition is peregrine: foreign, passing through.
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But the system of dignities had five levels, not four. Below domicile and exaltation sat triplicity, which grouped the twelve signs into four sets of three by shared element. Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn are the earth signs. Each triplicity was assigned planetary rulers divided between day and night. The Moon was given night rulership of the earth triplicity. Vettius Valens, writing in the second century, used the triplicity lords as one of the main tools for judging a life, sometimes weighing them as heavily as the domicile ruler.
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A planet with triplicity alone is not powerful. Still, it is real authority, and it separates the Moon in Virgo from a truly peregrine placement where she holds nothing at all.
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Eight degrees, twenty-seven percent illumination, the crescent thinning toward the dark. The older calendars treated this interval as better for finishing than beginning. The Moon here carries a minor credential borrowed from the element rather than the sign, and she is nearly done carrying it.
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