Assessing King David Kalākaua's Sibling Relationships Using Triplicity Lords
A simple, but powerful technique can help you reveal the relative level of success or challenge related to almost any area life. Sometimes called “Directing with Triplicity Lords,” this technique involves judging the strength of the Triplicity Lords for a given house (seventh for relationships, second for finances, and so on) to reveal whether this is a place where the native/client will experience ease or difficulty.
The process, as always with the ancient techniques, begins with assessing whether we’re dealing with a day chart or night chart. For this article’s example, King David Kalākaua of Hawaiʻi, we have a nocturnal chart. This means we’ll be using the night version of the Triplicity Lords to create a picture of Kalākaua’s life.
For those new to Triplicity Lords, use the pictured chart to determine the three rulers associated with the triplicities (elements). For instance, in Kalākaua’s chart, his third house of siblings is in Scorpio, a water sign. Thus, we’d use the nocturnal water Triplicity Lords. Mars is the primary Triplicity Lord, representing the first half of life. Venus is the secondary Triplicity Lord, representing the second half of life. And the Moon is the supporting Triplicity Lord throughout the length of Kalākaua’s life.
Chart citation: Chris Brennan, theastrologyschool.com
To determine what this means for this particular area of life for Kalākaua, we need to assess the relative strength of each of these planets. Mars, for instance, is in Leo, a hot and dry sign. This isn’t the best placement for Mars, given that he’s also hot and dry, meaning that Leo may exacerbate his fiery nature. Mars is configured to the benefic of the sect, Venus, which gives him support. Not only that, Jupiter is also closely configured to Mars, giving him additional help.
From this we can conclude that areas of life related to siblings for Kalākaua would have been relatively strong, but perhaps marked by periods of difficulty. We know from his biography that he was close to his brother Kaliokalani, whom he’d often defend from bullies at school. The boys famously witnessed the public execution of their grandfather, an event that traumatized them. He was also close to his sister Liliʻuokalani, who’d eventually go on to take the throne after him, but more on that in a moment.
The second half of life for Kalākaua as it relates to siblings is signified by Venus and her relative strength in the chart. Venus is in her own domicile of Libra, which gives her access to quite a bit of resources to do the work she’s meant to do in Kalākaua’s chart. She’s applying to a sextile with Jupiter, her benefic counterpart, giving her additional support. She’s unfortunately located in a less active house, meaning she probably can’t exert a ton of influence in the life.
We can conclude, I think, that Kalākaua’s sibling relationships will be a bit stronger later in life, but again will not be without challenges. We know that Liliʻuokalani exerted a great deal of influence during Kalākaua’s reign as king, famously taking diplomatic missions on his behalf, such as attending the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria with Kalākaua’s wife Queen Kapiʻolani. Unfortunately, during that diplomatic mission, American influences forced Kalākaua at gunpoint to sign the infamous Bayonett Constitution, which set into motion the eventual overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and an illegal occupation by American forces. Historians speculate had Liliʻuokalani been present in Hawaiʻi at the time, her brother may not have succumbed to the American ploy to usurp power. Liliʻuokalani would go on to become queen after her brother’s death, but her reign would be short-lived given the increasing power of American revolutionaries.
The final piece of the puzzle is the third triplicity ruler, the Moon, which represents support throughout life. The Moon is located in the cold and wet sign of Pisces, which is a great location for her overall condition. She’s roughly at about her first quarter phase, meaning she has quite a bit of light, indicative of influence, drive and action. We can surmise that the Moon’s influence here symbolizes the relatively good relationships Kalākaua had with his siblings throughout life, as well as the rise to prominence of his sister, Liliʻuokalani.
This process can be repeated for all of the houses in the natal chart. This technique was frequently used by ancient Arabic astrologers. In fact, they would often pay more attention to the Triplicity Lords than they would the sign lords, though as a contemporary astrologer trained in traditional techniques I would be apt to use both.
If you’re wondering why a specific house isn’t quite working out the way you’d assume just based on the strength of the sign ruler, perhaps try applying the Directing with Triplicity Lords technique. This will give you a bit of additional information on life experiences associated with that house, including a picture of what the first half of life looked like relative to those topics as well as the latter part of life and overall support.