Peregrine

What peregrine means

Peregrine comes from the Latin peregrinus, a foreigner or traveller. The word is about belonging. A planet in its own domicile is at home, an exalted planet is an honoured guest, and a planet with a triplicity, term or face holds at least a small claim on its spot. A peregrine planet holds none of these. Lilly scored it at minus five, the same penalty as detriment.

Peregrine is not the same as debilitated. A planet in detriment or fall is in a sign that opposes its nature, while a peregrine planet is in a sign that has no relation to it. The problem is a lack of resources more than active conflict, so the planet tends to behave the way its circumstances and its dispositor push it.

The five-part test

A planet is peregrine when it has no domicile, exaltation, triplicity, term or face in its degree. Check the five in order:

1. Domicile: is the planet in a sign it rules?
2. Exaltation: is it in its sign of exaltation?
3. Triplicity: does it rule the element of its sign, by day, by night or as participating ruler, in this chart's sect?
4. Term: does it rule the term (bound) its degree falls in?
5. Face: does it rule the ten-degree face its degree falls in?

If every answer is no, the planet is peregrine. The test is made degree by degree, so one planet can be peregrine at 3° of a sign and dignified at 15°. The Sun and Moon rule no terms in the Egyptian system, which makes them peregrine more often than the five planets.

How to read a peregrine planet

Go straight to the dispositor, the ruler of the sign the planet is in. A peregrine planet borrows its standing from that host. If the dispositor is strong and well placed, the peregrine planet is carried along and can do good work. If the dispositor is weak, the peregrine planet has little to rely on.

Next, look at aspects and house. A peregrine planet that is angular or closely aspected by a benefic has outside help even without inner dignity. Some traditional authors also counted a planet in mutual reception as not strictly peregrine, since the exchange gives it a host.

In a personal reading, a peregrine planet often marks an area where the person picks up methods from whoever is around. That can mean flexibility and a wide range, or it can mean uncertainty about what that planet wants.

Peregrine in modern use

Some modern writers use peregrine loosely for any planet without domicile or exaltation, ignoring the three minor dignities. That looser use labels far more planets peregrine than the classical test does. Others confuse peregrine with unaspected, meaning a planet that forms no major aspect to the rest of the chart. The two are separate ideas: peregrine concerns the sign and degree, unaspected concerns aspects.

Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have no classical dignities, so in the traditional system they cannot be measured this way at all. Modern dignity tables based on their assigned rulers sometimes call them peregrine outside those signs.

Peregrine in example charts

Sun in Taurus: always peregrine. Venus rules Taurus, the Moon is exalted there, the earth triplicity belongs to Venus, the Moon and Mars, the Sun rules no terms, and the three faces of Taurus belong to Mercury, the Moon and Saturn. Everything turns on Venus, the dispositor.

Moon in Gemini: also always peregrine, since the Moon has no claim on any part of the sign. The emotional life takes its tone from Mercury, the ruler of Gemini.

Mars at 3° Gemini: peregrine. Mercury rules the term and Jupiter the face. Move this Mars to 15° Gemini and it holds its own face, so it is no longer peregrine.

In each case the reading starts from the dispositor, not from the peregrine planet itself.