What does moolatrikona mean?

Moolatrikona is a Sanskrit term usually rendered root-trine. It names a planet's most favoured stretch of zodiac degrees, where the classics rank it stronger than in its own sign though below its exaltation. For most planets the stretch is the opening portion of a sign they own, such as the Sun's first 20 degrees of Leo. The name is traditional and does not refer to the trikona houses of a chart.

What is the moolatrikona of each planet?

The Sun's moolatrikona is 0 to 20 degrees of Leo, the Moon's 3 to 30 degrees of Taurus, Mars's 0 to 12 degrees of Aries, Mercury's 16 to 20 degrees of Virgo, Jupiter's 0 to 10 degrees of Sagittarius, Venus's 0 to 15 degrees of Libra, and Saturn's 0 to 20 degrees of Aquarius. The remainder of each sign counts as own sign, and Rahu and Ketu have no settled moolatrikona.

Is moolatrikona stronger than own sign?

Yes, by the classical ranking. The ladder of dignities runs exaltation first, moolatrikona second, own sign third, then friend's, neutral's, and enemy's signs, with debilitation last. The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra puts rough measures on the rungs: full results in exaltation, about three quarters in moolatrikona, about half in own sign. The fractions are a teaching device; the reliable part is the order itself.

Why is the Moon's moolatrikona in Taurus and not Cancer?

The Moon is the one planet whose root-trine lies outside its own sign. Its exaltation occupies the first 3 degrees of Taurus, and the classics assign the rest of Taurus, from 3 to 30 degrees, as the Moon's moolatrikona, leaving Cancer purely its own sign. The traditional sense is that the Moon's nature, receptive and in need of steadiness, is best grounded in Taurus, the most stable of signs.

Does moolatrikona matter if a planet rules two signs?

Yes, that is one of its practical uses. Five planets rule two signs each, and the sign carrying the moolatrikona is treated as the planet's primary seat: Aries over Scorpio for Mars, Virgo over Gemini for Mercury, Sagittarius over Pisces for Jupiter, Libra over Taurus for Venus, and Aquarius over Capricorn for Saturn. Several classical judgments, including some assessments of lordship and strength, lean on that priority.

Moolatrikona: Each Planet's Root-Trine Sign and Degrees

Moolatrikona, usually translated root-trine, is a planet's most favoured stretch of zodiac degrees in Vedic astrology, ranked in strength between exaltation and own sign. For most planets it is the opening portion of one of their own signs: the Sun's moolatrikona is the first 20 degrees of Leo, Mars's the first 12 degrees of Aries, Saturn's the first 20 degrees of Aquarius. A planet standing in its root-trine is read as settled, dignified, and giving freely of its best, stronger than at home though below the blaze of its exaltation peak. The Moon is the one exception: its root-trine lies in Taurus, its sign of exaltation, rather than in its own Cancer.

This page covers the root-trine alone: every planet's exact span, the name, the Moon's exception, and where the dignity sits in practice. For the ladder it belongs to, exaltation at the top and debilitation at the bottom, start at the exaltation and debilitation.

The moolatrikona of every planet

The spans below follow the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and are the working standard. In each case the rest of the sign counts as the planet's own sign, and for Mercury the opening stretch of the same sign is something higher still.

Planet	Moolatrikona	The rest of that sign	Other own sign
Sun	Leo 0°–20°	Own sign (20°–30°)	none
Moon	Taurus 3°–30°	Exaltation (0°–3°)	Cancer (own)
Mars	Aries 0°–12°	Own sign (12°–30°)	Scorpio
Mercury	Virgo 16°–20°	Exaltation (0°–15°), own sign (20°–30°)	Gemini
Jupiter	Sagittarius 0°–10°	Own sign (10°–30°)	Pisces
Venus	Libra 0°–15°	Own sign (15°–30°)	Taurus
Saturn	Aquarius 0°–20°	Own sign (20°–30°)	Capricorn

Rahu and Ketu are absent for the usual reason: the nodes own no signs, and the classics assign them no settled moolatrikona. Note also what the table implies: this dignity is defined by degree, so a chart must be read to the degree, never the sign alone, to know whether a planet holds it.

What does "root-trine" mean?

The Sanskrit compound joins moola, root, with trikona, triangle or trine. The traditional sense is a planet's root place, the ground its strength grows from. The name is old and the texts use it as a fixed technical term, so the etymology is best held lightly: what the word names is the degree span, nothing more.

One confusion is worth clearing at once. Moolatrikona has nothing to do with the trikona houses, the 1st, 5th, and 9th, that figure in house classification. A planet can occupy its moolatrikona degrees in any house of a chart; the dignity travels with the sign and degree, never with the house. The kendra and trikona houses page covers the house meaning of the same word.

Where moolatrikona sits on the ladder

The classical ladder of dignities runs: exaltation, moolatrikona, own sign, friend's sign, neutral's sign, enemy's sign, debilitation. Moolatrikona is the second rung, above home ground and below the peak, and the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra attaches rough measures: full results when exalted, about three quarters here, about half in own sign.

The fractions are a teaching device rather than arithmetic to apply, and texts differ on the exact numbers. What holds firm across the classics is the order, and the practical reading that follows from it: a moolatrikona planet behaves like an own-sign planet with extra settledness, reliable strength rather than spectacle. The spectacle end of the scale belongs to exalted planets.

The Moon's exception

Six of the seven planets keep their root-trine inside a sign they own. The Moon does not: its moolatrikona is Taurus from 3 to 30 degrees, the same sign that holds its exaltation in the first 3 degrees, while Cancer, the Moon's own sign, carries no part of it.

The traditional sense of the assignment is that the Moon, the receptive mind, is best grounded in the most stable sign of the zodiac, and the texts are uniform about it even though it breaks the pattern. The consequence is practical: any Moon in Taurus is in high dignity from one end of the sign to the other, exalted in the opening degrees and in root-trine for all the rest, which is part of why the Taurus Moon, including its Rohini stretch, is so consistently praised.

Mercury's three-part Virgo

Mercury packs its three highest dignities into a single sign. Virgo's first 15 degrees are Mercury's exaltation, peaking at 15; the span from 16 to 20 degrees is its moolatrikona; and the final 10 degrees count as its own sign. Gemini, Mercury's other sign, is own-sign dignity throughout.

No other planet does this, and it makes Mercury in Virgo the simplest strong placement in the system: wherever in the sign it stands, the dignity is high, and the degree names which grade. The full walk through Mercury's case is on the exalted planets page.

Moolatrikona, own sign, and exaltation side by side

The three high dignities describe three different kinds of strength, and the tradition reads them with different expectations. An exalted planet is a guest received with the highest honours, its nature amplified to a peak; the exalted planets page covers the blaze of it. An own-sign planet is a host on home ground, comfortable and free, with nothing to prove.

A moolatrikona planet sits between the two and borrows the better part of each: the security of its own territory with an extra measure of generosity, the texts' image being a planet seated on its root, giving from abundance rather than effort. In practical chart work the three are often grouped as one category, a strong planet by sign, and then separated again when fine grading matters, as it does in dasha judgments and in the strength calculations that weigh a chart's planets against each other.

Small differences between the texts

The spans given here are the widely followed ones, and most are uniform across the classics. The honest exception is Venus: the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra tradition carries 0 to 15 degrees of Libra, while the Phaladeepika gives a shorter opening span. Mercury's narrow band varies across texts in a more substantial way: the Brihat Jataka treats the entire sign of Virgo as Mercury's moolatrikona rather than a 4-degree sub-span within it.

None of the variations move a planet between signs; they shift a boundary by a few degrees within the same sign. For a placement near one of those edges, the sensible reading is the one the tradition itself uses: the planet is in high dignity either way, and the exact rung matters less than the sign-and-degree fact that put it there.

Why moolatrikona matters in practice

Two uses come up constantly. First, strength assessment: dignity is the first read of a planet's vigour, and the root-trine marks placements that deliver own-sign reliability and more, a fact any degree-aware reading or calculator reports. The planetary strength checker grades it in your chart directly.

Second, primacy between a planet's two signs. Five planets own two signs each, and the tradition treats the moolatrikona sign as the primary seat: Aries for Mars, Virgo for Mercury, Sagittarius for Jupiter, Libra for Venus, Aquarius for Saturn. Several classical judgments lean on that priority when a planet's two lordships pull in different directions. To see whether any of your planets stand in their root-trine degrees, a free birth chart lists every position to the degree.