Minderwiz
Profections
It was never expected that PDs could be exact and it seems that they were also used to establish the tone of a period. More than one event might be triggered by a PD and these might be seemingly quite different - for example a PD to the Ascendant by Mars, ruler of the MC might well bring career advancement but it might also bring a health problem, the need for surgery, or rashes or high temperatures - problems that would be associated with Mars' nature. It might even trigger some minor accidents (also of the nature of Mars).
The strongest PDs are likely to come from planets that are angular in the natal chart, or rule important houses or play a prominant part in the natal chart. Even these though may not manifest if there is no other supporting testimony from predictions.
Seventeenth Century Astrologers, such as Lilly and Morin tried to confirm PDs by looking at the results of other methods - Morin used Solar Returns and Transits, Lilly used Solar Returns and Profections (though I cannot see that he did not also use Transits). However it's Profections that I want to look at next.
Profections date back to Hellenistic times and may well predate Primary Directions. They seem to be related to the Greek idea of Time Lords (No, not Doctor Who!) that is planets which rule a particular period of life. Simple Profections take the natal chart and move all planets and angles (and the Lot of Fortune) forward by one sign for each year of life, following the first year. As there are only 12 signs, the process repeats every 12 years. To find your current Profections you simply add one to your age and divide by 12. The remainder is the number of signs to move your chart forward.
In my case I'm 62 which means that I'm in my 62+1 = 63rd year. 63/12 = 5 remainder 3. My birth Ascendant is in Leo, so my profected Ascendant will be in Libra (count forward 3 signs using the birth Ascendant as the first so for me that is Leo, Virgo, Libra)
My natal Sun is in Libra, so my profected Sun is in Sagittarius (moved forward to the third sign counting Libra as the first. All other planets and the MC are treated in the same way.
The Greeks appeared to have three systems. The first for Annual Profections as described above. The second for monthly profections, treating the month of birth as having the same sign as the Annual Profection. So my first monthly profected Ascendant for this year would be Libra, like the annual profection, the second month would move the Ascendant (and everything else) into Scorpio and so on. In practice it seems that the Greeks only bothered to profect the 5 key 'places' Ascendant, MC, Sun, Moon and Lot of Fortune for either years or months (or days which some Hellenistic Astrologers did).
Once the profection was calculated the Astrologer would look at the ruler of each of the profected places. For my case my Sun ruled Ascendant at birth has given way to a Venus ruled profected Ascendant. Vettius Valens has a variation on this, using as the annual ruler any planet that is in the profected Ascendant at birth. For me there is only one, the Sun. The annual and monthly rulers would give some indication of the overall tenor of each of the months of the year. If this tied in with the PD for the month then that was some supporting Testimony. So if you have a Saturn direction to the Ascendant in a particular year and Saturn is the annual profection ruler, that is supporting testimony that it will happen, probably in the month ruled by Saturn (or possibly Mars). Incidentally months begin to be counted from your birthday. The Greeks seem to have used a standardised month of 30 days for this exercise (allowing the Moon to complete its cycle of the zodiac and then catch up the Sun).
By Lilly's time things had changed quite a bit. Lilly acknowledges the possible use of monthly or daily profections but rather mockingly says that the time taken up would be disproportionate to the value of doing it. He uses a variation, allowing profections to move things forward 30 degrees during the year. At first sight this seems to be exactly what the Greeks did but whereas they simply did a sign change each year (or month) Lilly advances the positions pro rata in degrees, i.e. 2.5 degrees per month. If this involves a change of sign, then the planetary lords also change.
So my profected Ascendant is at 24 degrees Libra, so it will take my Ascendant about 70 days (Very approximately) to move into Scorpio by Lilly's method and Venus will give way to Mars.
Furthermore, Lilly starts of with all planets and points at their profected annual positions and then looks for aspects made by Ascendant and MC to the profected annual positions as they (Asc and MC) move forward 2.5 degrees per month (approx)
. It's possible to refine this to look for aspects to the natal chart or to the rulers of the five key places (which change each year). The movement of Asc. MC, Sun, Moon and Lot of Fortune thus provide timings for events. If those timings coincide with PDs (in terms of nature) then they provide testimony for the event happening. Profections without evidence from PDs are unlikely to produce anything. PDs without evidence from profections are likely to be greatly weakened or may not happen at all. (unless there is suppor form Solar Returns).
I must admit to not using Profections but for the purpose of this thread I'll have a look at some to see if they shed any useful light at all on the events of a year.
I'll do that in the next thread.
It was never expected that PDs could be exact and it seems that they were also used to establish the tone of a period. More than one event might be triggered by a PD and these might be seemingly quite different - for example a PD to the Ascendant by Mars, ruler of the MC might well bring career advancement but it might also bring a health problem, the need for surgery, or rashes or high temperatures - problems that would be associated with Mars' nature. It might even trigger some minor accidents (also of the nature of Mars).
The strongest PDs are likely to come from planets that are angular in the natal chart, or rule important houses or play a prominant part in the natal chart. Even these though may not manifest if there is no other supporting testimony from predictions.
Seventeenth Century Astrologers, such as Lilly and Morin tried to confirm PDs by looking at the results of other methods - Morin used Solar Returns and Transits, Lilly used Solar Returns and Profections (though I cannot see that he did not also use Transits). However it's Profections that I want to look at next.
Profections date back to Hellenistic times and may well predate Primary Directions. They seem to be related to the Greek idea of Time Lords (No, not Doctor Who!) that is planets which rule a particular period of life. Simple Profections take the natal chart and move all planets and angles (and the Lot of Fortune) forward by one sign for each year of life, following the first year. As there are only 12 signs, the process repeats every 12 years. To find your current Profections you simply add one to your age and divide by 12. The remainder is the number of signs to move your chart forward.
In my case I'm 62 which means that I'm in my 62+1 = 63rd year. 63/12 = 5 remainder 3. My birth Ascendant is in Leo, so my profected Ascendant will be in Libra (count forward 3 signs using the birth Ascendant as the first so for me that is Leo, Virgo, Libra)
My natal Sun is in Libra, so my profected Sun is in Sagittarius (moved forward to the third sign counting Libra as the first. All other planets and the MC are treated in the same way.
The Greeks appeared to have three systems. The first for Annual Profections as described above. The second for monthly profections, treating the month of birth as having the same sign as the Annual Profection. So my first monthly profected Ascendant for this year would be Libra, like the annual profection, the second month would move the Ascendant (and everything else) into Scorpio and so on. In practice it seems that the Greeks only bothered to profect the 5 key 'places' Ascendant, MC, Sun, Moon and Lot of Fortune for either years or months (or days which some Hellenistic Astrologers did).
Once the profection was calculated the Astrologer would look at the ruler of each of the profected places. For my case my Sun ruled Ascendant at birth has given way to a Venus ruled profected Ascendant. Vettius Valens has a variation on this, using as the annual ruler any planet that is in the profected Ascendant at birth. For me there is only one, the Sun. The annual and monthly rulers would give some indication of the overall tenor of each of the months of the year. If this tied in with the PD for the month then that was some supporting Testimony. So if you have a Saturn direction to the Ascendant in a particular year and Saturn is the annual profection ruler, that is supporting testimony that it will happen, probably in the month ruled by Saturn (or possibly Mars). Incidentally months begin to be counted from your birthday. The Greeks seem to have used a standardised month of 30 days for this exercise (allowing the Moon to complete its cycle of the zodiac and then catch up the Sun).
By Lilly's time things had changed quite a bit. Lilly acknowledges the possible use of monthly or daily profections but rather mockingly says that the time taken up would be disproportionate to the value of doing it. He uses a variation, allowing profections to move things forward 30 degrees during the year. At first sight this seems to be exactly what the Greeks did but whereas they simply did a sign change each year (or month) Lilly advances the positions pro rata in degrees, i.e. 2.5 degrees per month. If this involves a change of sign, then the planetary lords also change.
So my profected Ascendant is at 24 degrees Libra, so it will take my Ascendant about 70 days (Very approximately) to move into Scorpio by Lilly's method and Venus will give way to Mars.
Furthermore, Lilly starts of with all planets and points at their profected annual positions and then looks for aspects made by Ascendant and MC to the profected annual positions as they (Asc and MC) move forward 2.5 degrees per month (approx)
. It's possible to refine this to look for aspects to the natal chart or to the rulers of the five key places (which change each year). The movement of Asc. MC, Sun, Moon and Lot of Fortune thus provide timings for events. If those timings coincide with PDs (in terms of nature) then they provide testimony for the event happening. Profections without evidence from PDs are unlikely to produce anything. PDs without evidence from profections are likely to be greatly weakened or may not happen at all. (unless there is suppor form Solar Returns).
I must admit to not using Profections but for the purpose of this thread I'll have a look at some to see if they shed any useful light at all on the events of a year.
I'll do that in the next thread.