Hello and welcome to today’s astrology deep dive, on the subject of annual profections. Ever heard of them ? “Profection” is an old word derived from the Latin “profectio” meaning the act of moving forward.
They’re a hellenistic astrological timing technique equating each house and their ruling planet of a birth chart to a specific year of your life – not a calendar year, but the period between two solar returns (= birthdays). So your 25th year will be ruled by a specific house + planet, and then you’ll move on to the next one as you turn 26, etc – following the order of the signs, starting from your Ascendant / rising sign.
The planetary ruler of that house becomes what’s known as your Time Lord for that year.
During that year, the themes of that specific house and that specific planet / Time Lord will be highlighted, both :
- in relation to your birth chart (the natal placement of said Time Lord) and any aspects to it
- in relation to ongoing transits aspecting your Time Lord.
During a given profection year, based on the etymology I mentioned above, you’ll be focused on moving forwards in that area of your life ; a 10th house profection year could mean advancement of your career, a 6th house profection year could mean working on your fitness goals, etc.
Even though the same years will be profections of the same houses for everybody (year 0 up to your 1st birthday is your 1st house, year 1 is your 2nd house etc), everybody will have a different Time Lord for that year based off of their Ascendant’s ruler as the starting point. For example, if you’re a Leo rising then your 1st house profection year will be ruled by the Sun.
Because this is a Hellenistic / traditional astrology technique, it uses the Whole Sign house system and the traditional planetary rulers – so Uranus, Neptune and Pluto aren’t invited to this party. Instead Jupiter co-rules both Sagittarius and Pisces, Saturn co-rules both Capricorn and Aquarius and Mars is in charge of both Aries and Scorpio.
Ok cool – but what’s actually the point of knowing who the hell your Time Lord is this year ?
- It enables you to focus on a specific area of your life that year, and not worry too much about other areas – because you know their time is coming later on.
- It helps you build a relationship with the planets by keeping in mind your Time Lord for the year applied to things like planetary days / deity work / planetary correspondences etc.
- It supports you in placing more trust in how events are unfolding when they correspond to the themes of your profection for that year.
Personally, I’m 27 until September, so I’m currently in the 2nd half of a 4th house profection year. I’m a Sagittarius rising, so Pisces rules my 4th house, so Jupiter is my Time Lord this year. The 4th house, ruled by Cancer, is the house of the home, of roots, of the mother and childhood. Jupiter creates expansion. Natally, Jupiter is in Sagittarius in my chart, in my 1st house of identity / the physical body and not aspecting any other of my placements. Natally, my Pisces 4th house contains my Saturn (21 degrees) opposite my 10th house Virgo Sun and Venus (18 and 24 degrees). How has my 4th house profection year played out since last September ? Well, I’m having a baby this coming September.
Last October my partner, with whom I’d been long distance since July 2021, moved up here to Normandy with me from Bordeaux. He’s a year older, so currently going through his 5th house profection year – but that’s also a Jupier ruled year for him as a Leo rising. So we’re expanding our family and also planning on buying this house together – which had always seemed impossible for us as millenials, but transit Jupiter up in his 10th house of career is making things happen.
Here’s a cute collage I made with my 4th house annual profection wheel and my expression of pregnant bliss that’s not at all over the whole thing :
To work out what annual profection you’re currently experiencing and who’s your Time Lord, check out this very useful part of Astro Seek’s website that has individual Annual Profection wheel templates for each rising sign : https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/annual-profections-astrology-calculator
If you’d like more insight into which planet is doing what for you at the moment, you can always book a session with me where we can discuss your 2023 Astro Daddy / Time Lord.
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