Profections
One of the oldest timing techniques in astrology: each year of a life is given to one house of the chart, counting on a house a year from the rising sign, and to the planet that rules the sign on it.
This year
The twelve years ahead
What a profection is
The technique comes from Hellenistic astrology, written down in the second century. In the first year of life, from birth to the first birthday, the first house is said to be active; in the second year the second, and so on round the chart, back to the first house at twelve, twenty-four, thirty-six and every twelve years after. The sign on that house for the year gives the lord of the year, its traditional ruling planet, and the tradition watches that planet more closely than the rest for those twelve months.
Why it needs a birth time
The count starts from the rising sign, and the rising sign changes every two hours or so, so without a birth time there is nothing to count from. The houses here are whole signs, one sign to a house, which is how the technique was used when it was written down. Within each year the same count runs a sign a month from the birthday, and the page gives that too.
What it claims
A profection names which part of a chart the tradition emphasises in a given year. It is a way of reading, not a forecast, and nothing on this page says what any year will bring.
How to count your profected year
Take your age in completed years, divide by twelve, keep the remainder and add one. The answer is the house of the year. Age 0 is the first house, age 1 the second and age 11 the twelfth; at 12 the count is back at the first house, and again at 24, 36, 48, 60, 72 and 84. The year runs from one birthday to the next, not from January.
The page does this from the birth details saved on this device, and it draws every age from birth to ninety-five round the twelve houses so the pattern can be seen at once. With a birth time it also names the sign on that house, its traditional ruler as lord of the year, the sign for the current month, and the twelve years ahead.
An example
Someone with Virgo rising turns 30. Thirty divided by twelve leaves six, so the year is the seventh house. Counting seven signs from Virgo, with Virgo itself as the first, reaches Pisces, and the traditional ruler of Pisces is Jupiter, so Jupiter is lord of the year until the thirty-first birthday. In the first month after that birthday the monthly profection is Pisces too; the second month is Aries, lord Mars, and so on, a sign a month. The tradition would look a little more closely at Jupiter, where it sits in the birth chart and where it moves, for those twelve months.
The traditional rulers
The lords used here are the traditional ones, from before the outer planets were found: Mars for Aries and Scorpio, Venus for Taurus and Libra, Mercury for Gemini and Virgo, the Moon for Cancer, the Sun for Leo, Jupiter for Sagittarius and Pisces, and Saturn for Capricorn and Aquarius. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not given years, which is how the technique was written.
Common confusions
The first year of life is age 0, so the house is your age plus one only up to age eleven; after that it wraps round. Counting from the age you are about to turn rather than the age you are puts the count a house ahead. And quadrant house systems such as Placidus can put one sign on two houses, or none on another, which is why the count here uses whole signs.
Related techniques
Profections are often read alongside the solar return, a chart for the moment the Sun comes back to its birth degree each year. The firdaria are a later, Persian way of handing out stretches of a life to the planets. The sign the count starts from is explained on the rising sign page, and what each house is read as is under the houses.
Questions people ask
What is a profected year in astrology?
A profected year is the house of the birth chart given to one year of life by annual profections, a Hellenistic timing technique. The count gives the first house to the year from birth to the first birthday and moves on one house each year, returning to the first every twelve years. The sign on that house, counted in whole signs from the rising sign, gives the year its lord.
How do I work out my profection year?
Take your age in completed years, divide by twelve, keep the remainder and add one: that is the house of the year. At 30 the remainder is six, so the year is the seventh house. Count that many signs from your rising sign, with the rising sign itself as the first, to find the sign of the year; its traditional ruler is the lord of the year.
What is the lord of the year?
The lord of the year is the traditional ruling planet of the sign a profection reaches. With Virgo rising at age 30 the year reaches Pisces, so Jupiter is lord of the year. In the tradition that planet is watched more closely than the others for those twelve months, both where it sits in the birth chart and where it moves. It is a way of reading emphasis, not a forecast.
Do profections need a birth time?
For the full technique, yes. The house of each year follows from the birth date alone, but the sign on that house, and so the lord of the year, depends on the rising sign, which changes every two hours or so. Without a birth time this page shows the house of each year but not its sign or its lord, and explains why.
Why do profections use whole-sign houses?
Because that is how the technique was used when it was written down. In whole-sign houses the rising sign is the whole first house, the next sign the second, and so on, so moving a house a year always means moving a sign a year. Quadrant systems such as Placidus make houses of uneven size, which breaks that one-to-one count.