When you read the phrase “Hellenistic time lord techniques” it may sound complicated and difficult to comprehend, let alone practice. Actually, it describes a range of techniques and procedures, some of which are much easier than something like working with transits. For that reason, I want to walk you through the ancient time lord technique called “annual profections.”
Profections are one of the simpler Hellenistic time lord techniques to understand and put into practice:
In working with annual profections, every year you get a new “profected time lord,” a particular planet that guides you through the year, setting the tone and motivating action for that period of time. It’s like each year, the planets hand-off the role of being your patron deity and managing the affairs of your life (according to their own unique desires, tendencies, and agendas).
You start at the ascendent of the natal chart. That sign and house are activated for the first year of the person’s life. Whatever planet is the ruler of that zodiac sign is the time lord of the year, so for example, if the person’s rising sign is Virgo, the profected time lord for the first year would be Mercury; if the sign of the AC is Scorpio, the time lord would be Mars. On your next birthday, the second house becomes activated, and whichever planet rules the sign you have in the 2nd house becomes your time lord of the year. It continues like that through the houses and signs of the zodiac until it makes it back to the sign of the ascendent.
The cycle starts again every 12 years. In this way, the ages of our lives are grouped into years that each align with the same house— everyone is in their 1st house year when they are 12 years old, as well as when they are 24, 36, 48, 60 etc. (Everyone has the same house activated at the same age—but only those with the same rising sign will have the same sign & time lord at each of those ages.) While every year is completely unique, defined by the solar return chart and so many other factors, you’ll be able to see echoes of each of these groups of years in each other. Much like the Saturn return or other transits that happen to us all around the same age, yearly profections suggest that there are themes & storylines that are inextricably tied to certain ages of our lives.
HOW TO DO IT
Let’s start with your own natal chart. Pull it up (you can use astro.com or astro-seek.com to access it for free.) Before anything else, take a look at the chart of ages here:
See if you can find your current age now on the chart. Whatever house that number is in is your current profected house, and whichever planet rules that house in your natal chart is your current time lord for the year.
Now, take a look at my quick reference list of the houses, and choose one topic that you want to look into. Looking at the chart of ages, write down which ages correlate to that house in your natal chart (for example, if you want to look at your relationship to money & personal resources, it would be 2nd house years, 13, 25, 37, etc.). See if you can remember when you were these ages, and if there are any correlations or echoes of those other year(s) that correlate with the same house. What sign do you have in that house? Who is the ruling planet? Does it feel like the qualities or themes of that planet were present in those years? How did that affect the theme of the house?
To dig even deeper, check where the ruling planet is in your natal chart (the house & sign) and see if there’s any cross-pollination between those two areas of your life. So, for example, if your 2nd house is Gemini, the ruler (and your time lord for 2nd house years) is Mercury. If in your natal chart Mercury is in the 7th house, how do the themes of partnership & relationship affect how you manage your material resources? Is there anything you can learn from your experience during those 2nd house years that can guide you in how you think about and navigate money and the resources you use for survival?
That’s pretty much the idea!
It’s also good to note that any transits made to the profected time lord or by the time lord to other planets will be more impactful and noticeable that year. So if it’s a Jupiter year, expect Jupiter transits to be a bigger deal (but remember, it’s the same for Saturn when it’s a Capricorn or Aquarius year).
Just using this technique, you could continue house-by-house and age-by-age and learn so much about yourself (or anyone else whose biography you know) and even begin to predict some of the general qualities and storylines that are likely to arise in future years of your life.
Check it out and let me know what you find! Also, any solar return reading you book with me (i.e. a birthday reading) will definitely include annual profections, so that’s also a great way to get a sense of the technique.