“7 Planets = 7 Years”: Your Personal Time Cycle

January 2023

Copyright © by Judith, 2022

Astrologers have devised many means for determining your overarching planetary ruler of a current, or future year, (or more typically,  a set of years). These planets are sometimes referred to as “Time Significators”. One specific old system used “Time Lords”. I like that!

Methods vary widely - from the venerable Jyotish dasas to the recently popularized, Greek origin “zodiacal releasing”, disinterred from the second century CE writer Vettius Valens. There are manifold methods afoot. Few methods offer “equal-opportunity” timeshare for all planets. Typically, most techniques produce substantial gulfs between the number of years assigned to each planet, during your lifetime. This never seems fair to me.

Time signification systems typically conflict with one another too! For instance, in defining your Jyotish dasas, one must first select between at least six available ayanamsas (the amount of zodiacal longitude subtracted from the tropical zodiac to create the first degree of your sidereal zodiac.) Depending on the ayanamsa system used, results can vary considerably. Western systems are no less fraught. Neither do we know for certain why, in most cases, the planets are assigned unequal numbers of years that they will govern your life! Nor do we always know why the planetary order of our favored time signification cycle proceeds as it does, or varies so much between alternate systems.

Were you to experimentally calculate your personal “Time Lords” in all extant systems, you might well find that competing systems declare opposite planets to rule the same years! To add to this confusion, we also have “progressions”, and many choices here, as well.  (Progressions indicate the underlying birth pattern unfolding through time.)

It is my humble opinion that nothing works better than transits! Transits, while not always glamorous, are demonstrable energies occurring in real-time, independent of human ideologies, or murky provenance. That being said, I am as fascinated with Time Lords as any other astrologer. To satisfy my need for an easy, logical Time Lord system, I’ve invented one!

 My invented time signification system lives happily right under everyone’s nose, but for reasons unfathomable, has escaped notice. Allow me to share it with you.  Let me introduce you to my perpetual, “equal opportunity timeshare”  7 Planets = 7 Years Cycle: one year per planet. (Old school style, the Sun and Moon are included in this title).

Most of us realize that there are precisely seven days of the week, each with its own planetary ruler. This perpetual seven-day cycle has been revolving since its Roman inception in 321 CE. The Romans established Sunday as the first day of the week.

Astrologers have long utilized the seven-week day rulers, plus their hourly sub-rulers for all manner of elective date timing. Now, all we need to do is transfer this same seven-year weekday cycle idea to years, instead of days! As in secondary progressions, one day=one year. In my system, both the day and year can, through orderly progression, now claim and enjoy the same “day ruler” as their own! How do we begin?

You were born on one of the seven days of the week. This is “your” day. Remember the rhyme “Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday child is…” etc? The first thing you will need to do is discover the day of the week that you were born on. Later on, I’ll demonstrate how to use this as a series of seven years, by progression. But first…why is this system logical?

 The Logic of Week Day Order, and Planetary Assignment

The order of the days of the week and their assigned planets has been proven to exactly match the ascending atomic weights of their traditionally associated metal! Significant author and researcher Nick Kollerstrom nicely demonstrates this fact, inclusive of fascinating graphics, in his landmark The Metal-Planet Relationship (one of my favorite books).

 Gold (Sun) possesses the lowest atomic weight and lead (Saturn) is the highest. Thus, we have a logical basis for ordering the planets in this manner: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn.

These traditionally correlate to our well-established Western weekday ordering: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Now we have some logical basis for ordering the days of the week in their traditional manner, noting how their assigned planets appear integral to this same order! (However, I cannot yet discover if our current week’s cycle revolved unaltered since its 321 CE inception, or skipped a beat somewhere. In other words, is the Sunday we know today in the same place since its initial progenitor? Or did it slip forward into Monday’s slot, or backward into Saturday’s position? These questions await answers.) The joke would be on us if our current Moon-ruled “Monday” was really once a Sun-ruled Sunday or some other. Like all-time lord systems, this one requires a little faith! 

Perhaps an old manuscript will appear, detailing this same Seven Planet=Seven year Year time lord cycle. It is strange that such an obvious and simple method of progressions appears to have escaped usage.

• Monday = Moon= silver;

• Tuesday=Mars=iron;

•  Wednesday= Mercury=mercury;

• Thursday=Jupiter=tin;

• Friday = Venus=copper;

• Saturday = Saturday=lead;

• Sunday = Sun=gold

With this seemingly overlooked “Seven Day = Seven Year, Time Lord Cycle”, we finally achieve one-planet-per-year rulership.  Each planet governs for precisely one year, revolving through the perpetual seven-year cycle. As in ‘secondary progressions’, one day of life = one year. This seven-year cycle unfolds in the traditional order of the days of the week and their assigned planets. So simple!  The  ‘7 Planets = 7 Years’ time lord cycle completes each round with Saturn, the traditional ruler of Saturday, the final day of the week. Saturn governs seven-year cycles! Plus we have the added comfort of knowing that this system is based upon at least some manner of demonstrable rationale (as explained above).

 BASIC CALCULATION for  ‘7 Planets = 7 Years’  Time Lord Cycle

Open an ephemeris. Two companies of note are AstroComputing Services and The Rosicrucians. Ephemerides come in two basic choices: Noontime, and Midnight.  There are several good ephemerides available. The latter would be easier for use of this system, but not required.

All you need first do is count forward from your birth date:  one year for each year of age.  You will arrive at a day of the week for the present year of age. Example: If you are thirty-three, then count forward in time by thirty-three days. In the far left column of most monthly ephemerides, you will find the weekdays listed next to the date arrived upon.

The planet ruler of that day becomes your current year’s Time Lord.

But wait! You were probably not born exactly at midnight (day’s onset), but sometime after. This difference must be calculated and removed from how many months of this year have actually passed, by the time of your birth. 

We have 24 hours in a day and 12 months in a week. Therefore two hours = 1 month of time.  This is a very general estimate but will be useful enough for the simple example following. We must first discover “our” natal weekday, and its ruler. Our perpetual seven-year cycle will revolve from that day.

EXAMPLE

Baby Clyde was born on July 7th, 2012, at Noon, on Friday, his ruling day. Venus governs Friday. It is now his sixth birthday - what is his Time Lord for his sixth year, 2018? We commence by counting along from Clyde’s birthday for exactly six days, through the never-varying weekday order. We arrive on Thursday. Jupiter governs Thursday, and therefore his 6th year is governed by Jupiter. Interpretively, the houses ruled by Clyde’s natal Jupiter; Jupiter’s natal position, and the current transit of Jupiter will all carry more weight this year!

Clyde’s birthday (July 7th) marks the start of his personal year. Now, let’s determine how much of the planetary year has already passed by on the date of his sixth birthday.

To accomplish this, we need Clyde’s birth time, (12 pm standard time). Because twelve noon stands exactly halfway between midnight and midnight, our job is easy. To discover the month Clyde’s new “planetary year” begins, we must now make this simple estimated calculation.

By noon, twelve hours have already passed in the year of Clyde’s new, time lord Jupiter, (for his sixth year of life). Divide 12 hours by 2 months = 6 months. 

We now see that on July 7th, 2018 (Clyde’s birthday), we have but 6 months left of the Jupiter-governed planetary year.

July 7th plus 6 months is approximately January 7 of the following year (2019). So we say that Jupiter is Clyde’s sixth-year-of-life Time Lord for 2018 runs from approximately January 7th, 2018 through January 2019. Clyde’s “planetary year ruler” will always change guard with a new planet Time Lord each January 7th!  In January 2019, Clyde’s new Time Lord will be Venus. Why? Because on Clyde’s seventh birthday, he has already entered Venus’ year six months previous (because being born at noon, standard time,  Clyde was born halfway through the twenty-four hour day).

In using the “Seven Year Time Signifiers” adjustments must be made for daylight savings time births.

Try it!  After conceiving this system, I’ve empirically tested it for twenty-some years. So often, I’ve been able to guess what planet governs a year. For instance, Mars, or the 8th house ruler so often corresponds with a year where surgery or an accident occurred. Mars, or natal ruler of the 7th house or the spouse’s significator, so frequently lords over a divorce year. Similarly, love and marriage may show the reigning Time Lord as Venus, Jupiter, Moon, or the 7th ruler. A first baby year might well be a Jupiter, Venus, or ruler of the 5th house year.

This perpetual seven-step ‘Time Lord’ system scores high for simplicity, logic, plus equal opportunity timeshare for all planets, plus Sun and Moon!  However, it does have some drawbacks. First, we really do not know how the Romans decided that “Sunday” or “Monday” was Sunday or Monday. When these assignments were made, a day was a day…the Moon phases and seasons came and went.

Some human being had to first decide that tomorrow will become the first Sunday, ruled by Sol, and commence for evermore our perpetual weekday cycle! We have no logical way to know for sure if the originally selected date for Sunday was Sun-ruled, other than a time-honored tradition. Still, a centuries-old pattern creates a “thought form”, and will work, despite a logical explanation.

Here is a brief list of themes that might dominate the planet’s year, when that planet is Time Lord. I see these as a sort of “background noise” to the transits. For instance, a great planet governing your year will do much to offset horrid transits. And, vice versa! The natural significators of a planet may evince a year’s themes. The houses the planet rules, and its natal condition must all enter into your interpretation. Never forget your transits. They still rule!

SEVEN PLANETS-SEVEN YEARS:  How to Use

Empirical research suggests that planet time signifiers will:

1. indicate a dominant event or theme of the year (often, but not invariably, doing so at the beginning or close of “their” year);

2. stimulate matters naturally signified by the planet, and those governed by the natal houses this planet rules and tenants;

3. creates a sort of “background noise” to whatever the transits and progressions are suggesting for the same period of time.

INTERPRETATION

Time Signifiers Indications (short list)

• Sunday = Sun: heart,  brain, eyesight, husband, father, career success, popularity, leadership, purpose enhancement, and realization. For further interpretive information, see the natal house ruled and tenanted by Sun.

• Monday = Moon: mother, wife, childbirth, female health, moving, traveling, mental health, an emotional year! Nice for music. For further interpretive information, see the natal house ruled, and tenanted by Moon.

• Tuesday = Mars: divorce, surgery, men, sports, energy, exercise, war, legal matters, conflict, leadership, adventure, muscles, accidents, quarrels. For further interpretive information, see the natal house ruled, and tenanted by Mars.

• Wednesday = Mercury: writing, books, paperwork, tedium, intellectual development, communication, study, nerves,  hand work, skill development, mental health, siblings, mental health. For further interpretive information, see the natal house ruled, and tenanted by Mercury.

• Thursday = Jupiter: religion, initiation, higher degrees, college, teaching, obtaining a guru, leadership, popularity, fortune, growth, liver, blood pressure, weight issues, expansion, enterprise, opportunity, children, scholarships, long journeys. For further interpretive information, see the natal house ruled, and tenanted by Jupiter.

• Friday = Venus: love affairs, heartbreak (if natally difficult), beloved person or animal appears, culture, pleasure, art, beauty, kidneys, ovaries, vacations, “wine, women, and song”. For further interpretive information, see the natal house ruled, and tenanted by Venus.

• Saturday = Saturn: The last day of the seven-year cycle. Fathers, bones, teeth, authorities, judgments, duty, lessons, karma. Beginnings and endings. Deaths (not always by any means), Important life decisions. Rewards for long-term efforts. Completions. Saturn can also be quite the grindstone! For further interpretive information, see the natal house ruled, and tenanted by Saturn.

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