Which Planet Rules Your Year: an intro into profection years

If you haven’t learned about profection years yet on your astrology journey, then buckle up! This can feel like a big topic, but once you understand the basic principles it adds an exciting new layer to your astrology studies. Plus, you enter a new profection year on your birthday, so it’ll be one more reason to celebrate.

What is a Profection Year?

There are many areas of study when it comes to astrology; profection years deal with predictive astrology. The idea is that every year of your life falls under a different house in your astrology chart. Knowing what house rules your year helps you understand the big themes and lessons coming your way. Your profection year house is only one part of the equation because there is also a planet which rules each year of your life, but we’ll get to that later on.

How Do I Find My Profection Year

Knowing which profection year you’re in is easy enough! First you’ll need to know your age, then find it on the wheel pictured below. The inner circle shows which house is ruled by each year. Find your age and profection year house, then scroll down to read what the key themes for your next year will be.

1st house: The self, the body, your perspective

2nd house: Money, objects, consumption, self worth

3rd house: Friends, your neighbourhood, community events, your car

4th house: Family, house, home life

5th house: Joy, children, dating, sex

6th house: Health, habits, daily grind

7th house: Partnerships, marriage, business partnerships

8th house: Emotional bonds, death, inheritance

9th house: Philosophy, spirituality, religion

10th house: Career, legacy, long term goals, fame

11th house: Community, dreams for the future, goals for humanity

12th house: Dream worlds, solitude, secrets, enemies

• Annual Profections – The Theme Of Your Year

But Wait… Who’s Your Time Lord?

Nope, we’re not talking about Dr Who here, the planet that rules your profection year is known as your time lord.

Before you find out your time lord we need to be certain of which sign rules over that house in your chart. If you don’t have your circle chart on hand you can get yours pulled up here–make sure you know your birth time or have a good guess because your time of birth is what decides how the houses in your chart fall. Rising signs change every 2 hours, so if you have a good guestimate you should still be able to use this method.

Note: Make sure you have your chart set to Whole Sign Houses

Many programs are set to the Placidus House System, which is a great tool but not applicable for this kind of predictive astrology.

Now, if you’re in an 8th house year and you pull up your chart with whole sign houses you’ll find that there is only one sign in your 8th house (and all other houses). Maybe you’re an Aquarius rising and Virgo is in your 8th house.

Once you know which sign is in your profection year house (8th house Virgo for our current example), you’ll need to figure out the ruler of that sign. Every sign has 1 traditional ruler, some signs also have a modern ruler but for simplicity and tradition we use the traditional rulers only.

They are as follows:

Aries-Mars

Taurus-Venus

Gemini-Mercury

Cancer-Moon

Leo-Sun

Virgo-Mercury

Libra-Venus

Scorpio-Mars

Sagittarius-Jupiter

Capricorn-Saturn

Aquarius-Saturn

Pisces-Jupiter

For our example person, who is an Aquarius rising in an 8th house year with an 8th house ruled by Virgo, Mercury is the ruling planet of their year.

Great, now what does that mean?

• What Are Annual Profections?

Working With Your Time Lord

In the simplest of terms, your time lord is the most important planet of your year. If it goes retrograde you will feel that retrograde more intensely than your peers. If it goes out of bounds you’ll feel that chaotic energy more so than if it wasn’t your time lord. If your time lord experiences a conjunction (that’s two planets in the same sign and at the same degree or close to it) you will be impacted in a big way.

Mercury is the time lord in our example, but it’s not just transit Mercury (the one in our solar system) it’s also your natal Mercury (the one in your natal chart) that you need to look out for. If transit Neptune squares your natal Mercury (AKA your time lord!) then you will find that your perception of the world may change radically.

Your time lord also gives further insight into what to expect in the year to come.

Sun: This is a year for illumination and discovering deep, intrinsic truths.

Moon: This is a year to hone your intuition and to spend more time with loved ones.

Mercury: You’ll find that you’re very curious and more social this year.

Venus: Love and relationships take the main focus of your year. Money and beauty are also important themes to work with.

Mars: This is a year of power and a bit of competitiveness. Enjoy the extra bursts of energy as well!

Jupiter: This is a huge year for growth and opportunity.

Saturn: Structure and routine are the themes of your year. You may find that you need to take on more responsibility in the area of your life that Saturn is in in your chart.

Uranus: Revolution and sudden changes take place this year–expect the unexpected!

Neptune: This is a year of creativity and spirituality. You may feel a certain transcendence beyond this earthly plane.

Pluto: Pluto works slowly to transform a certain aspect of your life. Look to the house your natal Pluto is in as well as what house transit Pluto is in this year in your chart to understand where the transformations are taking place.

Using both the vibes of your profection house and your time lord will help you better prepare for the year ahead, but you can also use it to divine more information about the years that have passed. For instance, everyone has a tough year at age 23, why? Because it’s a 12th house profection year of course!