Time Lords as a Topical Activation (Zodiacal Releasing)
© 2014, Jan 12 Curtis Manwaring
Don't forget that time lords also have a topical application. They're not just all heaped into a count like an almuten. In life, many things are going on at once. A promotion may be coming in career at the same time one is getting a divorce. (In fact, I saw one client who got a divorce because she was getting a promotion). A child may be on the way when the home burns down or someone may be subject to a lawsuit while forming their own company. There are sometimes connections to these events that are close and other times it seems like they are unrelated. The general "time description" that Valens talks about gives a kind of baseline from which to estimate the outcome of various topics. It is often the case that one area of life signified by a certain house or lot makes other areas of life signified by other houses or lots difficult.
Because most situations develop over time, the methods that encompass the broadest stretches of time set out the best outline for what is possible (heimarmene) for a given time. These would be PD's, circumambulations and the activation of trigon lords of the sect light. Like tumblers in a lock, the first sequence determine whether a situation can even be "unlocked" or activated.
Also it makes sense that within the context of broader periods of topical methods such as zodiacal releasing from spirit that the greater eminence is usually reached in the longer periods because the winds have more time to generate an effect which symbolizes the native working on some endeavor for a longer period of time. Success often isn't achieved overnight, but when it does happen suddenly, it usually involves fortune.
On Zodiacal Releasings using the Lot of Fortune to time periods of wealth or poverty
I've seen periods of illness and death come up with zodiacal releasing from fortune. While it stands to reason that ill health generally decreases your bank account, these days, real wealth is probably a matter of eminence and general support of the nativity such as with the trigon lords being properly placed and fortune and the other lots (such as Spirit, Basis and Exaltation) having eudaimoniea (handing over to each other in busy places).
For the rest of us, wealth or having enough is a matter of Spirit releasing because we cannot make enough just collecting interest in the way corporations do (wealth building wealth is impossible for most of us); instead we make our wealth (or compensation) based upon our actions (Spirit). But I'm not sure that the ZR Fortune or Spirit is adequate in measuring wealth. I strongly suspect that anangke (family ties = Saturn) may have a stronger influence because mediocre charts coming from the right family are often far more financially substantial than eminent charts coming from the wrong background.
It often seems that what ought to be (heimarmene) and what is (tuche - fortune or luck) do not follow "as above, so below" in the literal sense. Tuche is hard to measure and Dyadic (according to Schmidt) which a Platonist would say is ultimately unknowable. Because Fortune is associated with "tuche", it might not be as easy to measure.
With regard to wealth, the problem is that we no longer have money as a system of ownership; but instead, money is a measure of debt and the credit score is a measurement of obedience (Have you ever wondered why most economists also have a background in political science?). Given the gradual onset of the Aquarian age in which the star of Kronos substitutes the real for that which is imagined (Saturn as traditional ruler represents "feigned appearance" according to Valens), it might be a mistake to associate the zodiacal releasing of fortune with actual money. In Valens time it represented what one had and ones body. But fiat money with nothing backing up the currency is basically an "I Owe You" that works based upon the hegemony of corporations such as the Federal Reserve (another Aquarian entity). It is interesting that Aquarius has superior position to the Bull.
Now, what Valens would call money would be actual possessions in the form of silver, gold, etc. that one could use in trade which is much closer to a barter system that often didn't involve political elites looking over your shoulder. The result was that in those days agnoia (not knowing or unwit as Hand would say) worked in favor of personal wealth. The reason is because when you don't know what someone has, you have to offer the fair price of what something is worth. But when you ask someone how much something is and you get the question "how much do you have?" then you are in a situation where information is being used as a political wedge to manipulate you. This question is usually no longer asked directly, but all banks can track what you have which amounts to the same thing and because of that money is no longer a "possession" unless you have so much that it becomes a tool to corrupt others to your advantage. In this sense, money/credit comes much closer to eminence and political power and that is much closer to behavior manipulation by government or corporations and much less a matter of what you have. Now, you really only truly own what you can carry on your back. I suppose that was also the case in Valens time, but technology has really made this manipulation so much worse.
Forget to pay your taxes, your rent, etc. and you will soon find out who the real owners are. The question is: if what you have owns you, is it still money? I submit that we are all owned as if on a plantation; we are being farmed and managed like cattle.
I had written a long article about this (which included the tie ins with the Thema Mundi, Agenda 21, Georgia Guide Stones and the 8th house, etc.) almost 2 years ago that was far more in depth (roughly 40 KB), but the Dreamweaver editor crashed and I wasn't able to recover the data. Maybe someone else can fill out the details as it all seems really obvious once you stand back and look at the big picture. On the other hand you might have to look over your shoulder the rest of your life if you do.
On Profections and Lord of the Year
Valens does seem to make a point that when planets hand over to other planets that they are of special importance for the year. For instance, if it is a 3rd house profection year, all planets that hand over to a planet 2 signs ahead he says are "active for the year" and it seems that he thinks that other handing's over are secondary.
He has a few weird ideas such as if it's a 1st house profection year, that you should skip handing over to itself and hand over to the 2nd from that. At first thought, it makes it appear that one would have a 2nd house profection 2 years in a row, but my guess is that what is really happening is that the planet skips itself in such an instance and prepares for what is next. This might be because he thinks a planet handing over to itself doesn't have the same level of importance; not that it doesn't really happen at all. The context seems to be a way of finding the most important profections and how to rank them. I think in terms of secondary considerations one looks at the place but that Valens would probably have thought it less "chrematistikos" (telling)...
He also says that a planet handing over to itself is always bad... which suggests that he does think planets hand over to themselves. My guess is that he might be hinting toward some sort of timing consideration as he says that the order of timelordships is important, that they prepare the way ahead of time for both good and bad.
Sometimes these don't always show up in the examples he uses and there are times when it seems that he breaks his own rules. Perhaps a careful reading of the examples will show which rules are most important.
On Ranking of Time Lord Systems
The decennials, Balbillus procedure, and several others are also similarly customized based upon planetary order. Schmidt suggested over 10 years ago that methods based upon the Moon might be more telling in nocturnal charts whereas methods based upon the Sun (such as decennials) are more telling in diurnal charts. There's evidence in Valens to support this assumption (his statement that each chart tells us how to interpret itself and that some charts/places/lots, etc are more "chrematistikos" (telling) than others.
Schmidt said that some general time lord methods seem to be based upon a predomination argument and others are more topically specific. As such, he suggested that if the method based upon a predomination happens to fail that predomination test, theoretically another method should be used because as Valens would say it's a less telling method. However, once a method wins the predomination test, there's no stopping it from delineating on topics because each planet will be an oikodektor and make requests of it's participating lord.
On the Realm of the Intelligibles, the Same and Other in Regard to Time Lords
For years Bob said that the goal is to render the periods intelligible so that "you know what you're looking at". Knowing what you're looking at comes from what Plato called the realm of the intelligibles which is part of the realm of Nous (or divine mind). The way to make it so, is to focus on the Sameness instead of the Otherness between time lord periods. So ask yourself these common sense questions...
When comparing the current L2 Mars lunar quarter, is there any similar theme that was present in the previous L2 Mars lunar quarters? The same can be done with all other time lord systems, but I suggest starting with the topically specific time lord systems such as ZR Fortune (bodily issues, health and finances) or ZR Spirit (actions, reputation and focus of energy toward praxis). You might find that two periods are similar in time for a given issue, but it will be easier to see if you're focusing on a narrow range of manifestation such as "health" (ZR Fortune). If you stick with general time lord systems, then I suggest looking at the house placement to see what topic that represents and look at how that topic might have a result or disposition coming from sub period lords and their aspect relation or lack thereof. But if you're doing this, you're not necessarily looking at the Sameness between periods because it's likely that successive major period lords will not represent the same topics. Instead, the Sameness has to come from a predefined idea or "given" for what that topic is. In this case, you might try looking at if there was a change of theme topically when these general lords switch over. Often times it's not obvious what that might be.
In regards to the general time lord systems, I'm currently treating them as topically specific, but for the whole life in the sense that it might be more likely to highlight what's the most important issue going on in that person's life. I only use lunar quarters if the prenatal lunation has strong predomination influence or the Moon is strong by placement and sect.
I have the prenatal lunation near my IC and noticed something peculiar. On every L2 period when the Moon had the times with the lord (general period) was cadent, I had a change of residence. And back in late 2012 I went to L1 Moon period and I ended up residing shortly thereafter at the place I was born (which was the same period I was born with). So while I was born of the diurnal sect, I don't necessarily think that one has to discount testimony of other time lord systems entirely. It might simply be that the kind of testimony coming from such a method has lower rank and that such rank is a means for rendering the grander picture intelligible.
