Does reception mitigate harm?

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If I have a malefic on the tenth of another planet, maltreating it, is that maltreatment mitigated by being in the domicile of the maltreated planet?

For example, Saturn in Virgo maltreats by square Mercury in Sagittarius. But Mercury governs Saturn's residence; can Saturn do as much harm as before? (Oh, if it matters, night chart, Mercury an evening star.)

I've seen this pattern in other charts I've looked at, and it *seems* that it means that rather than saying a flat "No," the maltreating planet just gets in the way a lot. I myself have Mars in Gemini maltreating Mercury in Virgo. But I'm in good health and have a good career, despite a lot of struggle and anxiety.

Now that I think about it, it might be that my Mercury, by being so well-placed, is strong enough to throw off Mars. It might not be reception at all, or totally.

What do you think? If it matters, I'm using Hellenistic astrology, but I'm open to ideas from Renaissance and Medieval astrology too.

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In my view, a weak planet, such as Mercury in Sagittarius, receiving a malefic not in its own dignity is more harmed by this reception than not. Of course we should also consider the accidental fortitudes of all the planets involved and if a benefic is interposing itself with an aspect as well.

Of course no one aspect would be enough to dictate everything we need to know about health and career so it may not be surprising that health and career are okay. I would pay attention to when Mercury becomes a focus by coming to prominence by being a time lord though.

The way I personally think about it is that when you receive a planet you sort of open yourself up to its influence more. If you are hosting a planet, you are inviting it into your home where it may do you more damage. So reception mitigates harm in the sense that planets which are doing the receiving mitigate any harm to the planet that they are receiving. It is like a host saying, okay, come under my roof and I promise I will treat you with hospitality, I promise to do you no harm whilst under my roof.

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Paul wrote:... when Mercury becomes a focus by coming to prominence by being a time lord though.
Hi Paul.
Please explain that. Do you mean the ruler of hour at the time of birth?
And how is that planet important in native's chart?

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Thank you. That makes sense. It seems like the rules of dignity are a lot closer to their metaphoric roots, and that's something I keep forgetting. It makes a lot of sense to think of it as Saturn being a bad guest, taking over Mercury's house and imposing his own rules on it.

I think I can help explain what you mean by Time Lord. In Hellenistic astrology, planets become activated as the Lord of a time (a year, a month, a couple days) based on a number of systems. The most popular system, it seems to me, is Annual Profection. So you take, for example, the ascendent (let's say it's in Aries, whose domicile lord is Mars). For the first year of like (0-1 y/o), the Time Lord is Mars. Then for the second year, move one sign in zodiacal order: now the Time Lord is the lord of Taurus, Venus. So you go all the way around the chart like this, one year per sign, and then start over (so at 12 y/o, the Time Lord of that year is again Mars).

When a Time Lord is activated, that planet in the natal chart is "on," as it were, and the things it signifies by location and rulership become active. Also, the transiting planets "turn on," and they gain significance.

For example, imagine our native is 30 years old. We profect 7 signs (mod 31/12, if you like math), to find that the Time Lord is the domicile lord of Libra, viz., Venus. Then we look in the chart to see what Venus is doing. Let's say the native has Venus in the 7th house with a trine to Jupiter. Cool! Good stuff will happen with partnerships and relationships this year.

Then, we whip out the ephemeris and see what Venus is doing, particularly when and where it stations, as those are important houses as well.

For a real-life example, this is a Mars year for me. Mars is slow and getting ready to station in my third house. I'm a writer, and I've been sitting on this damned MS for ages, trying to revise it, and getting nowhere, even though it's actually a pretty easy task. Mars in my chart is in the tenth house dominating Mercury in Virgo. A while ago, I had an argument with a colleague at work. That argument took place exactly at the time (within minutes) that transiting Mercury made an opposition to my natal Mars.

I have months of a stationing Mars to look forward to (March will not be productive, but then, it rarely is, given my schedule). But because I know that, I also know not to get frustrated at things slowing down in my writing. And eventually it will enter Scorpio, and then things will improve. The book will be done at that point, I suspect.

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Thanks Patrickd.
I believe the 13th year - "the Time Lord of that year is again Mars".
Than 25th, 37th, 49th, 61st, 73rd, 85th, 97th...
Last edited by Yuriy on Tue Jan 07, 2014 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Yuriy: Exactly. The 13th year of life is when one is 12 years old. So the formula is MOD ((AGE+1)/12), or to put it another way, add one to the age to determine which year of life it is, then divide the result by 12. The remainder is how many houses to count from the ascendent (or whatever point one is profecting, as you can profect other points than the ascendent for more detail).

You can work this backwards, too, if you see a planet in transit doing something interesting you can profect backwards from its domiciles in the natal chart and figure out what part of the chart it's the Time Lord of. If that makes sense.

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Yuriy wrote:
Paul wrote:... when Mercury becomes a focus by coming to prominence by being a time lord though.
Hi Paul.
Please explain that. Do you mean the ruler of hour at the time of birth?
And how is that planet important in native's chart?
Yup, as Patrick says, I had in mind things like profections. In Patrick's particular example though, Mercury is receiving a malefic from its own sign, in Gemini. However Mercury is a perfectly capable host, all else being equal, by being in its own dignities in Virgo. So whilst Mercury may be somewhat harmed by a reception from mars, depending on the aspect itself (a whole sign square at least) and other factors, we might not be too surprised that Mercury can handle it well. But I just wanted to point out that if Mercury didn't have much dignity itself, it may find reception of a malefic without dignity a little more harmful.

If you're interested in discovering what your profection year is, just use this table I created, and find your age, and what house it is in:
http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/ph ... 82b794522f

As an example, I am 28, therefore I am in a 5th place profection year.

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Paul wrote: Yup, as Patrick says, I had in mind things like profections. In Patrick's particular example though, Mercury is receiving a malefic from its own sign, in Gemini. However Mercury is a perfectly capable host, all else being equal, by being in its own dignities in Virgo. So whilst Mercury may be somewhat harmed by a reception from mars, depending on the aspect itself (a whole sign square at least) and other factors, we might not be too surprised that Mercury can handle it well. But I just wanted to point out that if Mercury didn't have much dignity itself, it may find reception of a malefic without dignity a little more harmful.

If you're interested in discovering what your profection year is, just use this table I created, and find your age, and what house it is in:
http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/ph ... 82b794522f

As an example, I am 28, therefore I am in a 5th place profection year.
Thank you Paul.
It was discussed also at some "traditionalists" astroforum
that if planet afflicted by malefics it helps a lot if it doesn't have dignity at all, but good-standing dispositor.
For instance, if Mercury in Taurus at some degree being peregrine, and under t-square from Mars-Saturn. But Venus is its dispositor, perfectly located in Taurus and angular.
So, had the Mercury some dignity, like in own term at least, all that damages would be on it. But since Mercury is peregrine it delegates all to its dispositor, strong Venus. And that mitigates situation a lot.
.

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profection lord for the year and time lord are two different topics.. time lords is a concept that might have had it's origins in hellenistic astrology, but i think it is in indian or vedic astrology where it continued on.. something about planets having a number of years ruling over a persons chart..

quote from a pdf file here - "Some of the most important time lord procedures in Hellenistic Astrology have unfamiliar names such as Circumambulations through the Bounds, Zodiacal Releasing from the Lots of Fortune and Spirit, Quarters of the Moon, and Decennials. Each of these methods examines the life from various perspectives and inquiries,whereby the life is divided into a sequence of periods that are each governed by a particular time lord planet. It is this succession of
time lords and their sub-time lords that establish the sequence of
the general fortunate and unfortunate periods of a person?s life
.
In Vedic astrology, dashas are conceptually analogous to the Hellenistic time lords, but the methods for determining them differ substantially."

pdf link here - http://www.demetra-george.com/Hellenist ... edures.pdf

as to the original question - "Does reception mitigate harm?"

i think it depends on a few factors that require a look at each individual chart..
patrickd wrote:If I have a malefic on the tenth of another planet, maltreating it, is that maltreatment mitigated by being in the domicile of the maltreated planet?

For example, Saturn in Virgo maltreats by square Mercury in Sagittarius. But Mercury governs Saturn's residence; can Saturn do as much harm as before? (Oh, if it matters, night chart, Mercury an evening star.)
saturn is in a commanding position in the upper square to mercury here, but from my pov, saturn and mercury share some affinities and i would see this particular combo as favourable for mercury in giving it something that would be helpful as opposed to not.. other factors would have to be considered in each individual chart, but i think this in itself would be more positive then not, speaking natal astrology anyway..

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james_m wrote:profection lord for the year and time lord are two different topics.. time lords is a concept that might have had it's origins in hellenistic astrology, but i think it is in indian or vedic astrology where it continued on.. something about planets having a number of years ruling over a persons chart..
Hi James

A time lord is just that, a lord over a particular period of time. An annual profection is one additional example of a time lord. Profections are what we call this technique today, but in Hellenistic times it was just another chronocrator, this one for determining the lord of the year. "Profections" are not a technical term distinct from "Time Lords", another technical term, instead profections are a term we use to differentiate the time lord system for determining the lord of the year, from other time lord systems, such as releasing from the Lots.

(PS when I say profection here I assume annual profections, obviously there are monthly profections etc. as well)

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thanks paul. that is true, but i don't think all time lords are implied with only profections.. that was what i was trying to say. it is certainly not how i think of how indian astrologers are using these terms. as a matter of fact, i haven't read any use of profections in indian astrology. maybe they do use profections, but i see the use of the word firdaria and vedic dasas and think time lords more then i think of a profection lord for the year.. maybe curtis or someone else more knowledgeable can comment..

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'Time lord' translates the Greek chronocrat?r, found in the last chapter of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos as well as in various places throughout Valens' Anthologies. Ptolemy distinguishes between 'general' or 'universal' chronocrators on one hand, by which he means promissors and divisors* by primary direction, and annual, monthly and daily chronocrators on the other, by which he means the sign rulers of the respective levels of profection.

*(A promissor is a planet or star encountered by a directed significator, whether by body or aspect. A divisor, sometimes translated as 'distributor', is the ruler of the terms/bounds through which a significator is currently directed.)
https://astrology.martingansten.com/