Bounds

bowndz

greek: ὅρια (horia) · latin: termini

Definition

The bounds — also called terms, from the Latin termini and the Greek horia — are unequal slices within each zodiac sign. Each slice is handed to one of the five non-luminary planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, or Mercury. A sign holds five of these segments; together they add up to thirty degrees, but they vary in width across the sign. Three main systems of bounds survive: the Egyptian bounds (the most widely used, both in traditional astrology and in the modern revival), the Chaldean bounds, and the revised scheme Ptolemy proposed in Tetrabiblos I.21.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic and traditional astrology, the bounds form a fourth-tier minor essential dignity, ranking below domicile, exaltation, and triplicity. A planet in its own bounds gains a small but real strength. The bound lord of any degree counts as one of the five dispositors — the rulers that "manage" a planet — for whatever planet sits there. Valens, Dorotheus, and most of the Hellenistic corpus prefer the Egyptian bounds; Ptolemy proposed a revision but never displaced the Egyptian standard.

In Practice

Astrologers consult an Egyptian-bounds table laid out as a five-column lookup per sign, each column giving the end-degree of the bound for Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. For any planet, the bound lord is whichever planet's column its degree-within-sign falls into. Bound rulership counts as a minor dignity — commonly weighted 2 points in William Lilly's essential-dignity scoring — and the bound lord is checked as one dispositor when judging a planet's overall condition. In some Hellenistic timing techniques, bound lords also serve as candidate time-lords.

Historical Origin

The Egyptian bounds are attested in Hellenistic primary sources from Dorotheus of Sidon's Carmen Astrologicum (1st c. CE) and Vettius Valens' Anthologiae (2nd c. CE) onward. Joseph Crane's Astrological Roots presents the doctrine in a modern Hellenistic-revival voice. Holden's history traces how the bound systems were transmitted and points to Lee Lehman's Essential Dignities as a modern reference. Ptolemy's revised bounds appear in Tetrabiblos I.21; Holden documents the Chaldean bounds as a third recension.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading