Darajāt al-Muṭāliʿ (Ascensional Times)
Definition
Darajāt al-muṭāliʿ, the rising degrees, is the Arabic term for ascensional times — the number of equatorial degrees that must cross the horizon to bring a single zodiacal degree up to the Ascendant. Because the ecliptic meets the horizon at a slant, signs rise at unequal rates: short-ascension signs (Capricorn through Gemini in the northern hemisphere) climb quickly, long-ascension signs (Cancer through Sagittarius) slowly. The rates change with geographic latitude, so each clime (iqlīm) has its own table. The Greek term was anaphora; the Latin, ascensiones.
In Tradition
In Arabic-Persian practice the ascensional times are the conversion apparatus that turns an arc of the ecliptic into a span of time and, in primary directions, into years of life. The tradition holds one rising degree to equal one year, so the rising times of the native's own clime, not abstract equal degrees, govern how a directed arc is read. Dorotheus's Arabic recension, Ptolemy, and al-Bīrūnī all rest the timing of directions on these per-clime values.
In Practice
You first fix the native's clime, then consult the ascensional-time table built for that latitude rather than a generic one. To direct the Ascendant (acting as releaser) to a planet's body or aspectual ray, measure the zodiacal arc from the Ascendant to that target and convert it into equatorial rising degrees using the table; the resulting count of degrees is read as that many years of life until the directed contact matures. Remember that short-ascension signs contribute fewer rising degrees per zodiacal degree and long-ascension signs more, so an arc through Cancer–Sagittarius stretches the timing while an arc through Capricorn–Gemini compresses it. Dorotheus works this on his Chart 9 at the clime of Mosul; keep degree-and-minute precision, because small differences in the table shift the predicted year. Use ascensional times specifically for primary directions and ascendant calculation, not as a planetary strength score.
Historical Origin
Ascensional times underlie the primary-directions procedure of Dorotheus of Sidon's Carmen Astrologicum (Book III), preserved in its Persian-Arabic recension and in Benjamin Dykes's translation. Ptolemy tabulated rising times by latitude in the Almagest, and al-Bīrūnī carries the doctrine in the Kitāb al-Tafhīm. The Carmen itself attributes the technique's origin to the ancient scholars of Babylon and Egypt.