Firdaria

fir-DAH-ree-uh

Definition

The firdaria (Persian firdār, Arabic firdārīya) is a Persian time-lord system — a scheme that hands successive stretches of life to a ruling planet. It spreads about seventy-five years across the seven traditional planets and the two lunar nodes in a fixed order, and it is sect-sensitive: which planet you start with depends on whether you were born by day or by night. Each main planetary period is then split into seven equal sub-periods, in which the other planets take their turn as sub-rulers, following the same fixed sequence after the main planet.

In Tradition

In the Arabic-Persian time-lord tradition, the firdaria gives this daytime sequence: Sun 10 years, Venus 8, Mercury 13, Moon 9, Saturn 11, Jupiter 12, Mars 7, then North Node 3 and South Node 2. A night birth begins with the Moon and reorders the rest. Al-Biruni's Tafhim §§438-439 gives the first thorough encyclopedia treatment, with the day/night branching and the table of sub-periods set out plainly; Masha'allah, Sahl, and Bonatti build on this base.

In Practice

The astrologer first finds your sect — diurnal if the Sun was above the horizon at birth, nocturnal if below. A day birth runs the sequence Sun-Venus-Mercury-Moon-Saturn-Jupiter-Mars (70 years), then the Nodes (3 + 2 = 5 years); a night birth starts with the Moon. Within each main period, the years are split into seven equal sub-periods: the first ruled by the main planet alone, the other six by the remaining planets in the same sect-ordered sequence (a daytime Sun period, for instance, gives Sun-Sun, Sun-Venus, Sun-Mercury, Sun-Moon, Sun-Saturn, Sun-Jupiter, Sun-Mars). The resulting main-and-sub ruler pair is then read for the year in question, alongside profections, solar returns, and the condition of the natal significators for the fuller picture.

Historical Origin

The firdaria passes from Pahlavi Persian sources through Arabic writers into medieval Latin astrology. Al-Biruni's Kitāb al-Tafhīm §§438-439 (Ramsay Wright 1934 translation) is the first thorough encyclopedia treatment. The Persian period-lord source al-Andarzaghar (Pahlavi: Andarzghar) is transmitted through Masha'allah's Book of Aristotle IV.24-25 and Abu Ma'shar; appendices in 'Umar al-Tabari's On Revolutions of Nativities preserve the firdāriyyah-of-the-Nodes variants (Dykes 2010, Persian Nativities Vol II, p. 338).

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading