Length of Life

Definition

Length of life is a body of technique — Hellenistic in origin, developed through the medieval Arabic-Latin tradition — for estimating how long a life might run. It works by finding the hyleg, the chart's "vital releaser" (Greek aphetēs), then the alcochoden, the planet that acts as "giver of years" (Arabic kadhkhudhāh), then directing the hyleg forward through the bounds toward the rays and bodies of harmful planets — the destroyer-degree, or anareta. It was used both as a working technique and as a way of contemplating mortality.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic and medieval practice, length of life is one of the most demanding judgments a chart asks for. It calls for choosing the hyleg from five candidates — Sun, Moon, Lot of Fortune, Ascendant, and prenatal syzygy — with the choice sensitive to sect; naming the alcochoden by essential dignity at the hyleg's degree, with a mandatory aspect to the hyleg; then directing the hyleg forward to test for fatal-degree contacts. The modern revival treats this as a vitality framework, not a lifespan calculator.

In Practice

You follow the cascade Dorotheus lays out in Carmen Astrologicum Book III §§8-27. Weigh the primary luminary by sect — the Sun for a day birth, the Moon for a night birth — and check that it sits in a hylegiacal place (the 1st, 10th, 11th, 7th, or 9th house, by most authorities) and is in its own light rather than lost in the Sun's rays. If it qualifies, it becomes the hyleg; if not, the cascade moves on to the other luminary, then the Lot of Fortune, then the Ascendant, and finally the prenatal syzygy. The planet with the strongest essential dignity at the hyleg's degree becomes the alcochoden, provided it also aspects the hyleg. The alcochoden's condition decides how many years it grants from the planetary-years scales; other planets aspecting it add or subtract their own years; and directing the hyleg forward through the bounds tests for contacts to the rays and bodies of malefics that would mark the anareta.

Historical Origin

Length of life is given its canonical form in Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos III.10-11 (c. 150 CE) and Vettius Valens' Anthologiae VII (c. 145-175 CE). Dorotheus of Sidon's Carmen Astrologicum Book III (1st century CE) sets out the systematic five-candidate hyleg cascade. The Persian-Arabic transmission through Masha'allah, 'Umar al-Tabari, and al-Biruni's Kitab al-Tafhim (1029) develops the alcochoden apparatus, and Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae Tractate VIII (c. 1277) gives the standard medieval-Latin formulation. Lilly carried the doctrine on through Christian Astrology (1647).

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading