Loosing of the Bond

Definition

A Loosing of the Bond is a particular turning point inside the Zodiacal Releasing timing technique. It happens when a long period ruled by the Sun, Moon, Mercury, or Saturn finishes a full lap around the zodiac and then, instead of circling back to where it began, "jumps" to the opposite sign and starts again. The Greek name for this break is lusis tou desmou, "loosing of the bond." In Vettius Valens' Anthologiae it marks a major life turn in whatever area of life the releasing lot governs.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic astrology, the Loosing of the Bond is one of the chief life-turning markers in Zodiacal Releasing, ranked alongside the peak periods that reach the angles from the natal lot. Greenbaum reports that this loosing introduces a structural break in the run of periods, and that Valens links it to reversals or sweeping shifts in the lot's subject — body and circumstance when you release from Fortune, action and reputation when you release from Spirit.

In Practice

You spot a loosing of the bond by tracing the run of major periods from the releasing lot's natal sign through the zodiac, giving each sign its ruler's year-count (Sun 19, Moon 25, Mercury 20, Venus 8, Mars 15, Jupiter 12, Saturn 30; Capricorn carries 27). When the major periods for one of the long-period planets — the Sun, Moon, Mercury, or Saturn, whose runs are long enough to cross all twelve signs — add up to a full circuit, the next major period jumps to the sign opposite the original starting sign rather than returning to it. That jump is the loosing. Valens and Crane connect bond-loosing moments to marriage, divorce, a reversal in vocation, a move to a new place, and big changes in status; modern reconstructors note the date of a loosing as a key marker when reading a life. It is read together with the Level 2 sub-period running at the time and with current transits to the releasing lot.

Historical Origin

The Loosing of the Bond is documented in Vettius Valens' Anthologiae Book IV (c. 145–175 CE) as part of the Zodiacal Releasing technique. It was largely lost in Western practice after late antiquity and recovered in the late twentieth century through Project Hindsight's Valens translations (Schmidt, 1990s) and the later work of Hand, George, Brennan, and Crane.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading