Minor Years

Definition

The minor years are the shorter set of period-lengths assigned to each planet in Hellenistic astrology, drawn from how long each planet takes to repeat its cycle of meetings with the Sun: Sun 19, Moon 25, Mercury 20, Venus 8, Mars 15, Jupiter 12, Saturn 30. These figures set how long each sign holds the reins in Zodiacal Releasing — a time-lord technique that hands stretches of life to one sign after another — though Capricorn is given 27 years rather than Saturn's 30 by a separate adjustment. The same numbers serve as base units for several other Hellenistic timing methods.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic time-lord practice, the minor-years scale is the building block: it sets the lengths of Zodiacal Releasing periods, the sub-periods within decennials, and several other techniques that share out years among the planets. Valens treats the values as fixed constants reflecting how often each planet repeats its cycle with the Sun. Brennan's modern synthesis keeps the seven-planet scale as a core part of the Hellenistic timing apparatus, kept distinct from the longer major-years values used for other calculations.

In Practice

In Zodiacal Releasing, you give each sign a turn lasting its ruling planet's minor years: Aries 15 from Mars, Taurus 8 from Venus, Gemini and Virgo 20 from Mercury, Cancer 25 from the Moon, Leo 19 from the Sun, Libra 8 from Venus, Scorpio 15 from Mars, Sagittarius and Pisces 12 from Jupiter, Capricorn 27 by exception, and Aquarius 30 from Saturn. You then walk through the chain of signs starting from the Lot of Spirit or the Lot of Fortune. The minor years also supply the proportional sub-periods inside decennials and feed several other time-lord techniques, so practitioners commit the scale to memory as a basic piece of Hellenistic technique.

Historical Origin

The minor-years scale is recorded in Vettius Valens' Anthologiae (c. 145-175 CE) and in Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos III-IV (c. 150 CE). The values turn up across the wider Hellenistic technical literature, in Dorotheus and Hephaistio, and survive intact through the Arabic-Persian transmission via Sahl, Masha'allah, and al-Biruni's Kitab al-Tafhim. They returned to modern practice through Project Hindsight (Schmidt, 1990s) and Brennan (2017).

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading