Solar Revolution

Definition

A solar revolution is the chart cast for the exact moment each year when the moving Sun returns to the degree and minute it held at your birth. Arabic-Persian astrologers called it tahwīl al-sana, "the turning of the year." The return point shifts forward about six hours and a fifth each year, which keeps it in step with the calendar. The solar revolution gives the year its own Ascendant, and you read it as a chart of the year laid against your birth chart.

In Tradition

In medieval Arabic-Persian astrology the solar revolution sets the themes of the year, read together with annual profection and the firdāriyyāt (the planetary-period system). Masha'allah, Abu Ma'shar, and Bonatti all teach that two planets lead the reading: the salkhudhāy — the Lord of the Year, ruler of the profected sign — and the ruler of the revolution's Ascendant. Both are weighed in the birth chart and in the chart of the year, to see whether their condition is sound or troubled.

In Practice

You compute the moment the Sun exactly returns to its birth longitude — to the second — for the place you choose, usually the birthplace, though some astrologers use your current home. The revolution's Ascendant and house cusps become the chart of the year, and its planets are read against your birth positions much as transits are. Masha'allah's ten-point procedure (Book of Aristotle IV.1) layers eight of them in turn: the profected sign and its rulers; the salkhudhāy in both birth and yearly condition; the bound-lord of the revolution Ascendant; the lord of the revolution Ascendant; the Moon and the planet that disposes her; the natal Lots that fall with benefics or malefics; the jarbakhtar (the bound-lord of the directed hīlāj); and the active firdāriyyah period. Chaining the Lots pins down which area of life the year stirs: the Lots of Marriage, Children, Slaves, and Work are read against the salkhudhāy and the Moon to name the source of fortune or trouble.

Historical Origin

The annual-revolution doctrine is attested in Dorotheus of Sidon's Carmen Astrologicum Book IV (1st-century-CE Greek; 3rd-century Pahlavi via the Sasanian translation programme; 8th-century Arabic via 'Umar al-Tabari). Its fully worked Arabic-Persian form appears in Masha'allah's Book of Aristotle IV.1-2 (8th-9th century; Latin via Hugo of Santalla, 12th century), Abu Ma'shar's On Solar Revolutions (9th century), Al-Biruni's Kitāb al-Tafhīm (1029), and Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae Tractatus IX (13th century).

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading