Annual Profections Explained
Profection years are a cosmic YOU ARE HERE. They can offer insight into major themes and events for the upcoming year, are based on our age, and connected to a specific house in the natal wheel.
Everyone goes through the same house years at the same age — so everyone at the age of 31 goes through an 8th house year — but what makes them different for each person is specific to their birth chart. So the story is the same — I got married or I lost my job — but the details are different.
You can consult these handy dandy wheels to figure out what Profection year you’re in and what major themes will be unfolding for you.
image from Jo Gleason
this wheel can also help with finding the ruler for each sign (with some caveats listed down below)
To really unlock the power of profections, you’ll want to look at the ruler of the house year you’re in, where the house ruler is in the chart, and planets that fall in the natal house that’s being highlighted.
For all my list fans out there, the steps are:
Look at what house year you’re in according to your age
Look at your chart to see what sign is on the cusp of that house
Take note of the ruler of that sign because that planet is now your Time-lord (or ruling planet, I use these interchangeably) for the year
Find where that planet is located within the chart
Pay attention to any planets or points that are in that house
BADA BING, BADA BOOM you got everything you need
These steps are important because while the house year gives us major THEMES, the house ruler gives us a general FLAVOR of those themes and becomes our TIME-LORD or RULING PLANET for the year.
We’ll want to keep an eye on our time-lord (slippery little things eh?) or ruling planet for the duration of the time that it impacts us because anything it is doing in the sky or our chart will be strongly felt and noticed. Let’s say our time-lord is Saturn for the year. Any transits to our natal Saturn or any major transits Saturn is making in the sky, will be amplified.
The location of our time-lord or ruling planet in our chart is also important because it shows where these house themes are going to play out; effectively creating a bind and blend between them.
Let’s put that list to work and explore this example chart named after one of my cats.
Step 1. In 2024 Gizmo will be celebrating her 32nd birthday. Consulting the Profection wheel, I see that she’ll be in a 9th house year. Adventure, growth, learning, and maybe some travel are all possibilities for her.
Step 2 + 3. When I look at her chart, I see that Libra falls into her 9th house. This tells me that Venus is the time-lord or ruling planet for the year ahead.
hi, scuse me, 2 seconds here for some clarification
If you’re new to Astrology, each sign is ruled by a planet. There are Modern rulers that include recently discovered planets - Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto - and Traditional rulers that saw some planets doing double duty over which signs they ruled.
Because Profections are an ancient technique, you will want to utilize Traditional rulership to know which planet is the ruler of the house year you are in. (So swap out Mars for Pluto, Saturn for Uranus, and Jupiter for Pisces in the house themes image from above.)
Aries - Mars
Taurus - Venus
Gemini - Mercury
Cancer - Moon
Leo - Sun
Virgo - Mercury
Libra - Venus
Scorpio - Mars
Sagittarius - Jupiter
Capricorn - Saturn
Aquarius - Saturn
Pisces - Jupiter
Anyways! Let’s resume our chart delineation for this adorable cat person.
Step 4. In Gizmo’s chart, Venus is in her 12th house. This let’s me know that her 9th house year will have 12th house themes mixed into it. The two houses will bridge together and unfold in tandem throughout her 32nd year.
Blending them together, I might wonder if Gizmo will decide to go back to school to get a job in the medical field. Maybe she’ll travel with her best friend and meet her future partner (Ooo la la! C'est très romantique) on the trip. Perhaps this will be the year that she publishes an interior design book she has been working on in secret for almost 2 years.
Step 5. The final ingredient in our Profection pie is taking note of anything that is within the house that is being highlighted. For sweetie pie Gizmo, Jupiter is the planet that is being lifted up.
These planets within the houses become secondary rulers and add to the vibe of the year. Jupiter’s presence tells me there will undoubtedly be a desire to grow, learn, or add to something in the year ahead.
PHEW! That was a lot. But if you’re still with me, let’s explore a little more.
Let’s say you’re in a 5th house year (love, children, creativity) and the ruler is Venus - that makes Venus your time-lord or ruling planet for the year. (Another way to express this is to say you are in a Venus ruled year)
So in this hypothetical situation, the flavor of that year is going to be very Venusian. It may be a year where you are swept off your feet in a fairytale romance. Maybe it’s the year of your due date, and leading up to the babies birth, you spend a lot of time and money creating the perfect nursery and collecting the cutest clothes for your little one. And maybe it’s a year where you finally decide to go to an open mic night, meet some cool musicians, and get invited to join an established and lucrative wedding band. The flavor of the year is about love, beauty, connection, and money.
Say you’re in that 5th house year but the ruler is Mars, the flavor of your year will be Martian instead and your time-lord or ruling planet will be Mars.
This could be a year where you’re fighting with your boo thang more than normal. Maybe your kids have reached the tween or teen years and are more sassy and sarcastic. You still go to that open mic night, and meet someone who you find inspiring and motivating, but they maybe aren’t 100% your cup of tea. You strike up a friendship with them because they challenge and push you to take your creative skills to the next level and you respect their ambition, but only time will tell how long the friendship lasts (does this example give anyone else John Lennon and Paul McCartney vibes?!) .
If we remember from above, the next step in the formula (Astrology is basically star math if you hadn’t noticed by now) is understanding where that ruler is in your chart. If during your 5th house year the ruler is Mars, you’ll want to see where Mars is in your birth chart.
Let’s say Mars is in your 11th house. So now the year isn’t just about 5th house things, it has themes of friendships, goals, and community. In our Martian coded example from above, maybe the amped up disagreements with your lover pushes you to seek out more support or guidance from your friends. In the case of your hormonal hellions (aka tween / teen children) you may seek out support from parental groups to get best practices on navigating behavioral changes. And in the open mic example, this is where the friendship with lukewarm longevity and infectious inspiration comes into play.
Finding where the house ruler is in your chart helps to create a bridge between the houses and offers more themes and symbolism to work with when gazing into the year(s) ahead.
And what happens when the house ruler / your time-lord / ruling planet of the year isn’t in a different house but lazily lounging in the very house that is being highlighted for you? Well, expect that year to be heavily centered and focused on those house themes. Think of it like having a drink that’s concentrated. (Obligatory break to laugh at this Tik Tok that has the same energy as stepping into a Profection year with the ruler in that house)
And finally my little chili babies, the last piece of this starry puzzle: planets that are inside of the house year you’re in. Think of these planets as adding an extra flavor to your year. Venus is your time-lord and you think things are gonna be all rainbows and butterflies? Well Uranus is being highlighted for you, so it’s probably gonna be a double rainbow and the butterflies will be some sort of butterfly moth hybrid that glows in the dark (is that possible? probably not).
A handy metaphor that I was taught is thinking of the ruling planet or time-lord as the store manager for the year, and any planet(s) in the house that are being highlighted, as the assistant manager(s).
some Virgo Rising pedantry:
Time-lord vs lord of the year vs ruling planets vs chart ruler
The official terminology that goes with Profections is ‘Lord of the Year’ or ‘Time-lord’. I prefer to talk about the time-lord as a ruling planet for the year because I find that it is more accessible to people who aren’t astrologers. That being said, your ruling planet for the year is different from the chart ruler of your birth chart. The time-lord or ruling planet changes every year and shows which themes and transits will be the most impactful for you. Your chart ruler stays the same and is an important piece of who you are.
The verbiage
I’m in a 5th house year. They’re in a 10th house profection year.
Saturn is her time-lord this year. Venus is my ruler next year.
Dive Deeper
If you want to dive deeper into this topic (yes you can go deeper) I highly recommend Chris Brennan’s work. He resurrected and reintroduced Profections to the astrology world. There is a PDF from him that explains Profections in greater detail that you can download HERE.
It’s important to note that Profections are made to be used with Whole Signs. There are other things to take into consideration like having a Day Chart vs Night Chart and the natal promise of your time-lord / ruling planet. I’ll again point you to Chris Brennan and the PDF above because it goes into all of that. I’m a lover of all things simple and have found everything I covered above to be beyond helpful in my astrology practice.
If you want to explore your Profections together, you can book a reading here.
