Volguine and the 7 Planetary Periods of Junctinus

This is a follow-up to my previous post about the errors in Junctinus’ table of planetary periods, which he used in analyzing solar returns. In Chapter 14 of The Technique of Solar Returns, Volguine discusses Junctinus’s method in which the astrological year is divided into seven planetary periods of unequal duration. Volguine notes that Junctinus attributes the duration of these planetary periods to the Roman astrologer Firmicus Maternus in the 4th century, and he admits that he does not know why the planets are assigned these particular numbers of days.

As I showed in the last post, the table of planetary periods used by Junctinus derives from the work of 2nd century Hellenistic astrologer Vettius Valens. Unfortunately, there are three errors in the number of days allotted to each planet in Junctinus’ text when compared with the original source, which is Vettius Valens, who assigned the number of days on the basis of the minor years of the seven visible planets.

In addition, Volguine differs from Junctinus in that Volguine insists on using the Chaldean order of planets from slowest to fastest, and he begins his sequence from the ruler of the solar return ascendant instead of the profected Lord of the Year. Volguine gives an example of a man whose mother died on 22 May 1936 when the native was 27 years old. His solar return in 1936 had Gemini rising, so Volguine begins counting from Mercury, ruler of the return ascendant, rather than f rom Saturn, which was Lord of the Year when this man, who was born with Libra rising, was 27 years old. Using his own method, Volguine concludes that the mother died during a Saturn planetary period, and he notes that Saturn rules the 8th of the return chart and occupied the 10th of the mother.

Now let’s see how Junctinus would have analyzed the solar return of Volguine’s client, but with the correct duration of the seven planetary periods as derived by Vettius Valens:

365.24 days in a tropical year divided by 129 (the total duration of the minor years of all seven visible planets) = 2.83 annual days per each minor year. Thus,

Saturn: 30 x 2.83 = 84.9, rounded to 85 days per year.
Jupiter: 12 x 2.83 = 33.96, rounded to 34 days.
Mars: 15 x 2.83 = 42.45, rounded to 42 days.
Sun: 19 x 2.83 = 53.77, rounded to 54. (Valens rounded this down to 53 days.)
Venus: 8 x 2.83 = 22.64, rounded to 23 days.
Mercury: 20 x 2.83 = 56.6, rounded to 57 days.
Moon: 25 x 2.83 = 70.75, rounded to 71 days.

Natal chart of Volguine’s client whose mother died when he was 27 years old. 1936 Solar Return of the man whose mother died on 22 May 1936 when he was 27 years old.

Volguine’s client was born on 14 January 1909 and turned 27 years old on 14 January 1936. His profected ascendant at age 27 was Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, which became Lord of the Year in 1936. In the solar return (RS) chart, Saturn rules the 8th of death and occupies the 10th of the mother. In addition, RS Saturn lies close to return Mars in the 10th and is within orb of square aspect to the Venus/Jupiter conjunction in the return 6th near the cusp of the 7th. Natally, Venus rules the unfortunate 8th and 12th houses of the birth chart, and Jupiter rules the natal 5th, which is the 8th of death from the 10th of the mother. Natal Jupiter also rules the natal 3rd, which is the 6th of illness of the mother in the birth chart. The Sun in the solar return occupies the SR 8th of death and opposes return Pluto on the cusp of the 3rd, which is the 6th of illness of the 10th of the mother. It is not hard to see the ominous symbolism regarding the well-being of the mother during this year.

Junctinus recommends beginning with the Lord of the Year and arranging the planets in the zodiacl order in which they fall in the return chart. In this case, the order would be: Saturn (Lord of the Year), followed by the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Sun, Mercury and Mars.

The SR year began on 14 Jan 1936, and Saturn is allotted 85 days, which last until 8 April 1936, when the Moon becomes the time-lord for the next period.

The Moon is allotted 71 days, so the lunar period extends from 8 April until 18 June 1936, and encompasses the date of the mother’s demise. In the natal chart the Moon occupies the 12th house, so the native might experience some type of grief or misfortune during this period. In the solar return, the Moon occupies the 5th house, which is the 8th of death from the 10th of the mother. In addition, the SR Moon’s next aspect will be a stressful quincunx to Mars in the 10th of the mother.

Astrologer Fernando Ruiz Guarin uses a variation of this method, but he further subdivides the 71-day period of the Moon into subperiods (as in a dasha system) to pinpoint which of the seven planets acts as a sub-ruler to the date of the mother’s death. The idea is to partition the 71 days allotted to the Moon proportionately, based on the number of days per year allotted to each planet. Sub-dividing the Moon’s 71-day period in Excel, I came up with the following:

8 April 1936Moon period begins21 April 1936Venus sub-period begins26 April 1936Jupiter sub-period begins2 May 1936Sun sub-period begins13 May 1936Mercury sub-period begins22 May 1936Death of mother24 May 1936Mars sub-period begins1 June 1936Saturn sub-period begins18 June 1936End of 71-day Moon period and Saturn sub-period

Hence, by Junctinus’ method combined with the sub-period method described by Ruiz Guarin, the mother passed in the solar return year of 1936, whose Lord of the Year was Saturn, and during the period of the Moon and sub-period of Mercury. If this were a dasha system, we might represent it as Saturn/Moon/Mercury, where Saturn is the maha-dasha, and the Moon and Mercury are, respectively the sub- and sub-sub periods of this Saturn maha-dasha. In the SR chart, Mercury rules the 5th house, which is the derived 8th of death of the 10th of the mother. The same SR 5th house is occupied by the Moon, which is the major period ruler.