Plan Your Year with This Ancient Astrology Tool: Find Your Annual “Profection”

What themes should you focus on each year? Which house, planet and zodiac sign will rule each year of your life?

Using an astrological technique called the Annual Profection, you can find the area of life—relationship, family, career—to put your energy into at the start of each new year.

by The AstroTwins with Leisa Schaim

Life is busy and there are a million different places we can put our energy. How can you find a focal point for your year?

Tali talked to to electional astrologer Leisa Schaim, who teaches the Annual Profection and other techniques from Hellenistic astrology, a Greco-Roman tradition that was practiced during Antiquity (from about the 1st century BCE to the 7th century AD).

In this guided video from our Starstruck 2020 series, Leisa shares a tool that will make so much sense of your life up until now—and will help you proactively plan your 2021 and beyond.

Note: You’ll need to know your rising sign/ascendant to find your Annual Profection. To find yours, enter your time, date and location of birth into our free chart tool.

Which Horoscope House Will Rule Your Year?

Your new Annual Profection begins on each birthday. To find which house will rule the next year of your life, you’ll need to use the Whole Sign house system described in this video and below.

If you’re born in January or December (like us), you have one house rule the majority of your year. But if you’re, say, a spring or summer birthday, you’ll have a new house ruler with each birthday—and two planets that somewhat evenly rule each year.

Whole Sign Houses: How Do They Work—and How Are They Different?

Hellenistic astrology works with a chart style called the Whole Sign house system. Whole Signs have started to become more popular in astrology culture, but there’s also been a lot of confusion around them.

The Whole Sign system calculates house cusps differently than the modern/Tropical birth chart, which uses the Placidus house system. (New to houses? Read about them here.)

In a Placidus chart, a single house can contain multiple zodiac signs, and the sizes of the 12 houses can vary in size, depending on how close to the equator a person was born. Placidus is used by most Western astrologers (and astrology apps)

Astrostyle does not use Whole Signs in our forecasts and readings, but for tools like the Annual Profection, we’re astrologically adaptable!

Here’s how Whole Signs work:

• Find your rising sign (in our case, it’s Capricorn).
• Set this zodiac sign to be the ruler of your entire first house.
• Continue traveling through the zodiac signs and houses in order, assigning each consecutive sign as the ruler of the next house.
• For our chart, this progression of Whole Sign house rulers would be: Aquarius 2nd house, Pisces 3rd house, Aries 4th house, Taurus 5th house, Gemini 6th house, Cancer 7th house, Leo 8th house, Virgo 9th house, Libra 10th house, Scorpio 11th house, Sagittarius 12th house)

Quick Hack: You can use this Traditional Sign Calculator from our partners at Astro-Seek to quickly cast your Whole Sign chart!

Your Age and Your Annual Profection: Which House Is Ruling Your Year Now?

As Leisa explains in this video, the Annual Profection works in 12-year cycles because there are 12 signs and houses in the zodiac. That means every 12 years, you begin again with a first house year and travel around the zodiac wheel like so:

1st House Year: Age 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84
2nd House Year: Age 1, 13, 25, 37, 49, 61, 73, 85
3rd House Year: Age 2, 14, 26, 38, 50, 62, 74, 87
4th House Year: Age 3, 15, 27, 39, 51, 63, 75, 88
5th House Year: Age 4, 16, 28, 40, 52, 64, 76, 89
6th House Year: Age 5, 17, 29, 41, 53, 65, 77, 90
7th House Year: Age 6, 18, 30, 42, 54, 66, 78, 91
8th House Year: Age 7, 19, 31, 43, 55, 67, 79, 92
9th House Year: Age 8, 20, 32, 44, 56, 68, 80, 93
10th House Year: Age 9, 21, 33, 45, 57, 69, 81, 94
11th House Year: Age 10, 22, 34, 46, 58, 70, 82, 95
12th House Year: Age 11, 23, 35, 47, 59, 71, 83, 96

Key Themes of Each House-Ruled Year

To learn what themes will rule each year, listen to the video. You can also read the key themes of each of the 12 Houses here.

Which Planet Will Rule Your Year?

The zodiac sign that rules each house has a planetary ruler—and in turn, each of these planets rules a specific zodiac sign.

To find the planet(s) and zodiac sign(s) that will rule your year, here’s a quick chart. Using the Whole Sign system, locate the zodiac sign that occupies the house of your current Annual Profection Year. You can also this technique to look back at prior years—we guarantee you’ll have some fascinating realizations!

Aries in the House: Mars
Taurus in the House: Venus
Gemini in the House: Mercury
Cancer in the House: Moon
Leo in the House: Sun
Virgo in the House: Mercury
Libra in the House: Venus
Scorpio in the House: Pluto/Mars
Sagittarius in the House: Jupiter
Capricorn in the House: Saturn
Aquarius in the House: Uranus/Saturn
Pisces in the House: Neptune/Jupiter

Case Study: Moving into a New Home During a Fourth House Profection Year

After living happily in New York City for almost 20 years, Ophi got an out-of-character urge to move outside of the city. She was 39, partway through a fourth house Annual Profection.

The fourth house rules home, family and children—the key themes of that year. (This was in 2012, so we knew nothing of this tool at the time!)

As the new mom of a toddler and the stepmom of a tween (both girls), she wanted more outdoor space, access to affordable pre-school and daycare and a bigger space to work from home. She and her family rented a home 45 minutes outside of NYC and she’s split her time between the two places ever since.

Because of Ophi’s Capricorn rising, the ruler of her fourth house is Aries, the zodiac sign ruled by action-planet Mars. The whole relocation happened swiftly and suddenly. A decision was made and things moved fast, in true Aries/Mars style.

About Leisa Schaim

Leisa Schaim is a consulting astrologer who combines modern and ancient approaches to make sense of what underlies everyday existence, with a particular focus on timing and the concrete topics of life. Leisa provides the monthly elections (best astrological dates/times to do important things) for The Astrology Podcast and co-hosts The Auspicious Elections Podcast. She co-organizes the Denver Astrology Group and served as Presiding Officer of the Association for Astrological Networking (AFAN). Leisa was one of the organizers for the worldwide United Astrology Conference 2018, and received AFAN’s award for exceptional service to the astrological community.