Term

Meaning

Each sign is divided into five spans of unequal length, its terms, also called bounds. Each term is ruled by one of the five planets other than the lights: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn. The Sun and the Moon rule no term.

The terms add a finer grain to the zodiac. Two planets in the same sign can stand in different terms, and each term ruler lends its own shade. Tradition reads the term ruler as colouring the details of how a planet acts, a little like a local custom inside a larger country.

A planet in its own term holds the fourth of the five essential dignities. It is a small dignity, worth two of William Lilly’s points: not ownership of the house, but a corner where the planet has some say. Even this is enough to keep a planet from being peregrine.

The Egyptian terms, the oldest set and the one most used in ancient texts, hold two neat patterns. First, every sign ends with a term of Mars or Saturn, the two malefics. Second, the degrees each planet rules add up to its “greater years” of tradition. These are 57 for Saturn, 79 for Jupiter, 66 for Mars, 82 for Venus and 76 for Mercury. Together they make 360.

In practice

• Venus in its own term, between 6° and 12° Aries, keeps a measure of its grace in a sign where it is otherwise in detriment.
• The Moon at 28° Gemini stands in a term of Saturn: tradition reads a sober note in a light, quick sign.
• The term ruler joins the others. With the rulers of the sign, the exaltation, the triplicity and the face, it is one of the planets with a say over a degree.
• Terms are easily shifted by a small error in the birth time, since some are only four degrees wide. They are best read as a refinement, not as the heart of a judgement.

Across traditions

• Ptolemy’s terms are a second set, which he presents as found in an old, damaged manuscript. William Lilly used them in Christian Astrology.
• Indian astrology has a close cousin, the triṁśāṁśa. Each sign is divided into five unequal parts, ruled by Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus, in reverse order in the even signs.

Origin and history

The Greek word was horia, boundaries, and the Latin fines. Dorotheus of Sidon and Vettius Valens both use the Egyptian terms. Their totals match the planets’ greater years, periods that ancient astrologers also used in timing a life.

Ptolemy, in the Tetrabiblos, describes the Egyptian terms and finds fault with them. He says their order and their sizes follow no consistent rule. He also mentions a Chaldean set, then offers his own, which he says he found in an old manuscript, much damaged. Lilly, in 1647, printed the Ptolemaic terms and scored a planet in its own term at two points.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune uses the Egyptian terms. Each term runs from its first degree up to, but not including, the degree where the next begins. A planet at exactly 6°00′ Aries is in the term of Venus, not Jupiter.

A traditional planet in a term it rules earns two of Lilly’s points, added to its other dignities and debilities. The Dignities table names the term ruler of each of the seven planets’ degrees. Without a birth time, a planet that could cross into another term during the day, the Moon most often, has its dignities marked ~.

Correspondences