31 - All About Your Planet of the Year

Do you know your planet of the year? This planet (also called your time lord) is like your guiding light or co-creator for the months ahead. Your planet of the year sets the tone, the pace, and the agenda. In this episode, I explain how to figure out which planet is guiding your year and then chat about what that might mean for you.

• 01:35 How to identify your planet of the year
• 06:28 What the planet of the year does
• 09:20 Moon
• 12:04 Sun
• 15:03 Mercury
• 17:29 Venus
• 21:40 Mars
• 26:08 Jupiter
• 29:36 Saturn

A Beginner’s Guide to Annual Profections: https://www.astrologywithclaire.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-annual-profections

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Transcript

Hi, I'm Claire Gallagher, and this is Third House Gossip, where we spill the astrological tea. So pour something delicious and let's chat. This podcast is sponsored by me. So to support the show and support yourself, come see me for an astrology reading. Just head to astrologywithclaire. com. That's astrology with C L A I R E dot com. 

Well, hey Astro Lover. Welcome back to Third House Gossip. I hope you're doing well today. We have a fun mini class, basically all about your planet of the year. There's not much major astrology happening this exact week, so I thought we'd take a detour into the world of Time Lords, which is the fancy name for Planet of the Year, 

and this is really where all of my attention has been for the last forever it feels like, because this is essentially what my new book is about. It's gonna go into a lot more detail than what we're gonna do [00:01:00] today, but I thought it would be fun to kind of just talk it out, just chitchat about it. Now, there has been some major astrology happen in the recent past, so if you missed episode 29 about Saturn moving into Aries, I highly recommend listening to that.

That happened on May 24th. Saturn is gonna be an Aries. Basically it's Saturn and Aries Summer. So all the way through September 1st, the next thing that's gonna happen, that's big. Astrology news is Jupiter moving into cancer. That's coming up on June 9th, and I'll probably talk about that next week. But for now, we're gonna talk all about your planet of the year.

I'm gonna give you a little brief rundown of how to figure out who your planet of the year is, and then I'm gonna go through each planet and talk about what that year might feel like.

 I am gonna use two phrases interchangeably for the rest of the podcast, and those are Planet of the Year and Time.

Lord, yes. You have [00:02:00] to say it like that time, Lord. Anyways, I made myself laugh. It's not even funny. Uh, time Lord or Planet of the Year is a planet or a handful of planets that have increased power and influence over your life for a certain duration of time. So when it comes to natal charts and planets in your natal charts, they don't all have equal standing at all times of your life.

Planets are turned on and turned off, and planets that are turned on have more influence over how things go, how things feel in the events that unfold in your day to day planets that are turned. Off are in the background, kind of like lying dormant until it's their turn to be switched on. Now there's a lot of techniques, ancient techniques, to determine what your time Lord is or your handful of time lords are.

[00:03:00] And they include things like zodiacal releasing the minor periods of the planets, the ascensional times, the blah, blah, blah. But the one I use the most is called annual profections, and this is when. Each year of your life is linked to a certain house of your birth chart and therefore a certain planet. I'm gonna link a blog post in the show notes to my website.

It's called, um, A Beginner's Guide to Annual profections is the name of the Post, and that'll be a good visual representation of a. What I'm about to say, in case you're not an auditory learner, I highly recommend figuring out who your time Lord is by following the steps in that post. We have 12 houses, right?

And each year of your life is linked to one of those 12 houses. So this is a 12 year cycle, and you start in the first house when you're born at age zero. [00:04:00] When you turn one, you jump to the second house. When you turn two, you jump to the third house, and so on and so forth, around the wheel, over and over and over again until death.

Okay? Let's pretend you're 36 years old, when we turn 36, we're all in a first house year. And there's one zodiac sign that occupies that house. Now, for this technique to work, you need to use whole sign houses. So let's pretend the Zodiac sign in your first house is Scorpio, a k, a, you're also a Scorpio rising.

All right? Now that's your house of the year and your sign of the year, but who is your planet of the year? Well, it's gonna be the planet that rules the zodiac sign of Scorpio, and in traditional astrology, [00:05:00] that planet is Mars. So Mars is your planet of the year or your time Lord, and it's your time, Lord, from the moment you turn 36 until you turn 37.

 When this person turns 37. They jump into the second house, and in this example, the Zodiac sign that occupies the second house would be Sagittarius. Jupiter rules Sagittarius, and therefore would be the time Lord, for when this person is 37, and the pattern repeats around the wheel.

So, real briefly, if you're already in your head like, who is my time, Lord, here's really quickly, which planet's rule which signs the sun rules Leo. The Moon Rules cancer, mercury Rules, Gemini and Virgo. Venus Rules Taurus and Libra. Mars rules Aries and Scorpio. Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces [00:06:00] and Saturn rules.

Capricorn and Aquarius. Notice a couple things. One, we have to use whole sign houses for this and two. Modern planets, modern outer planets cannot be time lords in these ancient systems. 'cause they didn't quote exist, you know, to astrologers at that time. Again, if you're already lost, like go to the blog post and figure out who your time Lord is using the steps outlined in that post.

All right, zooming forward. We're pretending that you know who your time Lord is at this point. Let's talk a little bit more about what Time Lords represent and what you can figure out by knowing who your time Lord is. First of all, I like to rebrand Time Lords a little bit instead of thinking that they lord over me and Lord, over my time, I like to imagine them as guiding lights.

Or as co-creators, so forces of energy, planets, guides [00:07:00] that I work with to engage in my life. Now a time Lord can tell you about your years tone. How it's gonna feel. It can tell you about the content of the year. Like what types of things will you be thinking about? Will you be doing, what's gonna take up your time?

What is going to be the major events of the year? Your time. Lord can also tell you about the pace and flow of time itself, how the days will feel back to back. Are things gonna be moving quickly? Are they gonna be moving slowly? Will will there be reversals and switches? And most importantly, and this is where my book comes in, and we're not gonna touch on this much today 'cause it's really detailed, but when a planet is your time, Lord, it is switched on in your natal chart.

And so [00:08:00] whatever that planet represents in your natal chart. It's going to come about this year. So if a certain planet like represents business success for you, or if it represents meeting your person, or if it represents having a child, you know, planets in the natal chart represent promises and major events that happen in life when that planet is turned on.

It's more likely that those events or promises will come true. So in order to really get the most outta your time, Lord, you need to know a good amount of natal astrology, and you need to understand what your time Lord means in your natal chart so that when it's switched on, you know what its function is.

If you don't know what its function is, you can get a little bit of good information, but you might need an astrologer to help you figure it out. 

[00:09:00] Let's dive into the Time Lords one by one and briefly talk about what the year might feel like, the content that might come up during that year, how time is gonna flow, and certain timing things to pay attention to.

If you wanna work with your time, Lord, like in your business or in your life.

Let's start with the moon. The moon is one of our vital lights. It is the ruler of the nightclub of planets, and if we think about what we do at night or in evening time, we are resting. We are in our mo most intimate spaces with our most intimate people. We are taking care of ourselves. We are nurturing ourselves. We're sleeping. So moon years tend to be about these more intimate inward details. The tone of the moon year tends to be reflective. There might be a lot of thinking or processing, maybe thinking isn't the [00:10:00] best word here, but feeling your emotions, navigating your inner terrain, maybe just by yourself or perhaps with a professional. The content of a moon year really depends on.

Where the moon is in your chart and also where the sign of cancer is in your chart. But for everyone having a moon year, moon themes in generally in general, excuse me, are gonna be kicked up. So the moon rules your body, it rules your home, and it rules your family. So these are the types of. Things that are gonna be up for review and possibly change development nurturing during this year as far as the pace of the year goes.

Remember that the moon moves really quickly and it changes its shape every day, and it changes [00:11:00] signs every two and a half days, and it has a pattern of going from new to full and back again. So there's this fluctuation that the moon brings, but it's expected and it's not erratic. So similarly in reflection, the pace and flow of time during your year when the moon is time, Lord will have this rising and falling rhythm to it.

And this is a great year to keep a moon journal. It's a great year to. Basically live by the waxing and waning of the moon and to play with fluctuation in your schedule. In terms of when the major events of your year might occur, it's typically gonna be around the eclipses, especially the lunar eclipses where there's an interruption in moonlight.

And also you're gonna notice that really active full moons and really busy [00:12:00] new moons will be more prominent and noticeable for you.

 Let's chat about the sun as time. Lord, when the sun is ruling, the days ruling the year it. It brings a brightening tone, so there's an encouraging, uplifting, future oriented, far seeing type of tone to the year. The sun opposite the Moon is the ruler of the day, club of Planets. And if we think about what happens in the day as opposed to what happens at night, for most of us, we're out and about doing our work.

We can see clearly we are being seen and perceived. And so there's a lot of activity happening during the day. Sun years are therefore a little bit more active as opposed to moon years, and they might co [00:13:00] coincide with being more. Visible in terms of the content of the Sun Year. You might be thinking a lot about who you are and asking those big questions like, who am I?

What am I here to do? What do I want out of life? So there's a big identity piece to a Sun year. I already said this, but it's worth repeating. There's also questions about visibility. During a sun year, you might notice that you have more clients coming to you or you're more visible on social media for some reason, and this may or may not be comfortable for you.

Depends on the rest of your chart. It might be uncomfortable for you to be seen, and that's just something that you'll have to reflect on when the sun is time. Lord. 

In terms of how the pace of time flows, when the sun rules time, it's pretty neutral in my opinion. You know, the sun [00:14:00] is part of that 24 hour clock that we have, and so the sun ruling time is pretty natural for us. You're gonna notice that you're going to be more attuned to the seasonal shifts and to the rising and setting of the sun.

In terms of timing, you're gonna wanna pay close attention to the equinoxes and the solstice, like I just said, those are the seasonal shifts. Also eclipses, especially solar eclipses when the sun is interrupted. And you might also wanna pay attention to when the sun is really strong or when, when it's really weak by Zodiac sign placement.

So taking advantage of the sun while it's in its home. Sign of Leo, taking advantage of the sun while it's exalted in Aries, and then maybe taking a rest or peeling back a little bit. When the sun is in Aquarius or Libra, those are signs where it's, rays are [00:15:00] weakened a little bit and it's time to recharge.

Our next time, Lord is Mercury. Mercury zooms around other than the moon. It's one of those quick moving, pivoting planets, and the tone of a mercury year tends to be rather busy. It's going to kick up all things Mercury for that year. So that's gonna be communication. So words of any kind, whether they're spoken or written, it's gonna bring up things around travel, it's going to bring up themes of mental health and your thought patterns, how you speak to yourself about yourself, how you speak to others about yourself, and so on. Because Mercury moves so quickly and also changes directions so frequently, the pace of the year tends to be quick with [00:16:00] pivots.

So when you're in a mercury year, you tend to change course frequently or change your mind frequently, or maybe multitask and have a lot of different things going on at once. Mercury retrograde will be extremely significant for you when Mercury is your time. Lord, make plans for Mercury retrograde.

Really pay attention to them and use them. If Mercury is your time, Lord, I have a whole episode on the truth about Mercury retrograde. It's a really early episode. Just scroll back and find it. That's gonna be your guiding light for the year. In terms of timing, other than Mercury retrograde pay attention to when Mercury is really strong in Virgo and Gemini.

These might be the times where your life is feeling like it's just [00:17:00] clicking and you're just zooming forward. Also pay attention to the times where Mercury is really weak by Zodiac signs, so it's in Pisces or Sagittarius. You might notice that you feel a little confused or muddled or not sure which way to go.

This is just temporary, right? It's no big deal. But it might give you permission to slow down, maybe not schedule as many things, and to take your time.

Next up is Venus. When Venus is the time, Lord. This is just that base level, a really fantastic thing. Why? Because Venus is one of our two classically benefic planets, and especially if you were born at night, when you move into a Venus ruled year, you might be moving into one of the best years of your life because Venus is the planet in your chart As a night chart person that has the most potential to do the.

Greatest good for you in your [00:18:00] life. So its promises. Whatever good juicy promises Venus has in your chart are more likely to manifest during a Venus year. The tone of a Venus year tends to be rose colored, so we have a little bit more optimism, a little bit more artistic license that we're viewing life through, and things just generally tend to feel hopeful.

The content of Venus years tend to. Center around connection. So Venus is the planet of relationship. It's not just romantic relationship. It is partnership and friendship in a business context outside of business as well. It's family relationships too. And yes, it is romantic relationships. So enriching those relationships.

Growing those relationships. Sometimes if. The time Lord is [00:19:00] unhappy, it can mean those relationships falling away so that new ones can come up. You know, again, put a bookmark in that. That is for the book, not for the podcast. It's too much to get into right now. But Venus years also bring up things around art and what you're here to create, what you're here to make, and also just the sheer pleasure of having hobbies, having things that you love to do.

Also surrounding yourself with beautiful stuff and this. Desire to rebalance your life or to reharmonize your life to come back to a neutral space a time of recovery. The flow of time when Venus is the planet of the year tends to be more relaxed.

Venus is a planet of balance. It is not a planet of [00:20:00] extremes, and likewise, your life will typically, there's always a footnote, but typically will not operate in extremes. During a Venus ruled year, it will typically be very even. As far as timing goes, if Venus has a retrograde cycle during your Venus ruled year, this is gonna be significant.

This might slow things down for you during the retrograde. Maybe that six to seven week period will be a little stagnant, perhaps a little frustrating for you, but there's always some juice and goodness in a retrograde. Venus retrograde is a really great time to assess your priorities, what you like, and get very clear on if you are filling your life with things that you actually enjoy or if you're filling your life with things that you think you should be doing.

Other times to take advantage of if Venus is your time, Lord is when and if Venus moves through Taurus and [00:21:00] Libra, these might be the times of the year where you feel the most magnetic, where you feel like new connections are being formed and that life is just generally juicy and pleasant. On the flip side, when Venus is in the signs of its detriment and fall.

In Scorpio and in Aries, your connections may feel strained. You may feel like you're more attuned to what's not working instead of what's working. And I encourage you to use these months or these weeks as problem solving times instead of getting stuck being bitter or upset.

Our next time, Lord is the planet Mars. Mars in traditional astrology is one of our maleic planets, and I think it's really important to keep these labels because we do have challenges in life, and if astrology is going to be accurate, we need to allow for symbols that also represent [00:22:00] challenge. And so I still use the term maleic with a lot of qualifiers.

Okay. If you have a day chart like me, your Mars rule years might be some of the more spicy years of your life, and there's a lot of technical reasons for that, which I'm gonna gloss over right now.

The tone of a Mars year is typically very sharp. Mars is like a surgeon's knife and it cuts and sorts and sifts through things expertly. It is a very efficient planet. It does not waste time or energy, and it wants to get things done pronto. The content of a Mars year again is gonna depend on what Mars rules in your chart.

So where are Aries in Scorpio? What houses do they occupy? Those are the primary jobs of Mars in your chart. And also where is Mars located? But Mars topics will be [00:23:00] kicked up too. Just innate Mars topics, those include things like challenge when Mars is the time, Lord. You are probably gonna come up against some type of obstacle that you are asked to overcome, and this is beautiful because without challenges to overcome, we would not feel or taste the sweetness of victory.

 You're also going to be asked probably to assert yourself. To really stand up for yourself, to ask for what you want and to go get it. There's a lot about willpower when Mars is the time Lord, and strengthening that willpower. I've also noticed in my research that when Mars is the time Lord, people tend to need a lot of physical activity, an outlet, and so that's just something to think about.

The pace of time when Mars is, the time load is typically pretty fast. I've heard a client [00:24:00] describe it as drinking from a fire hose, and it's just moving at breakneck speed. Mars doesn't typically move like super fast through the Zodiac, but because it's a hot planet and it's a dry planet, it just brings this inflammatory nature to time.

It just speeds everything up. Like all the other planets in terms of timing. If Mars has a retrograde cycle during the year, that it's your time, Lord, this is gonna be exceptionally important and it may be a little irritating. Because Mars likes to move forward with speed and vision and clarity. When Mars is retrograde, it is forced to go backwards.

It is forced to slow down. It's forced to review its steps, and this is just awkward for Mars. It is not natural behavior for Mars to do this, and that can lead to feeling a little [00:25:00] frustrated or maybe feeling like you're coming up. Up against blocks and obstacles. Mars retrograde is a really excellent time for assessing how you are using your energy.

And if you're using it in the most efficient way possible, it's gonna show you where you're spinning your wheels, where you're wasting your time, and it's gonna ask you to remove those things. So in that way, it can be extremely productive. Again, just like all the other planets, pay attention to the times when Mars is really strong.

So that's gonna be when it is in Aries, Scorpio, and Capricorn. These are the times where you may feel the most strength, the most power, and like you're able to move forward with your agenda in a really efficient manner. Now the opposite's true when Mars is in Libra Taurus and Cancer. It might feel like you're not really sure which direction to [00:26:00] go.

You might not feel as much interest or drive or momentum, and you might have a little bit more fatigue.

Our next time, Lord is Jupiter. And Jupiter is our greater benefic planet, and it's especially benefic if you were born in the daytime. So if you have a day chart and you move into a Jupiter year, arguably. And there are footnotes here. This can be one of the better years of your life where Jupiter is able to bring about the great stuff that it promises in your chart to you doing during those months.

The tone of a Jupiter year is buoyant. There's typically a lot of hope and optimism and looking forward that Jupiter brings to the year. In terms of the content, it's gonna depend on what Jupiter rules in your chart. So for example, [00:27:00] Jupiter for me rules my general life direction as well as my vitality and my body, but it also rules my home and family because it rules my first house and my fourth house.

But for you, it might rule your career or it might rule your marriage, or it might rule your children, okay? It really depends on the houses that Jupiter governs by Zodiac. Sign in your chart, and again, you may need an astrologer to help you figure this out. 

So Jupiter years are typically all about personal growth and personal development. They're typically about wanting more from life, desiring upgrades, improvements, and a general feeling of like you're moving up a staircase. This is a year about gathering knowledge. It's a year about learning. It's also a year about spiritual [00:28:00] growth and depth as well.

Jupiter is a seeker and it wants to know and understand, but it's also a teacher and a knowledge disseminator, and so you might notice that themes around sharing knowledge, whether that's through teaching or through publishing, et cetera, can be on the docket as well.

The pace of time during a Jupiter year can be really dependent on what Jupiter is doing. So I have Jupiter as my time Lord this year, and I've noticed that the pace of the year. Can be really enthusiastic and quick when Jupiter is moving direct, and it can be exceptionally slow with delays and distractions when Jupiter is retrograde.

So it really depends on what Jupiter is doing in the sky right now, but generally it moves at an enthusiastic quick clip. In terms of [00:29:00] timing, you know, Jupiter takes a whole year to move through one sign, so you're not gonna get that experience of the other time. Lords that move quickly through a lot of the Zodiac signs throughout the year.

You're gonna get maybe one to two flavors of Jupiter that year. So in terms of figuring out the major events of the year, I would pay attention to transits to your Natal, Jupiter from other planets and transits from real time in the sky today. Jupiter to natal planets. 

Our final time, Lord is the planet's Saturn. Saturn is traditionally known as our greater maleic planet. So it's a really tricky planet. It is associated with hardship, with effort, with things that are grueling and long and difficult. But again, without these difficulties, we would not make wonderful art.[00:30:00] 

We would not overcome, we would not be victorious. And so. In a way we can be thankful for these challenges, right? They enrich our lives. I know. I can't believe I just said that, but I did. Alright. If you have a night chart, a Saturn year may be one of the more challenging years of your life. So if you were born at night, Saturn years can be a little bit more difficult than for day chart people.

The tone of the Saturn years is typically kind of cloudy or heavy. And we all have two Saturn years back to back. Lucky us. Okay. The content of a Saturn year and the type of difficulty that you might experience really depends again on what Saturn rules in your chart and where it's placed. So I have Saturn in the 12th house.

And my Saturn years were really challenging. They were about isolation, they were [00:31:00] about mental health challenges, and they were about having to pull away from public life so I could heal. You might have a really nice Saturn somewhere else that's all about growth and building and strengthening, and so you might have a very different experience of Saturn as time.

Lord, it really depends on how Saturn functions in your natal chart. In terms of the content, other than challenges and obstacles, we can have just responsibilities kind of pile up during a Saturn year. This is the planet of to-dos. It's the planet of duty, it's the planet of adulting, and therefore, when Saturn is activated, our list of practical things that have to get done is typically very long.

Saturn years are also about foundations of life itself. And if you have a strong foundation [00:32:00] to build your life upon during these years, you might be making long-term decisions and creating long-term connections for many years to come in your life. So in that way, it can be very serious and heavy, like it can feel weighty.

The pace of time when Saturn is time, Lord is typically kind of slow. Saturn is not in a hurry. Saturn is hesitant. Saturn is meticulous, and therefore Saturn takes its time moving through.

You might find that irritating or you might find that refreshing depending on what kind of natal chart you have. In terms of the timing, because it takes Saturn about two and a half years to move through one sign, you might have a sign change when Saturn is your time, Lord, most people will not, so Saturn is going to be in one sign during the entire year that it's [00:33:00] your time, Lord.

So you're gonna really wanna understand that version of Saturn. Like if Saturn is your time Lord right now, and it just moved into Aries, that is significant for you. You need to understand everything you can about Saturn and Aries and what that means for building things, for making decisions, and for, uh, organizing your life and your time.

Otherwise, just like Jupiter, what you're gonna do is watch your Saturn transits. So you wanna know, am I having any significant transits from Saturn in the sky today to any of my natal planets? Or, and am I having any transits to my natal Saturn from other planets in the sky? And those are gonna be the major turning points for your year, as well as if Saturn stations retrograde are direct. Those are gonna be some [00:34:00] pivots as well.

All right. That's it for Time Lords. That was just a taster, a little teaser. Again, there is so, so much more to say about time Lords and what they might manifest and bring about, but I just wanted to give a little bit more information to flesh out that blog post a little bit more so that you have something to go off of basically when a planet is your time, Lord.

You wanna know everything you can about that planet. You wanna understand its innate, characteristics, like what does that planet mean? Generally, like if your planet of the year is Jupiter, you wanna understand that it is the growth function of your life. It is the optimism function of your life.

It is the upgrading function of your life. But you also wanna understand where is it in my natal chart and what else does it rule by sign? In my natal chart. Those are the things that are gonna come up for you this year. [00:35:00] Alright, friends, sending you lots of love. Happy time lording. Talk to you soon.