REFLECTIONS AT THE START OF A 3RD HOUSE PROFECTION YEAR

One of the most interesting correlations with being in a 3rd House profection year has been walking. Throughout grad school, I was an avid pedestrian, then I got a teaching job that required 45-minute drive two ways every day. I maintained a practice of walking in the park every day, but I lost touch with walking to other places. Then I returned to Amsterdam to teach for two weeks—a city truly built for walking—and everywhere I went during that time I reached on foot. No car, no public transit, no bike, just walking. There is something immensely regulating and satisfying about moving at the pace and scale of my own body, encountering the world as it comes within reach step by step rather than speeding past on my bike or in my car.
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Since returning home, I’ve made the conscious reorientation to walking anywhere I can—the grocery, local coffee shops and bars, museums and art galleries, vintage clothing stores, etc. If it’s within 30-45 minutes or less, I walk. And in that process, I have found myself re-immersed within memories of living in this city for the last 15 years. It’s not even that I had forgotten these memories, simply that I hadn’t been reminded of them, in some cases for many years.

​I have Cancer on the 3rd House, ruled by the Moon. The 3rd House is often associated with our immediate surroundings, our neighbors and neighborhood and local community, short-distance travel, as well as siblings, friends, extended and chosen family, communication, and ritual. The Moon describes the body and the emotional life, our instinctual needs for safety, security, comfort, and belonging, as well as how we mother ourselves. Some astrologers would also say that the Moon is the planet most likely to be responsible for memory. I am fascinated by this re-engagement with both my local surroundings and many years of memories through my return to my embodied pedestrian life, and how this correlation brings together so many of the themes of both the 3rd House and the Moon.

Annual profections is an ancient timing technique that activates a specific sign and its corresponding house for each year of life. The planet that rules the profected sign become the annual chronocrator or time lord for the year, taking on greater responsibility for what qualities and topics are likely to be emphasized throughout that year. The most common and usually most significant form of profections counts through the signs from the Ascendant, with the first year of life—year 0—starting in the 1st House, the second year of life—year 1—coming to the 2nd House, and so on. Your age determines which profection year you are in, which is counted out from the Ascendant through the signs with each year aligning with one sign and the corresponding house in which that sign is located. We also take into consideration the planet that rules that sign, the house in which that planet is placed, and any planets that are in the profected sign. Together they tell part of the story of that year of life.

If you are familiar with the signs, their planetary rulers, and the houses, and you’re curious about what themes might be especially relevant for you this year, you can refer to this diagram which was created and made available by Chris Brennan

​Profections is one of several timing techniques I use in all of my year ahead consultations, along with secondary progressions, transits, solar returns, and sometimes zodiacal releasing when it seems relevant. If you are interested in thinking about your life in relation to ancient timing techniques like profections and how your natal chart unfolds through time year by year, you can join my mailing list here to be notified when I am booking consultations: https://www.michaeljmorris.co/mailing-list.html
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I am currently fully booked through the end of March 2023, and I do not maintain a waitlist, so if you would like to work together, joining the mailing list is the best way to make that possible.