LORD_OF_THE_TURN_BACKEND_STANDARD - TheDaniel166/moira GitHub Wiki

Lord of the Turn Backend Standard

Subsystem: moira/lord_of_the_turn.py Computational Domain: Annual Time-Lord via Profected Ascendant (Al-Qabisi and Egyptian/Al-Sijzi) Constitutional Phase: 11 — Architecture Freeze and Validation Codex Status: Constitutional

Epistemic Classification Legend

Statements in this document are marked with one of three epistemic labels:

Label Meaning
[DS] DIRECTLY SOURCED Closely follows the explicit wording of the named historical source
[HGR] HISTORICALLY GROUNDED RECONSTRUCTION Consistent with the tradition but fills a gap not explicitly resolved in extant source text
[MF] MOIRA FORMALIZATION A computational choice made by Moira to operationalize ambiguous or silent doctrine

Part I — Architecture Standard

§1. Computational Definition

§1.1 What the Lord of the Turn Is

The Lord of the Turn is an annual time-lord technique that identifies the planet governing a native's solar-return year. The natal Ascendant is profected one sign per year; the planet ruling the resulting Sign of the Year in the Solar Return chart, selected by method-specific condition rules, becomes the Lord of the Turn for that year.

Doctrine basis:

  • Al-Qabisi method: Al-Qabisi (Alcabitius), Al-Madkhal ilā Ṣinā'at Aḥkām al-Nujūm (Introduction to the Art of Astrology). Translation: Charles Burnett, Keiji Yamamoto, Michio Yano (Warburg Institute, 2004).
  • Egyptian/Al-Sijzi method: Egyptian bound-lord tradition as transmitted in Al-Sijzi, Introduction to the Book of the Indications of the Celestial Signs.

Naming note: Historical sources use dominus conversionis (Lord of the Turn), dominus orbis (Lord of the Orb), and dominus circuli (Lord of the Circle) interchangeably. In Moira these are distinct techniques: the Lord of the Turn is seeded from the profected ASC; the Lord of the Orb is seeded from the birth planetary hour.

§1.2 Profection Formula

profected_longitude = (age * 30.0 + natal_asc) % 360.0

[DS] Age 0 = first year of life. Each year advances one sign (30°). The cycle repeats every 12 years.

§1.3 Al-Qabisi Succession Hierarchy

[DS] The primary candidate is the domicile lord of the Sign of the Year; if blocked, the search falls back through a dignity hierarchy.

Step Candidate Acceptance condition
1 Domicile lord of Sign of the Year In a good SR house (1,2,4,5,7,10,11), not combust, not retrograde
2 Exaltation lord of Sign of the Year Same three conditions
3 Sect triplicity ruler of Sign of the Year Angular in SR (houses 1,4,7,10) [HGR]
4 Bound lord of profected degree Last resort — no condition applied

Good-house list {1,2,4,5,7,10,11}: [HGR] The traditional distinction between angular/succedent versus cadent houses is well attested; the precise list is a reconstruction consistent with Al-Qabisi's period.

Triplicity: angular only: [HGR] Al-Qabisi names triplicity rulers as candidates, but the stricter "angular only" test is a Moira reconstruction. The source wording is ambiguous between requiring angular placement and requiring the standard good-house condition.

Blockers: a candidate is rejected when any of these apply:

  • CADENT_IN_SR — in SR house 3, 6, 9, or 12
  • COMBUST — within combust_orb of the SR Sun (default 8.5° [MF])
  • RETROGRADE — listed in sr_chart.retrograde_planets

Sun and Moon are never counted as combust. [DS]

On tiebreaking: The succession model is inherently sequential — the engine returns as soon as the first qualifying candidate is found, so no two candidates are ever simultaneously "well-placed." Tiebreaker language appearing in some source readings likely reflects a simultaneous almuten-scoring reading of the technique. Moira implements the sequential model. [MF]

§1.4 Egyptian / Al-Sijzi Testimony Method

[DS] The bound lord of the profected degree is primary (Egyptian tradition). Al-Sijzi refines this by requiring the lord to "witness" the SR chart's focal points.

Step Logic
1 Primary: bound lord of the profected degree
2 Bound lord witnesses SR ASC or sect light → BOUND_PRIMARY_WITNESSING [DS]
3 Bound lord does not witness: rank all seven classical planets by testimony count
4 Highest-count planet that witnesses SR ASC or sect light → TESTIMONY_WINNER_WITNESSING [HGR]
5 If none witness → bound lord returned as BOUND_FALLBACK

Witnessing (whole-sign Ptolemaic): [DS] A planet witnesses a target when its sign casts a major aspect to the target sign. Aspect diffs (planet_sign_idx − target_sign_idx) mod 12 that count as witnessing: {0, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10} (conjunction, sextile, square, trine, opposition and their retrograde counterparts).

Witnessing target = SR ASC or sect light: [DS] Al-Sijzi's text specifies the SR Ascendant and the sect light (Sun for day charts, Moon for night charts) as the focal points. LordOfTurnCandidateAssessment.witnesses_target encodes this directly. The LordOfTurnConditionProfile.lord_witnesses_sr_asc field provides the SR-ASC-only component for interpretive use.

Testimony count is binary: [HGR] One point per dignity type held at the profected longitude (domicile, exaltation, triplicity, bound, face; maximum 5). This binary (holds / does not hold) model is consistent with Al-Qabisi's hierarchical testimony doctrine. The classic 5/4/3/2/1 numeric weighting scheme is an alternative reading. [MF] Alphabetical tiebreak among equal testimony counts for determinism.

§1.5 DOMICILE_ONLY Mode

[MF] When LordOfTurnSRChart.house_placements is empty the engine skips all SR condition checks and returns the domicile lord with reason DOMICILE_ONLY. There is no historical equivalent for this degenerate mode; it exists to support pre-SR-chart research and test scenarios. In this mode: is_combust and is_retrograde are set to False (no position data available for reliable evaluation); is_well_placed is set to True; witnesses_target is computed against SR ASC and sect light if planet longitudes are supplied.

§1.6 Boundary Conditions

The engine operates on a supplied LordOfTurnSRChart vessel. It does not compute:

  • Solar return chart construction or house calculation
  • Planetary ephemeris positions
  • SR Lot of Fortune (caller supplies sr_lot_fortune if available)

§2. Public API

§2.1 Primary Entry Point

def lord_of_turn(
    natal_asc: float,
    age: int,
    sr_chart: LordOfTurnSRChart,
    policy: LordOfTurnPolicy = DEFAULT_LORD_OF_TURN_POLICY,
) -> LordOfTurnConditionProfile

Dispatches to the method engine selected by policy.method.

§2.2 Method-Specific Entry Points

def lord_of_turn_al_qabisi(
    natal_asc: float,
    age: int,
    sr_chart: LordOfTurnSRChart,
    policy: LordOfTurnPolicy = DEFAULT_LORD_OF_TURN_POLICY,
) -> LordOfTurnResult

def lord_of_turn_egyptian_al_sijzi(
    natal_asc: float,
    age: int,
    sr_chart: LordOfTurnSRChart,
    policy: LordOfTurnPolicy = DEFAULT_LORD_OF_TURN_POLICY,
) -> LordOfTurnResult

Parameters:

Parameter Type Description
natal_asc float Natal Ascendant longitude [0, 360)
age int Native's completed age in years (>= 0)
sr_chart LordOfTurnSRChart Solar Return chart data vessel
policy LordOfTurnPolicy Doctrinal configuration

Raises: ValueError if natal_asc is non-finite or age < 0.

§2.3 Validation Entry Point

def validate_lord_of_turn_output(profile: LordOfTurnConditionProfile) -> list[str]

Returns a list of failure strings. Empty list = fully consistent. See §4.

§3. Type Surface

§3.1 Classification Enums

Type Values Purpose
LordOfTurnMethod AL_QABISI, EGYPTIAN_AL_SIJZI Which algorithm
LordOfTurnSelectionReason See §3.1a Why this planet was selected
LordOfTurnBlockerReason CADENT_IN_SR, COMBUST, RETROGRADE, NOT_WITNESSING, NO_TESTIMONY Why a candidate was rejected

§3.1a LordOfTurnSelectionReason values:

Value Meaning
DOMICILE_WELL_PLACED Al-Qabisi: domicile lord passed condition check
EXALTATION_FALLBACK Al-Qabisi: domicile blocked; exaltation lord passed
TRIPLICITY_FALLBACK Al-Qabisi: domicile and exaltation blocked; sect triplicity lord angular
BOUND_FALLBACK Al-Qabisi: all above blocked; bound lord as last resort. Also Egyptian fallback
BOUND_PRIMARY_WITNESSING Egyptian/Al-Sijzi: bound lord witnesses SR ASC or sect light
TESTIMONY_WINNER_WITNESSING Egyptian/Al-Sijzi: testimony winner witnesses
DOMICILE_ONLY No SR house data; domicile lord returned unconditionally [MF]

§3.2 Policy Surface

@dataclass(frozen=True, slots=True)
class LordOfTurnPolicy:
    method:      LordOfTurnMethod = LordOfTurnMethod.AL_QABISI
    combust_orb: float            = 8.5   # [MF] computational choice

DEFAULT_LORD_OF_TURN_POLICY is the module-level default (AL_QABISI, 8.5°).

§3.3 Input Vessel — LordOfTurnSRChart

Field Type Description
sr_asc float SR Ascendant longitude [0, 360)
planets dict[str, float] SR planet longitudes
house_placements dict[str, int] Planet → SR house (1–12). Empty = DOMICILE_ONLY mode
is_night bool True when SR Sun is below the SR horizon
retrograde_planets frozenset[str] Planets retrograde in SR
sr_lot_fortune float | None SR Lot of Fortune (caller computes with sect reversal)

Properties: sect_light ('Sun' or 'Moon'), sect_light_longitude.

Invariant: sr_asc and all planet longitudes must be finite.

§3.4 Truth-Preservation Vessel — LordOfTurnProfection

Field Type Description
natal_asc float Natal ASC used
age int Completed age
profected_longitude float (age * 30 + natal_asc) % 360
profected_sign str Sign of the Year
profected_degree_in_sign float Degree within sign [0, 30)
profected_sign_index int 0-based index (0 = Aries)

§3.5 Candidate Vessel — LordOfTurnCandidateAssessment

Field Type Description
planet str Candidate planet
role str 'domicile', 'exaltation', 'triplicity', 'bound', 'testimony'
sr_house int | None SR house (1–12), or None if not provided
is_combust bool Within combust_orb of SR Sun
is_retrograde bool Retrograde in SR
is_well_placed bool In good house AND not combust AND not retrograde
blocker_reasons tuple[LordOfTurnBlockerReason, ...] Which blockers fired
witnesses_target bool [DS/MF] Planet witnesses the SR Ascendant OR the SR sect light sign (whole-sign Ptolemaic). Primary selection criterion for Egyptian/Al-Sijzi; informational for Al-Qabisi
testimony_count int [HGR] Dignity types held at profected longitude (0–5, binary count)

Invariant: is_well_placed must be consistent with sr_house, is_combust, is_retrograde — enforced in __post_init__.

§3.6 Primary Result Vessel — LordOfTurnResult

Field Type Description
lord str The Lord of the Turn planet
method LordOfTurnMethod Algorithm used
profection LordOfTurnProfection Profection step result
selection_reason LordOfTurnSelectionReason Why this planet was chosen
candidates tuple[LordOfTurnCandidateAssessment, ...] All assessed candidates

Phase 3 properties: sign_of_year, age, winning_candidate, blocked_candidates, is_fallback.

Invariants: lord is a classical planet; candidates is non-empty.

On candidate count: In Al-Qabisi sequential mode the candidates tuple contains only planets that were actually assessed before the engine returned; candidates beyond the winning planet are always planets that were blocked. [MF]

§3.7 Condition Profile — LordOfTurnConditionProfile

Field Type Description
result LordOfTurnResult Primary result
sr_is_night bool Whether SR was nocturnal
sect_light str 'Sun' or 'Moon'
lord_witnesses_sr_asc bool Lord's sign witnesses the SR ASC sign specifically (SR-ASC-only component of the winning candidate's witnesses_target)
lord_sr_house int | None Lord's SR house

Properties: is_fallback, lord, sign_of_year (delegations to result).

§4. Validation Codex

validate_lord_of_turn_output(profile) checks:

# Check
1 result.lord is a classical planet
2 profected_longitude in [0, 360)
3 profected_degree_in_sign in [0, 30)
4 profected_sign matches sign_of(profected_longitude)
5 candidates is non-empty
6 A candidate with planet == lord exists in candidates
7 All sr_house values in [1, 12] or None
8 All testimony_count values >= 0
9 is_well_placed=True candidates have no blocker_reasons
10 profile.sect_light is 'Sun' or 'Moon'

§5. Doctrine Boundaries

§5.1 What This Module Owns

  • Profection arithmetic
  • Al-Qabisi succession hierarchy (domicile → exaltation → triplicity → bound)
  • Egyptian/Al-Sijzi testimony ranking and witnessing check
  • Condition assessment vessels for each candidate
  • Integrated condition profile including lord's SR ASC witnessing

§5.2 What This Module Does Not Own

  • Solar return chart construction (moira.solar_returns, deferred)
  • Planetary ephemeris positions
  • House calculation
  • Annual hierarchy orchestration (Lord of the Turn as one of Abu Ma'shar's eight annual indicators alongside profections, firdaria, etc.)
  • Natal chart dignity evaluation of the Lord of the Turn planet

§5.3 Deferred (Phase 2)

Integration of the Lord of the Turn within Abu Ma'shar's eight-indicator annual hierarchy. The hierarchy interface requires a separate doctrinal design note.

Part II — Implementation Notes

§6. Module Location

moira/lord_of_the_turn.py — standalone module.

Rationale: distinct from timelords.py (firdaria, zodiacal releasing), profections.py (Lord of the Year / profection lord), and lord_of_the_orb.py (planetary-hour–based lord). The Lord of the Turn requires SR chart data that the other modules do not need.

§7. Dependency Graph

lord_of_the_turn.py
  ├─ moira.constants      sign_of, SIGNS
  ├─ moira.dignities      DOMICILE, EXALTATION
  ├─ moira.egyptian_bounds  EGYPTIAN_BOUNDS
  └─ moira.longevity      TRIPLICITY_RULERS, FACE_RULERS

Caller connects: SR chart construction (deferred) → LordOfTurnSRChart.

§8. DOMICILE_ONLY Mode

[MF] When LordOfTurnSRChart.house_placements is empty the engine skips all condition checks and returns the domicile lord with reason DOMICILE_ONLY. All three condition checks (house, combust, retrograde) are skipped. The witnesses_target field is still computed if planet longitudes are present (uses SR ASC and sect light as targets). This mode supports pre-SR-chart research and test scenarios.

§9. Witnessing Target: SR ASC or Sect Light

The witnessing target inside _build_candidate() is the SR Ascendant sign OR the SR sect light sign. This applies uniformly to both Al-Qabisi and Egyptian/Al-Sijzi modes.

[DS] for Egyptian/Al-Sijzi: Al-Sijzi explicitly requires the lord to witness the SR ASC or sect light.

[MF] for Al-Qabisi: witnessing is informational only in Al-Qabisi mode — the sequential succession architecture makes a witnessing tiebreaker inapplicable. The witnesses_target field is populated for interpretive value even when it does not drive the selection.

The LordOfTurnConditionProfile.lord_witnesses_sr_asc field provides the SR-ASC-only component (not including the sect light).

Part III — Change Policy

§10. Stability Guarantees

Frozen:

  • LordOfTurnProfection field set and arithmetic invariants
  • LordOfTurnCandidateAssessment field set, is_well_placed consistency invariant, and witnesses_target semantics (SR ASC or sect light)
  • LordOfTurnResult field set and selection reason semantics
  • LordOfTurnSelectionReason and LordOfTurnBlockerReason enum values
  • The four-step Al-Qabisi succession order
  • The Egyptian/Al-Sijzi three-path selection logic

Internal (may change):

  • _GOOD_HOUSES, _CADENT_HOUSES, _WITNESSING_DIFFS constants
  • _build_candidate, _testimony_count, _compute_profection helpers
  • _validate_inputs

§11. Extension Points

To integrate the Lord of the Turn with Abu Ma'shar's annual hierarchy (Phase 2):

  1. Design the eight-indicator hierarchy vessel in a separate doctrinal note
  2. Add an annual_hierarchy(lot_result, profection_lord, firdar_lord, lord_of_turn_profile, ...) function that returns a combined assessment
  3. Do not modify any existing Phase 1–8 vessels or the primary engines

Part IV — Historically Uncertain Areas

The following aspects of this subsystem remain historically uncertain and are therefore marked as reconstruction or formalization:

  1. Triplicity angular requirement — Al-Qabisi mentions triplicity rulers but the "angular only" condition is not explicitly stated. The stricter test is adopted from general Arabic tradition; a broader good-place condition would also be defensible.

  2. Combust orb = 8.5° — Traditional combust orbs range from 6° to 15° depending on source. 8.5° is a mid-range computational choice.

  3. Binary vs. numeric testimony count — Some sources use the 5/4/3/2/1 weighting for dignity levels; others treat each dignity type as binary. This subsystem uses binary counting as the better match for Al-Qabisi's testimony doctrine.

  4. Alphabetical tiebreak in Egyptian testimony ranking — No historical source specifies how to break a tie when two planets have equal testimony counts. The alphabetical rule exists purely for computational determinism.

  5. DOMICILE_ONLY mode — Entirely a Moira invention with no historical precedent. The historical technique always presupposes a computed SR chart.