lord_of_the_orb_roadmap - TheDaniel166/moira GitHub Wiki

Lord of the Orb Roadmap

Purpose

This document defines the implementation roadmap for Moira's Lord of the Orb subsystem.

It assumes the companion doctrine document exists:

This is an additive roadmap. The Lord of the Orb is a new technique with no existing implementation in Moira. The required infrastructure (planetary hours, Chaldean order) already exists in moira/planetary_hours.py.

The technique belongs to the annual timing family alongside profections and firdaria. Its output is an annual participating signifier within a solar return analysis.

Current Moira State

Relevant implementation files:

  • moira/planetary_hours.py — planetary hour calculation; Chaldean order
  • moira/timelords.py — firdaria and zodiacal releasing; annual period model
  • moira/profections.py — annual profections; Lord of the Year

Lord of the Orb: NOT IMPLEMENTED.

Infrastructure available:

  • PlanetaryHour and PlanetaryHoursDay in planetary_hours.py — the birth planetary hour is computable from these
  • Chaldean order already encoded in planetary_hours.py
  • Annual period vessel patterns established in timelords.py

Current constitutional status: P0 — pre-constitutionalization.

Core Insight

The Lord of the Orb is a two-cycle system: the 7-planet Chaldean sequence and the 12-house sequence advance independently. The only doctrinal ambiguity is whether the Chaldean sequence resets with the house cycle (single cycle) or runs as a fully independent modular counter (continuous loop).

The continuous loop variant is the better-attested reading (Torres, Giuntini). Both variants should be implemented as named options.

The birth planetary hour is the only natal input beyond the chart itself. Everything else is arithmetic.

Truth Domain Axes

1. Cycle Variant

Governs how the Chaldean planetary sequence and the 12-house sequence relate.

Values:

  • continuous_loop — planetary sequence and house cycle are independent modular counters; full combined pattern repeats at LCM(7, 12) = 84 years; default
  • single_cycle — both cycles reset together at year 13; Year 13 planet equals Year 1 planet; historically ambiguous in Abu Ma'shar

2. Night Definition

The birth planetary hour requires knowing whether the birth is diurnal or nocturnal. This is already handled by planetary_hours.py (sunrise/sunset aware). No new logic needed.

3. House Signification

Year N → house ((N − 1) mod 12) + 1

This is a pure arithmetic mapping, not a house-system calculation.

Implementation Phases

Phase 1 — Core Lord of the Orb Engine

Scope: compute the Lord of the Orb for any year of life from a natal chart.

Module: moira/timelords.py (alongside firdaria and profections as the natural home for annual time-lord techniques)

Tasks:

  1. Add LordOfOrbCycleKind enum: CONTINUOUS_LOOP, SINGLE_CYCLE
  2. Add LordOfOrbPeriod data vessel:
    • year: int
    • planet: str
    • house: int
    • cycle_kind: LordOfOrbCycleKind
  3. Add lord_of_orb(chart, birth_planetary_hour_planet, years, cycle_kind) function returning list[LordOfOrbPeriod]
  4. Add current_lord_of_orb(chart, birth_date, target_date, cycle_kind) convenience function returning the active LordOfOrbPeriod
  5. Expose the birth planetary hour planet as a named output so callers can verify it

Cycle logic:

# continuous_loop
planet_index = (birth_planet_index + year - 1) % 7
house = ((year - 1) % 12) + 1

# single_cycle
cycle_position = (year - 1) % 12   # 0–11
planet_index = (birth_planet_index + cycle_position) % 7
house = cycle_position + 1

Where birth_planet_index is the 0-based position of the birth-hour planet in the Chaldean order: Saturn(0), Jupiter(1), Mars(2), Sun(3), Venus(4), Mercury(5), Moon(6).

Acceptance criteria:

  • for Venus as birth-hour planet, years 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 36 all return Venus (continuous loop) — confirms Torres's worked example
  • year 1 → house 1, year 12 → house 12, year 13 → house 1 (both variants)
  • year 13 → Venus (continuous loop) vs. Venus (single cycle coincides here; divergence begins at year 14 where continuous returns Mercury, single returns Jupiter)
  • full 84-year cycle produces no duplicates (continuous loop)

constitutional target: P1 COMPLETE after this phase.

Phase 2 — Annual Hierarchy Integration

Scope: integrate Lord of the Orb as a named indicator within Moira's annual solar return analysis.

Prerequisite: Phase 1 complete.

Tasks:

  1. Define the Abu Ma'shar eight-indicator annual hierarchy as a named structure (if not already done by profections or other annual work)
  2. Add Lord of the Orb as indicator #6 in the hierarchy
  3. Add evaluation frame: expose the Lord of the Orb planet's natal condition and its solar return position for interpretation

Note: the annual hierarchy is a documentary and output-structuring task, not a computation task. The computation is fully covered by Phase 1.

constitutional target: P2 COMPLETE after this phase.

Relationship to Other Subsystems

Subsystem Relationship
planetary_hours.py provides birth-hour planet; shared Chaldean order
timelords.py natural home; same annual period model as firdaria
profections.py Lord of the Year is indicator #1 in the same hierarchy
Lord of the Turn separate technique; shares naming hazard only

The Lord of the Orb does not depend on solar return chart calculation. It depends only on the birth planetary hour and the native's age.

Open Questions

  1. Should lord_of_orb() live in timelords.py or in a new annual_indicators.py module? Decision deferred to Constitutional Phase 3 (module boundary formalization).
  2. Should both cycle variants always be computed and returned, or should the caller specify one? Recommendation: caller specifies; default to CONTINUOUS_LOOP.

Research Sources

  • Benjamin N. Dykes, Persian Nativities IV (Cazimi Press, 2019) — Abu Ma'shar's core; pages 126–128 for cycle variant ambiguity
  • Anthony Louis, "Lord of the Orb in Annual Revolutions" (blog, 2021) — Torres manuscript; Venus worked example confirming continuous loop
  • moira/planetary_hours.py — Chaldean order and birth-hour infrastructure