How to Calculate Firdaria

Seven planets and two Moon Nodes rule, one after another, periods of human life. The periods of planets (but not of the Moon Nodes) can be further subdivided into subperiods.

There are two possible sequences of period rulers. One sequence is for those who were born at daytime, another sequence is for those born at night. Both sequences follow the well known in esoteric sciences Chaldean Order, but the sequence for those born at day starts from the Sun, while the sequence for those born at night starts from the Moon.

Here is the sequence for those who were born at day:

Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, North Node, South Node.

And here is the sequence for those who were born at night:

Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, North Node, South Node, Sun, Venus, Mercury.

Each planet has its own number of years to rule:

Each period (except of the periods of the North and South Nodes which are quite short) can be further divided into seven subperiods, each of them 1/7 of the length of the main period. The first subperiod is ruled by the same planet which rules the period and then the rulers of subperiods follow in the same order as the rulers of periods.

Of course, there is no need to calculate all this by hand, you can use the Firdaria Calculator.

An Alternative Version of the Planetary Sequence for a Night Birth

The sequence of the planetary periods, as shown above, is exactly how Robert Zoller taught the firdaria method at the time when I learned it. There is also an alternative version of the sequence for the cases of a night birth:

Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, North Node, South Node.

The difference is that the periods of the Moon Nodes are moved to the very end of the sequence. This sequence has the authority of Rob Hand behind it, but since for me the Zoller's approach worked well, I continued to use it.

Some time ago, however, I received an email from a knowledgeable person saying that Robert Zoller has changed his opinion and he now supports the sequence given by Rob Hand.

As my experience cannot be compared with that of Zoller and Hand, I am going to offer a new setting in the Firdaria Calculator that will allow you to choose which sequence you prefer.

I suspect though that the sequence might differ depending on some condition in the natal chart. I will keep this possibility in mind while working with firdaria, and if I will find some confirmation for this idea, I'll let you know.

Finally, after firdaria were calculated, we need to interpret them. I have created a separate page that deals with different approaches to interpreting firdaria.