Firdaria--Planetary Stages of Life

Recently, I updated Solar Fire, the astrology program that I use, and I was delighted to find a new report called Firdaria. This report comes from the wisdom of a Persian sage called Al Biruni. I had read about this extraordinary personality before. He made contributions to a very wide range of human endeavors, from chemistry to math to astronomy. He knew that the earth rotated on its own axis and knew about both heliocentric and geocentric perspectives. He developed special instruments for astronomical measurements and he is said to have written over 200 books. There is even a crater of the Moon called after him. For more information on Al Biruni, go to Wikipedia.

Firdaria

Firdaria is a system of planetary periods derived by the Persians and associated especially with Al Biruni. The new Firdaria report in Solar Fire gives a description of what to expect in each of the planetary segments of life.

The periods of rulership are:

Sun: First 10 years

Venus: 8 years,

Mercury: 13 years

Moon: 9 years

Saturn: 11 years

Jupiter: 12 years

Mars: 7 years

North Node: 3 years

South Node: 2 years.

Abu-Rayhan Biruni 1973 Afghanistan

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The periods are applied differently to diurnal and nocturnal births. The above sequence is for a person born during the day. For a person born at night, the system begins with the Moon and then follows the same sequence. The planets are said to have an increased influence during their respective periods.

Ptolemy

In the second century AD Claudius Ptolemy also wrote about seven stages of life and related them to the seven classical planets. The sequence is different than that of Al Biruni and the length of each segment is also different.

Moon: Infancy to four years

Mercury: Childhood (4 to 14)

Venus: The Teens and Early Adulthood (14 to 22)

The Sun: Young Adulthood (22 to 40)

Mars: Mature Adulthood (40 to 55)

Jupiter: Retirement and Wisdom (55 to 67)

Saturn: Old Age (67+)

Rudolf Steiner

Steiner too related the course of a person’s life to the planets in the same sequence as Ptolemy but with seven year segments. He talked about this topic in his lectures on karma Karmic Relationships Vol. Vll, Lecture two.

Birth-7 Moon—after inheriting the physical body from the parents, it is now time to work on transforming it and to make it your own. The change of teeth is an indication that this period has been completed.

7-14 Mercury—birth of one’s own etheric body which should be completed after seven years, life develops outside the home, schooling begins.

14-21 Venus—birth and unfolding of the astral body, puberty, first love, developing esthetic life.

21-42 Sun—birth of the ego in three segments of seven years, sentient soul, intellectual soul and consciousness soul. It is interesting to note that the first Saturn return, the time to align oneself with pre-birth intentions occurs during this period at age 29+.

42-49 Mars—This is the time to exert the full force of the personality on career and on the world. There is the possibility now for the ego to work on the astral body to begin unfolding a yet higher member called Spirit Self.

49-56 Jupiter—a certain amount of wisdom should have been acquired by this time. The ego needs to work at the transformation of the etheric body to unfold Life Spirit.

56-63 Saturn—the second Saturn return occurs in this period at age 59+. There is an opportunity once more to align with one’s karma. Now is the time to unfold a yet higher member called Spirit Man.

More detailed information on this topic can be found in the book The Human Life (ISBN:092997901X) by George and Gisela O’Neil. This book is out of print but can be purchased second-hand. Also the book Phases:The Spiritual Rhythms of Adult Life by Bernard Lievegoed describes life stages in relation to the biological, psychological and spiritual development of the human being.

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