Free Alcocoden Calculator

The alcocoden, from a Perso-Arabic term often glossed as "master of the house," is the planet connected to the hyleg's degree in traditional length-of-life doctrine. Historical authors used the alcocoden's planetary years and condition in lifespan techniques. This calculator documents that historical operation without estimating a person's lifespan.

This result follows one named procedure: 'Umar al-Tabari, Three Books on NativitiesI.4, in Benjamin Dykes's 2010 translation. It tests the domicile, exaltation, triplicity, and bound lords of the hyleg. A planet that does not cast a whole-sign ray to the hyleg is disqualified. If none qualifies, the result remains indeterminate.

The calculation begins with a qualified result from the hyleg calculator. It then applies 'Umar's year-giver rules.

1. Identify the hyleg. The hyleg method tests the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Lot of Fortune, andprenatal syzygy. The Alcocoden procedure runs only when that named method returns a qualified hyleg.
2. Collect the four dignity lords. The candidate set contains the domicile lord, exaltation lord, sect triplicity lord, and Egyptian bound lord of the hyleg's degree.
3. Require testimony. Each candidate must witness the hyleg by whole-sign conjunction, sextile, square, trine, or opposition. Aversion disqualifies it.
4. Resolve the qualified candidates. Multiple authorities over the hyleg take precedence. The remaining source criteria include bound authority, place strength, orientality, angular proximity, and closeness of the witnessing ray. A tie that those criteria do not resolve remains indeterminate.
5. Derive the year grade. 'Umar's angular, succedent, and cadent conditions establish the starting grade. Dignity, hayyiz, orientality, retrogradation, and combustion decide whether the source's clause applies or lowers it. The tool follows the opening I.4.3 sequence with the explicit I.4.4 rank reductions. It leaves the grade unresolved when no stated clause fits.

A year giver holding none of its own dignities still receives years. The "Again" passage in I.4.3 grants a peregrine year giver its own years in the angles and succedents whatever its condition, and the lesser years in the cadents, with a burned-up planet excepted because burning up signifies a scarcity of life. The passage leaves the band unnamed in the angles and succedents, so this calculator reads it as the middle years, sitting between the greater years the sequence grants a dignified year giver in those places and the lesser years it grants in the cadents. A peregrine, occidental year giver in the Midheaven, Ascendant, or 11th by day, or the 4th or 5th by night, takes the lesser years by the same passage. The result names the clause it used every time.

This tool applies fixed planetary years only. It leaves the hyleg undirected and uses no primary-direction time key. The result page keeps the full source, framework, and boundary record in one collapsed panel, and the section below carries the same record in full.

Later medieval formulations took planetary years, modified them by the alcocoden's condition, and projected the result as a lifespan number. Practitioners then directed the hyleg to malefic degrees ("anaretic" points) using primary directions and looked for the death prediction to confirm.

The weakness is easy to state. Different authors run different rules, and later demonstrations lean on substitutions or added mitigating factors whenever the simple prediction misses.

The tool presents the calculation as historical doctrine. A qualified planet or highlighted year value does not supply life expectancy, medical guidance, health judgment, or a personal forecast. An indeterminate result is a valid outcome of the named procedure.

For practical timing tools that survive modern scrutiny, the profection year calculator covers a Hellenistic technique that uses the same planetary-years tradition without pretending to predict lifespan.

Implemented procedure: 'Umar al-Tabari, Three Books on Nativities I.4, translated by Benjamin Dykes in Persian Nativities II (2010), printed pages 7 to 17. Sections I.4.2 through I.4.4 supply the candidate, testimony, condition, and planetary-year rules used here.

Translation boundary: Dykes identifies inherited Persian reinterpretations and variant passages inside the chapter. This calculator follows the opening I.4.3 year-grade sequence and the explicit I.4.4 rank reductions. It does not combine the later repeated variants or merge Valens, Paulus, Pseudo-Porphyry, or Bonatti into the result.

Selection-order variant: The chapter points two ways at the head of the order. One instruction opens the procedure at the bound lord and elects it whenever it casts rays to the bound of the hyleg. Another gives charge to whichever lord holds two or three authorities, whether its aspect is closer or farther. This calculator ranks authority count first with the bound lord immediately after, states that choice on every result, and names the runner-up so the other reading stays checkable.

House framework: The natal chart uses Porphyry quadrant houses. 'Umar grades planets by angular, succedent, and cadent place without naming a cusp algorithm, and Dykes notes at footnote 76 that the chapter works under either a whole-sign or a quadrant reading, so the result names this as a software choice rather than assigning it to the source. Testimony stays whole-sign, following 'Umar's requirement that the lord aspect the sign, which puts places and aspects on two different frames by design. Hyleg dependency uses the same named logic as the hyleg calculator.

Base-grade scope: The result covers the selected year giver and its base lesser, middle, or greater grant. Benefic and malefic lesser-year adjustments, Mercury participation, lunar-node quarter adjustments, Sun adjustments, and the directions in I.4.5 stay outside it. Where the source converts a condition into hours or smaller units, the annual value stays unresolved rather than being substituted.

Visibility thresholds: Cazimi runs through 16 arcminutes, following al-Biruni 481, Abu Ma'shar's Great IntroductionVII.2,7, and al-Qabisi III.7 rather than Lilly's wider later figure. Combustion runs inside 8 degrees and under the beams inside 15 degrees; 'Umar names burning up without a number, so those two orbs are this codebase's stated convention, applied so the rank reduction has a reproducible boundary. Under the rays blocks the benefic additions in I.4.4, which sit outside the base grade, so the base grant stands.

Planetary-year table: al-Biruni, The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology, sections 436 to 437, translated by R. Ramsay Wright (1934), printed page 48. Abu Ma'shar's Great IntroductionVII.8 matches every cell except Mercury's greatest years, and the result stays inside one edition rather than compositing the two.

Time key: Fixed planetary years, with no direction key applied. The procedure selects a year giver and reads its grant; converting an arc into a dated event belongs to primary directions, which sit outside this tool.