I don't have time to unpack all of the theological basis but I believe the word is used to describe the work of Christ in not only releasing us from our debt of sin (forgiveness, often described by athiemi) but in delivering us from its power also, in contrast to what was possible under the Old Covenant which is why I believe the word is not used in relation to sins before the New Testament. A close examination of aphesis and athiemi in the New Testament bears out in my view the different implications of each word in relation to sin. I think remission is the best translation of aphesis which I understand to mean liberty or release from the power of sin (in line with its use in Luke 4:18).
Obviously Jesus did not descend from heaven to release captives from literal jails, but to liberate mankind from the bondage of sin and death, and in view of what Jesus said in John 8:32, I suggest that the closest translation to "ÎÏεσÎÏ, aphesis," in context to Luke 4:18 is "LIBERTY"
In the case of the zodiacal aphesis, it was customary to take the lot of fortune (arabic part of fortune) for affairs regarding the body, for physical happiness and health, financial stability, etc... and to take the lot of spirit for issues regarding what one does, i.e. employment, hobby or career and cast foreward in the order of the signs starting with the Lot for the initial period. The first period lord is the domicile lord of the sign that has the times. For example, if the lot of fortune is in Leo, then the first 19 years are governed by the Sun after which the chroncratorship would be handed over to Virgo, administered by Hermes for the next 20 years. The Sun would have special importance with regard to affairs of the fortune for the first 19 years. The sub-periods are the same as above but the length is in months (preserving the ratio of 1:12). So for the first 19 months the Sun is both the general lord and sub-lord, after this Mercury takes the next 20 months because of Virgo, then Venus takes the next 8 months because of Libra, etc... all while the Sun is the general period time lord. The general period truncates the last sub-period when the general times are finished.
The most important consideration is the location of the sign representing the times, whether it is angular, succeedent or cadent (by whole sign) from the lot of fortune. This is especially important with regard to the spirit releasing because we are finding that famous people often become known when the aphesis reaches the 10th sign from the sign of the lot of fortune, particularly when it is a general or top most releasing / aphesis. The next most important consideration is the state of the domicle lord, whether it, and other planets witness (or aspect) the place (by whole sign). It seems to be the case that the placement by sign shows how noticable or powerful the effects are and whether the period has anything important to speak about. Valens used the word "chrematistikos" and Schmidt has translated it as having the meanings "busy" or "telling". From this we have found that some periods are naturally more busy or telling than others. The cadent signs in particular may not have much to speak about unless a malefic is involved (because Valens says the malefics are more potent than the benefics).
I want to clear up some confusion that might arise about terms that are currently being used in the zodiacal releasing technique. Over the years some of the technical terms have been changing. First was the name for the method itself which was called "zodiacal aphesis" because Schmidt hadn't decided upon an English word in the early days (prior to the year 2000). David Stricker was working with a number of these methods such as Decennials, Quarters of the Moon and the first attempts to make sense of how these worked was to look for repetitions in the natives life to see if they show up within a given context in each time lord procedure. This is when I started using "mirroring" to represent repetitions in the various levels or a repetition on the same level. For instance I would say under a 27 year Capricorn period, the Virgo L2 that comes about 13 years later mirrors the one that comes about 21 years later (after the loosing of the bond to Cancer). Then I started using this term to represent repetitions on 4 levels like this: Aquarius L1, Scorpio L2, Aquarius L3, Scorpio L4. A sequence like this is often very important and later on the term "amplification" was used as a more perspicuous term to describe what this actually means (I believe Ellen Black invented this).
The foreshadowing period is one of the most important periods to watch because what happens here will often be the most visible repetition of all. My own life is an example of this, in fact my programming the method of ZR in 1997 is an example of foreshadowing because at this time the Aquarius L1 period that had started for me in early 1988 handed over to Leo L2 in 1997 and this is when I wrote the application "Zodiacal Aphesis 1.0". When the loosing of the bond happened in Leo in 2005, that was when zodiacal releasing and the other time lord procedures were finally recognized in Delphic Oracle. Therefore one can say that my work in zodiacal aphesis which was obscure "foreshadowed" my work in Delphic Oracle which was better known.
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