Loose bond setting
The time spans that Valens used never went over 200 years, so we don't know what Valens would have done when 12 major periods have passed. We know for certain that after 12 minor periods (in months) that he did not return to the original sign, but instead used the sign opposite to represent the following period. This is what he called the "loosing of the bond". He reports that some loosed the bond to the trigon (which?), but that he thought that the opposite was more fitting due to elemental commixture...
You can choose to model this behavior on the major level too and after 12 signs have completed, the next sign is the sign opposite the origin. Or you can just count forever in circles without loosing the bond to the other side. Valens never explained why the "bond was loosed" but the fact that it is done on the completion of a circle suggests that the first circle represents a bond (or debt that must be paid in the style of Schmidt's thinking) and that after it has come "full circle" that the bond is broken (or released), indicating a change in the times.
Some periods are not long enough to have a loosing of the bond, but of those that are there are 3 types: from darkness to light (good), from light to darkness (bad), from Mercury to Jupiter (considered middling). When Capricorn or Aquarius loose the bond to Cancer or Leo, it is from darkness to light; when this is reversed (Leo to Aquarius for example) then it is from light to dark. The signs of Mercury always loose to Jupiter (Gemini and Virgo to Sagittarius and Pisces). Interesting that Mercury indicates suspense and bondage (tying things up) and that Jupiter represents freedom and the settling of things.
