the lot or part of fortune robert hand

The Lot or Part of FortuneThe Lot or Part of Fortune

by Robert Hand

Copyright 1996 by Robert Hand ([email protected])Posted in the Newsgroup alt.astrology in February and March 1996.

Author's IntroductionWhat I am going to do here is something similar to what I have been doing on Prodigy.I am going to be talking about the discoveries and lore of ancient and medievalastrology. The main difference between these postings and those on Prodigy is thatthese will be a bit more technical. I know that not everyone on Alt.Astrology is an expertbut actually you don't need to be much of an expert to understand the old astrology.Those who could justifiably be called "experts" in modern astrology actually have tolearn as much as the beginners. The concepts are quite simple, but becomecomplicated in the putting together. But this should not be a surprise. This is just astrue of modern astrology. Anyhow here is my first note.

The Lot or Part of FortunePart 1

Most astrologers have encountered the Part (or Lot as the Greeks called it) of Fortune,but have little idea of what to do with it. The modern literature on the subject is of littlehelp tending to make it an extremely abstract symbol, something "karmic." Tocomplicate things further, it is now clear that for approximately 50% of all people thePart of Fortune is usually computed incorrectly, namely those persons born at nightbetween sunset and sunrise. I'll come back to that in a moment. The Part of Fortune iscomputed in the following manner:

Day Births: Fortune = Ascendant + Moon - Sun Night Births: Fortune = Ascendant + Sun - Moon

These formulae should be interpreted as in this way: compute the longitudes of theAscendant, Moon and Sun as measured from 0 degrees of Aries. This is doneaccording to the table below.

Aries Add 0 . Libra Add 180Taurus Add 30 . Scorpio Add 210Gemini Add 60 . Sagittarius Add 240Cancer Add 90 . Capricorn Add 270Leo Add 120 . Aquarius Add 300Virgo Add 150 . Pisces Add 330

Let's say someone has an Ascendant of 20 Virgo, a Moon of 4 Aries, and a Sun at 17Aquarius. An Ascendant of 20 Virgo means a Descendant of 20 Pisces. Since the Sunis between the Ascendant and the Descendant, this is a night birth so we use the nightbirth formula.

Ascendant 20 Virgo + 150 = 170Sun 17 Aquarius + 300 = 317 Moon 4 Aries + 0 = 4

Fortune = 170 + 317 - 4 = 483. This is more than 360 so we subtract 360 from the total. 483 - 360 = 123. The Part ofFortune is 3 Leo.

If the Sun were at 9 Cancer with this Ascendant and Moon, the chart would be a daybirth so we would use the Day formula.

Ascendant 20 Virgo + 150 = 170 Moon 4 Aries + 0 = 4 Sun 9 Cancer + 90 = 99

Fortune = 170 + 4 - 99 = 75. This is less than 360 so we don't need to do anything more. This gives us a Part ofFortune of 15 Gemini.

The reason why most people who are born at night have been given the wrong Part ofFortune is that most of the modern authorities have used the day formula for nightbirths! This is because one ancient authority, Ptolemy, seemed to advocate doing allcharts with the day formula. We are now fairly certain from our new translation ofPtolemy and his ancient commentators that he did not intend this. Most other ancientsources advocated using the day formula for day births and the night formulas fornight and so did the medieval astrologers. And these people knew what to do with thePart of Fortune.

Let me conclude this note by giving a very brief description of what the Part of Fortuneis. The Part of Fortune is used to describe the basic way in which the individual isphysically connected with the surrounding world. It is one of the significators of thebody and health, and it is the primary significator of prosperity, and also career as it

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relates to prosperity. But the method of using it will come as a bit of a surprise. This isone of the most important discoveries that Project Hindsight has made. In my nextnote I'll go into that.


In the first installment of this series of notes I described the method for computing thePart of Fortune and said a bit about what it meant, that it was the key to understandingthe native's prosperity and career. In this installment I will go further into its symbolismand say more about its proper use according to the Greeks.

As I have said, the Part of Fortune is a primary indicator of prosperity, but it is morethan that. It is created out of the longitudes of the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant, andtherefore is composed out of the three of the most important places in the chart (onlythe Midheaven outside of these three is as important) and as a result becomes asimportant as they are. In modern astrology there is a tendency to regard the Part ofFortune as a minor point in the chart, but this was not the case with ancient astrology.

In ancient astrology the Ascendant is the primary indicator of the physical body andhealth. The Moon is also a very important secondary indicator about the body. But thereis a difference between them. The Ascendant was considered to be the body at itsmost physical, material level. The Moon was the living aspect of the body, in fact soul,but soul incarnated in a physical body. The Part of Fortune, being composed of both ofthese along with the Sun, is also an indicator of the living, physical body and itsrelationships with the physical and social world in which the native lives. Its capacity tosignify prosperity comes from this. If the Part of Fortune is in good condition, therelationship between the native and the physical and social world in which he or shelives is one that supports the native and enables the native to live well. If the Part ofFortune is in poor condition, the native has a harder time living in relationship with theworld that supports the native. The same can also be said about the relationships ofthe Part of Fortune and health.

However, in the case of both significations one must keep in mind that no oneindication in the chart, not even the Part of Fortune, can be taken by itself as a totalindicator of any area of life. For health one must also look at the Ascendant, its ruler,the Moon and its ruler. Also the sixth and eighth houses as indicators of illness anddeath respectively have strong indications for health. For material prosperity oneshould also look at the second house, the tenth house, and their rulers.

That said, however, the Part of Fortune is well placed when there are benefics ordignified planets in the same sign with it (the fact that "sign" is referred to here is veryimportant as will be seen later on), or these same kinds of planets aspect the Part ofFortune. [Note: if the terms "benefic" and "dignified" are strange to you, they will beexplained at the end of this article.] Also it was said to help the Part of Fortune if it wasin a sign that was ruled by benefics, and any point in a chart is helped by being in asign ruled by a dignified planet.

The Part of Fortune is not so well placed if it is in a sign with malefics, especially if themalefics are debilitated. Squares, oppositions, and conjunctions with malefics arealso not considered to be very good. As a modern astrologer I would have to say thatsuch indications do not mean poverty or bad health so much as they mean that thenative will have to work harder or has a narrower range of possible routes to success.But given those two considerations, the results can still be very positive.

As my concluding comment in this installment, let me say that the Part of Fortune isnot merely a point like the planets or the nodes. It is the start of a house system. Thesign of the Part of Fortune is the first house of the Fortuna system, and the first houseof the Fortuna system extends from 0 degrees to 30 degrees of the sign in which thePart is located. And each of the other houses of the Fortuna system also extend from 0degrees to 30 degrees of their respective signs. In the next installment I will describewhat the ancients said should be done with these houses.

Terms Used:

Benefic A planet which easily produces results which would be generally considered favorableor "good." Whether these results really are good for the native will only become clearover time. Certainly benefics produce a desired result more easily in most situationsthan malefics (see next entry). The natural benefics are Venus, Jupiter, the Sun by trineor sextile aspects, and any planet that is well aspected and dignified (see note).

Malefic A planet which does not easily produce results which would be considered "good".Generally speaking malefics are not so much "bad" as it is that they require morethought, more consciousness, and more skill at managing life than the beneficsrequire in most cases. In fact the two main malefics, Mars and Saturn, are necessaryfor building character and strength. But either of these handled without consciousnessleads to less than fortunate results. The natural malefics are Mars, Saturn and the Sunby conjunction only.

General Comment about Both Benefics and Malefics Ultimately whether a planet is a malefic or a benefic depends upon a number offactors. Planets that are naturally one or the other can be converted into their oppositeby other circumstances in the chart. One cannot assume that Venus and Jupiter willalways produce good results, and that Saturn and Mars will always produce badresults. This is a old classification and must be taken somewhat freely. In the end Ilike Ptolemy's definition of the terms best. According to Ptolemy, a benefic is a planet




whose natural influence leads to moderation and balance. A malefic is a planet whosenatural influence leads to extremes and imbalance.

Dignified and Debilitated Planets may be dignified (made stronger) and debilitated (weakened) in a variety ofways. In this article I mainly refer to dignity and debility by signs. Planets are dignifiedwhen they are in signs in which they rule or are exalted. They are debilitated when theyare in signs opposite these. Any regular beginning text of astrology will list thesesigns. There are other dignities and debilities as well. See Lee Lehman, EssentialDignities, Whitford Press.


If the Part of Fortune is a first house marker, our natural tendency as modern Westernastrologers is make the degree of the Part the cusp of the first house and to set upequal houses from the Part using the Part as an Ascendant. However, from thematerial we have found so far in Project Hindsight what the ancient astrologersactually did was a bit different. And what they did was characteristic of house divisionin all of the oldest texts including, we now know, Ptolemy himself. As I have alreadymentioned, the houses of the Fortuna system were measured from 0 degrees to 30degrees of the sign that the Part of Fortune was in. This practice, which has beendubbed whole-sign house division, was not only used with the Part of Fortune, butalso with the Ascendant itself! The entire modern problem of house division did notexist for the ancients. They did not see the signs as separate from the houses. Thehouses were simply roles that the signs took on depending upon their relation tosome point that marked one of the signs as being the first house or place ("place" isthe proper translation of the word that the ancients used for house as we use theword). That marking point was called in Greek, horoskopos.

If that word sounds familiar, it should. It is the basis of the word 'horoscope', and itsliteral meaning is "hour marker," not "watcher of the hour" as often stated in the texts.The hour marker was any point that had the ability to mark a sign as a first house orplace for some purpose. In modern astrology we have sun-sign astrology, a techniquenot widely respected by professional astrologers. Yet in sun-sign astrology we see anancient practice used (simple-mindedly to be sure) in a modern context. In sun-signastrology the Sun is a horoskopos in exactly the ancient manner; it marks the sign ofthe Sun as a first house or place. All other signs become houses or places withrespect to the sign of the Sun. The only problem with modern sun-sign astrology isthat the solar horoskopos was supposed to be used to describe a native's father, notthe native, and then only if the native was born in the daytime.

The ancients in the West used the Ascendant and the Part of Fortune as the majorhour markers. The ancients of the East in India used the Ascendant and the Moon isthe primary hour markers. What is interesting here is that the Part of Fortune is a partassociated with the Moon! Apparently these practices are related.

The following is a quotation from Paulus Alexandrinus a 4th century author:

"And Fortune signifies everything that concerns the body, and what one does throughthe course of life. It becomes indicative of possessions, reputation and privilege."

And Vettius Valens who lived at about the same time as Ptolemy wrote the following:

". . . the Lot itself will possess the power of the Horoskopos, that of life; the tenthzoidion [sign] from this, the power of the Midheaven, that of reputation; the 7th, thepower of the Descendant; the 4th, of the subterraneous zoidion, and the remainingplaces will possess the power of the 12 regions."

In another place he wrote "We have also found the 11th place [sign counted as ahouse] from Fortune to be an acquisitive place, a bestower of belongings and goods,and especially when benefics are upon it or are testifying [aspecting]."

These statements are holding up in practice. I have found that the sign of the Part ofFortune and its ruler give very good information on profession as it relates to makingmoney along with the tenth house (counted in the usual manner from the Ascendant).The tenth sign from the sign of the Part of Fortune is also very good for helping todescribe the actual social role that the occupation serves. The eleventh sign from thePart has a special role in determining both how well and by what means one earnsmoney. Astrologers who actually earn money from doing astrology have been seen tohave Mercury in the sign of the Part of Fortune, or the eleventh sign from the Part ofFortune, or ruling either of these. Mercury is the ancient ruler of astrology beforeUranus was discovered. And I would have to say that it still works! The ancient writersalso said that the Part of Fortune and the houses derived from it had to with the body,health, and actions that are done spontaneously or on an emotional basis.

Another interesting Fortuna house is the seventh. While it may have something to dowith relationships, its primary symbolism seems to derive from its being theopposition to the Part itself, and the effect is stronger if a point in the seventh Fortunaplace is closer to the exact opposition to the Part of Fortune. One of the oldestsignifications of the seventh house was death because the Sun set there and its lightwas extinguished. The Fortuna seventh of course is not a sunset point, but since thePart of Fortune has something to do with the body, the opposition to the Part seems tohave something to with illness and physical problems.

Much more work needs to be on the Part of Fortune, and this can only be considered ataste. However, we are not done with parts yet. There are many other parts as well,and many of these also serve as hour markers. We will take up some of these in the




next installment.

A final note: all the passages used in this text are from the Project Hindsighttranslations of the ancient Greek texts unless otherwise noted.


We now come to some of the other lots. As of this writing we have found over twodozen lots which come from Egyptian sources. This should dispel once and for all thenotion that lots are Arabic. Most of them in fact are from a book called the Panaretoswhich was attributed to Hermes Tresmegistes. He is no doubt a legendary figure withno historical basis, but anything attributed to him before the Middle Ages can be safelyascribed to Hellenistic Egyptian sources or earlier. The Lot of Fortune was attributed tothe also legendary Nechepso and Petosiris, a legendary pharaoh and his priest.

First of all several lots were assigned to the planets. Of these the Lot of Fortune, as Ihave mentioned, was assigned to the Moon, the Lot of Spirit to the Sun. The Lot ofSpirit is the second most important of the lots. Its formula is very simple. It is the sameas the Lot of Fortune, but with the Sun and Moon positions in the formula reversed.Thus the formula for the Lot of Spirit by day is the same as the Lot of Fortune by night,and vice versa. The following formulas should make this clear.

Lot of Fortune Day Births: Fortune = Ascendant + Moon - Sun Night Births: Fortune = Ascendant + Sun - Moon

Lot of SpiritDay Births: Spirit = Ascendant + Sun - Moon Night Births: Spirit = Ascendant + Moon - Sun

People who have been born at night and have been using the Lot of Fortune ascomputed by most software and computer services have actually been using the Lot ofSpirit! The Lot of Spirit is a point which has strong psychological and spiritualovertones, unlike the very physical-plane based Lot of Fortune. The Lot of Spirit has todo with the nature of the will, what you intend (as opposed to what merely happens toyou), and also has much to do with career, but apparently more your career as astatement that you make about what you are in the world. It also has to do with illness,like the Lot of Fortune, but it would seem that with the Lot of Spirit we are talking aboutthe spiritual bases of illness as opposed to the physical bases. Unlike the Lot ofFortune, the Lot of Spirit does not often seem to have been use as a first housemarker. Paulus Alexandrinus says the following about the Lot of Spirit. "Spirit happensto be lord of soul, temper, mindfulness, and every power; and sometimes it alsocooperates in the determination concerning what one does." This is about all we cansay about the Lot of Spirit at this point.

The other planets also have lots most of which are partly composed out of the Lots ofFortune and Spirit.

In the following PF = Lot of Fortune, PS = Lot of Spirit

Mercury, Lot of Necessity Day: Lot = Asc. + PF - Me Night: Lot = Asc. + Me - PF

"Necessity signifies constraints, submissions, struggles, and wars, and makesenmities, hatreds, condemnations, all the other restrictive things befalling men as aresult of their birth." -- Paulus Alexandrinus

Venus, Lot of Eros Day Lot = Asc. + Ve - PS Night Lot = Asc. + PS - Ve

"Eros signifies the appetites and the voluntative desires. It becomes a contributingcause of friendship and mutual favor."-- Paulus Alexandrinus

Mars, Lot of Courage Day Lot = Asc. + PF - Ma Night Lot = Asc. + Ma - PF

"Courage becomes a contributing cause of boldness, treachery, might, and everyvillainy." -- Paulus Alexandrinus

Jupiter, Lot of Victory Day Lot = Asc. + Ju - PS Night Lot = Asc. + PS - JU

"Victory becomes a contributing cause of trust, good expectation, contest, and everyassociation; but sometimes it contributes to penalties and rewards." -- PaulusAlexandrinus

Saturn, Lot of Nemesis Day Lot = Asc. + PF - Sa Night Lot = Asc. + Sa - PF

"Nemesis becomes a contributing cause of subterranean fates and of everythingwhich is ice-cold, of demonstration, impotence, exile, destruction, grief, and quality ofdeath." -- Paulus Alexandrinus

These quotes from Paulus are about all we know about these lots. None of these




appear to have been used as house markers.

The next group of lots are related to family issues:

Lot of the Father Day Lot = Asc. + Sa - SuNight Lot = Asc. + Su - Sa

If Saturn is within 17 degrees of the Sun use this formula according to the Greeksources.

Day or Night Lot = Asc. + Ju - Ma

When Saturn is within 17 degrees of the Sun, Arabic sources used a different formula.

Day Lot = Asc. + Ju - Su Night Lot = Asc. + Su - Ju

I don't know what happens if both Jupiter and Saturn are within 17 degrees of the Sun,but otherwise I prefer the Arabic formula when Saturn is close to the Sun.

Lot of the Mother Day Lot = Asc. + Mo - Ve Night Lot = Asc. + Ve - Mo

Lot of Siblings Day Lot = Asc. + Ju - Sa Night Lot = Asc. + Sa - Ju

Not all sources reverse the formula for Siblings at night, and I am inclined to agreewith those sources that do not. I suggest that one start with the day formula used forboth day and night charts. This may seem inconsistent of me but there is a principleunderlying my position. In any case only experiment will tell.

Lot of ChildrenDay Lot = Asc. + Sa - Ju Night Lot = Asc. + Ju - Sa

Notice that this is the reverse of the Lot of Siblings. Here again some sources do notreverse the formula at night, and here again I agree tentatively with those that do not.Obviously persons born in the daytime have no problem here, but persons born atnight will have to experiment. This lot is for both male and female children.

In the next installment I will give some more of these lots and some instruction on howthey were supposed to be used.


In addition to the general lot of children, Vettius Valens gives two other lots that pertainto children, a lot of sons, i.e., male children, and a lot of daughters. These are asfollows:

Lot of SonsDay or Night Lot = Asc. + Me - Ju

Lot of DaughtersDay or Night Lot = Asc. + Ve - Ju

Vettius Valens makes the following statement about both these and the Lot of Childrenmentioned in the previous installment.

"When, then, they are afflicted by Kronos [Saturn] and Ares [Mars], they are the causesof childlessness or the destruction of children, but when they are assisted by Zeus[Jupiter], they are the causes of fruitfulness."

Now we come to a group of lots that pertain to marriage, or more precisely male-female relationships. It is not clear from the Greek material how these are to bedifferentiated, but we do have some assistance from the Arabic material. First herethey are:

Parts of Marriage

Lot of Marriage, Men [Hermetic] Day or Night Lot = Asc. + Ve - Sa

Lot of Marriage, Women [Hermetic] Day or Night Lot = Asc. + Sa - Ve

Lot of Marriage, Men [Valens]Day or Night Lot = Asc. + Ve - Su

Lot of Marriage, Women [Valens] Day or Night Lot = Asc. + Ma - Mo

Lot of Marriage, General Day Lot = Asc. + Ve - JuNight Lot = Asc. + Ju - Ve

In Al-Biruni, an Arab era astrologer, the two lots attributed to Hermes are simplyreferred to as lots of marriage. But the other two lots, the one for men and the one for




women, are given additional designations. The lot for the marriage of men using theVenus - Sun arc is called "Trickery and Deception of Men toward Women," and"Intercourse of Men." The lot for women that uses the Mars - Moon arc is called"Misconduct of Women," "Trickery and Deceit of Men by Women," "Intercourse ofWomen, " and "Unchastity of Women." Disregarding for a moment the obvious sexismin these designations, it is quite clear that the marital lots of Valens are not asspecifically connected to marriage, but are more connected to sexual relationships ingeneral. But the Hermetic lots, both of which contain Saturn, seem to have more of aconnection specifically to legally sanctioned marriage. At this very early stage in myresearch this principle seems to be holding up, that the Hermetic lots relate to legalmarriage, and the lots of Valens relate to male-female sexual relationships in general.

This leaves the general lot of marriage given by Valens that uses the arc from Jupiterto Venus and vice versa. It have little experience with this one thus far, but it too wouldseem to be connected to general relations between the sexes rather than specificallylegal marriage. However, since Jupiter has a strong connection with the law, wecannot rule out this lot also as referring to legal marriage.

In addition to these lots, there are other special purpose lots that are mentioned in theGreek literature. We do not have a clear notion of what all of these may be for, but theyare all interesting.

The first of these is the Lot of Basis. As the name suggests, it would seem to besomething fundamental. It appears to be a way of combining the lots of Fortune andSpirit and making something that combines their signification. The formula is asfollows:

Lot of BasisDay or Night Lot = Asc. + PF - Sp or Lot = Asc. + Sp - PF

Here however it is not day or night that determines the order of the formula. Instead weuse whichever is the shorter arc. IF PF - Sp is more than 180 degrees, we use Sp - PF,and vice versa. Its position is always below the horizon or exactly on the Ascendant orDescendant because the Sp to PF arc can never be more than 180 degrees. This mayhave something to do with its signification because it is always below the earth like afoundation. Also as with Fortuna and Spirit, New Moons and Full Moons have specialsignificance with this lot. At the New Moon all three lots are conjunct the Ascendant,and at the Full Moon, they are all conjunct the Descendant.

Lot of Debt Day or Night Lot = Asc. + Sa - Me

This is a lot that does not look as if it would function as a first house indicator. The loreon this lot is not abundant, but the logic of lots would indicate that whatever house itwould fall into could be a source of financial losses or debt.

Lot of TheftDay Lot = Sa - Ma - MeNight Lot = Sa - Me - Ma

Also a lot that does not function as a first house indicator. This is one of the few lotsthat does not contain the Ascendant as a component. As such it resembles the kindsof formulas that one finds in the modern Hamburg School of Alfred Witte.

Lot of TreacheryDay Lot = Asc. + Ma - SuNight Lot = Asc. + Su - Ma

We have little data on this lot. It is from Vettius Valens.

Lot of ExaltationDay Lot = Asc. + 19 Ar - SuNight Lot = Asc. + 3 Ta - Mo

This lot is made out of the Sun and Moon and their exaltation degrees. This is one ofthe few instances in which the exaltation degrees (as opposed to their signs) areused. It is connected to the births of eminent and famous people.

Lot of Being in a Foreign LandDay or Night Lot = Asc. + Ma - Sa

Lot of AccusationDay Lot = Asc. + Ma - SaNight Lot = Asc. + Sa - Ma

These last two are almost the same. The Lot of Being in a Foreign Land does notswitch at night, and the Lot of Accusation does. The structure of the Lot of Being in aForeign Land clearly tells us that we are not talking about vacation travel here. It ismore like a Lot of Exile. The Lot of Accusation indicates the house through which thenative is "likely to experience failure, dangers, or downfalls." [Valens] In later astrologythis lot became the Lot of Inseparable Illness, i.e., incurable illness, and also the Lotof Police, which accords well with the idea of the Lot of Accusation. I have littleexperience with the lot as an indicator of illness, but it does seem to indicate areas oflife where someone may be accused of something, either falsely or truthfully.

Lot of the DestroyerDay Lot = Asc. + Mo - RuNight Lot = Asc. + Ru - Mo




In the above formula 'Ru' stands for the ruler of the Ascendant. This is a point thatrelates to death. We have little systematic information of its use except that it seems torelate to the manner of death. I would urge astrologers not to be careless in the use ofthis lot.

Robert Hand 2/16/96 - 3/20/96 Robert Hand has been doing translations of ancient and medieval astrology texts since 1993 withProject Hindsight and that effort has published over 2000 pages of translations and commentary.If anyone is interested in further information on Project Hindsight, they have a web page atProject Hindsight.

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