Part of Fortune
A point laid off from the Ascendant by the distance between the Sun and the Moon, read as body, livelihood and circumstance.
Meaning
The Part of Fortune, which Ulune’s tables call the Lot of Fortune, is a calculated point rather than a body. In a day chart it lies as far from the Ascendant, in the order of the signs, as the Moon lies from the Sun; in a night chart the distance is taken the other way. It is the oldest and best known of the lots, points cast from three others.
Because it carries the relation between the two lights onto the Ascendant, Fortune has long been read as a lunar point. Hellenistic astrologers read it as the body and its well-being, livelihood and material circumstances, what comes to a person rather than what they choose; its partner, the Lot of Spirit, describes intention and action.
Its sign and house show where circumstances tend to carry someone, and the planet that rules its sign shows how that fortune is handled. Modern astrologers often read it more lightly, as a place of ease, good luck or joy.
In practice
- In the 10th house or near the Midheaven, material stability often follows a public role: income and well-being rise and fall with work and reputation.
- Its ruler, the planet that rules the sign it falls in, is read for how fortune is used: well placed, things tend to come together; under strain, effort goes into holding them.
- As a second Ascendant, Hellenistic astrologers counted the signs from Fortune; Vettius Valens read the eleventh from it as the place of acquisition.
Across traditions
- Arabic-speaking astrologers of the Middle Ages multiplied the lots, which is why they are also called Arabic parts; al-Biruni listed dozens of them in 1029.
- Human Design and the Chinese systems have no counterpart.
Origin and history
“Lot” translates the Greek klēros, a lot cast for a share. Fortune is already in Dorotheus of Sidon in the first century, and Vettius Valens and most Hellenistic authors reversed its formula at night. Claudius Ptolemy did not: he took the distance from the Sun to the Moon by night as by day. Medieval Latin astrology called it Pars Fortunae, and William Lilly used it widely in 1647. Much twentieth-century astrology kept Ptolemy’s single formula, and the revival of Hellenistic astrology since the 1990s, summed up in Chris Brennan’s book of 2017, brought the night reversal back.
How Ulune calculates it
Ulune works it out from the chart’s own Ascendant, Sun and Moon: Ascendant + Moon − Sun for a day birth, Ascendant + Sun − Moon for a night birth. A birth counts as by day when the Sun’s centre is above the true horizon, so near sunrise and sunset the formula can change within minutes. Ulune also gives the Lot of Spirit, its mirror across the Ascendant.
Fortune moves with the Ascendant, so without a birth time it is only a noon stand-in, marked approximate. It has no motion of its own to show, is aspected with the same orbs as the planets, and the calendar does not use it.
Related
- LotA point found by laying off the distance between two bodies from the Ascendant, as the Lots of Fortune and of Spirit are.
- AscendantThe degree of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon at birth, read as manner, body and the way someone meets the world.
- MoonThe light of the night, read as feelings, needs, habits and what makes someone feel at home.
- SunThe great light of the day, read as identity, vitality and the purpose a life gathers around.
- SectWhether a chart is by day, with the Sun above the horizon, or by night; the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn belong to the day, the Moon, Venus and Mars to the night.
- Second houseThe succedent house after the 1st, read as money, possessions, resources and the sense of what one is worth.
Sources
- Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum, 1st century
- Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, c. 150
- Vettius Valens, Anthology, 2nd century
- Al-Biruni, The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology, 1029
- William Lilly, Christian Astrology, 1647
- Chris Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology, 2017