astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

, the Arabian/Arabic parts or lots are constructed points based on mathematical calculations of three horoscopic entities such as planets or

angles The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ...

. The distance between two of the points is added to the position of the third (very often the

ascendant The ascendant (Asc, Asc or As) is the astrological sign on the eastern horizon when the person was born. According to certain astrological theories, celestial phenomena reflect or influence human activity on the principle of " as above, so bel ...

) to derive the location of the lot.

History

The lots are a very ancient astrological technique which can be traced back to pre-

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

sources. Their origin is obscure; they could originally be Babylonian, Ancient Egyptian,

Magi Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius t ...

an,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Hermetic Hermetic or related forms may refer to: * of or related to the ancient Greek Olympian god Hermes * of or related to Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary Hellenistic figure based on the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth ** , the ancient and m ...

, but by the time of

Dorotheus of Sidon Dorotheus of Sidon ( grc-gre, Δωρόθεος Σιδώνιος, c. 75 CE - ?? CE) was a 1st-century Greek astrologer and astrological poet, who, during the Hellenistic Period, wrote a didactic poem on horoscopic astrology in Greek, known as the ...

in the first century A.D. (and probably earlier) they had become an established tenet of Hellenistic astrological practice. One of the best informational sources for the lots is the ''Introduction'' to astrology by fourth-century astrologer

Paulus Alexandrinus Paulus Alexandrinus was an astrological author from the late Roman Empire. His extant work, ''Eisagogika'', or ''Introductory Matters'' (or ''Introduction''), which was written in 378 AD, is a treatment of major topics in astrology as practiced in ...

and the ''Commentary'' on this work by sixth-century philosopher

Olympiodorus the Younger Olympiodorus the Younger ( el, Ὀλυμπιόδωρος ὁ Νεώτερος; c. 495 – 570) was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astrologer and teacher who lived in the early years of the Byzantine Empire, after Justinian's Decree of 529 AD which c ...

. Paulus used a dozen or so major lots for almost every aspect of his analysis. The most important of these were the Lot of Fortune (or Part of Fortune) and its complement, the Lot of Spirit. After the fall of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

, all of the classical legacy, including astrology, fell to the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

Arabs and Persians. Arab astrologers translated sources from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and produced many of their own astrologers who wrote a considerable amount in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

on astrology. Although it is not clear whether the number of lots began to proliferate in

late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

or whether it was purely the product of the fascination the Arabs had for them, Arabic manuscripts show an explosion in the number of lots that were used over the next several centuries. The inordinate increase is noted by the Arab commentators themselves. In ''The Abbreviation of the Introduction to Astrology'', Persian astrologer

Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, Latinized as Albumasar (also ''Albusar'', ''Albuxar''; full name ''Abū Maʿshar Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Balkhī'' ; , AH 171–272), was an early Persian Muslim astrologer, thought to be the greatest ast ...

(787-886) describes no less than 55 lots, although it's clear that these are only the ones he considers significant. This count does not even include all of the lots of Paulus. Beginning in the tenth century, many Arabic manuscripts were translated into

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, becoming the means by which Classical astrology found its way back to Europe.

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

astrologers, most notably the major 13th-century Italian,

Guido Bonatti Guido Bonatti (died between 1296 and 1300) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, who was the most celebrated astrologer of the 13th century. Bonatti was advisor of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Ezzelino da Romano III, Gu ...

, a contemporary of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

, assumed it was the Arabs who originated the concept of the lots, and hence they came eventually to be called the "Arabic parts". By the time of

William Lilly William Lilly (9 June 1681) was a seventeenth century English astrologer. He is described as having been a genius at something "that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all" having developed his stature as the most imp ...

(XVII century), only the Lot of Fortune continued to be used by astrologers, although in a manner that would be considered strange by ancient practitioners. Lilly's methods with what he called "Fortuna" have continued in modern astrology, although rarely used and usually misunderstood. The Lot of Fortune mainly appears today in horary practice.

Calculating the Lot of Fortune

Lilly's Part of Fortune (or ''Pars Fortunae'') is calculated as

Ascendant The ascendant (Asc, Asc or As) is the astrological sign on the eastern horizon when the person was born. According to certain astrological theories, celestial phenomena reflect or influence human activity on the principle of " as above, so bel ...

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. That is, the degrees of distance (going in the direction of the signs) between the Sun and the Moon is calculated and then that same distance is measured from the point of the ascendant. The same procedure was used by the Arabs and by Hellenistic astrologers to calculate the Lot of Fortune but there were two major differences: * The location of the lot varied considerably in charts where the Sun was above the horizon (that is, a daytime chart, or one of diurnal

sect A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that ...

) or below the horizon (a nighttime chart, or one of nocturnal sect). The day charts follow Lilly's procedure; nighttime charts reverse the direction in which the measurement is taken between the Sun and Moon, so that the astrologer measures ''from'' the Moon ''to'' the Sun (again, going in the direction of the signs) to get this arc. As with day charts, the arc is then measured from the ascendant to get the lot. The two formulas are, therefore: ** Day chart: Ascendant + Moon - Sun ** Night chart: Ascendant - Moon + Sun * Interpretatively, the Lot of Fortune was used to represent the body, fortune, and health. It was also used in place of the ascendant thereby changing the

house numbering House numbering is the system of giving a unique number to each building in a street or area, with the intention of making it easier to locate a particular building. The house number is often part of a postal address. The term describes the num ...

, to find out more about these factors. Lilly and his contemporaries used the Lot of Fortune as a simple indicator of material well-being and, in horary charts, a marker of success. The symbol for the Lot of Fortune is file:Part of Fortune symbol.svg (U+1F774 🝴).

The Lot of Spirit

If the Lot of Fortune deals with material well-being, the body, fortune and health, the Lot of Spirit represents the initiative taken by that person, or what use is made of what is given. The Lot of Spirit is the reverse of the Lot of Fortune, giving the following formulas: * Day chart: Ascendant - Moon + Sun * Night chart: Ascendant + Moon - Sun

The Hermetic lots

The Hermetic lots are a specific set of seven lots, each associated with one of the seven visible planets (including the Sun and Moon), that were attributed to the figure

Hermes Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus (from grc, Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest"; Classical Latin: la, label=none, Mercurius ter Maximus) is a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of t ...

in the Hellenistic tradition of astrology.Chris Brennan, "The Theoretical Rationale Underlying the Seven Hermetic Lots," originally published in the ''Tradition Journal'', issue no. 2, spring 2009, pgs. 16-27.
/ref> This set of lots appears in the work of the 4th century astrologer

, as well as in his later commentator

. The formulas for the lots can be found in Paulus (see reference below). The formulas for the Hermetic lots later made their way into the Medieval astrological tradition where they appear in authors such as

and

, although their lists have been combined with an alternate lot tradition derived from the 2nd century astrologer

Vettius Valens Vettius Valens (120 – c. 175) was a 2nd-century Hellenistic astrologer, a somewhat younger contemporary of Claudius Ptolemy. Valens' major work is the ''Anthology'' ( la, Anthologia), ten volumes in Greek written roughly within the period 150 t ...

Endnotes

References

. ''Introductory Matters.'' Translated by Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum from the

in: ''Late Classical Astrology: Paulus Alexandrinus and Olympiodorus, with the Scholia from Later Commentators.''

ARHAT In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana'' and liberated ...

(Archive for the Retrieval of Historical Astrological Text

(Reston, VA, 2001.) Paulus is also available in a translation for ''

Project Hindsight Project Hindsight was a retrospective study conducted to determine the effectiveness of several post-World War II weapons research projects. The project was conducted by the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering, a sub-agency ...

'' by Robert Schmidt (without the ''Commentary'' by Olympiodorus.) The Golden Hind Press (Berkeley Springs, WV, 1996 ) * Robert Zoller. ''The Arabic Parts in Astrology.'' (

Inner Traditions International Interior may refer to: Arts and media * ''Interior'' (Degas) (also known as ''The Rape''), painting by Edgar Degas * ''Interior'' (play), 1895 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck * ''The Interior'' (novel), by Lisa See * Interior de ...

, Rochester Vermont, 1980, 1989.) * Abu Ma'shar. ''The Abbreviation of the Introduction to Astrology.'' dited and Translated by Charles Burnett(ARHAT rchive for the Retrieval of Historical Astrological TextsPublications, 1994) *Joseph Crane (author of ''A Practical Guide to Traditional Astrology'' RHAT, 1997 in lecture and private conversation. *

. ''Christian Astrology''. (London, 1647) (in

Ascella Publications Zeta Sagittarii (ζ Sagittarii, abbreviated Zeta Sgr, ζ Sgr) is a triple star system and the third-brightest star in the constellation of Sagittarius. Based upon parallax measurements, it is about from the Sun. The ...

edition, London, 1999) *

. ''Carmen Astrologicum''. (Translated by David Pingree) ( Astrology Classics edition, Bel Air Maryland, 2005) {{ISBN, 1-933303-14-X

External links

Online Arabic part calculator
Technical factors of Western astrology Hellenistic astrology