The Lot of Fortune
A point reckoned from the Sun, the Moon and the rising degree — the body's fortune, and the root of a whole family of lots.
How it is calculated
The Lot of Fortune is a point on the zodiac, not a body. It is found by measuring the distance between the two lights and laying that distance out from the Ascendant:
- Day chart: Ascendant + Moon − Sun. Count from the Sun to the Moon in the order of the signs, then count the same distance from the Ascendant.
- Night chart: Ascendant + Sun − Moon. Count from the Moon to the Sun, then the same distance from the Ascendant.
Ptolemy is the exception: he uses the day formula in every chart, so the lot always keeps the Moon's relation to the Sun. Occult Astrology computes both and lets you choose which the reading follows.
The Lot of Spirit is its mirror: the same distance measured the other way, Ascendant + Sun − Moon by day and Ascendant + Moon − Sun by night. In a chart cast at sunrise or sunset the two lots fall together with the Ascendant; the further the Moon is from the Sun, the further apart they stand.
What it means
Fortune belongs to the Moon and the body: health, possessions, the circumstances one is born into and the luck that comes unearned. Spirit belongs to the Sun and the mind: what a person does, chooses and is known for. Valens reads the two as the pair around which the life turns, and the places counted from Fortune as a second set of places laid over the chart — the eleventh sign from the Lot of Fortune is his place of acquisition, where money comes from.
The lot is read by three things: the sign it falls in, its ruler and that ruler's condition, and the planets that stand in or look at the lot's sign. A well-placed ruler of Fortune — in its own sign, on a pivot, of the chart's sect — is one of the strongest marks of a life that prospers materially.
The other lots
From Fortune and Spirit the tradition builds the seven Hermetic lots: Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory, Nemesis, Basis and Exaltation, each measured from a planet to one of the two lots and laid out from the Ascendant, day and night formulas reversed. There are lots for the mother, the father, siblings, children, marriage and travel besides. Every one is read the same way — sign, ruler, and the planets upon it.
How Occult Astrology shows it
The Lots & parts section computes Fortune, Spirit and the Hermetic lots for the chart, marks them on the wheel, and names each ruler and its condition. Fortune's sign is also the starting point of zodiacal releasing.
Read next: zodiacal releasing from Fortune, sect, or all the techniques.
Questions
- How do you calculate the Lot of Fortune?
- By day: Ascendant + Moon − Sun. By night: Ascendant + Sun − Moon. Measure the distance from the Sun to the Moon (or the Moon to the Sun at night) in zodiacal order and lay the same distance out from the Ascendant.
- Is the Part of Fortune the same as the Lot of Fortune?
- Yes. 'Part of Fortune' is the later Latin name; the Greek authors call it the Lot of Fortune. Some modern software uses the day formula for every chart, which is Ptolemy's practice; most of the tradition reverses it at night.
- What does the Lot of Fortune mean?
- The body and its fortune: health, possessions, material circumstances and unearned luck. Its ruler's condition shows how the fortune holds up, and the places counted from it show where money and support come from.
- What is the Lot of Spirit?
- The Lot of Fortune's mirror image, reckoned from the Ascendant by the same distance measured the other way. It signifies the mind, action and what a person does with their life.
Occult Astrology reads a birth chart the way the Greek-language astrologers of antiquity did. Cast a chart and compare it with a Vedic and a modern reading of the same sky.
Cast a chart Demo charts