Calculating The Lot of Fortune
Lilly's Part of Fortune (or Pars Fortunae) is calculated as Ascendant + Moon - Sun. 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) 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, 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.
Read more about this topic: Arabic Parts
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