astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

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

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets by the most restrictive definition of the te ...

angles Angles most commonly refers to: *Angles (tribe), a Germanic-speaking people that took their name from the Angeln cultural region in Germany *Angle, a geometric figure formed by two rays meeting at a common point Angles may also refer to: Places ...

. The distance between two of the points is added to the position of the third (very often the ascendant) 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 Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

sources. Their origin is obscure; they could originally be

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian,

Magi Magi (), or magus (), is the term for priests in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Per ...

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 ...

or Hermetic, but by the time of Dorotheus of Sidon 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 and the ''Commentary'' on this work by sixth-century philosopher

Olympiodorus the Younger Olympiodorus the Younger (; born , died after 565) 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 closed Plato's Academy in Athens and other p ...

. 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 ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

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

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

Arabs and Persians. Abbasid astrologers translated sources from

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

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

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

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

late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

or whether it was purely the product of the fascination the Abbasids 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 Abbasid 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'', ''Albumazar''; full name ''Abū Maʿshar Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Balkhī'' ; , AH 171–272), was an early Persian Muslim astrologer, thought to be ...

(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 Abbasid era Arabic manuscripts were translated into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, 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 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

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

Guido Bonatti Guido Bonatti (died between 1296 and 1300) was an Italian mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with n ...

, a contemporary of

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

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

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

. 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 religion, religious, politics, political, or philosophy, philosophical belief system, typically emerging as an offshoot of a larger organization. Originally, the term referred specifically to religious groups that had s ...

) 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 Address (geography), postal address. The ter ...

, 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 , "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest") is a legendary Hellenistic period figure that originated as a syncretic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.A survey of the literary and archaeological eviden ...

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 Paulus Alexandrinus, 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'' (), ten volumes in Greek written roughly within the period 150 to 175. The ''A ...

Endnotes

References

* Paulus Alexandrinus. ''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'' () or ''Arahant'' (, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana (Buddhism), Nirvana'' and has been liberated from the Rebirth (Buddhism ...

(Archive for the Retrieval of Historical Astrological Texts (Reston, VA, 2001.) Paulus is also available in a translation for '' Project Hindsight'' 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, 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. * William Lilly. ''Christian Astrology''. (London, 1647) (in Ascella Publications edition, London, 1999) * Dorotheus of Sidon. ''Carmen Astrologicum''. (Translated by

David Pingree David Edwin Pingree (January 2, 1933 – November 11, 2005) was an American historian of mathematics in the ancient world. He was a University Professor and Professor of History of Mathematics and Classics at Brown University. Life Pingree gra ...

) ( 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