Today we're going to talk about the Lot of Fortune, what it is, how to calculate it, what it means, and some of the many ways you can use it.
What The Lot of Fortune is
First, Lots and Parts are the same things. They both refer to calculated points in a chart that reveal specific information that does not belong to a specific house or planet alone. You can read all about that in past blog posts.
The Lot of Fortune is one of the seven Hermetic Lots attributed to Hermes, the mythical author of the Panaretos. Each of the Hermetic Lots are related to a specific planet, the Lot of Fortune is the Lot of the moon.
The Lot of Fortune was considered to be THE most important Lot by ancient astrologers which is pretty notable as its planetary counterpart, the moon, isn't treated the same.
I mean, yeah, they considered the moon to be extremely important, but they didn't consider it more important than the sun. They did however consider the Lot of Fortune (moon) to be more significant than the Lot of Spirit (sun).
The Lot of Fortune itself was raised to the lofty level of being called "the lunar ascendant." That's right, the Lot of Fortune is considered to be an entire other ascendant aside from your regular ascendant!
The general idea with Lots is that they use a calculation to find specific, additional information in a chart. In the case of the Lot of Fortune, we're finding additional, specific information relating to the moon. In order to understand why the Lot of Fortune is so important, we have to understand the role of the moon.
The moon is the closest heavenly body to the earth. It undergoes a complete lunation cycle in a month. The basic idea is that the moon is closely tied to the material world and rules generation and corruption. Things living and dying, growth and decay. If mater is neither created nor destroyed, it simply changes form like the moon.
Through this idea, we get the concept that the moon signifies the aging body and our shifting emotions. It's not just about us though. Everything with a physical form is created/must grow, then decays eventually.
The Lot of Fortune then tells of us the nature of generation and corruption in our own lives.
How to Calculate The Lot of Fortune
I'm going to tell you the manual way to calculate the Lot first, and why it's done like that. Then I'll tell you the easy way to have it calculated for you.
The Lot of Fortune is found for day births by taking the distance from the degree of the sun to the degree of the moon, then projecting that out from the Ascendant. For night births, reverse the sun and moon.
The concept of day births/night births relates to sect and is a major part of the symbolism behind the calculation.
(Diurnal Lot of Fortune Calculation example)
The basic idea is that we're moving from the degree of the sect light (the sun during the day/ the moon at night) to the luminary contrary to sect (the moon during the day/the sun at night). Let's think about that for a second.
What does the sun during the day have in common with the moon at night? They're both generating light (usually)! So we're starting from this point of light.
What does the moon during the day have in common with the sun at night? They're both dark! So we're ending at this point of darkness.
We're then leaning into this philosophical idea that light = spirit and dark = matter. Let's work through that a bit.
Light is intangible. We can see it, we can feel it on our skin, we can't really interact with it though. Especially in ancient times when we didn't have a way to illuminate the night. Light was something that was more out of human control.
Darkness is the absence of light. The only way to get away from light is to block it. The earth blocks the sun's light at night. Your roof and curtains block the sun during the day. We block the sun with hats, clothes, umbrellas, you name it. The fact that darkness exists is made only possible by the fact that we have material things to block the sun.
Darkness is the original state of the world in the creation myths of many cultures, which we often take to mean that nothing existed. That's not entirely true though. There's often a deity or deities already existing, in some cases in a heavenly realm of their own.
How then do we contrast the brightness of heaven and the darkness of the mortal realm before the theft of fire/creation of light?
Symbolically, light is the essence of understanding. It's the spark of consciousness, of vitality, that gives purpose and form. Without light, without consciousness, we simply have life writhing in the metaphorical dark. Unaware of its own existence beyond the need to feed and reproduce.
In Greek myth, Prometheus created humanity out of clay and steals fire from the gods to gift humanity. The fire stolen from the gods isn't just about staying warm and cooking meat however. Symbolically, it's a spark of divinity.
(Prometheus bringing fire to humanity)
So, with the calculation for the Lot of Fortune, we're moving from the point of light, this promethean fire, to the point of darkness, this clay that shaped humanity.
Easy Calculation of The Lot of Fortune
· go to astro.com
· extended chart selection
· "Hellenistic" chart drawing style
· it's labeled Fortune in the chart
Significations of the Lot of Fortune
As we just talked about, the Lot of Fortune is more concerned with things relating to symbolic darkness. That means everything related to the material world.
· your body
· your physical circumstances
· your character (to an extent)
Let's break that down.
The Body
If the Ascendant signifies your body, and the moon signifies your body, what do we need the Lot of Fortune for? Well, I think of the Lot of Fortune and the Lot of Spirit as a pair which are then inseparably combined in your Ascendant.
The Ascendant itself, the eastern horizon, signifies what is coming in to being at the time of birth. You weren't born as just a Spirit or just a body though.
The Lot of Fortune signifies the clay that was used to form the body, and the life. The raw materials. Some people are metaphorically made of wood, some people are made of stone, some are made of metal. The difference in material dictates what can be done with the person and the life. There are some things you can do with metal that you can't do with wood, no matter how hard you try.
The Lot of Spirit is something I'll talk about more in a dedicated post but it generally signifies the soul, the spirit, the intellect, the consciousness. The promethean fire that gives a spark of divinity to our otherwise clay forms.
We then come to the crux of why the Lot of Fortune is considered to be the most important Lot. While Spirit may be a more lofty ideal, we live in the material world. Without our clay bodies to hold the warmth of our promethean fire, it goes out. Not even the strongest flame can continue to exist and do things without a vessel.
The Ascendant, then signifies the combination of these two forces. This is the actual human, when both clay body and promethean fire are joined.
Practically, some delineations for a very afflicted Lot of Fortune say that the person will not live at all and will not have a lifespan or one that is short. Think of it like saying they have a cracked or faulty vessel that just can't hold their promethean fire.
Some specific significations related to the body:
· Lifespan
· Health
· Vitality
· Beauty
Your Physical Circumstances
This is an extremely broad one. If you're here, I'm assuming you know at least the general ways of evaluating the condition of a placement in a chart.
Basically, if Fortune is doing well, the ruler is strong, and all that specific stuff which I'm not getting into right now, looks good, then Fortune will be more fortunate. If Fortune and/or its ruler are afflicted, then Fortune will be more unfortunate.
This general rule can come up in many ways. Some of these topics also relate to house placement.
· The quality of your childhood/upbringing
· How authority reacts to you
· Income
· Quality/condition of family members (siblings, parents, children, spouse)
· Travel
· Reputation
Your Character
This is a little more straightforward. Generally, the condition of your Lot of Fortune also reflects part of your character. This is different from your consciousness, intellect , and Spirit though.
Think of your character with the Lot of Fortune as like the characteristics of a type of material. Wood is strong and flexible by nature. It just is. Stone is unbending, heavy, and solid by nature.
Now, if we use that strong, flexible, wood to build a patio deck that changes the context of the material but it doesn't change the characteristics. Here wood is being made to support, but what if we made a spear instead? It would still be strong and flexible, it would just have a different context.
Given the different characteristics of stone, we might have some issues making a patio deck and a spear with it. Sure, you could, but the characteristics of the material aren't quite right for the job.
We're all built different.
It's something that's difficult to put into words but hopefully you get the idea.
Uses of The Lot of Fortune
There are many uses of the Lot of Fortune.
In natal astrology, the Lot of Fortune can be used by itself, it can be used as a lunar ascendant to derive houses from Fortune for more specific information, it can be used in zodiacal releasing for timing purposes, and it can be used in solar return charts.
In horary astrology, the Lot of Fortune can be used as a significator for physical objects or where necessary to evaluate the physical circumstances relating to a question (usually about money or something like that).
In electional astrology, the Lot of Fortune can be used to improve the material conditions of whatever you are electing. A well-placed Lot of Fortune can improve money making endeavors. It can also be used as a significator for physical things i.e. an item to be bought or sold.
Fortuna
The Lot of Fortune and this whole idea of Fortune ties back to the Roman goddess Fortuna. Fortuna is the goddess of luck and fate. She's often depicted with a ship's rubber, a ball, or a wheel. A wheel of Fortune.
The whole idea with a wheel of Fortune is just that you spin it and some shit happens. Good, bad, ugly, or indifferent, some shit happens. The concept of Fortune is bound by the idea that Fate, and Fortuna is capricious. The winds of Fortune are ever-changing.
The Lot of Fortune signifies the quality of this capricious Fortune in your life. This is why it was considered so important. Without Fortune on your side, life was a lot harder. On the other hand, with Fortune in your favor, you could go from rags to riches.
(Fortuna and the Wheel of Fortune)
Fortuna has emerged in popular culture as Lady Luck. Even in ancient times she was honored by gamblers in hopes of her favor. The personified archetype of chance.
Fortuna had many other aspects to reflect her shifting whims. There was Fortuna Dubia (doubtful fortune), Fortuna Brevia (fickle/wayward fortune), and Fortuna Mala (bad fortune). There were dozens of other types of Fortuna as well, all branches of the same "tree."
A well-placed Lot of Fortune alone won't immediately signify a person being wealthy but it makes it more likely. The Lot of Fortune signifies the type of Fortune that you're born with; the direction the winds of fate were blowing at the time of your birth.
Health and beauty largely relies on the luck of birth.
Your quality of life largely relies on the luck of birth.
Whether you're born into a good family relies on the luck of birth.
It all comes down to luck with the Lot of Fortune.