Arabian Parts
Encyclopedia
In astrology
, the Arabian/Arabic parts or lots are constructed points based on mathematical calculations of three horoscopic
entities such as planets
or angles
. 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.
n, Ancient Egypt
ian, Magi
an, Persian
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
. 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
, all of the classical legacy, including astrology, fell to the Abbasid
Arabs and Persians. Islamic astrologers translated sources from Greek and produced many of their own astrologers who wrote a considerable amount in Arabic
on astrology. Although it is not clear whether the number of lots began to proliferate in late Antiquity
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
(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 Arab manuscripts were translated into Latin
, becoming the means by which Classical astrology found its way back to Europe. Medieval
astrologers, most notably the major 13th-century Italian, Guido Bonatti
, a contemporary of Dante
, 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
, 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.
+ 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 Lot of Spirit is the reverse of the Lot of Fortune, giving the following formulas:
in the Hellenistic tradition of astrology. This set of lots appears in the work of the 4th century astrologer Paulus Alexandrinus
, as well as in his later commentator Olympiodorus the Younger
. 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 Abu Ma'shar and Guido Bonatti
, although their lists have been combined with an alternate lot tradition derived from the 2nd century astrologer Vettius Valens
.
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
, the Arabian/Arabic parts or lots are constructed points based on mathematical calculations of three horoscopic
Horoscope
In astrology, a horoscope is a chart or diagram representing the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, the astrological aspects, and sensitive angles at the time of an event, such as the moment of a person's birth. The word horoscope is derived from Greek words meaning "a look at the hours" In...
entities such as planets
Planets in astrology
Planets in astrology have a meaning different from the modern astronomical understanding of what a planet is. Before the age of telescopes, the night sky was thought to consist of two very similar components: fixed stars, which remained motionless in relation to each other, and wandering stars, ,...
or angles
Angle (astrology)
The angles are the four Cardinal points of an astrological chart: the Ascendant, the Midheaven, the Descendant and the Imum Coeli.The astrological chart is a schematic representation of the sky at any given moment of time, projected upon the ecliptic--or the apparent path of the Sun as seen from...
. The distance between two of the points is added to the position of the third (very often the ascendant
Ascendant
The ascendant , or rising sign, is the zodiacal sign and degree that was ascending on the eastern horizon at the specific time and location of an event. According to astrological theory, celestial phenomena reflect or determine human activity on the principle of 'as above so below'...
) to derive the location of the lot.
History
The lots are a very ancient astrological technique which can be traced back to pre-Hellenistic sources. Their origin is obscure; they could originally be BabyloniaBabylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...
n, Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
ian, Magi
Magi
Magi is a term, used since at least the 4th century BC, to denote a follower of Zoroaster, or rather, a follower of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which...
an, Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
or Hermetic
Hermeticism
Hermeticism or the Western Hermetic Tradition is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus...
, but by the time of Dorotheus of Sidon
Dorotheus of Sidon
Dorotheus of Sidon was a 1st-century Hellenistic astrologer who wrote a didactic poem on horoscopic astrology known in Greek as the Pentateuch...
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
Paulus Alexandrinus was an astrological author from the late Roman Empire. His extant work, Eisagogika, or Introductory Matters , which was written in 378 CE, is a treatment of major topics in astrology as practiced in the fourth century Roman Empire.Little is known about Paulus' life...
and the Commentary on this work by sixth-century philosopher Olympiodorus the Younger
Olympiodorus the Younger
Olympiodorus the Younger was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astrologer and teacher who lived in the early years of the Byzantine Empire, after Justinian's Decree of 529 A.D. which closed Plato's Academy in Athens and other pagan schools...
. 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
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, all of the classical legacy, including astrology, fell to the Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
Arabs and Persians. Islamic astrologers translated sources from Greek and produced many of their own astrologers who wrote a considerable amount in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
on astrology. Although it is not clear whether the number of lots began to proliferate in late Antiquity
Late Antiquity
Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
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
Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi
Abū Maʿshar, Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī , was a Persian astrologer, astronomer, and Islamic philosopher, thought to be the greatest astrologer of the Abbasid court in Baghdad...
(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
Paulus Alexandrinus
Paulus Alexandrinus was an astrological author from the late Roman Empire. His extant work, Eisagogika, or Introductory Matters , which was written in 378 CE, is a treatment of major topics in astrology as practiced in the fourth century Roman Empire.Little is known about Paulus' life...
.
Beginning in the tenth century, many Arab manuscripts were translated into Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, becoming the means by which Classical astrology found its way back to Europe. Medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
astrologers, most notably the major 13th-century Italian, Guido Bonatti
Guido Bonatti
Guido Bonatti was an Italian astronomer and astrologer from Forlì. He was the most celebrated astrologer in Europe in his century.-Biography:...
, a contemporary of Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
, 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
William Lilly , was an English astrologer famed during his time. Lilly was particularly adept at interpreting the astrological charts drawn up for horary questions, as this was his speciality....
, 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
Horary astrology
Horary astrology is an ancient branch of horoscopic astrology by which an astrologer attempts to answer a question by constructing a horoscope for the exact time at which the question was received and understood by the astrologer...
practice.
Calculating the Lot of Fortune
Lilly's Part of Fortune (or Pars Fortunae) is calculated as AscendantAscendant
The ascendant , or rising sign, is the zodiacal sign and degree that was ascending on the eastern horizon at the specific time and location of an event. According to astrological theory, celestial phenomena reflect or determine human activity on the principle of 'as above so below'...
+ Moon
Moon (astrology)
The Moon is the Earth's companion satellite. The Moon is large enough for its gravity to affect the Earth, stabilising its orbit and producing the regular ebb and flow of the tides. The Moon is also familiar to us for its different phases, waxing and waning in appearance in an unchanging cycle...
- Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. 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 sectAstrology of sectSect is an ancient astrological concept in which the seven traditional "planets" are assigned to two different categories: diurnal or nocturnal 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.
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 mythical figure Hermes TrismegistusHermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus is the eponymous author of the Hermetic Corpus, a sacred text belonging to the genre of divine revelation.-Origin and identity:...
in the Hellenistic tradition of astrology. This set of lots appears in the work of the 4th century astrologer Paulus Alexandrinus
Paulus Alexandrinus
Paulus Alexandrinus was an astrological author from the late Roman Empire. His extant work, Eisagogika, or Introductory Matters , which was written in 378 CE, is a treatment of major topics in astrology as practiced in the fourth century Roman Empire.Little is known about Paulus' life...
, as well as in his later commentator Olympiodorus the Younger
Olympiodorus the Younger
Olympiodorus the Younger was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astrologer and teacher who lived in the early years of the Byzantine Empire, after Justinian's Decree of 529 A.D. which closed Plato's Academy in Athens and other pagan schools...
. 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 Abu Ma'shar and Guido Bonatti
Guido Bonatti
Guido Bonatti was an Italian astronomer and astrologer from Forlì. He was the most celebrated astrologer in Europe in his century.-Biography:...
, although their lists have been combined with an alternate lot tradition derived from the 2nd century astrologer Vettius Valens
Vettius Valens
Vettius Valens 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 Anthology is the longest and most detailed treatise on astrology which has...
.