Degrees Increasing Fortune

Definition

A traditional doctrine recorded in Lilly's Christian Astrology that specific zodiacal degrees, when occupied by significators of wealth — the second-house cusp, the Lord of the second, the natural significator Jupiter, or the Part of Fortune — argue substantial riches and material increase. The doctrine extends the broader tradition of degree-by-degree zodiacal qualification (degrees of dignity, debility, light, darkness, smoke, increasing health and fortune) inherited from the Hellenistic and Arabic sources Lilly compiled.

In Tradition

Across the Hellenistic and medieval transmission the Lot of Fortune (κλῆρος τύχης) is the principal indicator of material flourishing; Liber Hermetis Ch. XXXV makes the Part of Fortune the pivot of a life-expectancy calculation, and Hand reads this as decisive evidence of its centrality to ancient astrology. The 'degrees increasing fortune' doctrine layers a degree-qualification table onto the Lot's role: certain degrees amplify the Lot's testimony of wealth when it or its second-house allies fall there.

In Practice

Practitioners reading a horary or natal figure check whether the second-house cusp, the dispositor of the second, the Part of Fortune, or natal Jupiter falls on one of the listed degrees; finding so is read as testimony of much wealth, joined to the other dignity and reception tests. The doctrine is part of Lilly's broader degree-quality apparatus (degrees of riches, deep degrees, masculine/feminine degrees, pitted degrees) inherited from medieval Latin compilations of the Arabic tradition. Modern practitioners working in traditional revival lineages preserve the table; the doctrine plays no role in psychological-Western practice, which has discarded the degree-table apparatus in favour of orb-based aspect work.

Historical Origin

The Hellenistic Lot of Fortune (κλῆρος τύχης) is the substantively-attested ancestor; Greenbaum traces the cultural-religious pairing of Tyche and Daimon and notes that the Lot of Fortune is structurally paired with the Lot of Daimon across the chart. Liber Hermetis Ch. XXXV makes the Part of Fortune the pivot of a life-expectancy procedure. The specific degree-table form is a later medieval compilation transmitted through the Arabic tradition into Latin and codified in Lilly's Christian Astrology.

Etymology

Origin: English / Latin. Meaning: 'Increasing fortune' translates the Latin pars fortunae augens — degrees that amplify the testimony of the Part of Fortune and of the second house when occupied by their significators..

Further Reading