Infortunes

greek: κακοποιοί (kakopoioi) · latin: infortunae / malefici · arabic: نحوس (nuḥūs)

Definition

Infortunes is the classical Western designation for the malefic planets — Saturn (the greater infortune, infortuna maior) and Mars (the lesser infortune, infortuna minor) — paired in classical doctrine as the two structurally challenging planets in contrast to the two fortunes, Jupiter and Venus. The label captures the planets' traditional signification of obstacles, hardship, division, and decay; it does not assert that these planets act purely destructively in every chart.

In Tradition

In the Hellenistic-Arabic-medieval tradition, Saturn and Mars are read as the two infortunes, with each one's malefic character modulated by sect: Mars is the malefic of the night sect (better placed in a nocturnal chart), Saturn the malefic of the day sect (better placed in a diurnal chart). Out-of-sect placement intensifies the planet's destructive register; in-sect placement tempers it. Obert preserves Lilly's phrasing for Mars: 'the lesser Infortune, author of Quarrels, Strifes, Contentions.' The doctrine is continuous from Dorotheus through Bonatti to Lilly.

In Practice

Practitioners assess the infortunes at three levels of resolution. First, position: an infortune at an angle (a stake, kentron) intensifies its power, especially when out of sect or in a sign of its own. Second, condition: an infortune received by mutual aspect or by dignity from a benefic is tempered, while one in aversion to benefics or besieged between the two is intensified. Third, sect: applying the diurnal/nocturnal sect rule re-grades each chart's malefic from baseline. Dorotheus codifies the angular-infortune rule in *Carmen Astrologicum* Book 1: 'if both infortunes are in a stake' the indication is hardship for the mother at birth and difficulty for the person whose chart it is. Obert frames the malefic distinction temporally — Mars as acute, Saturn as chronic — and notes that the malefic capacity is necessary to cosmic order, not purely evil.

Historical Origin

The doctrine is foundational Hellenistic, attested in Dorotheus's *Carmen Astrologicum* Book 1 Chs 1.3 and 1.7 (1st c. CE) with the pairing of Mars and Saturn as the two malefics whose angular and sect-conditioned placement modulates natal indicators. Ptolemy's *Tetrabiblos* I formalizes the benefic/malefic typology. The Arabic-Persian and medieval Latin traditions inherit the pairing intact, and Lilly's *Christian Astrology* (1647) preserves the English term 'Infortune' for Mars and Saturn.

Etymology

Origin: Latin. Meaning: Misfortune; the malefic planets.

Further Reading