Lot (Arabic Part)

Definition

A Lot — also called an Arabic Part — is a calculated point in a chart. You measure the arc between two points (two planets, or a planet and the Sun or Moon, or a planet and an angle) and project it from the rising degree. The two names mean the same thing: "Lot" from the Greek klēros (κλῆρος), "Arabic Part" from the medieval Latin pars. Despite that name, lots began in Hellenistic Greek astrology; the "Arabic" label arose later, because most lots are absent from Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos — wrongly suggesting they were medieval.

In Tradition

The foundational pair is the Lot of Fortune — the Moon's lot, covering body and material life — and the Lot of Spirit, the Sun's lot, covering vocation and chosen direction. Brennan, Greenbaum, Crane, and Hand all keep the sect-flipping rule: by day, Fortune = rising degree + Moon − Sun and Spirit = rising degree + Sun − Moon; by night both reverse. The Hermetic system adds five more — Eros (Venus), Necessity (Mercury), Courage (Mars), Victory (Jupiter), Nemesis (Saturn) — each from Fortune or Spirit.

In Practice

For any lot, you take its formula (flipped by sect where that applies), calculate the arc-and-project longitude, and read the resulting degree as a sensitive point — its sign, its house, the planet ruling it, its aspects, and its time-lord activations all carry weight. Geometrically, any classical lot forms an isosceles trapezoid, which means a transit to the lot switches on the Sun, Moon, rising degree, and the other points in its formula all at once, multiplying its sensitivity. Most astrologers lean on Fortune and Spirit as the essential pair — a working pair found in every surviving Hellenistic and Arabic source — and add the other Hermetic lots for finer detail. Dorotheus's Carmen Astrologicum Figure 1 lists 23 distinct lots used in his system, and hundreds more appear across the wider classical and medieval corpus. The modern Hellenistic revival (Crane, Brennan, Hand) treats the Fortune-Spirit pair as foundational and the broader lot system as a layer of topical refinement.

Historical Origin

Lots are attested across the Hellenistic corpus: Dorotheus's Carmen Astrologicum (1st c. CE, surviving in Greek, Pahlavi, and Arabic), Vettius Valens's Anthologiae (2nd c. CE), Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos III (the Lot of Fortune only), and Paulus Alexandrinus's Introductory Matters (4th c.) — all Greek, all public domain. The Arabic-Persian tradition (Masha'allah, 'Umar al-Tabari, Sahl, Abu Ma'shar, Al-Biruni) preserves and organizes the lots under the medieval term pars.

Etymology

Origin: Greek/Latin. Meaning: Allotment, one's portion in life.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading