Lot of Adultery

greek: κλῆρος μοιχείας (Klēros moicheias)

Definition

The Lot of Adultery is a Hellenistic lot — a calculated point in the chart — that signifies affairs outside marriage. Vettius Valens defined it as the zodiac sign directly opposite the Lot of Marriage. It needs no calculation of its own: wherever the Lot of Marriage lands, the sign straight across from it is the Lot of Adultery. Its Greek name, kleros moicheias ("lot of adultery"), marks it as the structural counter-lot of the marriage axis — infidelity built in by flipping the same calculation around.

In Tradition

In Vettius Valens' lot-doctrine the Lot of Adultery is the diagnostic mirror of the Lot of Marriage: because it sits in the opposite sign, it shares the marriage lot's derivation while reversing its sense. Joseph Crane, reconstructing Valens' marriage material, reads any planet sitting in or aspecting that opposite sign as showing how the chart leans toward relationships outside the formal marriage bond. The two lots are read together as one marriage-and-infidelity axis.

In Practice

To use the Lot of Adultery you first work out the Valens Lot of Marriage, then take the sign exactly opposite it; that opposite sign is the Lot of Adultery, with no further arithmetic. You then look at which planet, if any, sits in or aspects that sign and weigh its nature, dignity, and condition: a malefic or poorly placed planet there tends to incline the person toward involvement outside the marriage, while a benefic softens the indication. Valens gives a specific rule — if the ruler of the Marriage Lot is in opposition and the ruler of the Lot of Adultery is in the Marriage Lot, he reads a pattern of repeated infidelity, separation, and reconciliation. The lot is consulted alongside the seventh house, Venus, the Lot of Marriage, and the wider relationship significators, never alone; modern practitioners weigh it as one strand of the marriage analysis, not as a fixed verdict on faithfulness.

Historical Origin

The Lot of Adultery is attested in Vettius Valens' Anthologiae Book II (c. 145-175 CE), where it is defined as the point opposite the Marriage Lot and given a diagnostic rule for repeated infidelity. The lot is reconstructed in detail by Joseph Crane in Astrological Roots: The Hellenistic Legacy, which works the Valens marriage-and-adultery doctrine through illustrative case charts.

Etymology

Origin: Greek. Meaning: Lot of adultery.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading