Lot of Eros

greek: Ἔρως (Eros)

Definition

The Lot of Eros is one of the seven lots in the Hermetic system, calculated from Venus and the Lot of Spirit. In a day chart: Ascendant + Venus − Spirit; in a night chart: Ascendant + Spirit − Venus. Which way you run it depends on chart sect, your day-or-night birth status. The Greek name, kleros erotos, comes from Eros, the personification of desire. In the Hermetic scheme each of the seven lots is tied to one of the classical planets; Eros is Venus's lot, the one read for desire, attraction, and what you pursue with passion.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic astrology the seven Hermetic lots — Fortune, Spirit, Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory, Nemesis — form an organized set of topical points, one per planet, each carrying its planet's themes onto a fresh degree of the chart. Brennan and the Project Hindsight tradition preserve this seven-lot doctrine, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, as a foundational structure: the three difficult-planet lots (Necessity, Courage, Nemesis) derive from Fortune, and the lots tied to Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury (Eros, Victory) derive from Spirit.

In Practice

An astrologer works out where Eros falls and reads it by its sign, its house, and the state of its domicile lord — the planet that rules its sign. The house shows where your desires gather and where attraction runs strongest; the ruling planet's own condition (its sign, dignity, sect, and aspects) shows how those desires tend to unfold. Aspects to the lot itself, especially from Venus and from the Lot of Spirit, shift the reading: aspects from the helpful planets support fulfillment, aspects from the difficult ones point to frustration or obstruction. Eros is read alongside the 5th house, Venus, and the wider set of relationship significators. It is not the same as the Part of Marriage, which is about formalizing a partnership, nor the Lot of Necessity, its counterpart on the Fortune side of the Hermetic pair.

Historical Origin

The Lot of Eros appears in the Hellenistic Hermetic-lot literature carried through Vettius Valens, Anthologiae (c. 145–175 CE), and through Paulus Alexandrinus' Introductory Matters (4th century). The seven Hermetic lots — Fortune, Spirit, Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory, Nemesis — are set out as one unified system in Paulus, and discussed at length by modern reconstructors Brennan 2017 and Demetra George.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading