The Part of Fortune
A reader named Clarissa invited me to write about a subject I’ve not explored here before – the Part of Fortune. Let me start off by saying that it’s a technique that’s fallen out of my arsenal over the years. That’s not because I found it ineffective – with some modern tweaks, I think it’s a useful astrological tool. In essence, I stopped using it because I found I was getting to pretty much the same bottom line through other methods, so it became redundant.
First, a bow in the direction of the astrologers who have led the renaissance of traditional astrological techniques over the past three decades. They revealed something I didn’t know: traditionally, there were two ways of calculating the Part of Fortune, one if you were born at night and another if you were born during the day. The day-version of the Part of Fortune is what I grew up with, even though I was born at night myself. Back then, that version was all we knew about.
One more point before we get rolling. While traditionally the Part of Fortune was viewed as a lucky point connected with pathways to material success and health, my approach to it is less predictive and more evolutionary. To anyone familiar with my attitude toward astrological matters, there’s no surprise there. My apologies in advance to those traditional astrologers because what I plan to explore in this newsletter will probably sound somewhere between weird and heretical to them, starting with me not being at all concerned with any distinctions between night births and day births.
By the way, sometimes the term “Lot” is used rather than “Part,” and occasionally the Part of Fortune is simply called “Fortuna.” As I understand it, its roots lie in Arabic astrology, where there was an extensive system of these “lots.” As I recall, there was even a “Lot of Melons.”
CALCULATING THE PART OF FORTUNE
In essence, the Part of Fortune can be understood as a synthesis of the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant. Those three are arguably the most supercharged points in anyone’s chart, so anything that brings them to a focus in one single symbol promises potentially to be a major energy center.
The “day” formula for calculating the Part of Fortune is Ascendant plus Moon minus Sun, while the “night” formula is Ascendant plus Sun minus Moon. Here’s an example of how that works in practice. For clarity’s sake, I’ll just round up to whole degrees and not fuss with minutes of arc.
I was born at night, so if we want to stick to the tradition, we’ll need to use the night-birth formula: Ascendant plus Sun minus Moon. My Ascendant is 23 degrees of Scorpio. We convert Scorpio to “8” since it’s the 8th sign of the zodiac. My Sun is in Capricorn the 10th sign while my Moon is in Aries, the 1st sign.
Ascendent = 8 signs, 23 degrees
plus
Sun = 10 signs, 16 degrees
Add them and you get:
18 signs, 39 degrees
Now subtract my Aries Moon:
Moon = 1 sign, 4 degrees
That leaves 17 signs, 35 degrees
Take away twelve signs to back us around the zodiacal circle and we’re at five signs,
which brings us to Leo, the fifth sign of the zodiac. Then we add 35 degrees to 0 degrees of Leo which brings us to 5 degrees of Virgo. That’s my “night” Part of Fortune. It falls conjunct my Saturn and right on my Midheaven. Career has been good to me, although I’ve had to work hard for it. I’ve been lucky and I’ve experienced material success there. In other words, we see the “Fortuna” system working in a practical, observable way.
If that calculation is tedious, no worry. For most of us, the computer does the work – just be wary of the day/night issue.
VISUALIZING THE MATH
I like to think about these calculations in a visual way. The approach I am about to describe actually reveals more directly what’s going on with the symbolism. Underlying the arithmetic we just employed, there’s a very simple, geometrical operation.
-
Preserve the angle between the Sun and Moon, then rotate the Moon to the Ascendant, sweeping the Sun’s position along with it. Where would the Sun now fall? That’s the Part of Fortune.
That’s the “night birth” version of the calculation. With a few obvious adjustments, the principles translate easily into “day births” too. You still preserve the Sun/Moon angle, only now you rotate the Sun to the Ascendant instead of the Moon. Where would the Moon be now? That’s your day-birth version.
To help you visualize what I am saying, here it is in graphic form. In this chart example, even though I was born at night, I am illustrating the “day” formula. As you’ll soon see, we’ll be using both of them. Actually, the ancient astrologers did too – they just called one of them the Part of Spirit. If you were born during the day, in other words, the night birth formula for Fortuna would actually be your Part of Spirit, and vice versa.
DAY VS NIGHT
This may annoy astrological traditionalists, but I personally have found nothing to recommend making a sharp distinction between people born at night and people born during the day. Many planets above the horizon versus many planets below – yes, that’s significant. See The Inner Sky if you want my take on it. But making a sharp distinction between people born during the day versus people born at night, which is a staple among Hellenists, has never spoken to me at all.
If I apply the “day” formula to my own Part of Fortune as demonstrated in the chart graphic above – Ascendant plus Moon minus Sun – it lands in Aquarius and my 3rd house. I can certainly relate to that – writing and teaching (3rd house) about astrology (Aquarius) has clearly opened many doors for me. No surprise there even to the Hellenists: as we mentioned a moment ago, that’s what they would call my Part of Spirit. It was important too to them, but in a different way. A quick Google search yields this statement about the distinction between them: “While the Part of Fortune relates to material well-being, the Part of Spirit governs your intellectual and spiritual realms, your inner essence, and soul character. It points to where you find true inspiration and how your soul expands, guiding you towards becoming a wiser, higher version of yourself.”
I gather that in traditional astrology, the Part of Fortune is more connected with “fate,” while the Part of Spirit is linked to the life-shaping power of wiser choices in general. Fair enough, but I think we can understand the distinction in a more rigorous fashion.
ENOUGH MATH
What does it all mean? Let the symbols themselves tell the story. With a little creative thought about the underlying message of the geometry, everything emerges very clearly and directly.
-
Think of the Ascendant as what you look like in the world and what you are visibly doing with your life.
-
Think of the Sun as the basic values on which you need to focus if you’re going to feel sane, whole, and generally on target.
Now entertain a happy thought: if those two qualities came together in perfect harmony – if you were doing exactly what you were supposed to be doing – what would that feel like?
-
Translated: if your Sun and your Ascendant were aligned, where would your Moon be?
There’s the core meaning of the “day” Part of Fortune: follow the expression of your heart that it indicates and you’ll feel better about your choices. You’ll be bringing your outer life into alignment with your deeper purpose in the world.
Take it a practical, actionable step further: what kinds of activities might actually create those kinds of feelings in you? The idea is that if you engage in them, you’re in effect bringing your solar values into alignment with your outer life – with your Ascendant, in other words.
For me personally this “day” version of the Part of Fortune (actually the Part of Spirit) lies in Aquarius and the 3rd house. Once again we come to writing and teaching (3rd house) about some “Aquarian” topic – for example, astrology. The Part of Spirit works well for me, in other words. I love to write. It makes me feel whole and happy. It’s good for my spirit. I’m enjoying myself right now, writing this essay.
This, to me, is the real psychological alchemy behind the day version of the Part of Fortune.
Meanwhile, my night birth version of the Part of Fortune (the correct one, according to tradition) works out to early Virgo conjunct my Midheaven and my Saturn. That fits my life too, it’s just that the logic is a little different:
-
Once more, we start by thinking of the Ascendant as what you look like in the world and what you are doing with your life.
-
We think of the Moon as the needs and natural mood of your heart.
What if those two realities came together in perfect harmony? What if your actions and your soul were working together? Now take those words and turn them into something that you can actually do. The question becomes, to align your life and your heart, what actions would you have to undertake? Translated, to accomplish that happy integration, what solar values would have to be constantly in the forefront of your mind, setting your priorities and overshadowing all the final decisions?
-
Putting the question astrologically, where would your Sun be?
There’s the “night formula” Part of Fortune. Again, as an illustration for me personally the answer lies in working hard at a technical skill that is of service to others (Virgo and Saturn) and making a career out of it – or, preferably, making it my mission in life (Midheaven). That formulation fits my experience perfectly, just as the “day formula” did. I suspect it will fit yours as well.
In other words, I find both the day and night formulas to be helpful and meaningful for everyone. They just answer different questions, and all the answers advise us about methods for better integrating the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant.
BEYOND THE TRADITION
My knowledge of Hellenistic astrology and the classical Arabic traditions is limited. My impression is that those astrologers felt that if you were born at night, you were a creature of the Moon, so for the night-birth Part of Fortune, they’d rotate the Moon to the Ascendant. Perhaps they sought to balance everything by focussing on following a Sun path. Born during the daylight hours, it was vice versa.
As we enter the practical realm of the modern counseling astrologer, let’s instead think of each form as a remedy for a specific challenging condition.
-
For a person who’s feeling rudderless in life, as if he or she had no clear purpose being here, rotate the Moon to the Ascendant and see where the Sun would now be. Its sign, house, and aspects offer concrete advice about the kinds of activities that will “put the heart” into their daily actions. Say for example that the Sun rotated to Cancer and the 6th house. Finding some nurturing (Cancer) craft and path of service (6th house) would be enormously helpful to such a person.
-
For someone who has an established material identity, but who feels that “something is missing,” rotate the Sun to the Ascendant and see where the Moon would now fall. There’s a place in life where they need to take on a more gentle, nurturing, indulgent attitude toward themselves, perhaps surrendering more to their “irrational” (lunar!) impulses. That’s where they’ll hear the still small voice of their soul more clearly. Say the Part of Fortune is now in Sagittarius. Someplace far away is calling them. The 12th house? Make time for meditation. Capricorn and the 4th house? Taking on committed family responsibilities will be more rewarding to such a person than he or she might imagine.
Note how in these counseling applications of the Part of Fortune (or the Part of Spirit), we start with a psychological evaluation and then apply a remedy.
What about using pure astrology? What if we know nothing at all about the person? That can work too, although as always there is no substitute for actually listening to our clients, provided they feel open to sharing with us – the silent client is a reality and we have no business shaming or pressuring them.
-
Imagine a person in whose chart there is a powerful underscoring of productivity and logic (lots of Earth family symbolism, for example) and a corresponding de-emphasis of emotional and transrational awareness (the Water family is weak or absent.) Rotate the Sun to the Ascendant and follow the Moon’s clues to a more soulful life.
-
Imagine a person whose chart seems to be all about the Moon, Neptune, and Watery signs and Watery houses. They might benefit from a more robust engagement with worldly experience. You guessed it – rotate the Moon to the Ascendant and follow the Sun’s advice about finding their path of fire.
IN CONCLUSION
As I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter, at this point in my practice I don’t use the Part of Fortune or the Part of Spirit. I’ve found that by the time I’ve thoroughly explored the synthesis of Sun, Moon, and Ascendant with a client, the message of “Fortuna” is generally already implicit in that analysis, so adding it would be redundant. Still, it’s a technique worth understanding. Try both formulas in your own life, and I’m confident that both the Part of Fortune and the Part of Spirit will speak to you. To me, the distinction between them is less about fate and free will or material versus spiritual wellbeing, and more about simply correcting psychological imbalances.
If these two techniques ever enter widespread practice in the context of evolutionary astrology, we’ll face a serious “lost in translation” problem. Unlike the Hellenists, we’re using both of these Parts almost interchangeably, we’re using them differently, and we’re not making any distinction between a day birth and a night birth. Perhaps we’ll continue to use the terms Part of Fortune and Part of Spirit depending on whether we’re placing the Moon or the Sun on the Ascendant, or maybe we’ll come up with different terms entirely. In any case, for our purposes we wouldn’t be changing any labels based on whether a person happened to be born during the day or the night. What we would call “the Part of Spirit” might be what a traditional astrologer would call “the Part of Fortune.”
The endless conversation between the past and the future would continue, in other words.
I’ll leave those questions up to the next generation.