Arabic parts calculator: the lots in your chart

The lots — the Arabic parts, though they are older than Arabic astrology and were Greek first — are points found by measuring an arc between two places in the chart and laying that same arc off from the Ascendant. They are not bodies and they are not in the sky; they are constructions, and they were central to astrology long before anything we would recognise as a horoscope column.

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Arabic Lots

Name

Birth date

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Hour Min

City of Birth. Start typing and matching places will appear. For "San Francisco" in the US, type "san". If your city doesn't show up, add the country or state. For example, for "San Francisco" in the Philippines, type "san francisco phil"

Ancient points measured from your Ascendant. Fortune is the body and what comes to you, Spirit is what you set out to do, Eros is what you want. Day and night births reverse the formulas.

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The two that matter most are Fortune and Spirit. Fortune is taken from the Sun to the Moon and describes the body, circumstance, and what arrives whether or not you asked for it. Spirit reverses the arc, from the Moon to the Sun, and describes mind, action and what a person sets out to do. The pair is the old distinction between what happens to you and what you undertake.

The formulas reverse between a day birth and a night one, and this is where most software and most websites go wrong. Whether the Sun was above or below the horizon when you were born decides which way round the arc is taken — so a chart calculated without checking the sect puts Fortune and Spirit in each other's places, which is not a small error.

Read a lot by the sign and house it falls in, and then by its ruler, exactly as you would read an angle. The Lot of Fortune in the tenth ruled by a strong planet says something quite different from the same lot in the sixth ruled by a weak one. Spirit is also the point the timing technique of zodiacal releasing is measured from, which is the best argument for knowing where yours is.

Every lot is measured from the Ascendant, so all of them need an accurate birth time. With an unknown time there are no lots worth reading — the Ascendant moves a degree every four minutes and takes every lot with it.

Questions people ask

What are the Arabic parts?

Calculated points, each an arc between two parts of the chart laid off from the Ascendant. Despite the name they come from Hellenistic astrology; the Arabic tradition preserved and extended them.

What is the Lot of Fortune?

The arc from the Sun to the Moon, measured from the Ascendant in a day chart and reversed at night. It stands for the body and for circumstance — the part of a life that arrives rather than being chosen.

Why do the formulas change between day and night?

Because sect — whether the Sun was above or below the horizon at birth — reverses the roles of the luminaries. Ignoring it swaps Fortune and Spirit, which is the commonest error in lot calculation.

Do I need my birth time?

Yes. Every lot is measured from the Ascendant, which moves a degree every four minutes, so an unknown time leaves nothing reliable to read.