What is the Part of Fortune?
The Part of Fortune, or Lot of Fortune, is the oldest and most used of the Arabic parts - a family of calculated points that Hellenistic astrology derived by measuring the distance between two placements and projecting it from a third. Fortune takes the arc between the Sun and the Moon and lays it off from the ascendant, which means it marks where the horizon would have fallen if the Moon had been where the Sun was. Astrologers read it as the place where things come easily: flourishing, physical wellbeing, and the area of life where effort tends to be repaid.
The formula reverses between a day birth and a night birth, and this is where most calculators go wrong. For a chart where the Sun was above the horizon, Fortune is the ascendant plus the Moon minus the Sun; for one where the Sun was below it, the Sun and Moon swap places. Most Hellenistic astrologers, Vettius Valens among them, apply the reversal, though Ptolemy used the day formula for every chart, and a good deal of twentieth-century software used the day formula around the clock, which is why two calculators frequently disagree about a night chart by a wide margin. This tool applies the reversal and tells you which sect it used and why.
Used as a part of fortune calculator for astrology, it shows that switch on a single day. For 22 September 1988 at 14:10 in London the Sun was above the horizon, so the result is a day chart, Fortune = Ascendant + Moon − Sun, and the Part of Fortune lands at 2°21' Taurus in the 4th house, with the Part of Spirit at 3°33' Leo. Change the time to 23:10 and it becomes a night chart: the formula swaps and Fortune moves to 16°59' Aquarius.
Deciding the sect is itself worth doing properly. The common shortcut is to check which house the Sun falls in, which is wrong for anyone born within a few degrees of sunrise or sunset - exactly the births where the answer matters most. This calculator computes the Sun's actual altitude above the horizon from the sidereal time and your latitude, so the sect is decided by whether the Sun was really up. That needs an exact birth time and place, as does the ascendant the whole formula rests on, so both are required here. The tool also reports the Part of Spirit, Fortune's mirror across the ascendant and the second of the classical pair.
How to find your Part of Fortune?
Enter your birth date
The date fixes the Sun and Moon positions that the arc between them is measured from.
Enter your exact birth time
Required. The formula is built on the ascendant, which moves a full circle a day, so the Part of Fortune moves with it.
Search for your birth city
Required. Your latitude sets the ascendant and decides whether the Sun was above or below the horizon, which selects the formula.
Read your Part of Fortune
See the sign and exact degree, which sect the chart is and why, the Placidus house it falls in, and a reading of what the placement means.
Key Features
Correct Day and Night Formula
Reverses the formula for a night birth, as most Hellenistic astrologers did, instead of applying the day version around the clock
Sect From Real Altitude
Decides day or night from the Sun's computed altitude above the horizon, not from which house it lands in - which is wrong near sunrise and sunset
Shows Its Working
States which sect your chart is and which formula that selected, so a result differing from another calculator can be explained rather than guessed at
Part of Spirit Too
Reports Fortune's mirror across the ascendant, the second of the classical pair, alongside the main result
Frequently Asked Questions
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