Thank you for your praise. Thank you also for quoting that line of Bonatti’s and pointing out that you can have your cake (reverse the formula to your heart’s content) and eat it too (get the same signification regardless). It is an excellent observation and I know that readers will take note.

Best,
Nina

Bonatti writes: “The significations of the pars fortunae appear more during the day . . . the pars futurorum appear more at night.” This means that if I reverse the formula for birth (since I was born in the night), the pars fortunae in my chart is in Pisces (my day-formula pars futurorum) and the pars futurorum in my chart is in Leo (my day-formula pars fortunae). But this is a distinction without a difference, because Bonatti also states that “the significations of the pars futurorum appear more at night.” This means that I would place more emphasis on the “significations” of the part of spirit in my night chart which, in my case, is in Leo: the part of fortune using the day formula. Bonatti advised: reverse the formula, yes, but also reverse the significations. In other words, it makes no difference whether you reverse the formula or not, because in either case, the emphasis will remain on where the Moon would be in a day chart. The Moon does not turn into the Sun simply because one is born at night: the Moon remains the Moon and the part associated with it (pars lunae) acts as a container for lunar influences.

Some astrologers understand this as “use the day formula - but, the part of fortune will be emphasised in a day birth, whereas the part of spirit will be emphasised in a night birth.”

Note that the Hellenistic astrologers used lots differently than the Arabs. For one thing, they did not generally consider aspects to lots: they are studied by sign/house and ruler. Some astrologers do not consider aspects to a part unless that part is conjoined to a planet which also makes an aspect to another planet or an angle.