Gryphon Astrology Blog

I get enough questions on some of the terms and expressions I use casually in my blog posts, that I thought it would be helpful to start an occasional column explaining some of the terms. Last week, I got a very good question asking about the meaning of affliction, like when I say a planet is afflicted.

There is no particularly scientific definition of this, but a planet can really be afflicted in three major ways. It can be weak by sign placement, it can be afflicted by aspect (to another afflicted planet, pretty much regardless of the type of aspect involved), and it can be afflicted by placement in a negative house or by retrogradation.

If you look at your own horoscope, you’ll find that your planets are usually afflicted by one or maybe two of the above factors. The more of the above factors are present, the tougher it will be for that particular planet to behave well in your chart. For example, if you have a very afflicted planet ruling your 11th house of friends, you either have few friends, or there will be something wrong with your friends.

Typically though, you will see that while a planet may be afflicted, another positive factor helps it out. As an example, we can look at the chart below, which is the horoscope for Justin Timberlake, the pop star:

He has a somewhat afflicted Sun, because it is in the sign of its detriment Aquarius, and it is in the malefic sixth house of illness, and it is not helped by the negative reception from Jupiter and Saturn (which are in the sign of the Sun’s fall, Libra). Even though it is exalted, Saturn is still Saturn, and Jupiter is not strong enough to lend a particularly helpful hand here. This might point to Timberlake experiencing long-term health issues later in life, especially since the Sun rules his first house of the body and the overall vitality.

Tomorrow, I will talk about the types of difficulties associated with each planet, and use Justin Timberlake’s chart to discuss some of the difficulties associated with his planetary afflictions.

—Readers who are interested in a natal analysis of their horoscopes (afflicted planets and all), may contact Nina Gryphon via her reading requests page.

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Dear Readers,

I have decided to experiment with a new way of blogging, not unlike the way in which most bloggers out there do it. Yes, Gryphon Astrology joins the 21st century at last. That is, I will write a lot more astrology posts that are shorter, to keep the momentum going on the blog. I’ll be shooting for one post a day, to have some kind of quality control. To get the ball rolling, here is one such short post about the astrological Part of Spirit (the opposite of the Part of Fortune).

My best, and happy reading,
Nina

Earlier, I had written on the astrology blog about the connection between the Guardian Daemon and the Lord of the Geniture. To quickly recap, the Guardian Daemon is the ancient Greek name for what we now call our Guardian Angel. In the article above, I wrote about how the Lord of the Geniture, our strongest planet in the horoscope, is a symbol of our Guardian Daemon. The best planet we have will always bail us out of the mess in which we manage to get ourselves. So, to get a sense of what the Guardian Daemon is for us, what is its nature vis a vis ourselves, we must look toward the Lord of the Geniture. Is it nurturing? Aggressive? Disciplinarian? Those are the qualities that will always save us when we are in a tough spot.One ancient astrologer made the direct connection between the Guardian Daemon (also known as the Eudaimon, or the Good Spirit) and The Part of Spirit. The Part of Spirit is calculated in the opposite way from the Part of Fortune, so Asc + Sun - Moon. Note that for reasons explained in an earlier article, I do not reverse the Part of Fortune and its associated Arabian Parts by night. Firmicus links the Guardian Daemon and Part of Spirit in one sentence:

After these four cardinal points, that is the Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven and IMC, there is another set of four points in the nativity which are also of following and favorable power. These are Dea, Deus, Bona Fortuna (Good Fortune) and Bonus Daemon (Good Spirit) which the Greeks have called thus Thea, Theos, Agathe Tyche, Agathos Daemon.

So there you have it, the Part of Spirit IS the Agathos Daemon. But what do we do with this information? As with any Arabian Part, it is best when it is aspected by its sign ruler, and that sign ruler is essentially and accidentally strong. But it doesn’t always work that way in real life. Any planets aspecting the Part of Spirit will tell us of the nature of our Guardian Daemon. Then, we would inspect the sign ruler of the Part of Spirit.

For example, imagine a horoscope where the Part of Spirit is at 7 Libra. It is trined by the Sun at 4 Gemini and squared by the Moon at 6 Cancer. The two aspecting planets rule the 10th and 9th houses respectively. Does this bode well for the native’s spiritual career? It certainly does, indicating that not only is the Part of Spirit in play, as John Frawley puts it, but it is also going to be used at its highest capacity (strong Moon). Especially more so when we know that the Sun, though essentially weak, is in the sign of Mercury in Gemini. Our hypothesis is confirmed when we see that the temperament is overwhelmingly phlegmatic, with the most “phlegmatic” planet, the Moon, in strong essential dignity, ruling the 9th house. We have here no ordinary character.
This horoscope belongs to Padre Pio, a 20th-century Catholic priest and saint.

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The Part of Fortune aka Fortuna has been used by astrologers for hundreds of years in natal, horary and electional astrology; many modern astrologers typically encounter it but do not use it. It can be quite a handy tool to have in natal analysis, and can substantially enrich one’s practice.

Though we will discuss this notion in greater length, the Part is generally taken to signify one’s material possessions, i.e.: one’s wealth. It is often taken to signfiy the state of one’s soul as well. Its reverse, the Part of Spirit, shows shows spiritual, inward possessions, or one’s propensity to religion and things of the Spirit. The condition of the Part of Fortune and its dispositor will determine the quality and state of one’s material and spiritual wealth.

In this article, we will discuss in detail what the Part of Fortune means and how to use it. In this Part I of the article, we will discuss the mechanics of how to implement the Part of Fortune in charts. In Part II, we will talk about the practical and philosophical meaning of the Part of Fortune.

Calculation of the Part of Fortune

The Part of Fortune is a point calculated in the chart, as distinguished from any astronomical body. To find the Part of Fortune, take the longitude of the Ascendant, add the longitude of the Moon, and subtract the longitude of the Sun (PoF = Asc + Moon – Sun).

Thus, 2 Aries is 2 degrees of longitude, 2 degrees of Taurus is 32 degrees of longitude, 17 Gemini is 77 degrees of longitude, and so on around the zodiac. The resulting point from your calculations is the place of the Part of Fortune. Its state and that of its dispositor (the planet which rules the sign the Part of Fortune falls in) will describe the state of the person’s possessions.

If you were born at night, that is, the Sun is under the horizon in your natal chart, some authorities state that you should reverse the above formula: PoF = Asc + Sun – Moon.

The Actors: The Sun, the Moon, and the Ascendant

So why use these three points in calculating the Part of Fortune? Obviously, they are the most important parts of a chart. This is especially the case in natal charts, where the Sun and Moon are the elements that power a chart, while the Ascendant is the place where the heavens meet the earth – the point of incarnation, in other words.

The Reversals of Fortune

One of the many debates continuing to rage among astrologers is whether to reverse the Part of Fortune by night (and therefore all the parts that use it also). Ptolemy, in his Tetrabiblos, states in two separate places that one should not reverse the Part of Fortune by night. However, many subsequent authorities, including Bonatti and Al-Biruni, state quite clearly that one should reverse the places of the Sun and Moon by night.

So why would someone do this? Bonatti’s chief justification for reversing Fortuna is that Parts should be calculated from the naturally stronger planet (he would have looked at our formulas from right to left). Thus, because the Sun is considered stronger by day, when it is in houses 7-12, Fortuna should be calculated from it during the day. Conversely, the Moon is stronger by night, and therefore the calculation should begin from the Moon by night.

However, there are a few problems with Bonatti’s reasoning. First, just because we are looking at a nighttime chart does not mean the Moon is stronger than the Sun. We could imagine a chart where the Sun is on the IC, thereby gaining some accidental strength, and the Moon is below the horizon in the sixth house. Unlike the Sun during the day, the Moon does not have to be above the horizon by night. Automatically considering it the stronger planet at night is simply wrong.

Second, the Moon is considered the “luminary of the time” in nighttime charts. All this means is that it has more of a responsibility for the native’s wellbeing on its planetary shoulders; it does not mean it can effectively take care of those responsibilities. Therefore, we should not artificially put it in the driver’s seat by reversing the Part of Fortune by night.

Third, reversing the Part of Fortune gives you another part, the Part of Spirit. The two parts are obviously related, since they are mirror images of one another. Bonatti writes that the Part of Fortune shows the soul’s strength, fortune, substance, etc., while the Part of Spirit (aka the Part of Things to Come) shows faith, prophecy, and religion. The two Parts are obviously distinct in some fashion, and transposing them by night causes us to get two entirely different beasties depending on when we were born.

Stay tuned for Part II. – the meaning and interpretation of the Part of Fortune.

(Sources used for analysis in this article: Robert Zoller’s translation of Guido Bonatti’s treatise on the Arabic Parts; Al-Biruni’s Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology.)

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Hint: With your wits firmly ensconced about you. Or, to paraphrase the 17th century physician and astrologer Nicholas Culpeper, you must keep your brains in your head where they belong and not in your books.

Let’s get this out of the way first: why even read William Lilly’s Christian Astrology? Because it is the greatest book on astrology that has been written in the English language. Ever. Whatever you may think of the most recent editions of Neptune or Solar Arcs or that timeless classic, Astrology to Instantly Firm Up, Groom, and Tone Your Karma. Reading CA is guaranteed to turn you into a better astrologer, provided you use some common sense when reading. There can arise an infinite number of charts, each different from the last, and even the most explicit 1-2-3 instructions (on which Lilly tends to skimp, anyway) will not work in all cases.

Reading William Lilly is frequently crazy-making, and it’s not because of his archaic language (you should know by now that Lilly’s “clown” so often mentioned in CA = our peasant/country bumpkin/hick). Rather, it’s because he is not a particularly methodical writer or explainer. Don’t get me wrong - he was a truly excellent astrologer. It’s just that in the conveying of the information, he would be somewhat stream-of-consciousness. Disorganized, we would say nowadays.

So, how do you read Lilly for pleasure and profit? Since he himself provides no handy manual, here are some necessary steps:

1. Check and recheck that brain is in your head not book. Less messy that way.

2. Get pen & paper.

3. Open your CA, and start writing. Organize Lilly’s instructions numerically; break each segment down into an outline. Once you have a good algorithm for a certain operation (e.g. how to tell if it will be a girl or boy in a horary), go and test it out on some charts. As you do this, keep asking yourself at each step, why? Why do we care what the 11th house is doing in a pregnancy chart? (Answer: because in most pregnancies, it takes two, and the 11th house is the 5th house of the partner, who is signified by the Querent’s 7th. And it’s the partner’s kid as much as the Querent’s.)

Note that in many if not most chapters, Lilly will give several possible algorithms for a certain operation. In such cases, try to use both when learning, but mainly, be very analytical. Observe what common elements arise among the instruction sets. Then try to figure out why these elements are important.

4. Rinse and repeat, banging head against wall as little as possible.

Good luck, and let me know if you have questions. You can always reach me at nina ” at ” gryphonastrology.com.

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