Astrology
Hermetic Lots
Direct answer
Hermetic Lots: The Hermetic lots are seven calculated points in a birth chart, one for each visible planet, that Paulus Alexandrinus gave in the fourth century: Fortune, Spirit, Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory and Nemesis.
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At a glance
- Also called
- the seven lots, lots of paulus alexandrinus, hellenistic lots
- In astrology
- Fortune and Spirit are the pair the others are built on: Fortune runs from the Sun to the Moon by day, Spirit from the Moon to the Sun.
- Found in
- Astrology
- Related
- Part of Fortune, Lot of Spirit, Lot of Eros, Lot of Necessity
The Hermetic lots are seven calculated points in a birth chart, one for each visible planet, that Paulus Alexandrinus gave in the fourth century: Fortune, Spirit, Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory and Nemesis.
A structural orientation; exact placements depend on the chart or technique being discussed.
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What are the seven Hermetic lots?
The Hermetic lots are seven calculated points that Paulus Alexandrinus set out in his Introductory Matters, written in 378, and attributed to Hermetic teaching. Each lot is paired with one of the seven visible planets and stands for one part of life.
- Fortune, with the Moon: the body and life's circumstances. - Spirit, with the Sun: the soul, the mind and what a person sets out to do. - Eros, with Venus: desires and appetites that come by choice, and friendship. - Necessity, with Mercury: constraints, struggles and enmities. - Courage, with Mars: boldness and daring. - Victory, with Jupiter: faith, hope, contests and success. - Nemesis, with Saturn: what is hidden and what cannot be avoided.
Every lot is an arc between two points laid off from the Ascendant, and every one reverses by night, so all seven need a known birth time.
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The seven formulas
Each lot is found the same way: measure the arc from the first point to the second, always forward through the signs, and lay that arc off from the Ascendant. In longitude, "from A to B" is the Ascendant plus B minus A, reduced to the circle. By night the two points swap places.
- Fortune: by day from the Sun to the Moon; by night from the Moon to the Sun. Paulus pairs it with the Moon.
- Spirit (the daimon): by day from the Moon to the Sun; by night from the Sun to the Moon. Paired with the Sun.
- Eros: by day from Spirit to Venus; by night from Venus to Spirit. Paired with Venus.
- Necessity: by day from Mercury to Fortune; by night from Fortune to Mercury. Paired with Mercury.
- Courage: by day from Mars to Fortune; by night from Fortune to Mars. Paired with Mars.
- Victory: by day from Spirit to Jupiter; by night from Jupiter to Spirit. Paired with Jupiter.
- Nemesis: by day from Saturn to Fortune; by night from Fortune to Saturn. Paired with Saturn.
Vettius Valens, writing in the second century, gives Eros and Necessity differently, built from the arc between Fortune and Spirit. The Great Almanac uses Paulus's set and says so wherever a lot appears.
A worked example
The worked example, the same invented day chart on every lot page (longitudes counted from 0 Aries in brackets): Ascendant 10 Libra (190), Sun 20 Aries (20), Moon 5 Gemini (65), Mercury 2 Aries (2), Venus 14 Taurus (44), Mars 8 Leo (128), Jupiter 25 Sagittarius (265) and Saturn 12 Capricorn (282). The Sun is above the horizon, so it is a day chart.
- Fortune: 25 degrees of Scorpio.
- Spirit: 25 degrees of Leo.
- Eros: 29 degrees of Gemini.
- Necessity: 3 degrees of Gemini.
- Courage: 27 degrees of Capricorn.
- Victory: 10 degrees of Aquarius.
- Nemesis: 23 degrees of Leo.
With the same positions read as a night chart, every arc runs the other way round: Fortune lands at 25 degrees of Leo, Spirit at 25 degrees of Scorpio, and the other five follow them.
Why the Almanac gives lots by sign only
The Ascendant moves about a degree every four minutes, and each lot moves with it degree for degree. A birth time recorded to the nearest quarter hour can shift a lot by three or four degrees, enough to change its sign near a boundary. The Great Almanac therefore gives each lot by sign, names its ruler, and never quotes a degree from an ordinary birth record. Near the horizon, where the Sun's side decides between the day and night formulas, it gives no lots at all.
How the lots are read
A lot is read the way a house is: by the sign it falls in, by the condition of that sign's ruler, and by the planets that regard it. Dorotheus reads Fortune by its lord, best when the lord is in its own sign, triplicity, exaltation or term, weak when it is cadent or under the Sun's beams.
The Great Almanac treats each lot as a topic the old authors attached to the chart, not as a fixed outcome. Nemesis and Necessity in particular were read in antiquity with a hardness that a modern reader should not adopt: they name areas of life to look at, not misfortunes to expect.
The story behind Hermetic Lots
Lots go back to the earliest Greek horoscopic astrology. Dorotheus of Sidon, in the first century, gives Fortune and lots for the father, the mother and siblings. Paulus Alexandrinus, writing in Alexandria in 378, gives the seven Hermetic lots as a set, and Olympiodorus commented on his book in 564. Medieval Arabic and Latin authors kept them as "parts", which is why the modern name "Arabic parts" exists, though the lots are older than Arabic astrology.
Hermetic Lots in astrology
Eros and Victory are then measured with Spirit, and Necessity, Courage and Nemesis with Fortune.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Astrology
- Aliases
- seven hermetic lots, the seven lots, lots of paulus alexandrinus, hellenistic lots, greek lots astrology
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What are the seven Hermetic lots?
Fortune, Spirit, Eros, Necessity, Courage, Victory and Nemesis, the set Paulus Alexandrinus gave in 378. Each is paired with one of the seven visible planets.
How do you calculate a lot?
Measure the arc from one point to another, forward through the signs, and lay it off from the Ascendant. In longitude that is the Ascendant plus the second point minus the first. By night the two points swap.
Are lots the same as Arabic parts?
Yes. "Parts" is the medieval Latin word for the same points, and the name "Arabic parts" comes from the Arabic authors who passed them on. The lots themselves are older, from Greek astrology.
Do I need a birth time for the lots?
Yes. Every lot is laid off from the Ascendant and depends on whether the Sun was above the horizon, so without a birth time no lot can be placed.
