Astrology
Lot of the Father
Direct answer
Lot of the Father: The Lot of the Father is a calculated point found by day from the Sun to Saturn and by night from Saturn to the Sun, laid off from the Ascendant, and read for what a person received from their father.
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At a glance
- Also called
- part of the father, lot of father, arabic part of the father
- In astrology
- Ptolemy takes the father from the Sun and Saturn and the mother from the Moon and Venus in his chapter on the parents (Tetrabiblos, Book III).
- Found in
- Astrology
- Related
- Lot of the Mother, Lot of Siblings, Hermetic Lots, Part of Fortune
The Lot of the Father is a calculated point found by day from the Sun to Saturn and by night from Saturn to the Sun, laid off from the Ascendant, and read for what a person received from their father.
A structural orientation; exact placements depend on the chart or technique being discussed.
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What is the Lot of the Father?
The Lot of the Father is one of the family lots of Greek astrology. By day, measure the arc from the Sun to Saturn and lay it off from the Ascendant; by night, from Saturn to the Sun. The Sun and Saturn are the two planets the old authors gave to the father.
If Saturn is under the Sun's beams, within about 15 degrees of the Sun, Dorotheus says to use Mars to Jupiter instead, reversed by night in the same way.
The old authors also read a parent's or a sibling's own fortune, illness and death from these lots. That is never done here: a chart is read for its own person, and these lots are read for that person's side of the bond, what was received and how it is carried.
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The formula
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.
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. Saturn is 98 degrees from the Sun, far outside its beams, so the lot uses Saturn itself.
- Day chart: Ascendant 190 + Saturn 282 - Sun 20 = 452, less 360 is 92, which is 2 degrees of Cancer.
- Night chart: Ascendant 190 + Sun 20 - Saturn 282 = -72, plus 360 is 288, which is 18 degrees of Capricorn.
- If Saturn were under the beams, by day: Ascendant 190 + Jupiter 265 - Mars 128 = 327, which is 27 degrees of Aquarius.
Reading it for your own side of the bond
The lot is read like any other: by its sign, by the condition of that sign's ruler and by the planets that regard it. The Great Almanac asks one question of it: what did you receive from your father, in temperament, in example or in absence, and how do you want to carry it? It does not describe the father himself, and it never speaks of his health, fortune or death.
The story behind Lot of the Father
Dorotheus of Sidon gives these lots in the first book of the Carmen (I.13, I.14, I.19), and Vettius Valens and Paulus Alexandrinus repeat them. They are computed here in Valens's and Paulus's form. The copy of the Carmen we work from is a translation through Arabic, and its wording of the night versions does not read consistently, so where it differs the later Greek authors are followed.
Lot of the Father in astrology
The lot puts the same two planets into one point measured from the Ascendant.
Lot of the Father in practice: an example
In the worked example, a day chart with the Sun at 20 degrees of Aries and Saturn at 12 degrees of Capricorn, the Lot of the Father falls at 2 degrees of Cancer.
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
- part of the father, lot of father, father lot astrology, arabic part of the father
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
See Lot of the Father in your personal almanac
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Common questions
What is the Lot of the Father?
The Lot of the Father is a calculated point found by day from the Sun to Saturn and by night from Saturn to the Sun, laid off from the Ascendant, and read for what a person received from their father.
How do you calculate the Lot of the Father?
By day, the Ascendant plus Saturn minus the Sun. By night, the Ascendant plus the Sun minus Saturn. If Saturn is within about 15 degrees of the Sun, use Mars and Jupiter in their place.
What does the Lot of the Father mean?
It is the old authors' point for the father. The Great Almanac reads it for what a person received from their father and how they carry it, never for the father's own health or lifespan.
Why Saturn and the Sun?
Ptolemy gives the father to the Sun and Saturn, and the mother to the Moon and Venus. The lot follows the same pairing.
