Arabic Chart?

I have astrolog, which is a pretty nice program, but I dont know alot about it.

So I was playin with it right, and I found this weird kind of chart. Called Arabic parts. It has a list of stuff like...

1: Fortune 21Cap59 [1st] (Asc Sun + Moo Y>
Number, Name, Sign, House, Formula, ??, then flip type.

What's all this mean? Is this another type of astrology I've never heard of?

Helperz Please!

~Punk Angel~ ~Sarah~

Yes and No.

The Arabic Parts are not really Arabic - they can be traced back to Ancient Greece and beyond but they re-entered European Astrology through the translation of Arab writers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Since then they have been a regular if not a major part of Astrology.

The 'Parts' (sometimes called 'Pars' or 'Lots') are points in the horoscope which are calculated using the positions of planets and other points such as the Ascendant and MC. They are a type of mid point.

The Part of Fortune (Fortuna) is calcuated as Ascendant + Moon - Sun for a birth during the day and Ascendant + Sun - Moon for a night birth. The resulting position by House and Sign can be interpreted to give some information about health and about how you will prosper. In your case Fortuna is in your first house at 22 degrees Capricorn (to the nearest degree). Your success is likely to come through your ability to plan, build and see things through within your own limitations. Your prosperity very much resides in yourself - making use of your own health and your own basic self - being yourself in other words.

There are around 100 of these measures covering such things as marriage, sons, daughters, divorce, love, death, imprisonment, beans and honey. In practice most modern Astrologers keep to Fortuna but if you look at the work of traditional astrologers you will see a greater use, especially in horary work.

Making a mountain out of a mole hill

Back when there were seven astrological bodies to use, it may have been difficult to define specific patterns for all of life's ups and downs. Fixed stars were a big thing as a planet conjuncting a fixed star could have additional meanings abscribed to it. The use of Arabic Parts were another way to add depth and scope to a 7-body chart. The good thing about Arabic parts and fixed stars is that they don't move -- it was possible to cite their meaning without having to say "when" their meaning might materialize in a life time. How could an astrologer go wrong? It was possible to dramatize a chart, impress a client and increase your fee -- all with some points. I don't use Arabic Parts or Fixed Stars although I feel the latter are an interesting area to explore. Dave.

I have an interest in the Arabic parts but I must admit that apart from the Part of Fortune, I only tend to look at them when doing a horary. Though from my limited knowledge, I think that their traditional use was in horary or event charts.

Arabic parts are a type of mid point, so they seem as valid to me as any other use of midpoints - their position being dependent on usaully two planets and the Ascendant (though this is by no means exclusive).

I'm not quite sure what Dave means when he says they don't move. It's true that there are no ephemerides charting the movement of Arabic parts but as the planets move, then so will the parts which depend on those planets, though they only 'point' to a degree of the Zodiac that degree changes as the planets move and as the Earth rotates. An Astrological chart is nothing more than a snapshot in time but if you took two people born say an hour a part you would find that their Parts of Fortune were different - indeed the Part of Fortune 'moves' as fast as the Ascendant.

Dave is quite right in suggesting that the Parts give the chance to extend the range of Astrology, with a limited number of planets, although I've seen 'modern' parts which include Uranus and outwards and no doubt someone, somewhere has invented one which uses Asteroids.

The modern approach is to search out asteroids, chiron type objects, Kuyper belt type objects and indeed hypothetical planets in order to extend Astrology. All of which also allow Astrologers to raise their fees!

There is an argument for saying that the extension using parts is more reliable because at least we have a reasonable understanding of the Seven visible planets. That being said the 11th Century Astrologer Al Biruni complained about the rapid growth in the number of parts and questioned their validity - just like me and the Asteroids - plus ca change.....