The Four Birth Deities: The Lots of Fortune, Spirit, Eros and Necessity
“The Egyptians also maintain that the attributes of the caduceus illustrate the nativity, or ‘genesis’ as it is called, of mankind; for they say that four deities are present to preside over a man’s birth: his Daimōn, Tuchē, Erōs and Anankē [Spirit, Fortune, Love and Necessity]. By the first two they understand the sun and the moon; for the sun, as the source of the breath of life and of heat and of light, is the creator and the guardian of a man’s life and is therefore believed to be the daimon, or god, of a newborn child; the moon is Tuchē [Fortune], since she has charge of the body, and the body is at the mercy of the fickleness of change; the kiss of the serpents is the symbol of Love; and the knot is the symbol of Necessity.”
The earliest Hellenistic astrological texts that survive identify four principal lots for determining one’s birth deities: Fortune, Spirit, Eros, and Necessity (Tychē, Daimōn, Erōs, and Anankē). Vettius Valens, Paulus Alexandrinus, Rhetorius, Olympiodorus, Firmicus Maternus, and more all wrote about them to varying degrees, describing them as essential in ascertaining the life and path toward spiritual realization. Of these four lots, significance became obscured for the Lots of Eros and Necessity over the ages, while prominence remained for the Lots of Fortune and Spirit. However, it is evident in recovered ancient texts that all four held the highest importance, superseding other hermetic lots. These four were originally seen to indicate the four guardian deities that incarnated with the individual at birth to guide, protect, and provide.
The first and most enduring in astrological application is the Lot of Fortune (Tychē) — named for the ancient Greek goddess of success, fortune, chance, and prosperity. Tychē was believed to determine the fortune of people and cities, bestowing good or bad luck to individuals and prosperity or ruin to city-places. Fortuna is the latinized term for Tychē. Valens esteemed the Lot of Fortune’s domicile ruler to be of equal merit to the domicile lord of the Ascendant. As such, the Lot of Fortune was interpreted as “the second Ascendant” from which the native’s life could be foreseen in greater nuance. Medieval Islamicate astrologers emphasized that the entirety of the life could be foretold by this lot alone, and they weighed much of their interpretations on their translations of Valens, who described the Lot of Fortune as an indicator of the quality of one’s life and manner of living based on the circumstances and privilege one is born into.
Valens esteemed the Lot of Fortune's domicile ruler to be of equal merit to the domicile lord of the Ascendant. As such, the Lot of Fortune was interpreted as "the second Ascendant" from which the native's life could be foreseen in greater nuance. Medieval Islamicate astrologers emphasized that the entirety of the life could be foretold by this Lot alone. They weighed much of their interpretations on their translations of Valens, who described the Lot of Fortune as an indicator of the quality of one's life and manner of living based on the circumstances and privilege one is born into.
The Lot of Fortune tells us how fate unfolds through the soul’s bodily incarnation. The lot is characterized as being the Lot of the Moon. As the Moon represents the physical body, the lot reveals the fate of our physical health, the benefits that come through the body’s countenance and physical incarnation, or lack thereof. The placement of the Lot of Fortune also identifies when and where we will experience inherent or effortless luck, pure chance, rewards, assistance, and prosperity. Thus, it can be seen as the daimon or guardian spirit that comes to our aid as fortunate circumstances and resources.
The second in precedence, is the Lot of Spirit (Daimōn). It bears the name from the ancient Greek Daimōn, which translates to spirit or godlike power and refers to the guiding spirit one’s soul chooses to incarnate with. While there are many daimons, the Lot of Daimōn was seen as one’s guiding deity in the fulfillment of one’s purpose.
Spirit is also referred to as the Lot of the Sun because the Sun represents the “light of the mind” or “organ of perception of the soul.”[2] This lot and its ruler reveal to us that which is unseen or immaterial and has yet to manifest — that which originates in the mind’s eye. It appears as the vision, arriving through insight and foresight, motivating action and propelling our spirit toward embodiment. Where Fortune is based on chance, Spirit is determined by choice.
Valens described the Lot of Spirit as indicating the intentional mind. Medieval Islamicate astrologers called it the Lot of the Hidden. [3] Renaissance astrologer Guido Bonatti, who was primarily translating Abu Ma’shar, termed it the Part of Things to Be. “Hidden” or “Things to Be” imply that which is immaterial, awaiting materialization, such as thoughts, and intentions, and hidden things, and everything that is [materially] absent.”[4] The Lot of Spirit reveals what our predestined divine purpose is, manifested through our highest intentions. It can be seen as the daimon or guardian spirit that guides us toward fulfilling our purpose, through actions we choose in alignment with our true intentions.
Mirror cover with winged Eros, Corinth 300 BCE
The third key lot is the Lot of Erōs. Named for one of the protogenoi (the first order of elemental deities to come into existence in ancient Greek cosmogony), Erōs is who inflames our purest desires, binding us to divine love — the primordial divine love that birthed the gods. Erōs, whose genesis manifested by the union of Time and Necessity (Kronos and Anankē), is without gender and is one of the deathless gods. Erōs is seen as the intersecting point in time and space where body and soul merge, nourishing the soul’s longing through physical incarnation, thus representing the principle of ecstatic voluntary union.
Valens described the Lot of Erōs as revealing our deepest desires. His formula for determining the lot takes the arc distance from Spirit to Fortune and casting it from the Ascendant (reversed for night charts). However, by the Renaissance era, this formula would conflate the Lot of Erōs with the Lot of Venus (or the Lot of Love and Concord as it is called by Bonatti). [5] Paulus’s formula for calculating the Lot of Eros takes the arc distance from Spirit to Venus and casting that from the Ascendant (reversed for night charts). Note: Paulus’s formula is employed on most online software, including astro.com and astro-seek.com.
Thus, the Lot of Erōs is used to determine the daimon or guardian spirit that compels us by divine desire, divine attraction, and divine distraction toward our highest aspirations.
Ananke and the Moirai
The third key lot is the Lot of Erōs. Named for one of the protogenoi (the first order of elemental deities to come into existence in ancient Greek cosmogony), Erōs is who inflames our purest desires, binding us to divine love — the primordial divine love that birthed the gods. Erōs, whose genesis manifested by the union of Time and Necessity (Kronos and Anankē), is without gender and is one of the deathless gods. Erōs is seen as the intersecting point in time and space where body and soul merge, nourishing the soul’s longing through physical incarnation, thus representing the principle of ecstatic voluntary union.
Valens described the Lot of Erōs as revealing our deepest desires. His formula for determining the lot takes the arc distance from Spirit to Fortune and casting it from the Ascendant (reversed for night charts). However, by the Renaissance era, this formula would conflate the Lot of Erōs with the Lot of Venus (or the Lot of Love and Concord as it is called by Bonatti). [5] Paulus’s formula for calculating the Lot of Eros takes the arc distance from Spirit to Venus and casting that from the Ascendant (reversed for night charts). Note: Paulus’s formula is employed on most online software, including astro.com and astro-seek.com.
Thus, the Lot of Erōs is used to determine the daimon or guardian spirit that compels us by divine desire, divine attraction, and divine distraction toward our highest aspirations.
From Bondage to Liberation
Both Love (Eros) and Necessity (Anankē) are described by Asclepius to be the masters over the souls who are bound to bodily incarnation. It is love’s bondage that draws us into human embodiment, and through this we find salvation and ultimate liberation in the material realms of existence.
Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum writes that the four birth deities can be understood as mirroring pairs: Fortune mirrors Spirit, and Eros mirrors Necessity. Through approaching the four birth deities, or lots, as interrelating with one another, we can uncover how they manifest and intervene throughout the course of one's life.
Fortune : Spirit
Body : Mind/Spirit
Chance : Choice
Eros : Necessity
Persuasion : Compulsion
Wanting : Needing
Formulas for the Lots
Fortune: arc distance from *Sun to Moon, cast from the Ascendant.
Spirit: arc distance from *Moon to Sun, cast from the Ascendant.
Eros: arc distance from *Spirit to Venus, cast from the Ascendant (Paulus); arc distance from *Fortune to Spirit, cast from the Ascendant (Valens); arc distance from *Spirit to Fortune, cast from the Ascendant (Firmicus).
Necessity: arc distance from *Mercury to Fortune, cast from the Ascendant (Paulus); arc distance from *Spirit to Fortune, cast from the Ascendant (Valens).
*Reversed for night sect
The Four Birth Deities of Frida Kahlo
**Content Warning: Traumatic Events Will Be Discussed**
El abrazo de amor de entre el Universo, la Tierra, yo, Diego y el señor Xólotl (The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth, Diego, Me, and Senor Xolotl) by Frida Kahlo (1949)
I’ve chosen to work with Frida Kahlo’s nativity in exploring the four principal lots (birth deities) because she greatly impacted me growing up and her birth time is verified. In many respects, Kahlo was a visionary whose highly influential work developed out of her unique beliefs, molded by her own suffering and empathy for the suffering of others. She transmuted a life marked by illness, disability, heartbreak, and struggle into one of creativity, revolutionary solidarity, and resilience. Kahlo’s genius is reflected in her nativity through a number of significators, and her principal Lots of Fortune, Spirit, Eros, and Necessity reveal how fated events would alter and guide the course of her life.
Nativity of Frida Kahlo: 6 July 1907, 8:30 AM Coyoacan, Mexico
Chart Data and Source
Frida Kahlo — July 6, 1907; 8:30 AM LMT; Coyoacán, Mexico (19°N20’, 99°W10); Rodden Rating: AA (birth certificate)
*Author’s Note: Solar Fire does not calculate the Lot of Eros, and the formulas for the Part of Necessities and the Part of Tricks are not the same as for the Lot of Necessity as detailed by Paulus. I’m including Kahlo’s lots here:
Lot of Fortune: 9°51’ Cancer in the 12th house.
Lot of Spirit: 7°11’ Libra in the 3rd house.
Lot of Eros: 10°40’ Taurus in the 10th house.
Lot of Necessity: 26°16’ Taurus in the 10th house.
Note that Kahlo’s Fortune squares Spirit, while Eros and Necessity are co-present in the same sign.
The ruler of Spirit (Venus in Gemini) is in a separating trine to Spirit; the ruler of Fortune (Moon in Taurus) is on her MC in a separating sextile to Fortune and conjunct the Lot of Necessity while co-present the Lot of Eros. The ruler of both Necessity and Eros (Venus) is in aversion to them (and are unable to see or support each other).
To better understand how the principal Lots of Fortune, Spirit, Eros, and Necessity work together, we look at five key events in Kahlo’s life.
Polio at Age 6
Kahlo nativity (inner wheel) and chart for July 24, 1913 (outer wheel)
Sometime after her sixth birthday, Kahlo contracted polio and became bedridden for nine months. She was in an Aquarius 7th-house profected year from the Ascendant, with Saturn as the lord of the year; the 7th house profected from her Lot of Fortune also activates her natal 6th house. Although we don’t have an exact date for the diagnosis, we do know that this illness took up most of her seventh year of life and permanently altered her experience. She became disabled, with her right leg growing slower than her left, which would cause her to limp and walk with a cane for the rest of her life.
A few weeks following her sixth birthday, transiting Mars conjoined her Lot of Necessity at 26° Taurus. On the day of this transit, the Moon would have been square her Lot of Fortune, transiting Pluto co-present her natal Fortune, transiting Neptune conjunct her natal North Node and Jupiter in the 12th house. Transiting Jupiter was also conjunct her natal Uranus–Mars alignment in the 6th. During this period, she was experiencing a Venus return while time lord Saturn was conjunct Venus and applying to her natal Pluto–Venus conjunction. And, the transiting North Node was conjunct her natal Saturn while transiting Chiron was applying to her natal Saturn.
The Accident at Age 18
Kahlo nativity (inner wheel) and chart for September 17, 1925 (outer wheel)
One fateful morning in September 1925, Kahlo survived a bus accident that shattered her spinal column and impaled her uterus. This traumatic event would drastically change the course of her life. Prior to the accident, Kahlo aspired to become a doctor. Upon being bedridden (again), she began to paint during her healing process.
She was in an Aquarius 7th-house profected year again, with Saturn as her activated time lord. The 7th from Fortune is her Capricorn 6th house, and transiting Jupiter was applying to her natal Mars and conjunct her natal Uranus, indicating the excessively freakish nature of the collision which led to severe injuries. On September 17, 1925, the day of the fated accident, transiting Pluto was in her 12th house, conjunct her natal Sun, Neptune, and Fortune, in opposition to her Mars and square her Lot of Spirit. Transiting Chiron was square her natal North Node, the transiting North Node was conjunct her natal Mercury, and transiting Neptune was exactly conjunct her Ascendant. Transiting Jupiter was less than a degree from perfecting its conjunction with her natal 6th-house Mars in Capricorn.
Her natal Mars–Uranus conjunction also implies medical intervention as well as unexpected turns of events, which may even be violent or surgical due to Mars’s presence. Transiting Jupiter in its fall opposing her natal Lot of Fortune also reflects the unfortunate circumstance or “bad luck” of the event. Transiting Uranus was conjunct her natal 8th-house Saturn, sextile her Lot of Necessity, and transiting Saturn was in opposition to her Lot of Eros, indicating that her desires to pursue medical studies and have children would be greatly hindered.
Marriage to Diego Rivera at Age 22
Kahlo nativity (inner wheel) and chart for marriage to Diego on August 21, 1929 (outer wheel)
On August 21, 1929, about a month and a half following her 22nd birthday, Frida married artist Diego Rivera. Their relationship and married life would be characterized by infidelities and instability. Through their betrayals, fueled by jealousy and lust, a deep soul wounding occurred within Frida that greatly contributed to her emotional suffering. This can be seen by transiting Chiron conjunct her natal Lot of Eros, activating the natal Chiron–Eros square on the day of their matrimony.
On their wedding day, Kahlo was in an 11th-house profected year, which is Gemini from the Ascendant, Pisces from the Lot of Eros, and Leo from the Lot of Spirit. Transiting Jupiter was in her Gemini 11th house, square to the Pisces Moon by degree, transiting her 8th house and applying to her natal Saturn, showing the nature of their marriage being one of a merging of assets, though at a cost. It was as if their union served more of a material purpose for both, as they each had something to gain from one another. Their marriage gave Frida wider access to the circles Diego was a part of, introducing Frida to a larger audience, which inevitably drew patrons to her work and inspired her revolutionary sense (transiting Jupiter in her natal 11th house).
There was a codependency in their love for one another. Diego was nurtured by Frida in many ways that other lovers (and his mother) failed in doing, and because of this, he developed a strong attachment with Frida. Frida considered Diego like her son and cared for him despite his short-comings. She would become a revolutionary and feminist icon in the face of Diego’s betrayals. Accordingly, Diego’s natal Venus in Sagittarius lands in Frida’s natal 5th, opposing her natal Venus in the 11th. And Frida’s 5th house from the Ascendant is also the 8th from her Lot of Eros. Transiting Saturn in her 5th house also reflects her marrying an older man (Diego was twice her age). On their wedding day, the Sun was also separating from a conjunction with her natal Ascendant degree in Leo, reflecting the elevation of status this marriage brought to her identity, revealing Spirit’s intentions further.
Frida was a prized trophy for Diego. She greatly boosted his self-esteem, but their generational and gendered differences would spell out power struggles between them, which is reflected by transiting Venus conjunct Pluto in Frida’s 12th house. Ultimately, their relationship turned into one of serving a revolutionary purpose, coming together to work on political causes for the greater good. The conflicts between them pushed them both to resolve their deeper spiritual and social justice motivations, which can also be seen by the transiting Lot of Spirit in opposition to Frida’s natal Spirit on the day of their matrimony.
Frida Meets Nickolas Muray at Age 23
Kahlo nativity (inner wheel) and chart for the letter to Muray on May 31, 1931 (outer wheel)
Frida ended up meeting the renowned celebrity photographer Nickolas Muray in the spring of 1931, and they fell in love with each other. They would be intimately involved for over a decade — their greatest love affair, outlasting other romances and marriages between them. Although Nickolas wanted to marry Frida, she preferred him as a lover and dreaded taking him as a husband.
Their mutual love, admiration, and desire for each other can be seen by transiting Venus conjunct her natal Lot of Eros on the day Frida penned her first love letter to Nickolas. Their forbidden love, which one can argue cultivated the tension to sustain their affair, can be seen by transiting Venus squaring her natal 7th-house Chiron and transiting Mars on her Ascendant. Transiting Chiron is also present between her natal Eros and Necessity, perhaps reflecting the karmic nature of their affair as love’s necessity. Something in their bond acted as a salve to her wounding.
When they met, Kahlo was nearing the end of a 12th-house profected year, which is Cancer from the Ascendant, Aries from the Lot of Eros, and Virgo from the Lot of Spirit. Muray’s natal Venus is in Aries and thus in the 12th from Kahlo’s Lot of Eros, another indication of the hidden nature of their affair, as well as a source of sorrow. His Venus in her natal 9th also shows the spiritual connection she felt with him and the long distances they would travel to be together. When they met, transiting Neptune was in Virgo, 12th from Kahlo’s Lot of Spirit, indicating her choice in expressing her love to Muray as being rooted in idealization and fantasy or as an escape from the marital problems between her and Rivera.
Miscarriage and Abortion at Age 24
Kahlo nativity (inner wheel) and chart for July 4, 1932 (outer wheel)
Frida struggled with infertility from the disability caused by her accident. She first became pregnant following her marriage to Diego in 1929. Then, in early 1930 (exact date unknown), she terminated that pregnancy due to complications with the fetus’s placement in her dislocated uterus. They conceived again in 1932, and a few days prior to her 25th birthday, on July 4 that year, she suffered a miscarriage, which required medical intervention via cesarean.
When she lost her second pregnancy in 1932, she was at the very end of a 1st-house profected year (from the Ascendant), and the 1st house profected from her Lot of Fortune is her natal 12th. Kahlo was approaching her Mercury return in the 1st house and her solar return in the 12th by degree. Transiting Pluto was conjunct her natal Jupiter–North Node, with Jupiter being an indicator for conception but in the 12th house of chronic illness, infirmity, and hospitalization. Transiting Chiron was partile conjunct her Lot of Necessity, square transiting Jupiter on her Ascendant.
This article was originally published on 16 November 2023 via my patreon here: From Bondage to Liberation: Working with the Four Birth Deities of Tyche, Daimon, Eros and Ananke and later published in The Mountain Astrologer's print June-August 2024 Issue no. 231
References
Gieseler Greenbaum, Dorian. The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology. Brill, 2015.
George, Demetra. Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice, vol.1. Rubedo, 2019.
Olomi, Ali A. The Lot of the Hidden and the Inclination of the Soul. Patreon, 2023.
Dykes, Benjamin N. Bonatti on Lots, Guido Bonatti's Book of Astronomy, Treatise 8.2: On Lots. Cazimi Press, 2010.
Ibid.
Gieseler Greenbaum, Dorian. The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology. Brill, 2015.
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