ARABIC PARTS

by John Timperman

Pars Fortunae is a part of the astrological tool-kit that is amply explained in all elementary introductions in Astrology and everybody is aware that it is derived from the positions of the Sun, Moon and the Ascendant. But apart from that, all manuals maintain a stony silence about the logic, or the historical background behind it.

The Arabic parts (and Bonatti mentions about 100 of them) are in fact Egyptian in origin. They are numerological or arithmetical fictions and they have no physical basis, but are fictitious points on the ecliptic.

It is pertinent to point out and emphasise that they are on the ecliptic because there are astrologers who hold the opinion that the best way to calculate the arabic parts is in right ascension, although there seems to be no evidence that this was ever the case.  So the Arabic parts are calculated in longitude and they are found by considering certain places in natal, horary, mundane or electional astrology, and distances between these points are then projected or added to the Ascendant. What is now found as a result of this calculation is a point in the horoscope which has a particular significance.

Nowadays, few astrologers use the Arabic parts and the fact that they have disappeared from the astrological toolkit has several causes. The most important one lies in the fact that with the rise of the Humanist tradition in the Renaissance, astrology came under increasing attack as violating the Christian doctrine of free will and as being founded upon arbitrary or scientifically unsound assumptions.

The Enlightenment brought about a revision with regard to many sciences and anything that was associated with medieval superstition was fanatically disputed. Usually, we consider the Renaissance as a period of progress, which it actually was, but such kind of progress did not occur without heavy losses, certainly as far as astrology is concerned.  

Many astrologers tried to reform astrology using pre-mediaeval sources which were mainly based on Ptolemy. However the sad thing was that Ptolemy was the only Greek astrologer that did NOT use the Arabic parts except for Fortuna.

These reformers were completely misled, for in practise the Arabs were much closer to the Greek astrological practise than Ptolemy. Many eminent contemporary astrologers think that he was a non-practising scientist who tried to make an inventory of the astrological knowledge of his time. Later on, astrologers such as Morin de Villefranche, Placidus and Kepler tried to reshape astrology ( in a way that Galileo recreated Physics) but, historically, they based their theories on a dubious source.

So, all this had serious consequences for an exact understanding of the use of the Arabic parts. After the renaissance the Parts were unanimously rejected because they were not concrete celestial bodies, but fictitious points in the zodiac, despite the fact that the Ascendant, M.C. and the lunar nodes are also fictitious [mathematical] points.

So Ptolemy, and unanimously all renaissance astrologers, rejected the use of the Arabic parts except for Fortuna which, in half of the cases, was calculated in the wrong way because the astrologers did not take into account the inversion of the formula for day and night horoscopes.

However, one specific use of Fortuna has been preserved throughout all astrological reforms: the use of Fortuna as an indicator for benefit or loss in horary astrology. Further,  in his procedure for finding the financial significator (17 considerations !!) Guido Bonatti, the most influential astrologer of the thirteenth century, uses Fortuna as the first significator. (Not the second house and NOT the lord of the second house.)

As already pointed out, Guido Bonatti in his Liber Astronomiae describes no less than 97 arabic parts.  However the mediaeval astrologer used the ones only that were pertinent to give additional information when delineating a certain subject of the horoscope.

Another Astrologer, Al Biruni who was writing in the 11th century said the “number of these Parts multiplies daily” and he says so with some grief because Arabic Astrologers were very fond of these parts and they invented a great many of them. The Arabs began to abuse the Parts in the sense that they began to delineate charts solely from the point of view, or primarily from the point of view of these Parts, rather than beginning with the first levels: the houses, the planets, and the signs of the basic horoscope.

Some modern astrologers are doing the same thing although the Arabic Parts should not and cannot be used properly without first delineating the natal chart. The real and only purpose of these Parts is to refine the delineation and to extract further information from a chart; and used in a proper fashion they definitely can be very helpful.

Personally, in the usual way of delineating charts I use following Parts:

Pars of Fortune, as I see it, is more or less as an inner Ascendant, showing what people want inwardly, as opposed to what the world demands of them outwardly. I also use it as a first indicator of finances provided: a) it is unafflicted, b) it is aspected by one of its rulers and c) its rulers are not afflicted.

Pars of Spirit:  It is found in the manner that is the reverse of finding Fortuna.

Bonatti says the following about it : the Part of Future Things ( Spirit) signifies the soul and the body and the quality of these; religion and the culture of God and secrets cogitations, intentions, hidden things and everything that is absent, courtesy and liberality, praise, good reputation .

Practically speaking, neo-traditionalists consider it as the indicator of the thing the native holds to be of the highest possible value. When, in the delineation of a horoscope, one is able to determine the value, concept or quality which an individual regards as the highest possible existing thing it is, in my opinion, a tremendous help in dealing with people when discerning what it is they really value on this earthly plane.

Bonatti used this pars in his delineation of the ninth house: the pars of spirit helped him in making a judgement as to whether an individual had a code of ethics, which in fact, even in today’s world not everybody has.

Pars of Hyleg:  (Asc. + Moon – prenatal new or full Moon “whatever happened first before birth).  According to Bonatti this pars is useful for knowing the purpose for which somebody is born.

Pars of Marriage: Asc. + Venus – Saturn in the chart of a man and

                              Asc. +  Venus – Sun    in the chart of a woman

It may be interesting to point out that Arabic Parts cannot make aspects but ONLY receive them.  This places them in the same category as the Ascendant and the M.C.

According to Abumashar parts can be used as directions, which, in traditional astrology were often based on Profections; the shoving forward of the Ascendant (or any other arbitrary point, for that matter, including a Pars) at a speed of one sign every year.

For closing let us see what was important for the mediaeval astrologer to delineate a Pars: According to Bonatti and Abumashar one should consider the following: