'If you
have a vocation, you work to support it – not the
other way round.' This came up in our seminar last week and I've
been pondering it ever since. 'Vocation' literally means a calling –
it's that nagging inner voice you can't ignore. I tend to think of
it mainly in religious terms but it could equally be applied to
artists, poets, composers and others in the creative sphere, in the
healing professions and no doubt others too. The key thing is The
Call. Now for some people, their vocation and their profession will
be one and the same thing. But for others – perhaps most – the
vocation will be something other than how they earn their living. If
you're one of the latter, you'll do whatever you must to earn a
living while at the same time doing whatever's necessary to satisfy
that inner voice. This begs the question who or what is doing the
calling – and can we find it in the birth chart?
Well, to
me there's only one thing that fits the bill, and that's a point
that's little used these days: the Lot (or Part) of Spirit. This is
the counterpart to the more familiar Lot of Fortune, which has also
fallen out of fashion in recent times.
So what
do these two points mean? Let's start with Fortune, as that's
probably the most familiar of the two. According to Kenneth
Johnson1, in ancient times the Lots of Fortune and Spirit
were treated not as abstract concepts, but as characters in a
horoscope who were every bit as real as the planets. Fortune, for
instance, was a Goddess known as Tyche in Greek and Fortuna in Latin.
She was capricious in nature, as likely to bestow good fortune on a
thief as she was to mete out misfortune on those it would seem least
deserved it. Fortuna was sometimes depicted at the helm of a ship –
the ship of our destiny – piloting a course now through calm, now
through stormy waters … and sometimes even steering us onto the
rocks. 
Spirit
was known in Greek as the Daimon – a fiery spirit somewhat similar
to but far more, well, spirited than the kindly guardian angel
who helps you find your car keys. We come across the daimon in
Plato's Myth of Er, which outlines what happens prior to our birth.
The tale goes that we're allotted a personal daimon to act as our
guardian and help us fulfil the life we've chosen. The daimon
carries our personal blueprint and remembers it for us, because we
forget all this once we're born. It also brings us back to the path
whenever we stray from it. But like Fortuna presiding over the ups
and downs of our journey through life, the Daimon is just as
capricious where our inner desires and motivations are concerned.
Sometimes it impels us to do things we would rather avoid, or forces
us onto paths we would not choose to follow, but always, always it's
driving us to fulfil the destiny of which we have no memory. So that
inner voice belongs to our daimon, calling us to our true purpose,
our vocation.
The
system of Lots comes from Hellenistic astrology, and there's a Lot
for each of the visible planets. The Lots of Fortune and Spirit are
assigned to the Moon and Sun respectively. Fortune represents chance
and Spirit destiny. Like yin and yang, they're inextricably linked,
suggesting that chance and destiny are two sides of the same coin.
It all depends on whether you're looking through the eyes of Fortune
(from the outside) or Spirit (from the inside). For example, what
looks like chance or misfortune (such as getting onto the plane that
crashes) from the outside seems quite different when viewed from the
inside, the daimon's perspective. For the daimon would see it as the
fulfilment of your destiny.
We all
have a personal daimon, but for the vast majority of us probably the
best we can expect in the way of contact is a nudge or a warning at
times of danger, a hesitation before we embark on a venture that will
take us away from our destiny, or similar. For some great souls,
however, their vocation is so strong that they have an exceptional
relationship with their daimon. One example which will be familiar
to many astrologers is that of Jung with his guide or daimon
Philemon, but there are many artists and poets who have had similar
relationships with inner guides. These relationships are far from
cosy, though. The daimon expects much and can be ruthless in its
determination to steer the individual towards creative fulfilment.
Indeed, Patrick Harpur2 quotes Jung as saying 'A creative
person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is
captive and driven by his daimon. The daimon of creativity has
ruthlessly had his way with me.' And we can probably all think of
creative people who have paid a terrible price for their art in terms
of health, relationships or personal happiness.
It's easy enough to find out where both Fortune and Spirit are placed in
your chart, and in some programs you
can reset your chart so that Fortune appears on the Ascendant. This can give a different take on your journey through life. But I
couldn't resist drawing up a chart with my Spirit on the Ascendant, which
I did by hand as the software didn't extend to it. And
when I did, something inside me gave a little leap of joy –
which I like to think was my daimon expressing its approval. In
fact, I found the Spirit chart a more accurate depiction than either my birth or my Fortune chart, although perhaps others might be the best judge of this.
These Lots can be a useful addition to the birth chart, but there are other reasons for getting to know your
daimon a little better. Tradition has it that as we get
older and our powers wane, the daimon grows stronger. And when we
finally pass over to whatever is beyond, rumour has it that we'll be
greeted by the guide and companion whom we've known all our lives:
our personal daimon. Best, perhaps, to be prepared...
(1)
Kenneth Johnson, 'Fortune and Spirit: reclaiming astrology's lost
archetypes' in The Mountain Astrologer, Feb/Mar 2013
(2)
Patrick Harpur, 'A Complete Guide to the Soul'
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