Asteroid Fortuna

Asteroid Fortuna 19 is the Roman Goddess of luck, good and bad! She represents the tide turning for or against you according to life’s whims. Her father is not surprisingly believed to be Jupiter, who is also associated with gambling and trusting in fate.

For the Romans, chance events and Fortuna were connected with Virtue, so that immoral individuals would invite bad fortune and virtuous persons would be rewarded with good fortune. Therefore Fortuna is also a goddess of fate and karma.

Fortuna is obviously associated with the wheel of fortune card in the tarot and the expression “what goes round comes round”. So she reminds us that when we are at our lowest the only way is up, by the same token, she also reminds us to enjoy the peaks in our lives because summer is not eternal John Russell Hind discovered Fortuna on 22nd August 1852. The time/place is an approximation to get the moon position; we know he worked in Greenwich.

Asteroid Fortuna Discovery Chart

The chart contains a Yod to the Moon which aptly describes the ebb and flow of fate. Uranus is about sudden changes and the North Node is where our soul needs to go to evolve. I love the way that the Moon is on Antares, the heart of the Scorpion, which does tend to dramatically swing from one extreme to the other. Antares:

“With the Moon: Popular, broad-minded, … great power, honor and wealth but benefits may not prove lasting, danger of violence, sickness, drowning or assassination.” [1]

Well, that is a mixed bag of some of life’s incomprehensible rabbit holes. The Moon square Neptune also describes the fog of not knowing what’s coming and needing to have faith. Even the Sun is on an extreme star.

Phecda in the great bear, it has a bloodthirsty nature when roused. There is clearly a sense of vengeance then here, describing fates cruelty at often calling in it’s debts just when you are at your lowest. Bad luck does seem to come all at once.

Mars is on Algorab in the trickster Crow and Venus is on Pollux the evil twin. Both such teasers! I imagine them spinning of the wheel of fortune in the casino gleefully watching the punters expressions as they await fates dictate. How often have we said to ourselves, is god having a laugh or what? Daughter of Jupiter? This girl has a wicked sense of humour.

If you look at the chart it’s all about balance, Saturn’s opposition to Jupiter and Eris (Persephone) opposing Ceres (Demeter). Somehow their polarity brings equilibrium and we have plenty of nice blue trines and sextiles to offset those Darkstars mentioned earlier.

The North Node on Alhena, the star sitting in-between the twins shows again it’s a question of equality of dark and light. We swing between “Good” and “Evil” in our lives and we have cycles of good and bad transits also. Fortuna like her father Jupiter, reminds us to look at the bigger picture, how much of the good luck in this life is from a previous life?, and by the same token how much apparent bad luck is coming from past life misdemeanors also?

Asteroid Fortuna Meaning

The Arabic part of Fortune is not quite the same meaning in our chart as Fortuna. The POF in our chart gives us some idea what we need to do to make our soul happy so that the doors of opportunity open for us. Fortuna differs in that it tells us about our approach to luck. The house we find it in may be where we feel luckiest depending on how it Fortuna is aspected. If we find Fortuna squaring another planet this could be where we feel shortchanged.

If we find Fortuna conjunct Saturn, we may be very rigid in our views about our destiny, we may think it is set in stone and we have no free will at all. We will feel blessed if we have lucky stars and an easy chart overall. But what if we feel doomed by a square from Pluto? In my opinion, Fortuna on Venus does not guarantee luck in love or with cash either, but you should certainly feel lucky which in turn is more likely to attract to you that Venusian flavoured fortune.

In synastry your partners Fortuna conjunct your Sun or AC will make them feel like a lucky star to you. That just being in their presence brings you luck. Their Saturn on your Fortuna on the other hand may feel like they are a curse more than a blessing, or that they are dishing out some heavy karma back at you.

It may be useful to see how transits affect this little asteroid. I wouldn’t put it on the same level as the Part Of Fortune, but if you do happen to have Asteroid Fortuna strongly placed in your chart then you might feel your life is in the hands of fate and that you can back peddle a little while the Universe takes care of it for you. For the rest of us, it can’t hurt to play the lottery while Jupiter or Venus transits our Asteroid Fortuna can it?

Find Asteroid Fortuna in Your Chart

1. Create your chart HERE.
2. Choose “Extended Chart Selection”.
3. In “additional asteroids or hypothetical planets”, add 19.

1. Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson, 1923 p.137.

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