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Geomancy · Figure 6 of 16

Fortuna Minor, the Lesser Fortune: quick help from outside

Fortuna Minor, the Lesser Fortune, is the geomantic figure with two single lines over two double ones: Fortuna Major turned over. The 1655 Of Geomancy makes it the Sun by night, and the tradition reads it as quick help from outside that does not last.

The figure Fortuna Minor drawn large: Fire at the head, one point; Air at the neck, one point; Water at the body, two points; Earth at the feet, two points. Below, the sixteen figures small in a row, the 6th marked. Fortuna Minor · the Lesser Fortune Fire, the head one Air, the neck one Water, the body two Earth, the feet two
Fortuna Minor, figure 6 of 16: its points head to feet, with the element and part of each line. Below, the sixteen in our order, the eight that can be Judge first.

Facts

Number
Figure 6 of 16; the eight that can be Judge come first
Points, head to feet
1 · 1 · 2 · 2: one point in the Fire and Air lines
Total
6 points, even, so it can be the Judge
Planet (1655)
The Sun by night, or in less strength
Sign (Gerard's scheme)
Taurus, in the Astronomical Geomancy attributed to Gerard of Cremona (1655 English)
Cattan's English (1591)
“lesse fortune”
Agrippa's glosses (1651)
“Lesser fortune”, “Lesser aid”, “Safe-guard going out”
Turned over
Upside down: Fortuna Major. Every point swapped: Fortuna Major

Meaning

Fortuna Minor is success that comes fast and from outside, and leaves as it came. Agrippa's glosses of 1651 are "Lesser aid" and "Safe-guard going out"; Hartmann reads it as "external aid and protection" and "not a very good figure"; the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's handbook gives its use exactly, good "in any matter where a person wishes to proceed quickly". In our own words, it favours what the asker wants done quickly and what they are leaving behind, and is weak where a lasting result is wanted. Our old one-line meaning called it "fleeting help"; "outside help, quick and unsteady" is nearer the tradition.

In the shield

Fortuna Minor has six points and can be Judge, for one casting in eight. Cattan's rule makes it a going-out figure, with more points below than above, and going-out figures are ill, Laetitia excepted. It is Fortuna Major both upside down and with every point swapped, and the pair are the tradition's inner and outer fortune. In the sample casting on the Geomancy page it is the Left Witness, and the Way of the Point passes through it. Its head line is single, so a Judge Fortuna Minor always has a Way of the Point under the modern rule.

The Sun, and the signs

The 1655 Of Geomancy makes it the Sun "nocturnal, or placed in less dignities", by night or in less strength; Cattan's table makes it the Sun retrograde. In Gerard's scheme it is Taurus, as in Agrippa and Cattan's own table; the Golden Dawn gives it Leo, like Fortuna Major, and so does the scheme Cattan prints under Gerard's name on page 63.

Correspondences

Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.

Planet
Sun, in every source checked (Cattan, Agrippa, the 1655 text, Hartmann, Crowley, Fludd) sourced
Direct or retrograde (Cattan, p. 54)
Sun retrograde sourced
Sign, Gerard's scheme (ours)
Taurus sourced
Sign, other schemes
Agrippa (1651): Taurus; Cattan's table (p. 56): Taurus; Cattan's “Gerard Cremon” (p. 63): Leo; the Golden Dawn (1909): Leo disputed
Quality (Cattan's rule)
Going out, and ill (pp. 62, 215) sourced
Lines
Single, active: Fire (head) and Air (neck); double, passive: Water (body) and Earth (feet) sourced
Our keywords
Quick help from outside, success that does not last our construction

How the schools read it

Cattan (1591)
Calls it “lesse fortune”; going out, and ill (pp. 62, 215).
Agrippa (1651)
Glosses it “Lesser fortune”, “Lesser aid”, “Safe-guard going out”.
*Of Geomancy* (1655)
The Sun nocturnal, or placed in less dignities (the Sun by night).
Hartmann (1889)
“Fortuna minor, Little Fortune, external aid and protection, is not a very good figure.”
The Golden Dawn (Crowley, 1909)
“Good in any matter where a person wishes to proceed quickly”
Modern practice (Greer, as reported)
Calls it mobile, the modern word for a going-out figure.
EsoTerrier
Quick help from outside, success that does not last (our one-line reading in the chart).

Claims about it

  • Fortuna Minor is a figure a person is born under, worked out from a name and a birth date.

    false

    What the record shows: No source makes a geomantic figure from birth data; every casting is for a question. Our own app did this until October 2026, and the method was retired.

  • Fortuna Minor has one zodiac sign.

    disputed

    What the record shows: Gerard's scheme gives Taurus, the Golden Dawn Leo, Cattan's page 63 Leo. At least six schemes exist; we always name the one we use.

  • Fortuna Minor has an element of its own.

    disputed

    What the record shows: The sources give the figures at least six different sets of elements. We show only the four line elements, never an element for the whole figure.

Elsewhere on EsoTerrier

Sources

Primary texts (6)
  1. Christopher Cattan, The Geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan Gentleman, translated by Francis Sparry. London: John Wolfe, 1591 (French original, Paris, 1558). wellcomecollection.org/works/gk8r8xpn
  2. Of Geomancy (attributed to Agrippa) and Astronomical Geomancy (attributed to Gerard of Cremona), in Henry Cornelius Agrippa his Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, translated by Robert Turner. London, 1655. github.com/textcreationpartnership/A26563
  3. Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, translated by J. F. London, 1651; Book II, chapter 48. github.com/textcreationpartnership/A26565
  4. Franz Hartmann, The Principles of Astrological Geomancy. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1889. archive.org/details/b24884145
  5. [Aleister Crowley], “A Handbook of Geomancy”, The Equinox I(2), 1909, pp. 137 to 161. keepsilence.org/the-equinox/1.2/a-handbook-of-geomancy_low.pdf
  6. Robert Fludd, De naturae simia, second edition. Frankfurt, 1624; De geomantia II.1, pp. 724 to 725. archive.org/details/bub_gb_zINwyYhcsp8C
Studies and other sources (2)
  1. Sam Block, The Digital Ambler, posts on the shield, the Way of the Point, perfection, the elements and the signs, 2012 to 2020. digitalambler.com/2020/05/08/how-to-construct-the-shield-chart-of-geomancy
  2. John Michael Greer, The Art and Practice of Geomancy. San Francisco: Weiser, 2009. Facts only, known through reports.
Our own research (2)
  1. EsoTerrier, geomancy research and validation, 11 to 14 October 2026.
  2. EsoTerrier calculation engine, the geomancy service, its texts and documentation.
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By EsoTerrier. Written with AI assistance from our research and checked against its sources; last revised 19 October 2026. How we write these pages.

First published ; last revised . Corrections: support@esoterrier.com.