the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

מזל

Mazel means “star”.

This word may be heard as a modern celebratory exclamation “mazel tov!” literally meaning lucky stars.

The term is used in Jewish mysticism to describe the root of the soul. In this paradigm, only a ray of our soul actually inhabits our body, while the main part of the soul, the mazel, remains 'above', shining down into the body from a distance.

Based on mazel, the starry signs of the zodiac are called mazalot.