A Deep Red Star, a Star of the First Magnitude, on the Ascendant

The image tradition for this degree goes back to 1925, to a session Marc Edmund Jones held with the clairvoyant Elsie Wheeler in Balboa Park, San Diego, drawing all 360 cards blind and at random. Jones's book followed in 1953, though the phrasing most commonly cited now is Dane Rudhyar's, from his 1973 An Astrological Mandala, a text this page leaves unquoted because it is still under copyright. It falls in the first decan of Pisces (degrees 1 to 10), and is Pisces's ninth degree. Its decan is ruled by Saturn rather than Jupiter, which colors the degree with something Pisces does not supply on its own.

The narrower term division belongs to Venus, a still finer layer of rulership laid across the sign and decan. This degree also carries an image from a different and earlier tradition. Charubel, writing in 1898, described a deep red star, a star of the first magnitude, on the ascendant; but a very short interval elapses between its rising and its setting. But when set, I see a pale golden light succeeding. Pisces closes the zodiac as mutable water, willing to dissolve a boundary that Scorpio would have defended. Taken together, the position, the decan, and the old image give this degree a specific character within Pisces rather than a generic one.