Character and Use

The great fixed stars carry strong and often fated reputations in the tradition (Regulus the royal star of honour and downfall, Algol the most ill-omened point in the sky, Spica a star of gifts), and they are read chiefly by conjunction with the planets, the angles or the lights. Their slow movement by precession, about a degree in seventy years, means their positions must be updated over the centuries.

The atlas gives each star its position, its Ptolemaic planetary nature, and its traditional meaning and magical use. The stars sit among the finer factors of the chart alongside the decans and the constellations they belong to.