Discipline

Fixed Stars

Divinatory Disciplines

Origin from 100

The fixed stars are the countless stars that hold their patterns in the constellations, so called to distinguish them from the wandering planets that move against them. In astrology certain bright and long observed stars, such as Regulus in the Lion, Aldebaran, Antares, Spica, Sirius, and Algol, are held to carry a distinct nature, often described through blends of planetary qualities, and to color any planet or angle they fall upon. They are used chiefly by conjunction, an angle or point of a chart aligning closely with a star, where the star is thought to raise, darken, or sharpen the matters signified. Because the stars drift slowly against the tropical zodiac through the precession of the equinoxes, their listed positions are updated over the centuries. An ancient layer of astrology reaching back to Babylonian and Egyptian sky lore, the fixed stars add a further, sharper level of meaning beneath the planets and signs.

Facts

Origins

Origin Period

from 100 1Ptolemaic fixed-star astrology

Origin Period

from 800 2Arabic behenian fixed stars

Place of Origin

Mesopotamia 1

Status

Status Today

Living tradition, practised today 1

Learn More

A Layer Beneath the Signs

The fixed stars are the oldest layer of astrological practice and the one furthest from the popular image of it, since they have nothing to do with Sun signs and everything to do with specific points in the actual sky.

They are called fixed to distinguish them from the wandering stars, the planets. In practice astrologers work with a small number of bright and long-observed stars, each held to carry a distinct nature: Regulus in Leo, read as royalty and honour with a warning about downfall; Aldebaran in Taurus and Antares in Scorpio, opposite each other and both read as martial; Spica in Virgo, read as the most benign point in the sky; Sirius, the brightest star; Fomalhaut; Algol in Perseus, the demon's head, which carries the darkest reputation in the tradition and is an eclipsing binary whose brightness visibly dips every three days.

The natures are described in the tradition through planetary blends, a star is said to be of the nature of Mars and Jupiter, or of Saturn and Mercury, which is a convention going back to Ptolemy and is how the tradition transfers meaning from a familiar vocabulary to an unfamiliar one.

The technique is almost entirely conjunction. A star is read when a planet or an angle of the chart falls within a degree or so of it in longitude, and the star is then held to sharpen, elevate or darken whatever it touches. Some practitioners work by parans, a more demanding method using the star's rising, culminating and setting relative to a planet on the day of birth, which takes latitude into account as simple longitude does not.

Orbs are tight by tradition, often a single degree, which makes fixed-star work a matter of exact placement rather than general tendency.

Precession, and Why the Lists Keep Changing

The distinguishing technical fact about fixed stars in astrology is that their positions move, and this makes them the one component of a Western chart that cannot ignore precession.

The stars keep their patterns relative to each other but drift against the tropical zodiac at roughly one degree every seventy-two years, because the equinox point from which the tropical zodiac is measured itself moves. Over two thousand years that is nearly thirty degrees, a full sign. Regulus, which sat at the very end of tropical Leo through most of the modern era, crossed into Virgo around 2011, an event discussed at length in astrological literature at the time, since a star read for two millennia as royal and leonine had moved into a sign of an entirely different character. Practitioners divided over whether the sign placement matters at all for a star.

The consequence is that star position tables must be dated, and that astrological references give positions for an epoch. Vivian Robson's book of 1923 remains the standard astrological reference in English, and its positions are now a century out of date and must be adjusted forward, a fact that catches out readers who take its listed degrees literally.

The names carry their own history. Most of the bright stars used in Western astrology bear Arabic names, Aldebaran, Algol, Fomalhaut, Deneb, Altair, Betelgeuse, because the Greek catalogues were preserved, corrected and extended by Arabic astronomers through the medieval period, and Europe received the stars back with those names attached. Ptolemy's catalogue supplied the planetary natures; Babylonian and Egyptian sky lore supplied the older layer beneath that, including the four so-called Royal Stars at the quarters.

Astronomers, it should be said, use the same stars for entirely different purposes and make no claim of the kind astrologers make.

Connections

Associated With

Johann Bayer

Originated the Bayer designation, the Greek letter naming convention still used across this atlas's fixed star entries.

Source Star Names: Their Lore and MeaningRichard Hinckley Allen

Vivian E. Robson

His 1923 compilation of fixed star delineations remains the most cited modern reference for this discipline's star lore.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Belongs to Tradition

Ancient Egyptian Religion

Egyptian religion tied its year to the heliacal rising of Sirius, which announced the Nile flood, identified Orion with Osiris and Sirius with Isis, and used the decan stars to mark the hours of the night in temple and tomb.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Ancient Greek Religion

Greek practice read the risings and settings of named stars as the farmer's and sailor's calendar, as Hesiod does with the Pleiades, and Greek astronomers gave the constellations the myths and the catalogue that the Western tradition inherited.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Islam

Islamic astronomers named most of the bright stars still in use, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Altair and Deneb, and refined their positions, while the lunar mansions served the calendar and prayer times; judicial astrology drawn from the stars was contested by the jurists.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Mesopotamian Religion

Babylonian scribes compiled the earliest star catalogues and omen series, reading the heliacal risings and the conduct of named stars as messages about the king and the land; this is the layer of astrology from which everything Western descends.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Mithraism

The tauroctony in every mithraeum is accompanied by figures matching a band of constellations, Scorpio, Canis Minor, Hydra, Corvus and Taurus, which is the basis for reading the cult as encoding a star map; the interpretation is influential but not settled.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrian cosmology sets the fixed stars on the side of Ahura Mazda as an ordered army against the planets, which are treated as agents of the hostile spirit, an inversion of the Greek scheme in which the planets carry the meaning.

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Works With

Achernar

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Adhab

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Adhil

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Agena

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Al Thalimain Posterior

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Al Thalimain Prior

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Alcyone

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Aldebaran

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Algol

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Almach

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Alphard

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Alphecca

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Alpheratz

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Alshain

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Altair

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Antares

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Arcturus

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Bellatrix

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Bered

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Betelgeuse

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Bezek

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Bungula

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Canopus

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Capella

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Castor

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Deneb Adige

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Deneb Algedi

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Deneb el Okab

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Denebola

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Dheneb

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

El Nath

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Fomalhaut

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Keff al Salsalat

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Keun Nan Mun

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Kuí Xiù Wǔ

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Markab

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Mirach

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Nembus

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Nunki

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Polaris

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Pollux

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Praesepe

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Procyon

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Ras Alhague

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Regulus

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Rigel

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Sadalsuud

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Scheat

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Sirius

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Spica

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Tarazed

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Thanih Ras al Akab

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Unukalhai

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Vega

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Vertex

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Zosma

The stars carrying astrological attributions.

Source The Fixed Stars and Constellations in AstrologyVivian E. Robson

Sources

1. The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology

Vivian E. Robson, Cecil Palmer, 1923The 1923 edition

Quote, The 1923 edition

The standard astrological reference in English; its listed positions are a century out of date and require adjustment for precession.

View the Source

2. A History of Western Astrology

Nicholas Campion, Continuum, 2009View the Source

Tetrabiblos

Claudius Ptolemy, W. Foulsham, 1900Book 1, on the natures of the fixed stars

Quote, Book 1, on the natures of the fixed stars

The convention of describing a star through a blend of planetary natures descends from Ptolemy.

View the Source

Essays About This Entity (1 essay)

Fixed Stars Root Six Religions' Astrology in the Same Ancient Sky

The discipline itself, six religions, an ancient layer beneath the planets and signs

Read the Essay

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