The fixed stars

Alongside the planets, astrology recognises the fixed stars — so called because they keep their positions relative to one another while the planets move. Their interpretation is one of the oldest layers of the discipline and at the same time one of the most often overdone.

How they are interpreted

Every significant fixed star is credited with a planetary nature, usually a combination of two. Regulus is held to be of the nature of Mars and Jupiter, Algol of Saturn and Jupiter, Spica of Venus and Mercury, Aldebaran of Mars.

The attribution comes from Ptolemy and has been handed down almost unchanged through the Arabic and Latin tradition.

A star is interpreted when a planet or an angle stands close to it. Only the conjunction counts — the usual aspects are not applied to fixed stars.

The orb is small

This is the restriction that popular accounts leave out. Unlike the planets, fixed stars take a very tight orb: usually one degree, up to two for the brightest.

The reason is plain: there are thousands of named stars. With wide orbs, every planet in every chart stands beside one of them — and the statement becomes arbitrary. Anyone who works with fixed stars therefore has to keep the orb tight, or everything confirms itself.

Precession

Fixed stars are fixed only in relation to one another. Against the tropical zodiac they move about one degree in 72 years.

In practice this means: a fixed-star position taken from an old book is wrong today. In Lilly's time Regulus stood at a good 24 degrees of Leo, today at about 0 degrees of Virgo — a difference of six degrees, and with an orb of one degree that is decisive.

Fixed-star positions have to be calculated for the year of birth. A table that gives no epoch is useless.

The stars in use

Practice confines itself to a few dozen: the brightest, and those lying on the ecliptic. The royal stars — Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares, Fomalhaut — stand roughly square to one another and mark the four quarters of the year; they are the most often interpreted.

Algol has the worst reputation in the whole tradition. Here too the same holds: a single star is one testimony among others, and the rule of the tradition stands unchanged — what only one testimony shows is not reported.