The Sun

In astrology the Sun is not one planet among others. It is one of the two lights — together with the Moon — and the whole order of rulerships is built around that pair.

What it means

The living, the centre, the coming into view. The Sun describes what a life tends towards — not the character, but the direction. In the older language: what rules in a person, in the sense of what leads.

It rules a single sign, Leo, is exalted in Aries at 19 degrees, in detriment in Aquarius and in fall in Libra at 19 degrees.

The sect

The Sun leads the day sect. In a day birth — the Sun above the horizon — the planets of its sect, Jupiter and Saturn, are in better condition; in a night birth the same holds for the sect of the Moon.

This is no small matter. Whether someone was born by day or by night changes the interpretation of every single planet, and it is the factor most often passed over in modern practice.

What combustion means

The most important concept attached to the Sun. A planet too close to it can no longer be seen in the sky — and the tradition reads what it stands for as overwhelmed.

Three conditions are distinguished, and they are regularly confused:

Under the beams — within about 15 degrees. The planet is weakened but still able to act.
Combust — within about 8 degrees. The severest weakening of accidental dignity.
Cazimi — within 17 minutes of arc, that is, almost exactly on the degree of the Sun. The tradition reads this as the opposite: the planet sits “in the heart” of the Sun and is extraordinarily strengthened.

The jump from the worst weakening to the greatest strength therefore happens within eight degrees. Anyone working with wide orbs loses the distinction entirely.

The sun sign

What people commonly call “their star sign” is the position of the Sun. It is one factor among many — and it has exactly one advantage over the rest: it needs no time of birth. That, and not its weight in interpretation, is where its career in the newspapers comes from.