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A. Vertcliff · Fixed Star Astrology

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5 astrological degrees of the hero ✦ Which hero’s journey is written in your chart?

The old sky is full of heroes, and some of its brightest stars sit on their bodies: a side, a foot, a shoulder, a head. Each star keeps the gift its hero was remembered for. Here are five from my Book of Fixed Stars, each with a life that carries it.

Mirfak, 2°05′ Gemini, lies at the side of Perseus, who freed Andromeda from the sea monster. It brings courage that rises when someone else is in danger. Audrey Hepburn, with Mercury on Mirfak, danced in secret evenings that raised money for the Dutch resistance as a teenager, and later became UNICEF’s voice for children.

Rigel, 16°50′ Gemini, is the forward foot of Orion, the step the whole figure rests on. It brings the first step, taken while others still weigh the crossing. Thomas Mann, with the Sun on Rigel, did not return to Germany in 1933 and rebuilt his life twice, in Switzerland and then in America.

Bellatrix, 20°57′ Gemini, is Latin for the female warrior, the Amazon star. It brings composure on contested ground. Margaret Bourke-White, with Mars on Bellatrix, was the first woman allowed to work in the combat zones of the Second World War.

Canopus, 14°58′ Cancer, carries the name of the helmsman who steered the fleet home from Troy and died on a far shore. It brings a course held across the long crossing. Lord Byron, with Mars on Canopus, sailed to fight for Greek independence and died at Missolonghi.

Ras Algethi, 16°09′ Sagittarius, is the head of the kneeling Heracles. It brings a labour held long after others let go. Albert Schweitzer, with Venus on Ras Algethi, kept his hospital at Lambaréné from 1913 until his death there in 1965.

Do you have one of these degrees in your chart? Tell me which hero you carry, and how it shows up in your life.

All five are written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that finds your own stars. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #natalchart #astrology #mythology by @a.vertcliff

23°13′ Cancer ✦ Who would you give half of your forever to?

Some loves ask for more than our time. They ask for a share of what makes us who we are, and a few people give it without counting.

To its people, Pollux brings a loyalty that spends its own advantage on the ones they love, and a strength that takes the blow and stays standing. Those born under it often come back from a loss wiser and steadier, keeping their force quiet until someone needs it. In return the star asks them to look at the bargains they live by, so that what they give stays mutual, and to remember that enduring is a gift rather than a duty.

Its myth is one of the tenderest in the sky. Leda bore twin sons with different fathers: Castor, the mortal horseman, and Pollux, the son of Zeus, born immortal. The brothers were inseparable. When Castor was killed, Pollux would not keep an immortality his brother was shut out of, and Zeus let them share it, so the twins spend their days together, half on Olympus and half in the dark.

Albert Camus was born with Mars on Pollux. He grew up in a poor quarter of Algiers, raised by a mother who was nearly deaf and could not read, and his devotion to her runs through his life and his books. His last novel, The First Man, was found unfinished after his death, and at its head he had written a dedication to her: “To you who will never be able to read this book.”

Do you have Pollux in your chart? If you were born around 15–16 July, or a planet of yours stands near 23° Cancer, this star is yours. Tell me in the comments, and share how it shows up in your life.

You can read the whole of Pollux in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that finds your own stars. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #natalchart #astrology #cancer by @a.vertcliff

Do the fixed stars have nothing more to say?

I recently heard that with fixed stars, curiosity will outpace the information available. I see it differently. Each star carries a blend of myths kept through millennia, and culture after culture that looked up added something of its own. Algol was the head of Medusa to the Greeks, the Demon’s Head to the Arabs, and a star of the Great Mausoleum to the Chinese.

The stars also carry the prophecies people read in them, and some of these are older than horoscopes themselves. The Egyptians watched for Sirius rising at dawn to know the Nile was about to flood, more than a thousand years before the oldest horoscope we have was written in Babylon.

Each myth is an abundance of knowledge, and a lesson in how to live the powers its star gives. The stories run out for those who merely hear. For those who listen, and contemplate rather than merely look, they keep opening.

That is why I composed A Book of Fixed Stars: more than a hundred stars, each with its own degree, its myths, the way different cultures saw it at different times, and the wisdom it was made to carry. My goal is to transcribe them all and let them be heard again, and the research keeps growing.

Have you found one of these stars in your chart? Tell me which one, and how it shows up in your life. I would love to read it in the comments.

I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #natalchart #astrology #mythology by @a.vertcliff

Born in Scorpio season? One of these five stars may be yours.

Through Scorpio season the Sun passes a row of bright fixed stars, and on certain days it stands exactly on one of them. Born on one of those days, you carry that star on your Sun. Five from my Book, with the dates, give or take a day depending on your birth year.

Gacrux, 6°44′ Scorpio, around 29–31 October. The head of the Southern Cross, the fixed point sailors steered home by. It brings a centre that is not argued with. Bob Ross, Sun on Gacrux, gave millions a frame to grow in, one happy little tree at a time.

Acrux, 11°52′ Scorpio, around 3–5 November. The foot of the Cross, where the weight rests. It brings a faith others steer by, and a feeling for ceremony. Anna Wintour, Sun on Acrux, has been the measure of a whole industry for nearly four decades.

Zubeneschamali, 19°22′ Scorpio, around 11–12 November. The northern scale, the one star people have called green. It brings fortune of an unclassifiable shade and ambition with a long fuse. Leonardo DiCaprio, Sun on Zubeneschamali, waited more than twenty years from his first nomination to the Oscar.

Unukalhai, 22°04′ Scorpio, around 14–15 November. The heart of the Serpent, the creature that sheds its skin and is born anew. It brings renewal as a craft: a finished self left behind, a new one grown. Condoleezza Rice, Sun on Unukalhai, trained as a concert pianist, left the piano to study the Soviet Union, and rose to Secretary of State.

Bungula, 29°29′ Scorpio, around 21–22 November. The forefoot of Chiron the wise centaur, the nearest star to our Sun. It brings friendship as an estate: fortunes that travel through people who wish you well. Goldie Hawn, Sun on Bungula, has kept a love of more than forty years.

Is your birthday on this list? Tell me which star is yours, and how it shows up in your life.

All five are written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that shows your own stars. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #scorpio #birthchart #astrologylover by @a.vertcliff

0°00′ Gemini · Alcyone

Do you see what others pretend not to? Alcyone is the eldest of the Seven Sisters, and the star of sight that carries a cost.

To its people, Alcyone brings an accuracy about other people that most of them have had since childhood: they register what is actually happening in a room rather than what is being presented, the anxiety behind a cheerful manner. Their help lands because it fits the real trouble, and they are often the person a friend goes to first. What the star asks is that all this noticing be given somewhere to go, in art, in writing, in a well-timed word, because sight with no outlet turns into a heaviness with no name. It asks them to protect the sensitivity rather than blunt it, to say plainly when an impression is only an impression, and to rest the eyes.

The myth says why. The Pleiades are seven sisters pursued until the gods set them in the sky, and traditions far apart from one another describe them the same way: as weeping. The old texts say the star opens the eyes and gives cause for grief, which is one observation, not two: to see clearly is also to see what hurts. Yet in more than one old story the sisters are dancing: when you see all of it and cannot look away, “alors on danse”. Its nature is the Moon with Mars.

Bette Davis was born with Mars on Alcyone. The eyes that gave a song its name belonged to an actress who refused to play women as they were supposed to appear and played them as they were, and who saw through the studios that tried to manage her.

Alcyone lights up when one of your planets reaches it, at birth or as they travel through your life. The Sun crosses it each year around the 21st of May.

Have you found Alcyone in your chart? Tell me in the comments how it has shown up in your life, I would love to read your experience.

Alcyone is written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that shows whether it stands in your chart. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #gemini #natalchart #astrology by @a.vertcliff

Have you ever ignored the instructions and still come home with exactly what you wanted?

Algorab, the raven’s wing, stands at 13° Libra, and the story behind it is told by Ovid. Apollo was preparing a solemn feast for Jupiter, and he sent his raven with a gilded bowl to fetch fresh water from a running spring. On the way the raven came upon a fig tree whose fruit was not yet ripe, and instead of flying on, he settled in its branches and waited, day after day, until the figs grew sweet. When he had eaten his fill, he remembered his errand, caught a water snake in his claws and flew back late with a story ready: the snake, he said, had been lying in the spring and kept him from the water.

Apollo, the god of prophecy, saw through it at once. He decreed that the raven would drink from no spring until the figs were ripe, and he set all three in the sky together, the Raven, the Water Snake and the Cup, with the cup just beyond the raven’s reach for as long as the stars turn.

It seems a curious punishment to me. The raven never wanted Apollo’s cup; he wanted the figs, and he had them. And for an errand gone astray, he was given a whole constellation of his own, shining every spring below Spica.

Algorab stands at the height of my own sky, and like the raven, I have a tendency to bring back something different from what was expected, because I change the route many times on the way to a destination that was meant to be settled.

My book reads Algorab as a resourceful mind with an eye for the value others overlook, one that finds its own way to what it wants. It was the excuse, not the figs, that angered Apollo, and that is the star’s lesson too: follow your own way, and simply be honest about it.

Elvis Presley was born with Mars on Algorab, and found value where the respectable were not looking.

Algorab is written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that shows whether it stands in your chart. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #natalchart #mythology #astrology by @a.vertcliff

Can the fixed stars describe the future?

They can, and the old astrologers used them for exactly that. A fixed star in a birth chart describes a gift that stays with you; the question is when it speaks, and there are several ways of finding out. Here are six of them.

Transits. When a moving planet reaches the degree of a star in your chart, the star lights up for a season. The Sun crosses each star once a year, Saturn once in about thirty, and each visit has its own weight.

Primary directions. The sky keeps turning after the moment of birth, and each star comes to your Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant or nadir at an age that can be calculated in advance. This is the main method behind the timeline in my full reading, which gives the age at which each of your stars arrives.

Progressed Sun. After birth the Sun is moved forward one degree for every year of life, and on its way it meets the stars of your chart one by one, so a star thirty degrees ahead of your Sun speaks at about thirty. The timeline uses this as well.

Solar return. Each year the Sun comes back to its birth degree, and the chart of that moment describes the year ahead. A star standing on one of its angles colours the whole year. Next year my own solar return Midheaven reaches Capella.

Eclipses. An eclipse, or a new Moon, falling on a star’s degree is read for the months that follow for a life or a nation, and astrologers have watched eclipses on Regulus and Algol for centuries.

Parans. A star rising together with a planet on your birth day speaks in the early years, one culminating in the middle years, one setting in the later years, so the stars of your day arrive in order through a life. The calculator in my Book finds them for you.

Which of your stars is being touched this year? If you have found one, tell me in the comments how it has shown up.

All of this begins with knowing your stars, and they are written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that shows which ones stand in your chart.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #natalchart #predictiveastrology #astrology by @a.vertcliff

7°27′ Virgo · Thuban

Were you born under the forgotten North Star? When the Great Pyramid was built, some four and a half thousand years ago, the still point of the sky was not Polaris but Thuban, a quiet white star in the tail of the Dragon. For about two thousand years the whole sky wheeled around it.

To its people, Thuban brings the vigilance of a guardian who does not tire, a penetrating mind that reads motives and structures others miss, an understanding of what harms and therefore of how harm is undone, and a quiet authority that others take their bearings from. In return it asks them to share the watch, to put their dark sight to work for someone, to handle sharp things with care, and to let the pole move when the sky has turned.

The myth says why. Draco is Ladon, the many-voiced serpent who coiled around the tree of golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides and did not sleep, until Heracles came for the apples. The Arabic name thu'ban means a great serpent, and a Mesopotamian name for the star was Judge of Heaven. Its nature is Saturn with Mars.

Warren Buffett was born with the Sun on Thuban. He bought his first shares at eleven and for some sixty years kept watch over Berkshire Hathaway with a patience that let others steer by him, the sleepless guardian of gold almost to the letter.

Thuban lights up when one of your planets reaches it, at birth or as they travel through your life. The Sun crosses it each year around the 30th of August.

Have you found Thuban in your chart? Tell me in the comments how it has shown up in your life, I would love to read your experience.

Thuban is written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that shows whether it stands in your chart. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #virgo #natalchart #astrology by @a.vertcliff

Do you really need to know your fixed stars? If you love astrology and already know your chart well, but still have your questions — your answers may lie among the stars.

Each star carries a myth, sometimes several of them, coming from different cultures and meeting at one point. And with the personal set of stars in your own chart, that unique set of tales becomes a song about you. Imagine recognising yourself in the old tales, and the wisdom you can draw from them.

The stars don’t replace the meaning of houses and planets — they highlight what is already there, and they add the one thing planets alone can’t give: the colour, the particular story of how, the clues written into the myth.

The star’s myth is the key to your own natal configuration.

The free Book of Fixed Stars on my website tells the myth behind more than a hundred of them, with a calculator that finds yours. Comment STARS and I’ll send you the link — and follow me, I post a new fixed star every time.

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #natalchart #mythology #astrology by @a.vertcliff

♥️Why do people fall for you so fast?

Charm has more than one shape, and the fixed stars describe several of them. Here are five stars from my Book, five different ways of being easy to love, each with a well-known person born with that star on a planet.

Vega, 15°19′ Capricorn, is the Maker. Its people persuade through what they make rather than through force, and the attractiveness follows the work. Dolly Parton, born with Mercury on Vega, has written thousands of songs and is adored by a whole state.

Almach, 14°14′ Taurus, is the Jewel. Fortune arrives through people here, in pairings and welcomes that no one had to arrange. Audrey Hepburn, with the Sun on Almach, carried a grace that was welcome before it ever performed.

Mirach, 0°24′ Taurus, is the Warm Centre: companionship as a way of building, and a welcome that eases a room the moment its person enters. Marilyn Monroe was born with Venus on Mirach, and the camera never once missed that warmth.

Diadem, 8°57′ Libra, is the jewel in Berenice’s offered hair, and its grace disarms without effort: the charm the old books called great and personal, kept honest by a vow and an errand. Betty White, with Saturn on Diadem, spent eighty years on screen, and the country never stopped loving her.

Sadachbia, 6°43′ Pisces, is the Quiet Charm, the lucky star of the tents: grace kept without display, and the gift of finding what is hidden. George Harrison, with the Sun on Sadachbia, was the quiet Beatle, and the one people kept close.

Which of these is yours? Tell me in the comments, and if you have already found one of these stars in your chart, I would love to read how it shows up in your life.

All five are written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that shows which ones stand in your chart. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #natalchart #birthchart #astrology by @a.vertcliff

28°45′ Gemini · Betelgeuse

Are you stronger than you let people see? Betelgeuse is the star of strength applied and honour that lasts. The old authors, harsh with nearly every star, give this one martial honour, preferment and wealth, and its people are often mild in manner: the force shows in the work, not in the voice.

To its people, Betelgeuse brings fortune that arrives while the arm is in use: the opening appears mid-task, the ally is met on the job, and the luck rarely visits them at rest. What they become known for outlasts the doing of it, their undertakings have a natural size to them, and like the star itself, which dims and returns, they come back from setbacks that would close another person’s account. In return it asks them to name what the luck is for, to keep one small thing done faithfully while the large works swell, to use their strength as leverage rather than force, and to let a dim season pass before they judge their life by it.

The myth says why. Betelgeuse marks the shoulder of Orion the hunter, the point where his strength is applied, the joint that bears the club. The name descends from the Arabic yad al-jauzā’, the hand of the great figure standing in these stars, and the sense is the same. It is a red supergiant that breathes: in the winter of 2019 it dimmed to a third of its light, and came back. Its nature is Mars with Mercury.

Coco Chanel was born with Mars on Betelgeuse. From an orphanage and no inheritance at all, she built a house by force of hand, and her name has outlasted every rival of her era.

Betelgeuse lights up when one of your planets reaches it, at birth or as they travel through your life. The Sun crosses it each year around the 19th of June.

Have you found Betelgeuse in your chart? Tell me in the comments how it has shown up in your life, I would love to read your experience.

Betelgeuse is written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that shows whether it stands in your chart. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #gemini #natalchart #astrology by @a.vertcliff

21°51′ Gemini · Capella

Is abundance in a chart only a matter of Jupiter and Venus? The horn of plenty itself hangs on a fixed star, and its nature, by the old astrologers, is Mars with Mercury.

To its people, Capella brings a curiosity that discouragement does not wear down, an inventiveness that joins fields others keep apart, and a road into their work that few have taken. Many of them, looking back, find they gave several people their start without attaching much importance to it at the time. What the star does not supply is the urge to finish: it hands out beginnings freely, and the plenty becomes real only when one of them is carried to its end.

The myth says why. Capella means the little she-goat. She is Amalthea, who suckled the infant Zeus while he was hidden from his father, and whose broken horn became the cornucopia, the horn of plenty that refills as fast as it is emptied. The Charioteer carries her on his shoulder. Two ideas descend from her: nourishment given to something that will outgrow the giver, and abundance produced by a break.

Angelina Jolie was born with Mercury on Capella. Actress, director, UN Special Envoy for refugees and mother of six, hers is a life that keeps opening new doors, and the gift for other people’s beginnings shows plainly in it.

Capella lights up when one of your planets reaches it, at birth or as they travel through your life. The Sun crosses it each year in the middle of June.

Have you found Capella in your chart? Tell me in the comments how it has shown up in your life, I would love to read your experience.

Capella is written out in full in my free Book of Fixed Stars, with the calculator that shows whether it stands in your chart. I share one fixed star at a time here, so follow along and you will meet them one by one.

Comment STARS and I will send you the book ✦

#fixedstars #fixedstarastrology #gemini #natalchart #astrology by @a.vertcliff