AlpheratzThe navel of the horse
Associated with independence and with freedom of movement, and one of the few stars the tradition treats as straightforwardly favourable.
Positions for 2026
The fixed stars
The stars traditional astrology actually uses, at the positions they occupy now. A planet within a degree of one is read as taking on its character, and the orb is tight on purpose.
Where they are now
| Star | Position | Constellation | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpheratz | 14°41′ Aries | Andromeda | 2.1 |
| Mirach | 0°46′ Taurus | Andromeda | 2.1 |
| Hamal | 8°02′ Taurus | Aries | 2 |
| Menkar | 14°41′ Taurus | Cetus | 2.5 |
| AlgolBehenian | 26°32′ Taurus | Perseus | 2.1 |
| AlcyoneBehenian | 0°21′ Gemini | Taurus | 2.9 |
| AldebaranBehenian | 10°09′ Gemini | Taurus | 0.9 |
| Rigel | 17°12′ Gemini | Orion | 0.1 |
| Bellatrix | 21°19′ Gemini | Orion | 1.6 |
| CapellaBehenian | 22°13′ Gemini | Auriga | 0.1 |
| Alnilam | 23°50′ Gemini | Orion | 1.7 |
| Polaris | 28°56′ Gemini | Ursa Minor | 2 |
| Betelgeuse | 29°07′ Gemini | Orion | 0.5 |
| Alhena | 9°28′ Cancer | Gemini | 1.9 |
| SiriusBehenian | 14°26′ Cancer | Canis Major | -1.5 |
| Canopus | 15°18′ Cancer | Carina | -0.7 |
| Castor | 20°36′ Cancer | Gemini | 1.6 |
| Pollux | 23°34′ Cancer | Gemini | 1.1 |
| ProcyonBehenian | 26°09′ Cancer | Canis Minor | 0.4 |
| Alphard | 27°38′ Leo | Hydra | 2 |
| RegulusBehenian | 0°11′ Virgo | Leo | 1.4 |
| Zosma | 11°41′ Virgo | Leo | 2.6 |
| Denebola | 21°59′ Virgo | Leo | 2.1 |
| AlkaidBehenian | 27°18′ Virgo | Ursa Major | 1.9 |
| Vindemiatrix | 10°18′ Libra | Virgo | 2.8 |
| AlgorabBehenian | 13°49′ Libra | Corvus | 3 |
| SpicaBehenian | 24°12′ Libra | Virgo | 1 |
| ArcturusBehenian | 24°36′ Libra | Boötes | -0.05 |
| AlpheccaBehenian | 12°40′ Scorpio | Corona Borealis | 2.2 |
| Agena | 24°09′ Scorpio | Centaurus | 0.6 |
| Toliman | 29°49′ Scorpio | Centaurus | 0 |
| AntaresBehenian | 10°08′ Sagittarius | Scorpius | 1.1 |
| Rasalhague | 22°49′ Sagittarius | Ophiuchus | 2.1 |
| Nunki | 12°45′ Capricorn | Sagittarius | 2.1 |
| VegaBehenian | 15°42′ Capricorn | Lyra | 0 |
| Altair | 2°09′ Aquarius | Aquila | 0.8 |
| Deneb AlgediBehenian | 23°55′ Aquarius | Capricornus | 2.9 |
| Fomalhaut | 4°14′ Pisces | Piscis Austrinus | 1.2 |
| Deneb | 5°42′ Pisces | Cygnus | 1.3 |
| Achernar | 15°42′ Pisces | Eridanus | 0.5 |
| Markab | 23°51′ Pisces | Pegasus | 2.5 |
| Scheat | 29°45′ Pisces | Pegasus | 2.4 |
Tropical longitudes, computed from the Swiss Ephemeris for today rather than read from a printed table. Magnitude is brightness: lower is brighter, and Sirius at -1.5 is the brightest star in the sky.
What each one is associated with
MirachThe girdle of Andromeda
One of the more straightforwardly favourable stars in the tradition. Read as personal charm, as good relations generally, and as help arriving through other people rather than being sought.
HamalThe head of the ram
Marked the spring equinox two thousand years ago, which is why Aries begins where it does even though precession has long since moved the stars on. Read as independence and as force that needs directing.
MenkarThe jaw of the sea monster
Associated with inherited difficulty and with being caught up in something collective rather than personal. The modern reading emphasises material that comes from the family or the era rather than from the person.
AlgolThe most notorious star in the tradition
Traditionally the most difficult star in the sky, and the one mediaeval sources are most lurid about. The modern reading keeps the theme, intensity that is hard to govern, and drops the fatalism, which was never anything but frightening. Algol is a real eclipsing binary that visibly dims every three days, which is likely why it acquired the reputation.
AlcyoneThe brightest of the Pleiades
The Behenian star of the Pleiades cluster. Traditionally associated with sorrow and with vision, an odd pairing that the older sources treat as one thing: seeing more than is comfortable.
AldebaranOne of the four royal stars
A royal star of Persia, marking the eastern quarter. Associated with integrity and with success that holds only while it is kept, which is the condition the tradition attaches to all four royal stars.
RigelThe bright foot of Orion
One of the brightest stars in the sky and traditionally among the most favourable. Associated with technical skill and with ambition that finds a practical outlet rather than staying an intention. Sits near the Gemini and Taurus material where a great deal of the tradition is concentrated.
BellatrixThe Amazon star
Traditionally associated with a forceful, argumentative kind of success, and one of the few stars the older sources treat as specifically favouring women. The name means female warrior.
CapellaThe little goat
Associated with curiosity, restlessness and an appetite for learning that does not settle on one subject.
AlnilamThe centre of Orion's belt
The middle star of the three, and read as public standing that has been built rather than inherited. The belt is the most recognisable asterism in the northern sky, which is not nothing when reading a star about visibility.
PolarisThe pole star, for now
Associated with direction and with a following. Worth knowing that it is only approximately at the pole and only in this era: precession moves the celestial pole in a 26,000 year circle.
BetelgeuseThe shoulder, and a star visibly running out
A red supergiant late enough in its life that it is expected to go supernova, which is not a metaphor the tradition had available but suits what it says: durable success arriving late rather than early. Its brightness genuinely varies, which is unusual for a star this prominent.
AlhenaThe mark, on the foot of the twin
Associated with a talent that shows early and with vulnerability in the feet, which is the kind of specific bodily claim the older tradition made constantly and which is recorded here as tradition rather than as advice.
SiriusThe brightest star in the sky
Associated with fame and with ambition on a large scale. Its heliacal rising marked the Nile flood and the Egyptian new year, which is the oldest documented use of a fixed star for a calendar.
CanopusThe second brightest star in the sky
A navigation star for millennia and still used by spacecraft for attitude reference. Associated with voyages, with knowledge gained by going somewhere, and traditionally with a steadying influence on a difficult chart.
CastorThe mortal twin
Read with Pollux and never quite separately. The tradition gives Castor the sharper and more intellectual character of the pair, and associates it with writing and with sudden reversals of fortune in either direction.
PolluxThe immortal twin
The brighter of the two and read as the more physical and more combative. Older sources are blunt about its difficulty; the modern reading keeps the theme of force needing somewhere to go and drops the rest.
ProcyonBefore the dog
Named for rising just before Sirius. Associated with quick success and with an equally quick loss of it if nothing is consolidated, which is the traditional caution attached to the star rather than a prediction.
AlphardThe solitary one
Named for being the only bright star in a large empty stretch of sky. Associated with intensity of feeling and with a self-sufficiency that the tradition treats as both the strength and the difficulty.
RegulusThe heart of the lion
The royal star of the north, and the one associated most directly with authority and public honour. It crossed from Leo into Virgo in 2012 by precession, which is the clearest illustration available of why a fixed star table has to be computed rather than stored.
ZosmaThe victim star, read as its opposite
The older sources associate it with being harmed. Modern readings, Brady's in particular, turn it towards advocacy: an unusual sensitivity to unfairness, and a tendency to speak for people who cannot. Recorded here as the shift it is rather than presented as the old meaning.
DenebolaThe lion's tail
Associated with going against the current: judgement that runs contrary to the prevailing view, and the consequences of holding it. Sits at the end of Leo, where the tradition tends to place its more awkward material.
AlkaidThe last star of the plough
One of the harsher Behenian stars, associated in the mediaeval sources with destruction. The modern reading keeps the intensity and drops the doom, as with Algol.
VindemiatrixThe grape gatherer
Its rising once marked the start of the vintage, which is where the name comes from. Read as concentration and as work that requires solitude, with the older material adding a widowhood theme this site does not reproduce.
AlgorabThe crow
One of the traditionally difficult stars, associated with cunning and with things acquired by means that do not bear examination. Read as a caution rather than a verdict.
SpicaThe most benign star in the tradition
Consistently the most favourable star in the literature, associated with talent that is recognised and with a kind of protection. It is also the star Hipparchus used to discover precession, which makes it the reason anybody knows the fixed stars move at all.
ArcturusThe bear watcher
Associated with a different kind of success from the royal stars: earned by persistence rather than conferred, and traditionally read as more durable for it.
AlpheccaThe jewel of the crown
Associated with honour and with artistic or scholarly distinction. One of the gentler stars in the Behenian set.
AgenaBeta Centauri, the pointer
One of the two stars that point towards the Southern Cross, and a navigation marker across the southern hemisphere. Read as refinement, good manners and a certain moral seriousness.
TolimanThe nearest star system to our own
Alpha Centauri, four light years away and the closest thing to a neighbour the Sun has. Associated with learning through other people and with the value the tradition places on partnership.
AntaresThe rival of Mars
The royal star of the west, opposite Aldebaran. Its name means "rival of Mars", for its colour. Associated with courage and with obsession, and traditionally read as the most double-edged of the four.
RasalhagueThe head of the serpent bearer
The brightest star of the constellation that gives the recurring thirteenth-sign argument its name. Associated with medicine, with healing, and with knowledge that has to be handled carefully.
NunkiA Babylonian name that survived
One of the few star names in current use that comes directly from Mesopotamian astronomy. Associated with truthfulness, with formal study, and with speech that carries weight.
VegaThe harp star
Associated with artistry, particularly musical, and with charisma. Vega was the pole star around 12,000 BC and will be again, which is precession working on the largest scale a person can be shown.
AltairThe flying eagle
One of the nearest bright stars and part of the Summer Triangle. Associated with boldness, with sudden and decisive action, and with a refusal to be governed that the tradition treats as an asset and a cost in equal measure.
Deneb AlgediThe tail of the goat
Associated with justice, and traditionally read as a star of benefit and harm together, depending on what it is asked to weigh.
FomalhautThe fourth royal star
The royal star of the south. Associated with idealism and with a reputation that depends on staying true to it, the same conditional promise the other three carry.
DenebThe tail of the swan
Extraordinarily luminous and extraordinarily distant, which is why it looks ordinary. Read as a quiet, ingenious sort of ability, and associated with flight in both the literal and figurative senses.
AchernarThe end of the river
The ninth brightest star and the flattest known, spinning fast enough to be visibly oval. Read as success at the end of a long process, and as public standing that arrives after the work rather than during it.
MarkabThe saddle
Read as sustained effort and as the endurance to keep going without much recognition. The name refers to the part of a horse a rider actually sits on, which the tradition has always found apt.
ScheatThe leg of the winged horse
One of the stars the old sources are harshest about, particularly regarding water. The theme kept here is imagination that is not easily governed, and the fatalism is left out, as it is for Algol.
How fixed stars are read
A planet within 1 degree of a star is said to take on its character. That orb is far tighter than any planetary aspect, and deliberately so: at five degrees every chart would have a dozen star contacts and the technique would say nothing.
Latitude is ignored by convention, which is worth knowing because it is odd. Sirius sits nearly forty degrees below the ecliptic, nowhere near where any planet travels, and is still called conjunct a planet on the same longitude.
15 of the 42 here are Behenian, the mediaeval list of stars held to be especially potent. That is not the same as the four royal stars, Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut, and the two lists only partly overlap: Fomalhaut is royal and not Behenian.
A note on the old sources
The mediaeval writing on these stars is the harshest material in astrology. Algol in particular attracts language about violent death that no modern astrologer uses and that this site does not reproduce.
What is above keeps the theme each star carries and drops the fatalism. That is an editorial decision rather than a scholarly one, and it is stated here rather than left for you to notice.
Are any of these on your planets?
Every birth chart on this site checks all 42 against your placements and lists any within a degree. Most charts have one or two and plenty have none.