The Fixed Stars A bright star conjunct a planet in your horoscope, shows a place of protection, a safe haven in your chart. Bright stars show in what areas of life and in what ways you can proceed at your own pace and pursue your own aims, unimpeded and unthreatened. Even when a star has a nominally malefic meaning, when it conjoins a natal planet it means protection, although in this case the protection will be a matter of closing up into oneself instead of reaching out to others (which is how the benefic stars operate through the planets they conjoin). Conjunction with any bright star, whether nominally benefic or malefic, must be deemed to be a favorable influence in a natal horoscope because it symbolizes an easy adjustment to most situations; which in turn tends to encourage or draw easy situations. Exactly which areas of life are affected depends upon the planet and house involved. For example, Prince Charles's Sun conjoins the star Agena on the 5th cusp (children, sports, love affairs), so these are the areas of the Prince's life where he can feel liberated, adventurous, idealistic, experimentative, young (i.e., protected). Similarly, planets conjunct bright stars in the 2nd house grant a facility for dealing with money matters (such as the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction on Regulus in the 2nd house of Bill Gates’ chart); in the 10th house they make for a natural leadership ability and sense of group responsibility; and so forth. The manner in which the benefic influence of the bright stars differs from the benefic influence of – for example – the angles, North Node, Part of Fortune, Venus, or Jupiter is that these other benefic points are not so much places of protection as of opportunity. They don't shield us from the buffeting of circumstances so much as they give us some sort of advantage in coming to grips with them. Where these points fall (if they are well-aspected in the natal chart) we get our lucky breaks in life. By contrast, conjunction with a bright star is not so much a matter of increased luck as it is a matter of repose, ease, self-adequacy and insulation from the cycle of rewards and punishments which drives most of our everyday existence. Conjunction with a bright star endows a planet with a sense of refinement, ultimacy, art-for-art's-sake. If this description sounds vague, it's because the bright stars themselves vary con- siderably in their individual meanings. Some stars are benefic in influence, while others are decidedly malefic. However, even stars which normally produce unhappy events by primary direction must be considered to elevate the action of planets they conjoin in the natal chart, since they expand the scope of the planets outside the humdrum routine of everyday life, and focus the planetary energies on higher, more abstract designs. These interpretations for the twenty brightest stars (all brighter than magnitude 1.5) first give the name of the star, its longitude, and the planet whose nature it most resembles. The longitudes are for January 1, 2000. These longitudes should be corrected for precession by subtracting .014 degrees per year for dates prior to 2000; or adding .014 degrees per year for dates after 2000. The "Radix" entry for each star is a list of ideas associated with that star when it is found within one degree of conjunction with a planet in the horoscope. Since several pairs of bright stars are located very close together (in longitude that is – they're widely separated in the sky), we will only consider conjunctions to Sirius, Spica and Fomalhaut by planets with longitudes less than these stars; and we will only consider conjunctions to Canopus, Arcturus and Deneb by planets with longitudes greater than these stars. That way we can more easily separate out the individual meanings of Sirius versus Canopus, Spica versus Arcturus, and Fomalhaut versus Deneb. To further illustrate a star's meaning, notable people who have this star conjunct a natal planet are listed by planet contacted. Finally, the "By Direction" entry lists the kinds of events which might be expected in the month or two following the conjunction of a bright star with an angle by primary direction. For instructions on how to calculate these directions see the free Primary Directions book download at www.dearbrutus.com => Books. The 20 Brightest Stars with Longitudes as of January 1, 2000 Aldebaran: 9°47' Gemini; nature of Saturn. Radix: benevolent, self-contained, mannerly, punctilious, reasonable, intellectually curious, cool, competent, steadfast. Examples: Sun - Joe Namath, Clint Eastwood, Benny Goodman, Oswald Spengler. Moon - Jack Benny, Benito Mussolini, James Fulbright. Mercury - James Arness, Brigham Young, Rachel Carson, John Dillinger, Maximilian Robespierre. Venus - Julie Christie. Mars - Roy Rogers, Cecil Rhodes, Herman Melville, Guy Lombardo. Jupiter - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Alexander Graham Bell, Brooke Shields, John Jacob Astor. Saturn - Jimi Hendrix. By Direction: Helplessness, oppression; circumstances beyond one's personal control. Rigel: 16° 50' Gemini; nature of Mercury. Radix: Dreamy, aloof, preoccupied, optimistic, self- motivated, outspoken, brash, acerbic, sassy. Examples: Sun - Peter Lorre, Thomas Mann. Moon - Sigmund Freud, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Tennyson, Teilhard de Chardin. Mercury -Ross Perot, James Mason, Jacques Offenbach. Venus - John F. Kennedy, Anthony Quinn, Van Cliburn. Mars - Wayne Newton. Jupiter - Arnold Palmer; Mike Wallace, John Travolta. Saturn - Andrew Jackson, Mary Martin, Bernard Malamud, Arthur Rimbaud. By Direction: Enthusiasm; birth of new skills and interests. Capella: 21°52' Gemini; nature of Venus. Radix: Refined sensibilities, aesthetic (effete); dilettante; maintains own and distance; prefers solitude (above-it-all, snooty). Examples: Sun -George Bush pere, Jacques Yves Cousteau, Richard Strauss. Moon - Brooke Shields. Mercury -Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks, Bob Dylan. Venus - Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Dag Hammarskjold, Ralph Bellamy. Mars - Martin Luther King, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell. Jupiter - Paul 5imon, Art Garfunkel, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Marquis de Sade. Saturn - Mick Jagger, Diana Ross, Joe Frazier, John Denver. By Direction: Emotional turmoil, sticky entanglements with others. Betelgeuze: 28°45’ Gemini; nature of the sun. Radix: Easygoing, sociable, gregarious, alert, ironic, sardonic, entertaining, earnest, upright; intent and determined without making waves. Examples: Sun -Richard Boone, Lillian Hellman, Guy Lombardo. Moon - Doris Day, Alan Bean. Mercury - Edward Heath, Ian Fleming, Henry Cabot Lodge II. Mars - Barbra Streisand; John Barrymore, Sean Connery, Henry Kissinger; Anna Pavlova. Jupiter - Ann Landers, Babe Ruth, Charles Dickens, Samuel Goldwyn, A. Conan Doyle. Saturn - Ella Fitzgerald; Billie Holiday, Alan Watts. By Direction: Pause for reflection; shed illusions and face reality. Sirius: l4°06' Cancer; nature of Mercury. Radix: Sociable, conversational, makes a good impression, deft at handling people, businesslike, well-organized, in-charge (impatient, stickler for details). Examples: Sun – George W. Bush, G. Pompidou, Gertrude Lawrence, Henry Cabot Lodge II, Rube Goldberg. Moon - Anne Bancroft. Mercury - Robert Graves, Immanuel Velikovsky, Pearl S. Buck. Venus - Jimmy Stewart, Nelson Rockefeller, Tony Bennett. Mars - Pablo Picasso. Jupiter - Sean Connery, Helmut Schmidt, Rachel Carson. Saturn - Glenn Ford. By Direction: Turning over a new leaf; starting a new life or career. Canopus: 14°58' Cancer; nature of Saturn. Radix: Serious, morose, pessimistic, critical, cynical, heavyweight. Examples: Sun - Cecil Rhodes, Ringo Starr, Rod Serling, Geraldine Page. Moon - Annie Besant. Mercury - Carl Jung, Jack Dempsey, Erle Stanley Gardner, Stanley Kubrick. Venus - Benjamin Harrison. Mars - Isadora Duncan, George Gershwin, Lord Byron. Jupiter - Bobby Fisher, Margot Fonteyn, Lynn Redgrave. Saturn - Henrik Ibsen. By Direction: Limitation, restriction, heavy emotional pressure; imposed upon by others; anguish. Pollux: 23°14' Cancer; nature of Mercury. Radix: Fresh, naive, impetuous, exuberant, open, analytical, curious. Examples: Sun - Gerald Ford, Jerry Rubin, Ginger Rogers, Ingmar Bergman, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Moon - Robert Cummings, H.R. Haldeman, Earl Warren. Mercury - Lilian Hellman. Venus - Joe Namath, Buddy Hackett, Fred MacMurray, Benito Mussolini, Karl Marx, Jay Gould. Mars - Albert Camus, Willy Brandt, Vivien Leigh. Jupiter - Susan Hayward, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Graves, Paul Gauguin. Saturn - Diane Keaton, Rex Stout, David Ben Gurion, Diego Rivera. By Direction: New worlds to conquer; new perspectives and responsibilities; coming into one's own. Procyon: 25°48' Cancer; nature of the Moon. Radix: Emotionally centered, in touch with innermost feelings, cautious, shrewd, independent, aloof; unflagging hopefulness, faith and endurance. Examples: Sun - James Cagney, Donald Sutherland, Art Linkletter, John Glenn, Mary Baker Eddy. Moon - William Holden, Pierre Charles Baudelaire. Mercury - O.J. Simpson, Aldous Huxley, Calvin Coolidge. Venus - Fidel Castro, Stan Laurel, Lena Horne, Nelson Eddy. Mars -Audrey Hepburn, Mary Martin, Jacques Cousteau, Yves Saint Laurent, Henry Ford II. Jupiter - Jimi Hendrix, Larry Flynt. Saturn - Goldie Hawn, Henry Winkler, Marc Chagall, Jack Paar. By Direction: Intense, emotional; things come to a head; calls for hard work and dedicated effort. Regulus: 29°50' Leo; nature of the Sun. Radix: Proud, dignified, regal bearing, grand manner (expects to be served), genial, unvarnished, unabashed.