The following is shared from cafeastrology.com
Thursday, JUNE 9
Today’s Libra Moon is gracious. We seek harmony, but our attempts to achieve it can seem to create conflict this morning. We’re especially sensitive to areas of our lives (and especially our relationships) that have come out of balance. With a Moon-Mars opposition, there can be some impatience and combativeness. We can be quick to react. This transit stirs our need for action, activity, and challenges, which can feel at odds with our emotional orientation.
The Moon’s trine to the Gemini Sun later today is more cooperative. We’re idealistic, feeling readily connected to one another or to our ideas and plans.
An explanation of the symbols can be read at astro.com
On tonight’s stream, I plan to look into the fixed star Castor which we see conjunct - or aligned with - Jupiter in Cancer. The houses on Koand’s chart above may be inaccurate as I do not have s verified birth time.
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What is Castor?
Castor is the second-brightest object in the zodiac constellation of Gemini. It has the Bayer designation a Geminorum, which is Latinised to Alpha Geminorum and abbreviated Alpha Gem or α Gem. With an apparent visual magnitude of 1.93, it is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Castor appears singular to the naked eye, but it is actually a sextuple star system organized into three binary pairs. Although it is the 'α' (alpha) member of the constellation, it is fainter than 'β' (beta) Geminorum, Pollux.
Castor of a part of the constellation Gemini. What influence can we expect from this constellation?
An in depth explanation of Castor is here:
The astrological influences of the constellation Gemini given by Manilius:
“The arms to shoulders joined are accounted to the Twins” [Manilius, p.119]
“From the Twins come less laborious callings and a more agreeable way of life, provided by varied song and voices of harmonious tone, slender pipes, the melodies inborn in strings and the words fitted thereto: those so endowed find even work a pleasure. They would banish the arms of war, the trumpet’s call, and the gloom of old age: theirs is a life of ease and unfading youth spent in the arms of love. They also discover paths to the skies, complete a survey of the heavens with numbers and measurements, and outstrip the flight of the stars: nature yields to their genius, which it serves in all things. So many are the accomplishments of which the Twins are fruitful.” [Manilius, Astronomica, 1st century AD. p.281.]
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What about the influence of Castor?
Castor is a binary star, bright white and pale white, situated on the head of the Northern Twin. It represents Castor, the mortal one of the twins, famous for his skill in taming and managing horses. Sometimes called Apollo, and symbolically named A Ruler yet to Come. [Robson, p.154.]
According to Ptolemy it is of the nature of Mercury; to Wilson, Simmonite and Pearce, of Mars, Venus and Saturn; and, to Alvidas, of the Moon, Mars and Uranus. It gives distinction, a keen intellect, success in law and many travels, fondness for horses, sudden fame and honor but often followed by loss of fortune and disgrace, sickness, trouble and great affliction. Its natives are said to be mischievous and prone to violence. [Robson, p.154.]
Associated with guile and duplicity. [Larousse Encyclopedia of Astrology].
Castor has specific associations with breaking an arm or leg and this may come from the Ptolemaic classification of Castor as a Mercury star, which is much associated with the limbs generally. Castor is also noted in natal astrology for proneness to mental breakdowns and neurotic distress. People with this star prominent and well aspected are exceptionally gifted intellectually. Where these geniuses often need help is in not letting their concern for others go ‘over the top’. [The Living Stars, Dr. Eric Morse, p.43.]
Castor is influenced by Mercury and has a blend of Jupiter in it. Linked with the Moon or Mercury, it has the effect of such people being blessed with a good nature and fine morals. It is also supposed to convey refined manners. A conjunction with the Sun or Mars will make for energetic characteristics and a certain tendency for satire and cynicism, depending on the position of Mercury or Mars in the chart as a whole. [Fixed Stars and Their Interpretation, Elsbeth Ebertin, 1928, p.40.]
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How does Castor manifest aligned with Jupiter?
With Jupiter: Philosophical and occult interests, loss through law, speculation or travel, danger of judicial sentence. [Robson, p.155.]
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What about the mythology of Castor and Pollux?
Castor and Pollux were the offspring of Leda and the Swan, under which disguise Jupiter had concealed himself. Leda gave birth to an egg, from which sprang the twins. Helen, so famous afterwards as the cause of the Trojan war, was their sister.
When Theseus and his friend Pirithous had carried off Helen from Sparta, the youthful heroes Castor and Pollux, with their followers, hasted to her rescue. Theseus was absent from Attica, and the brothers were successful in recovering their sister.
Castor was famous for taming and managing horses, and Pollux for skill in boxing. They were united by the warmest affection, and inseparable in all their enterprises. They accompanied the Argonautic expedition. During the voyage a storm arose, and Orpheus prayed to the Samothracian gods, and played on his harp, whereupon the storm ceased and stars appeared on the heads of the brothers. From this incident, Castor and Pollux came afterwards to be considered the patron deities of seamen and voyagers (One
of the ships in which St. Paul sailed was named the Castor and Pollux. See Acts xxviii.II.),
After the Argonautic expedition, we find Castor and Pollux
engaged in a war with Idas and Lynceus. Castor was slain, and Pollux, inconsolable for the loss of his brother, besought Jupiter to be permitted to give his own life as a ransom for him. Jupiter so far consented as to allow the two brothers to enjoy the boon of life alternately, passing one day under the earth and the next in the heavenly abodes. According to another form of the story, Jupiter rewarded the attachment of the brothers by placing them among the stars as Gemini, the Twins.
They received divine honors under the name of Dioscuri (sons of Jove). They were believed to have appeared occasionally in later times, taking part with one side or the other, in hard-fought fields, and were said on such occasions to be mounted on magnificent white steeds. Thus, in the early history of Rome, they are said to have assisted the Romans at the battle of Lake Regillus, and after the victory a temple was erected in their honor on the spot where they appeared.
Macaulay, in his Lays of Ancient Rome, thus alludes to the
legend:
"So like they were, no mortal
Might one from other know;
White as snow their armor was,
Their steeds were white as snow.
Never on earthly anvil
Did such rare armor gleam,
And never did such gallant steeds
Drink of an earthly stream.
. . . . . . . . .
"Back comes the chief in triumph
Who in the hour of fight
Hath seen the great Twin Brethren
In harness on his right.
Safe comes the ship to haven
Through billows and through gales,
If once the great Twin Brethren
Sit shining on the sails."
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Castor is said to have the character of Jupiter / Mercury:
The Jupiter-Mercury star group: The north scale, Castor
With a Jupiter-Mercury Star prominent in your chart, you might be educated, political and industrious, you might love music and symmetry, and you’ll likely be popular. You may also be multitalented or a jack of all trades, and “full of great luck.”
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More about Castor:
Castor, Alpha Geminorum, 20°22' Cancer, the star on the head of the Western Twin (in capite Gemini praecedentis), or Apollo, from Ras-Algeuze: according to Ptolemy, Castor is of the nature of Mercury, according to Leowicz, of the nature of Mercury and Jupiter, and according to Julevno, it is of the nature of Mars, Venus, and Saturn, and it gives a keen intellect, distinction, success in laws and publishing, honours, and fame. However, reversals of fortune are sudden because Castor often takes back what it offers. When it is not well-aspected, Castor may turn the individual into a pernicious and violent person, according to Robson.
The object is to study how these astrological concepts pertain to our own natal charts so we can determine if the consensus is correct in our findings. Castor is conjunct the IC of my natal chart.
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What if Castor is aligned with an angle on the chart like the IC?
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The astrological method of using fixed stars
This method has the longest history and dates to the dawn of Western astrology. It has been in use for approximately 2000 years. There are several astrological methods for using fixed stars in the natal chart.
Vivian Robson, W J Tucker, and Diana K Rosenberg are three twentieth-century astrologers who published books on using stars with the natal chart. But for this article I’m going to take you back to the beginning of the astrological tradition and look at the ancient astrologer Anonymous of 379. His textbook survived the ravages of time, but the title page is missing so we don’t know his name. Let’s call him Anon379.
Living in Rome and writing in 379ce, Anon379 noticed that sometimes a person’s life would seemingly transcend what was indicated by their birth chart. In his effort to understand how and why, he noticed that certain bright fixed stars, when combined with any of their natal planets or angles, like the Ascendant and Medium Coeli (Midheaven/MC), produced a significant rise in stature.
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When a fixed star is conjunct the Ascendant or MC it indicates good fortune at an early age. When conjunct the Descendant (point opposite the ascendant), prosperity comes around middle age, or through marriage. When conjunct the Imum Coeli (IC), Anon379 says “great luck will arrive in old age.” In addition, if one of these stars is on the Ascendant, “life will be glorious, practical, leadership-oriented, busy with many pursuits, and bountiful in resources.
Click here to learn why stars of a Gemini constellation are in the sign of Cancer in the charts posted above.