The Royal Stars of Persia (Part Three): Antares

'Somewhere on the John Musgrave Heritage Path near Torquay

 in Devon, England',' the photographer's words.
And apparently he knows something about life,
since thought we know where we may know where
 we are in specific terms, we don't always know where we

 are in the grand scheme of things.

 (photo credit Alex July 2006)

 

- Part Three of an Ongoing Series -

Considered to be the signature star of the Libra season  ingress (even though it’s now part of the constellation we know as Scorpio), Antares is the ‘Watcher in the West.’
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Since ‘west’ in the horoscope is either the entire right side of the chart (as in west-ern) or the Descendant as that point ‘in the west’ where the Sun goes down, all things west refer to what we’ve learned.

And what we are going to do based on what we’ve learned.

And the reactions we are about to receive given what we've just done, said or left undone.
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Known long ago as Satevis, Antares is about 550 light years from Earth – a goodly ways away. It’s also fifteen to eighteen times the size of our Sun.

That’s one very big star.
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 Redgiant Antares compared to orange star Arcturus

 by Skatebiker (October 2006)

That Antares has become so important to us here on Earth probably has to do with several things, among which is the fact that it’s literally one of the brightest stars in our sky.

There's something to be said for being noticeable...and notable, yes. But in metaphysical terms, these ideas become akin to 'important' or 'vital.' And in many senses, this is very much what what Antares is, since like the other three stars securely known in astrology as 'royal' it once gave humans a way to know that the change of seasons had come.

As for its lore, Antares star-lore is everywhere. In Indian astrology, to be born with Sun conjunct Antares is said to contribute power to a nativity - though obviously whether that would work to the native's betterment or detriment would be read through a combination of factors. In keeping with Antares as the Alpha star of constellation Scorpio, this star is also read as a sign of  intuition and wariness.

Which yes, could turn out to be a suspicious nature. Even paranoia, should someone be born with Antares' position in affliction.

('Affliction' in astrology means badly place by house or by involvement with other planets or celestial bodies.)

As for other cultures, people in China join with native peoples in Australia in seeing Antares as the ‘heart’ or ‘breast’ of the scorpion, and therefore - again, depending on modifying factors - a signature of someone able to 'sting' (or even kill - as we might see in the chart of a soldier). But with this comes a great strength of being...both these cultures see Antares as the signature of a survivor.

 Scorpiusurania from Urania's Mirror (1825)

Positioned currently at 9 Sagittarius (funny how these fixed stars get around, isn’t it?) Antares carries the intensity which western astrologers think of as typical of Scorpio.

And for those of your who have eaten your celestial Wheaties, you probably realize that being at 9 Sagittarius puts Aldebaran in opposition to Aldebaran (the test of integrity) at 9 Gemini, right?

(Take two royal stars from petty cash.)

In point of fact, Aldebaran and Antares travel as a pair. This makes sense once we think about Antares' astrological requirement to focus on how we go about doing things.

This gives us Antares opposition Aldebaran as a complete statement: integrity of focus. And when that need to check-and-balance our Self gets out of balance, Antares becomes the obsession which inevitably leads to our acting with the kind of lack of integrity which gets us into trouble.

The ironic quality here comes from Antares actually being part of constellation Scorpio. There's an old saying in metaphysics which goes like this: that we most fear we will manifest. Why? Because life wants us to learn that we can survive.

Antares against Aldebaran is the functionality of all which goes into our fears of 'that thing' (or those things) which inevitably...somehow...bring about the one thing we most fear.

Remember Roosevelt? "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Roosevelt's chart speaks volumes...

 Franklin D Roosevelt

January 30, 1882 NS - 8 45 PM LMT - Hyde Park NY

(Aries Wheel)

 Franklin D Roosevelt - detail

 

With the North Node being what we should do, Antares conjunct FDRs Jupiter-ruled North node with the ruling a Taurus Jupiter conjunct Neptune is a perfect image of someone who says we must move ahead (Jupiter) without thinking of our own comfort or security (Neptune in Taurus).

With Antares not having moved but two degrees from where it was in Roosevelt's day we continue to need to find in ourselves the courage to try, the willingness to endure a few setbacks and the determination to find the right course of action or choices - if necessary by trial and error. That would be the Sagittarian way of doing things. Sagittarius always asks that we try out theories out. And when one works, we should regroup, reformulate and try again.

Antares in Sagittarius is thus the process of learning how to succeed through being a survivor. What you survive may or may not be a war...it may be high school,  or a bad marriage, or poverty, or some terrible loss.

And let's face it - sometimes what we have to 'survive' is our own tendency to shoot ourselves in the foot. Some of us tend to rush, some of us tend to be headstrong and unwilling to listen to others - there are a million things we can do which in fact feel like an act of survival in the moment which by and by reveal that we were merely obsessed.

It's as easy to be obsessed with our own thoughts and our own desire to be 'in the know' or that 'bright star' everybody admires...and to end up undermining our own goals and efforts because in reality, our assumptions or presumptions don't hold water.

They don't have...integrity.

With Sagittarius, in Sagittarius, all ideas have to remain mutable. That's the nature of the sign. That's why there's 'always more to learn' and why dogma and insistence is so much less appetizing than inspiration and offers to share.

With Sagittarius, nothing is set in bedrock. Nothing can be bedrock. To say there can be no changes, no objections and nothing added to what's already been said, done or known is highly problematic in Sagittarius - it endangers survival, as all natural survival depends on adaptation. News is news today and rewritten tomorrow. The new horizon we explore today is tomorrow’s status quo.

When it comes to Antares, our ability to flex, to consider and reconsider gets tested. In essence, we can't obsess in life. We can't demand to be right.

Why? Becomes sometimes we simply aren't right. Sometimes we don't know everything. Sometimes we need to allow ourselves not to know.

Does that sound familiar? It should. If you're a student of astrology, allowing yourself not to know is the hallmark statement of Neptune as outcome ruler of Pisces.

And what planet stands as the gateway ruler to Pisces?

Jupiter.

And what planet is sole ruler of Sagittarius?

Jupiter.

Representing mastery of information, learning and in applied form, Jupiter as ruler of fiery, visionary Sagittarius is knowledge. We tend to think of that in terms of knowing how to do this or that, or knowing this or that fact.

But it's more than that. Sagittarius is about knowing how to 'be' in this world. Sagittarius asks that we recognize that we have learned how to learn - which is why any planet in Sagittarius (and the natively Sagittarian 9th house of your chart) will represent the means and subject matter through which your life tests will occur on the way to your goals.
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Sometimes the choice is whether we want

to be RIGHT...or whether we want to

reach our goal.

 

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And in this process, Antares represents specifically where that test will come down to tests of integrity versus obsession and where/how the (Aldebaran) integrity of your (Aldebaran in Gemini) choices will be tested.

To live by what we could call ‘the Antares rule’ is to always remember that Antares is - first and last - part of the constellation Scorpio. We like to think of the scorpion's sting as 'us stinging them' but the reality here is that this is our chart. So Antares in your chart is where you 'sting' yourself...or where you 'feel the sting' in those moments when you realize you have fallen short of your own standards of integrity through over-focusing on something other than what was truly at stake.

All of us make mistakes.

All of us have successes.

And this is one of the important things to remember here; of all the astrological aspects, oppositions tend to be the most continuous, the most cyclic.

After day comes night, after night comes day. On and on it goes. Learning, exploring, experimenting, seeing things anew - it's all a lifelong process. Business people perhaps know this best as they're always thinking in terms of the next product and how to grow the company.

We are all involved in the business of life.
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 The Swiss side of the 4,478 meter-tall Matterhorn (one of my favorite mountains) mirrored in the calm waters of Lake Riffelsee. Sometimes the climb to the top

 is very hard, and the temptation to stop and just become obsessed in the

 view very strong. But is that where you want to end up?

(photo credit Dirk Beyer - June 2005)

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Antares is currently positioned at 9 Sagittarius, a particularly ‘fiery’ degree - which fits with the sheer 'volume' of punditry and protests, cons, experiments and angst in our world. There's an impulsive quality attributed to 9 Sagittarius which seems highly inclined to tipping Antares into its ‘obsession’ category, activating the Scorpio urge to fight.

And yes, all the rest of those Scorpio instincts (money, sex, power, war...) and all the fighting which goes with them.

If you want to consider this historically, Antares moved into 9 Sagittarius back in 1946. But consider quickly - or relatively quickly, at least. Why? Because Antares will be moving into 10 Sagittarius as of March 4, 2017.

And what is 10 Sagittarius about? On its face, this is the first degree of Sagittarius' second ten degrees - and the second decan of any sign is its most emotional. So while we may think things are noisy and insistent now, they're likely to get noisier.

There's also a “derivative” quality to 10 Sagittarius, as well as an ability to ‘work with what we have.’ This suggests many things: some folks are likely to want very much (obsess about) changing things. Some will insist we don't change anything. The 'copy cat' tendency seems obvious here, but so too is the possibility for finding new ways to use old goods - maybe recycling and ecological concerns may gets a boost from this shift?

Seeing as all of us who are alive today have been born with Antares in Sagittarius, the success we can earn depends on maintaining perspective not just on the world around us, but also on our Self. To want to know the 'right' thing is entirely Sagittarian. To insist you know when you may not?

That's falling afoul of your Antares. And when we fall afoul of a royal star, our lives tend to go awry...which may be why JRR Tolkien (one of my favorite writers) wrote this: ‘not even the wise can know all ends.’ 

Antares represents forces to be reckoned with in this world, forces which can make our life harder and harder until we give up the need to obsess about being right.

That doesn't mean we get to goof off, however. We still have to try. We just have to be okay with the idea we don't know everything.

And sometimes learning that one little thing is the best thing which could happen to us. After all, when we realize we don't know everything, then we open ourselves to learning.

And when we learn, we grow. Our horizons expand. We get closer to fulfilling our potential.

We think that by pressing and obsessing we'll get to our goals, achieve our aims, become top dog and the brightest star in the sky.

The brightest star in the sky happens to be Sirius - the dog star. So if we're thinking obsession will get us to that goal, we're barking up the wrong tree!

(Yes, I said that.)
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 Sirius A & B as seen in an x-ray photograph taken

by the Chandra x-ray telescope

(photo credit NASA-SAO-CXC, September 2000)

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So we can't abdicate our intelligence or ability to think...and we can't insist that we know everything. That leaves us the choice of - of what?

Maintaining balance. And learning to focus on maintaining a balance between what we think we know, and what we could know.

And about that 'right' thing?

Maybe through learning to maintain flexibility...maybe that's how we learn to become ‘righteous.’ Or righteously successful.

You know - in our own right.

And thus 'all right' in our own mind - and that of others.

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The next...and last stop on our Royal Star tour:

Fomalhaut, star of dreams.