Fixed Star Name : ALDEBARAN

Arabic Al Dabaran meaning "Follower", i.e. of the Pleiades, because it marked the 2d manzil or second mansion of the Moon, that followed the first, the Pleiades.

Aldebaran is the Greek Omma Boos, Latin Oculus Tauri, and the early English Bull's Eye; [Bull's-eye is what we call "the centre of a target, which usually carries the highest score", and "a precise or highly effective achievement"].

Location Name : alpha Taurus
Apparent Magnitude : .85 Spectral Class : KM
Right Ascension : 04h 35m Latitude : -05.28'
Declination (1900) : +16.18' Declination (2000) : +16.31'
 
Longitudinal Position (in 1900) : 08 Gemini 23
Longitudinal Position (in 2000) : 09 Gemini 47
Its Planetary Nature : Mars

About this star: A pale rose star marking the left eye of the Bull, Taurus

The great "red giant", war-like Aldebaran is one of the four "Guardians of Heaven" - sentinels watching over other stars. It formed one of the four royal stars of Persia as "Watcher of the East".

These were also called archangel stars;  this star Aldebaran was Michael  - Military Commander of the Heavenly Host. The others were; Gabriel (Fomalhaut) Watcher of the South; Raphael (Regulus) Watcher of the North; Uriel (Antares) Watcher of the West. At one time they marked the two Equinoxes and two Solstices. Aldebaran marked the zero Aries point in 3044 BC, Antares marked zero Libra 3052 BC, Fomalhaut marked zero Capricorn, 2582 BC, Regulus marked zero Cancer 2345 BC.

These four stars have been characterized as Horses, reflected both in the famed Four Horsemen of Apocalypse (Revelations 6) and Chariot Horses in the Book of Zechariah - (Morse)

The name of the second of the antediluvian Babylonian kings, the mythical Alaparos, seems connected with this constellation or with the lucida, Aldebaran; and its stars certainly were associated with the second month of the Assyrian year, A-aru, "the Directing Bull," our April-May.

The Hindu Rohini, used for this star and for this 2nd nakshatra; "A Red Deer" known also as the "The Star of Ascent". Symbol; a Temple or Wagon Regent. Prajapati was the creator.

As the 2nd Arabic manzil, Aldebaran influenced buildings, fountains, wells and gold mines.

As a member of the Hyades it was a "Sow"; the colloquial title among the Roman country-people for the Hyades was Suculae, "the Little Pigs", from Sus, "Sow". It was said that the title might come from the resemblance of this group of stars to a pig's jaws; or because Aldebaran and its companion stars were like a sow with her litter. Pliny accounting for it by the fact that the continual rains of the season of their setting made the roads so miry that these stars seemed to delight in dirt, like swine!

Hebrews rendered this star God's Eye. Another Hebrew name for this star was Aleph, which was also used for the constellation of Taurus.

Aben Ezra identified it with the biblical Kimah, probably in connection with all the Hyades and as being directly opposed on the sphere to K'sil, Antares.

In Babylonian astronomy, it marked the 5th ecliptic asterism Pidnu-sha-Shame, the "Furrow of Heaven", perhaps representing the whole zodiac, and analogous to the Hebrew and Arabic Padan and Fadan, the "Furrow"; so that, before the Ram had taken the Bull's place as Leader of the Signs; the star Aldebaran was Ku, I-ku, or I-ku-u, "the Leading Star of Stars", because it marked the fiducial; in antiquity all ecliptical longitudes were measured from it or from its opposite, Antares.

Still more anciently it was the Akkadian Gis-da, also rendered the "Furrow of Heaven".

It was identified with the indigenous Nile figure Sarit. (Allen).

 

Influence of the constellation : By the Kabalists Taurus is associated with the Hebrew letter Aleph and the 1st Tarot Trump (major arcana) "The Juggler". (Robson).    

Influence of the star :

It gives honor, intelligence, eloquence, steadfastness, integrity, popularity, courage, ferocity, a tendency to sedition, a responsible position, public honors and gain of power and wealth through others, but its benefits seldom prove lasting and there is also danger of violence and sickness. (Robson).

 

Aldebaran has been in the sign Gemini since 1286 AD, just around the height of the Christian Crusades against Islam, an interesting indicator of conflict between two world schools of thought. Antares, for the other side in the conflict , went into religious Sagittarius in 1272 AD and showed its superiority, perhaps, since the Crusaders never did dislodge the Saracens. (Dr Eric Morse).

Catastrophe by weather conditions, floods, shipwrecks. Acknowledged and leading position, but will make enemies through whom danger will threaten. Extraordinary energy. (Ebertin).


With Fortuna or its dispositor; poverty. (Robson).

With a malefic in the 4th, 7th, 11th house and the Moon at the same time with Antares, death by a sudden sword thrust, stab or fall. (Robson).

If Rising and in conjunction with the Moon, a good fellow, but if in conjunction with both the Lord of the Ascendant and the Moon it denotes a murderer, especially if the lord of the Ascendant is a masculine planet and the Sun is at the same time afflicted. (Robson).

The Hyades are a stormy star group and was regarded as a separate constellation. Always stirring up furious quarrels; enemies of quiet and peace, inflames the minds of individuals who are restless and riotous, always stirring up popular dissent and revolution, madly desiring civil and domestic wars". Those born at this time take no pleasure in tranquillity and set no store by a life of inaction; rather they yearn for crowds and mobs and civil disorders. Sedition and uproar delight them; they long for the Gracchi to harangue from the platform, for a secession to the Sacred Mount, leaving but a handful of citizens the at Rome; they welcome fights which break the peace and provide sustenance for fears. Such are the qualities engendered by the Hyades at the rising of their stars. (Manilus, book 5 of Astronomica, 1st century AD).

If culminating: Honor, preferment, good fortune and favors from women. (Robson).

 

With Sun: Great energy and perseverance, high material honors but danger of losing them, danger from quarrels and the law, honor and riches ending in disgrace and ruin, liable to disease, fevers and a violent death. If in conjunction with both Sun and Mars, great liability to pestilential fevers. (Robson).

With Moon: Favorable for business, honor and credit, especially if in the 1st or 10th house, but danger of calamity. Favorable for domestic, public and religious matters; danger of a violent death. If at the same time Mars or Saturn is with Antares (opposite) the native is liable to be hanged or killed by a sword thrust. (Robson).

With Sun or Moon, culminating or rising: Great honor through violence with difficulties and casualties. (Robson).

With Mercury: Affects the health and domestic affairs, prominence through mercurial matters, material gain, and many learned friends. (Robson).

With Venus: Honor through literature, music or art, creative abilities, favorable for health and marriage. (Robson).

Power directed wrongly. Abnormalities in love life. (Ebertin).

With Mars: Great military preferment but attended by much danger; liable to accidents, fevers and a violent death. If at the same time the Moon is with Antares, especially in an angle, death will come through a stab, blow or fall. (Robson).

With Jupiter: Great ecclesiastical honor and high military preferment. (Robson).

With Saturn: Great afflictions, strange mind, great wickedness, sarcasm, eloquence, good memory, studious and retiring nature, legal abilities, domestic and material success, losses through mercurial friends. If at the same time the Moon is with Antares there will be a violent death, probably by hanging. (Robson).

Danger and loss through floods storms shipwreck or drowning, Saturn if afflicted. (Ebertin).

With Uranus: Scientific, a nature lover, critical, just, domestic and political success, public honors, fond of occultism but may meet with disfavor through it, lingering death. (Robson).

With Neptune: Connected with science, art, occultism and mediumship, good intellect, loss through fire, electricity or speculation, but gain through metals, military or scientific instruments, especially if Mars is strong; many journeys, obstacles to domestic happiness, unfavorable for children, danger of accidents and sudden death. (Robson).