Combustion
Combustion describes a planet so close to the Sun that it is, in effect, burned, usually between one degree and roughly eight and a half degrees from its position. Invisible, drowned in solar glare, this planet is held to be weakened in traditional astrology: its function stays alive but overrun by the solar will. Further out, to about seventeen degrees, the planet is said to be under the beams, a milder state.
Burned by the glare
Picture a candle held in front of a spotlight: its flame exists but can no longer be seen. That is the idea of combustion. The planet keeps its nature, only the Sun absorbs it, and its expression grows hard to tell apart from the solar ego. Older authors read this as a fragility, a function that struggles to assert itself on its own terms.
The contrast with cazimi
The whole subtlety rests on distance. At eight degrees the planet burns; within a few minutes of the center it enters cazimi and is, on the contrary, honored. If you carry a combust planet, do not read it as a lack but as a part of you working in the Sun's shadow, one that gains from being named in order to exist in its own right.
Sources
- , Christian Astrology (1647)
- , The Real Astrology (2000)