Fixed star
Fixed stars are the distant stars of the background sky, as opposed to the wandering planets that move in front of them. Astrology keeps a few dozen, such as Regulus, Algol, Spica or Aldebaran, to which tradition lends marked meanings. When a fixed star conjoins a planet, an angle or a sensitive point of the chart, it is held to color its meaning strongly, for good or ill according to its nature.
The background sky
Behind the dance of the planets, the fixed stars form an almost motionless backdrop that drifts only very slowly over the centuries. That is why they are called fixed. Astrology keeps only a handful of the brightest, each carrying a reputation inherited from antiquity and the medieval Arabic tradition.
An accent on one degree
A fixed star acts only through close contact: it must conjoin, within a degree or two, a planet or an angle of your chart. There it adds its hue, sometimes dazzling like Regulus, sometimes harsher like Algol. Read these contacts as rare accents, to handle with nuance rather than fear.
Sources
- , The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology (1923)
- , Brady's Book of Fixed Stars (1998)