The identifying trait of the fixed signs is captured by the connotation of fixed:In
response to changing circumstances, fixed signs tend to persist in acting according to
preestablished patterns. Positively, the fixed quality can manifest as strength and per-
sistence; negatively, as inflexibility and stubbornness.
The same classification can be found in Vedic astrology—Chara (“moveable”
or cardinal), Dwi-Swabhava (“dual” or mutable), and Sthira (“fixed”). The three
Vedic qualities, which are associated with the same signs as their Western parallels,
have similar connotations.Sources:
Sakoian, Frances, and Louis S. Acker. The Astrologer’s Handbook.New York: Harper & Row,
1989.
Sutton, Komilla. The Essentials of Vedic Astrology.Bournemouth, UK: Wessex Astrologer, 1999.FIXEDSTARS
There are more than 9,000 stars visible to the human eye, and, to the ancients, they
belonged to the Eighth Sphere: the starry firmament. This starry sphere separated the
known seven spheres of the planets, with earth at the center, from the realm of the Cre-
ator—the force that lay beyond the Eighth Sphere and caused all the inner spheres to
move. Plato (360 C.E.), in his book Timaeus,talked of the Creator, the Demiurge, mak-
ing the souls of man in the same manner as the Soul of the Universe, and that the num-
ber of these souls is the number of the fixed stars, since this was the sphere closest to the
Creator. From this, the wandering stars—the planets—were singled out as the timekeep-
ers, and it was thought that the souls moved from the fixed stars to these wanderers, and
from the wanderers their power was translated onto the earth as the souls of men.
Claudius Ptolemy (100–c. 173 C.E.) took Plato’s concept one step further and
suggested which planet or planets were the timekeepers of each star, and consequently
which planetary energy was related in similarity to each star. Ptolemy published this
work in the Tetrabiblos,where he made such statements as: “The stars in the head of
Aries possess an influence similar in its effect to that of Mars and Saturn.”
What was Ptolemy trying to achieve? Inheriting the ideas of Plato, he would
have considered it logical to pursue this line of thought in his attempt to conceive of
some rational order in the symbolic, religious, and mythological traditions that were
the foundation of the starry sky. As time passed, and Ptolemy’s name grew in great-
ness, his suggested planet/star combinations became the central dogma for the delin-
eation of the stars, replacing the earlier myths and religious beliefs that had been pro-
jected onto the constellations and the principal stars. Hence, works by modern
authors, such as Vivian E. Robson, Reinhold Ebertin, Georg Hoffmann, and Joseph E.
Rigor, show largely unsupported statements of star delineations, their origins appar-
ently sourced in Ptolemy’s star/planet associations.
In addition, the newly emerging Greek world of science was grappling with the
as yet unanswered question of the rate of precession. Astronomers knew that preces-
sion occurred, but were unsure of its rate. Precession becomes apparent by observing
the slow shift of the fixed stars against key calendar positions of the sun, such as theFixed Stars
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