Monday, January 4, 2021

Major Stelliums in Perspective


Six-planet or seven-body stellium in Aquarius

New Moon chart for February 11, 2021

Click to enlarge

 

A stellium is made up of three or more planets in the same zodiac sign. The more planets in the sign, the more rare the stellium.

Stelliums indicate a concentration of focus and energy in a particular sign, involving the themes of that sign. In an astrology chart, a stellium will produce a focus in a particular house or houses. 

Because Mercury and Venus travel close to the Sun in the zodiac, it is not uncommon to have those three bodies (Sun, Mercury, Venus) in the same sign in an astrology chart. There are 30 degrees in each sign of the zodiac. Mercury is never more than 28 degrees behind or ahead of the Sun. Venus is never more than 46 degrees behind or ahead of the Sun.

The Moon moves quickly through the zodiac, changing signs about every 2.5 days and making one full cycle through the zodiac about every 28 days. Often, fast-shifting stelliums are formed around the time of New Moons when the Moon forms its monthly conjunction to the Sun. 

Mars takes a little under two years to move through the zodiac, and it goes retrograde about once every two years, as well. Larger stelliums often occur when Mars has reached the area of the zodiac inhabited by the transiting Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus. 

In order to have a stellium involving more than the personal planets, one of the intermediary (Jupiter, Saturn) or outer (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) planets has to also be in the sign.

The personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) move fairly quickly through the signs of the zodiac. The intermediary planets (Jupiter and Saturn) move a bit more slowly through the signs. And the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) move the slowest, spending approximately six to twenty years in each sign, depending on the planet. One or more of the slower-moving bodies must be inhabiting the sign in order for one of the largest stelliums to form.

Jupiter and Saturn form a conjunction every 20 years and remain within orb of that conjunction for many months. The largest stelliums often occur when Jupiter and Saturn are transiting the same sign, around the time of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction.

This is the case with the upcoming Aquarius stellium in February 2021 when the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn will all be in Aquarius, along with asteroid Pallas Athene.

The potency of stelliums reaches a peak and then starts to subside gradually as bodies move into new signs.

Six-planet stelliums are certainly notable but are less rare than seven-planet or eight-planet stelliums. This is a sampling of large stelliums of the recent past, the present, and the near future. Ceres is included as a planet.

 

Six-planet stelliums

December 2006 in Sagittarius 

Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto

April 2011 in Aries

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus

March 2013 in Pisces

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Neptune, and Chiron - this was a six-planet/seven-body stellium including comet nucleus Chiron

January 2018 in Capricorn

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Pluto  

February 2021 in Aquarius

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pallas Athene - this is a six-planet/seven-body planet stellium including asteroid Pallas Athene  

April 2026 in Aries

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Neptune, and Chiron - this is a six-planet/seven-body stellium including comet nucleus Chiron 

June 2028 in Gemini

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Uranus

May 2032 in Gemini

Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Uranus - this stellium does not involve the Moon, which makes it particularly noteworthy 

April 2047 in Taurus

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune  


Seven-planet stelliums

February 1962 in Aquarius 

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the South Node of the Moon

January 1994 in Capricorn 

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune

May 2000 in Taurus 

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn 

November 2041 in Scorpio

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Ceres, Jupiter, and Saturn, along with the South Node of the Moon

September 2051 in Virgo 

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus 


Eight-planet stellium

February 2080 in Aquarius

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus

 

 
This list gives some perspective on large stelliums. They are not necessarily once-in-a-lifetime astrological events, but they are important concentration points that can have very long-reaching effects. The meaning ascribed to each stellium will vary based on astrologer.

In February 1962, a seven-planet stellium in Aquarius, including New Moon total solar eclipse, was heralded by some as the official opening to the Aquarian Era.

We have been in an intense transition or cross-over period between the end of the astrological Piscean Era and the beginning of the astrological Aquarian Era since then, working with an overlay of both energies.

In light of this, we can see the six-planet stellium in Aquarius, including New Moon, in February 2021 as anchoring and establishing us on the Aquarian Era side of things. We tip further into the Age of Aquarius, coming into stronger Aquarian themes, on the other side of this New Moon and stellium.

Each astrological era is considered to be approximately 2,160 years long, making one full cycle or precession about every 25,920 years. The different astrological eras are based on the precession of the equinoxes - the position of the Sun in the physical constellations at the time of March equinox each year. The Sun slowly shifts through the constellations, moving through one full zodiac sign over the course of 2,160 years and then moving into a new sign. 

Whereas the Western tropical zodiac places the Sun at zero Aries as a set point to mark March equinox each year (spring equinox in the northern hemisphere), the Sun is in a different physical constellation in the sky due to the constant motion of the bodies in the cosmos. The Sun is currently at about 5 degrees in the physical constellation of Pisces at March equinox, and it moves one degree every 72 years (backward through the signs). This indicates that the full shift of the eras will not happen for around 360 years when the Sun will set up new residence in the physical constellation of Aquarius at March equinox.

 

A Re-Post: Parallels Between the Aquarius Stellium of February 1962 and the Aquarius Stellium of February 2021

Patron Article: The Aquarius Stellium of 2021 as the Centre of a Continuum: Drawing on Ripples from 60 Years in the Past and Sending Ripples 60 Years into the Future

 Become a Willow's Web Astrology patron

 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Willow!

You seem to have forgotten the six planet stellium that occurred in the sign Libra. This happened on October, 1981 where the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Pluto were in Libra. I hope this information helps update this post!

Willow said...

Oh yeah, I didn't go back that far in the list, just to 2006. The point was just to illustrate that six-planet stelliums are not THAT rare. There are many six-planet stelliums in the past decades.