The Dark Star - Nebula M22 in the Natal Chart of Stargazers
by Patrizia Nava
I have loved the stars too fondly
to be fearful of the night.
(Sarah Williams)1
Clouds in the sky
Nebulous cluster Westerlund 2 in Carina
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
The term nebulae (clouds), found in traditional astronomical/astrological texts, includes several sky objects of very different nature. From simple asterisms (faint groups of stars with or even without any real physical connection between them), to open clusters (young stars immersed in cosmic dust, held together by the force of gravity), from globular clusters (compact spheroidal globes composed of ancient stars, orbiting around the centre of a galaxy), to galaxies properly called, or even interstellar agglomerates of dust, hydrogen and plasma, still called nebulas by modern astronomers.
Such objects, when theoretically visible to the naked eye, have a basic role in signalling a possible eyesight deficiency, especially when conjunct the ascendant or one of the luminaries.2 The apparent magnitude of a star is one of the main criteria to define its power and influence (the more brilliant, the more effective); but in the case of nebulas it is quite the reverse: their very lack of brightness is the foundation of their significance. Only perfect and sharp eyes can perceive them in a clear and totally dark sky, and certainly for that reason they have been unanimously and constantly associated with eyesight defects, blindness and, by extension, to the so-called azemena degrees, the zodiacal degrees that signal permanent illness or chronic invalidity in Medieval astrology.3 Because of their prevalent Mars/Moon quality, moreover, they are generally connected to atmospheric turbulence, storms and rains, and sometimes to violent happenings, accidents and potentially dangerous situations.
William Lilly devotes Chapter CXXVIII of his treatise to the topic, following traditional sources faithfully, listing the nebulae quoted by Ptolemy, by the Arabs and by medieval practitioners. Among them, the open cluster M44 (Praesaepe – Beehive), the Pleiades M45 on the shoulder of the Bull, nebula M8 (Spiculum – Lagoon) in the arrow of the Archer, M6 and M7 in the sting of the Scorpion, Berenice’s hair and the water of the Water-Bearer. But any other confused and blurred cluster of dust and stars can bring eye defects, violence and storms, allowing us to complete the catalogue of noxious nebulae far beyond the traditional rosters.
Two are the necessary criteria to define a nebula: 1) the feebleness of the light perceived (apparent magnitude), which compels the observer to apply averted vision in order to view it; 2) the difficult resolution, that is the ability to separate the different components (stellar or non-stellar in nature) of the nebula, which is never a single, point source of light, but a composite one.4 These two features combined produce the impression of a dimming or blurring image typical of those asterisms.
Globular clusters of the Northern hemisphere
The aforesaid criteria of definition are perfectly respected by at least a couple of sky objects, not mentioned, or not identifiable with confidence in the ancient rosters. They are the brightest and more conspicuous globular clusters of the Northern hemisphere, called M13 (the Great Cluster in Hercules) and M22 in Charles Messier’s deep sky catalogue.5
The official discovery of globular clusters is due to the German astronomer Johann Abraham Ihle, who observed M22 in 1665 with the aid of his telescope, followed by Edmond Halley who, while catching comets, discovered Omega Centauri in 1677 and M13 in 1714. But it is hard to believe that ancient skygazers never saw them in their exceedingly dark skies, although neither Ptolemy, nor Giovan Battista Hodierna mention them in their catalogues.6
According to traditional methods, these globular clusters can be accounted as nebulae and consequently astrologically interpreted only if they are visible to the naked eye. And indeed they are, although it is not enough to walk in the night looking up at the sky to see them. Like most nebulas, you will need a very dark sky, a very clear night, a sufficient altitude of the object over the horizon and a piercing eye to perceive them as feeble, undefined flecks against the starry background. You will also need some observational know-how – where to watch and how to watch. After all, even Herschel used to say that «seeing is in some respect an art, which must be learnt». Our cities are unsuitable places to watch nebulas and faint stars. Light pollution has deprived us of the deep sky.
Globular cluster Messier 22
Also known as NGC 6656, this globular cluster, one of the closest to Earth, is in the constellation of Sagittarius, not far from Kaus Borealis (Lambda Sagittarii). A pair of binoculars already shows its circular shape, brighter in the central regions. However, only a more powerful tool, like a small telescope, is able to resolve it into a myriad of stars (it contains about 500,000) on a background that remains nebulous. Charles Messier describes it as “a round and nebulous starless spot”, while William Herschel will be the first, with his superior instruments, to resolve it in its components, described as little reddish stars of the 11th magnitude. The estimated age is 12 billion years and its apparent size is 32' of arc, an area equal to the disk of the Moon. Its dimensions allow us to keep an orb of at least 2° in longitude for the conjunction, a relatively wide angle for fixed stars.
The crammed centre of globular cluster M22 – NGC 6656, as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
One of these, the most popular and attested by the majority, if not the totality of the historical sources, is the method of ecliptic longitude, that is the calculation of the degree of longitude of the so-called foot of the star, the point where the circle of latitude that passes through the star (seen as a specific point of the sphere) intersects the ecliptic. To this the use of the parallel and antiparallel of declination, favored by Cardanus, is sometimes added.
Another system, developed by Placidus Titi and by Giuseppe Bezza, is the calculation of the distance of the star from the meridian, computed in hours of time. The star is considered virtually joined to another celestial body or point of the sphere if the respective horary circles coincide.7
A third system, promoted by the Australian astrologer Bernadette Brady, involves the use of the so-called parans, a modern version of the ancient paranatellonta: the star rises, culminates, sets or anticulminates together with planets or angles, during the course of the 24 hours of the day of birth, from dawn to dawn. Although Brady claims to have been inspired by the text on the fixed stars by the Anonymous of the year 379, this extension of the time span beyond the specific instant of birth does not seem to be supported by the ancient source.8
All methods can be profitably explored and experimented, but if the latitude of the star is considerable, it will be hopelessly far, visually, from the planet to which it should be joined, and none of the mentioned techniques will be able to transform a virtual conjunction based on the coincidence of a single parameter (either temporal or spacial), into a real bodily conjunction, when the stars involved are really seen close to each other, observing the sky.
This condition of visual closeness is not deemed necessary by all the authors. However, al-Birunī, in chapter 460, Places injurious to the eyes, writes:
One [nebulous star is] in the left hand of Perseus, and this one does not count because its latitude is high, and it is far from the course of the planets. [On the contrary] the Pleiades belong to this series since their latitude is low, the Moon passes by them and the Sun also comes near them.9
But with M22 the issue does not arise. This nebula is very close to the ecliptic, within the boundaries of the zodiac belt: its current tropical coordinates are, in fact, 8°30’ Capricorn in longitude, with a negative latitude of only 0°45’. This position makes it extremely meaningful astrologically, since it is close to the path of the Moon and the planets: the occultations of the cluster by the night luminary, in particular, are quite frequent and lend the Moon that intense coloring that only a true bodily conjunction can give.
Facies, in front of the Archer’s face
Ptolemy refers to the constellation of Sagittarius with the following words:
Of the stars in Sagittarius, those in the point of his arrow have an effect like that of Mars and the Moon; those in the bow and the grip of his hand, like that of Jupiter and Mars; the cluster in his forehead, like that of the Sun and Mars; those in the cloak and his back, like that of Jupiter and, to a less degree, of Mercury; those in his feet, like that of Jupiter and Saturn; the quadrangle upon the tail, like that of Venus and, to a less degree, of Saturn.10
As in all ancient texts where stars are described according to their position in the figure of the constellation, and not through a coordinate system, identification remains doubtful. In particular, «the condensation placed on the face», of a Sun/Mars nature, has been identified by G. Bezza as NGC 6530 (open cluster in the nebula M8 Spiculum/Laguna),11 while Vivian Robson identifies it with Facies, globular cluster M22.
Facies, M22 Sagittarii, the nebula in the Archer’s face. Influence: it is of the nature of the Sun and Mars, and causes blindness, defective sight, sickness, accidents and a violent death.12
Bernadette Brady suggests that, instead of pointing out visual defects like all nebulae, Facies, on the contrary, would indicate keenness of eyesight, a penetrating stare, the sharp eye and the infallible aim of the archer who studies and hits his target with ruthless determination. Intense intellectual and emotional concentration on the goal to be achieved is the result of this placement, typical of focused and determined people, able to think and act effectively.
Facies represents the penetrating stare of a lethal weapon. [...] It gives a penetration of action that has no regard for others, and can therefore make a great leader or a dictator. If Facies is the only difficult star in the chart, then it will suggest being focused.13
The constellation of the Archer with nebulas Oculus Sagittarii, Facies and Spiculum
Credit: © P. Nava/Stellarium
Diana K. Rosenberg, the late American astrologer who dedicated a monumental work to fixed stars, defines Facies M22, the cluster just in front of the Archer's face, as a lens of perception and imagination, which characterizes the explorers of mind and knowledge, brilliant, eloquent and research-oriented individuals, extremely impulsive and independent. Sometimes convinced of their own superiority, they can, in extreme cases, manifest intolerance and authoritarian severity (Adolf Hitler had Facies with the Moon), or they can suffer from, or fight against acts of social or intellectual ostracism. They live under constant pressure and tension, carrying in them the sense of a destiny, a mission, a personal or universal goal to be achieved.
Like the star-gazers among them (astrophysicists, astronomers and astrologers have placements here), who, as they study the heavens, are actually looking at distant images of the deep past, they tend to take courage and guidance from ancient traditions, and will uphold their perceived truths in spite of any and every obstacle. [...] Most are day-to-day warriors, neither seeking nor expecting a life of simplicity and ease. They work hard for recognition and respect, and sense that they are here to struggle – if no great challenge appears, they will seek it out!14
Rosenberg goes on reminding us of Liber Hermetis, according to which these degrees relate to prophesy and augury: there is indeed an element of intense intuition here, and an attempt to see «the whole picture, the possible or probable future». Wounds or problems with the eyes, face and head (Manilio said that the Archer produces people with a single eye – and closing one eye is one of the simplest ways to aim), along with chronic diseases and possible accidents are sometimes connected to this placement in nativities; fires, eruptions, battles, even nuclear explosions, in mundane charts.15
The lens of Facies in the charts of stargazers
The extreme focalisation that even noxious stars and nebulas gift the fortunate (or the unfortunate!) that have them prominent in their natal charts, can lead to outstanding intellectual achievement. James Joyce had the globular cluster M22 rising at the ascendant, and he suffered from chronic illness, very bad eyesight (in 1930 he had already gone through 25 operations), and an obsession for language that made of him a genius of literature. It is as if the physical, often chronic, sensorial limits indicated by these stars stimulate, almost as compensation, an irrepressible desire to see and understand in depth, farther, beyond the limits of the physical body, using the nebula in front of the eyes of the Archer like a lens, able to reveal the reality that is more distant or difficult to perceive.
Many astronomers and astrologers have used the lens of Facies as if it were a telescope to penetrate the universe with a sharp gaze - one that some of them lacked in their body - compensating for the physical limit with an extreme and determined intellectual focus.
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe – Facies: 1°59 Cap, PM 303°54.
Sun: 2°06 Cap, PM 303°03. Mercury: 0°25 Cap, PM 302°09.16
Credit: © P. Nava/ Solar Fire
William Herschel and his sister Caroline
William Herschel,
Facies: 4°39 Cap, PM 106°06. Uranus: 3°56 Cap, PM 105°38.
Credit: © P. Nava/ Solar Fire
His sister Caroline Lucretia Herschel, who was herself a proficient astronomer and observer although living somewhat in the shadow of her famous brother, had her share of physical handicaps. Anyway, she was able to produce a catalogue of nebulae, to discover at least eight new comets, and was the first woman to become an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society. A lunar crater and asteroid 281 Lucretia are dedicated to her memory. She was born in Hanover on March 16, 1750 (time unknown); she had Facies with the North Node.
Johann Elert Bode
Johann Elert Bode,
Facies: 4°46 Cap, PM 198°15. Mercury: 4°56 Cap, PM 204°34.
Credit: © P. Nava/ Solar Fire
Eugenio Garin
Eugenio Garin,
Facies: 7°02 Cap, PM 116°12. Moon: 5°24 Cap, PM 114°34. The apparent diameter of the nebula is 32’.
Credit: © P. Nava/ Solar Fire
Baruch Spinoza
The brilliant philosopher Baruch Spinoza is another example of difficult life and intellectual success of the first magnitude (Amsterdam, November 24, 1632 at 2.00 pm). Born to Jewish parents forced to convert to Christianity, he himself suffered the effects of racial, religious and academic intolerance (a typical effect of the difficult influence of Facies), which, above all because of his courageous philosophical positions, earned him the ban and excommunication on the part of the Jewish community, and later the indexing of his works by the Catholic Church. Of a shy, ascetic and independent character, reluctant to accept appointments and honours, which, in his opinion, would have limited the autonomy and absolute freedom of his intellectual research, he earned his living by grinding lenses for telescopes and microscopes. He was a friend and collaborator of the astronomer Christiaan Huygens, with whom he designed different types of optical instruments, including a 40-foot telescope. He lived in hotel rooms in the utmost simplicity and poverty. Suffering from chronic respiratory disorders, he died at the age of 44 for the aggravating effects of inhaled glass dust, due to carving optics. The lens of Facies culminates at the Midheaven in his chart.Lepaute, Cannon, Leavitt and Payne
Several women pioneers of astronomy such as Nicole-Reine Lepaute
(January 5, 1723, Paris – Facies with Mercury: the years of hard
mathematical calculations made her almost blind), Annie Jump Cannon, deaf
(December 11, 1863, Dover Delaware), Henrietta Swan Leavitt, variabilist
and discoverer of the period-luminosity relationship of the Cepheids,
deaf (July 4, 1868, Lancaster MA) have consistent placements, but the
absence of a reliable birth time does not allow to accurately place the
Moon, which in the last two cases is located in the first Face of
tropical Capricorn.
Cecilia Payne (May 10, 1900, Wendover UK), Professor Emeritus at
Harvard University where she carried out fundamental studies on the
correlation between spectral class and temperature of the stars, also
discovering the chemical composition of the Sun, has Saturn in conjunction
with M22.
Edwin Hubble
Edwin Hubble,
Facies: 6°45 Cap, PM 125°44. Jupiter: 8°47 Cap, PM 127°46.
Credit: © P. Nava/ Solar Fire
Hubble’s drive, scientific ability, and communication skills enabled him to seize the problem of the whole universe, and become the recognized world expert of the field.17
He discovered that many objects previously defined as nebulae were actually galaxies and classified them in the so-called Hubble sequence. He found a relationship between the distances of the galaxies and their radial velocity as determined from their redshifts (Hubble’s Law), leading to the notion of the expansion of the universe. His noted arrogance and eloquence are both features frequently found in Facies people (so is his early death). In his chart, M22 is between the South Node and Jupiter in the fifth.
The Hubble Space Telescope
But perhaps the most astonishing connection between the lens of Facies and the lenses of a telescope can be found in the chart for the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, named after the famous cosmologist. Most of the wonderful astronomical pictures we can admire today were taken by this orbiting telescope, which was launched on the 24th of April 1990, at 08:33:51 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is still in operation. The chart shows Facies with Uranus and exactly conjunct Edwin Hubble’s natal Jupiter.Enrico Fermi and Werner Heisenberg
To the numerous examples of astronomers and astrologers18 we could add the explorers of the microscopic and of the infinitely small, those who penetrate matter with a curious gaze, scientists of nuclear and quantum physics such as Enrico Fermi (Jupiter and Saturn in the ninth with Facies) and Werner Heisenberg (Mars with Facies).19 Their studies on nuclear energy that led to the creation of nuclear reactors and, unfortunately, to the production of the atomic bomb are also connected with the difficult nebula M22.Notes and References:
1 From the poem
The Old Astronomer by English poet Sarah Williams (1837 or
1841-1868). These lines have become the motto of the AAAP (Amateur
Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
2 William Lilly,
Christian Astrology, ch. CXXVIII, p. 581: «It’s commonly found true
that any Native, having the lights so posited near or with these fixed
Stars, shall not die before he suffer some defect, or hurt in his Eyes;
and this blemish shall be inseparable if the Luminary who declares it is
Angular.»
3 From the Arabic
az-zamâna, which means an incurable disease or defect or a chronic
illness. Because of the precession of the equinoxes, those degrees do not
correspond any more to the position of the fixed stars and nebulae that
gave origin to the definition.
4 Averted
vision is a well-known observing technique for viewing faint objects
making use of peripheral vision. The observer should not look directly at
the object, but a little off to the side, allowing the peripheral portion
of the retina, rich in rods, to detect even a very dim light, instead of
using the central fovea, rich in cone cells, specialized in seeing only
bright light and colours.
5 The French
astronomer Charles Messier (1730-1817) published his famous catalogue of
110 nebular objects in 1774. His aim was to help comet-hunters
distinguish the nucleus of newly discovered comets from already known and
catalogued diffuse objects.
6 Neither M22 nor
M13 are mentioned in Hodierna’s De admirandi coeli
characteribus, Palermo 1654, in spite of his being an experienced
observer of nebulae. Nor, by the way, is M31 (the easily visible Galaxy
of Andromeda) mentioned in Ptolemy’s Almagest, an omission
hard to account for.
7 The so-called
PM (Placidus Mundoscope) degree I make use of in this paper gives
equivalent results.
8 Bernadette
Brady, Brady’s Book of Fixed Stars, S. Weiser, York Beach
1998. See also: Anonymous of the Year 379 in CCAG V/1 pp.
194-211.
9 Al-Birunī,
The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology,
edited by R. Ramsay Wright, Luzac & Co., London 1934, p. 272.
10 Claudius
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos or the Quadripartite Mathematical Treatise,
translated from the Greek paraphrase of Proclus by J.M. Ashmand, Davis
and Dickson, London 1822, ch. 9.
11 Giuseppe
Bezza, Le dimore celesti, Xenia, Milano 1998, p.190. M22 does not
appear in Ebertin-Hoffmann, Fixed Stars and their
interpretation, 1971.
12 Vivian
Robson, The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology,
Astrology Classics 1923-2005, p.165.
13 B. Brady,
cit., p. 297.
14 Diana K.
Rosenberg, Secrets of the Ancient Skies. Fixed Stars &
Constellations in Natal and Mundane Astrology, A.S. Press, New York
2012, vol.2, p. 441.
15 D.K.
Rosenberg, ivi, p. 442.
16 PM =
Placidus Mundoscope for the calculation of in mundo aspects.
17 From a
celebration speech for the centennial of Hubble’s birth. Quoted by
Marcia Bartusiak in The Day we Found the Universe, Vintage
Books, New York 20102, p. xvi.
18 Other
astronomers with interesting Facies conjunctions with planets or angles
are also: Bart Jan Bok, Lawrence Hugh Aller, Friedrich Eberhard Becker,
Eugene Cosserat, Johann Gottfried Galle (discovered Neptune), Jacobus
Cornelius Kapteijn, Edmond Lescarbault, Percy Seymour (astrophysicist,
ostracized because a supporter of astrology), Maximilian Wolf, Luis
Zimmer. But a wide orb of 3° might include great astronomers/astrologers
like Galileo Galilei (M22 with the North Node) and Johannes Kepler (M22
with Mercury). Astrologer Elsbeth Ebertin, who died of suffocation during
a war bombing, had North Node partile Facies. Her son, cosmobiologist
Reinhold Ebertin, had Jupiter with Facies.
19 Enrico
Fermi, Rome, September 29, 1901, at 7 pm. Werner Heisenberg, well known
for the Uncertainty Principle that bears his name, born in Wurzburg in
Germany on December 5, 1901, at 4.45 pm.
Published at: ivcconference.com/constellation-news/, 2020.
Author:
Patrizia Nava has got a Master of Arts in
Philology & Literature (University of Bologna, Italy), a Horary
Craftsman Diploma and an Honorary Doctorate in Astrology (Indian Institute
of Oriental Heritage, Kolkata). She is an active member of several
associations and has published many articles and a book on Horary applied
to relationships, and is now editing the Italian critical edition of
William Lilly's Christian Astrology. She runs workshops and classes and is
the founder and principal of the School of Traditional Horary Astrology
AOC. Her website is www.astrologiaoraria.com, Facebook ID is https://www.facebook.com/patrizia.nava.5
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