Today’s newsletter is a deep dive on the fixed star Alkes, found in the base of the Crater, or Cup, constellation. You don’t need to have much technical knowledge of astrology to appreciate the stars. We have been writing stories and praying to them since we have been looking up. This essay is meant to help readers connect more deeply to these divine messengers and better understand ourselves. If you want to know if Alkes touches your chart, see if you have any planets or significant placements within 2º of 23º Virgo. Even if not, you have so much to learn from this fluid, holy star.
If you want to learn more about how the stars touch and guide your beautiful life, and what your soul is asking of you, book a fixed star reading with me ⭐. You have to feel the magic of the stars yourself to believe it.
What do Kurt Cobain, Albert Camus, John Carpenter and Annie Lennox have in common? They are all born when the fixed star, Alkes, was rising. Found in the base of the Crater, or Cup, constellation, this orange star is considered to be of the nature of Venus and Mercury, perfect for creativity, but its specific vibe is more particular than the charm and erudition attributed to this pairing. When we encounter a cup, we encounter a vessel for what flows, an emblem of thirst and containment, the sacred object found at the end of a holy medieval quest— what is constantly chased but never quite possessed.
All of the work of the above figures can be described as “haunting,” having an ambiguous relationship to spirit and the afterlife. Camus devotes a whole volume to the Myth of Sisyphus, the Greek figure who is forced to push a boulder to the top of a mountain again and again for eternity— his treaty on absurdism and when your god seems to have abandoned you. John Carpenter not only directed the 1978 horror hit Halloween, but composed it eerie theme music which heralded the creeping presence of the murderous Michael Myers. Lennox’s most famous song goes:
Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
I travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something
Despite the wanderings and absences present amongst those touched by this star, if you read the classical designations of this star, you get a pretty sweet image. Anonymous 379 characterizes Mercury-Venus stars as “well-known, famous and resourceful, but also very learned and erudite, fond of philosophical dissertations, eloquent, creative, perspicacious, ingenious and clever, keen on music and arts and good-hearted”.1 They point out their autodidactic nature combined with graciousness that charms and attracts. Vivian Robson describes this star as giving “a kind, generous, cheerful, receptive, passionate and hospitable nature, with good mental abilities,” though “subject to apprehension and indecision”.2 In addition to an elastic mind, Alkes brings a generally happy disposition that is still porous and inviting.
In the Dictionary of Symbols, the cup is said to be related to the grail, where, “[in] the traditions surroundings the Knights of the Round Table, it had the power of providing each of them with his favourite dish and is in this respect linked to the symbolism of the horn of plenty”.3 In addition to its abundant manifestations, the cup was also linked with “radiating light (spiritual enlightenment),” and “that of granting invincibility”.4 Like our reflection in a rippling pond, we envisage something otherworldly in the views of Alkes, hazy yet tangible. We see our own desires reflected back at us, coming within reach. But, like the shadowy figure in the Seven of Cups Tarot card, we can stand on the precipice of some beatific future, but may be frozen, suspended between the ideal and the real. The Vision is a different thing altogether than walking that path.
Flowing Water
In Alkes there is movement, not the least evinced by its relation to water. 1st century Hellenistic poet Manilius wrote that ‘Whoever derives hence his birth and character [from the constellation Crater] will be attracted by the well-watered meadows of the countryside, the rivers, and the lakes”. He goes on, describing the wine these natives heartily imbibe and the crops he will sow in his fertile earth. Most succinctly, he calls those touched by Alkes “[lovers] of all that is wet”.5 Wherever there is water is where an Alkes native will be. I think of Kurt living in rainy Washington or Albert Camus’s childhood love of swimming. Sometimes it can be that simple.
Other times, Alkes natives will find them dealing with water in some form through their work. In “Fixed Stars and Judicial Astrology,” George Noonan proposes other manifestations of the spirit of Alkes: “the star indicates dedicated environmentalists whose love for rivers and streams lead them to be very protective regarding water resources. At a less intense level the native may become a landscape architect, a builder of canals, or in some other manner do business in merchandise connected with water”. There will be interest not just in the open ocean like Fomalhaut, writhing abyss as far as the eye can see, or the roiling river cutting through the earth’s stillness like with Achernar, but an interest in helping bring life-giving water into our towns and cities. Water is a connective, amorphous substance. Its influence makes us more porous, touched by the wind and moon and trees and stars, moved by the feelings of others and able to form bonds.
Both of the benefics, Venus and Jupiter, which both rule love and relationships, are considered wet planets. Good things come through the connective power of water, namely life itself. It is only through the warm container of amniotic fluid that infants can be nourished and eventually born. Irrigation and plumbing allow us to have safe, easy access to drinking water and allows us to cultivate our own food. Deborah Houlding on the Skyscript website adds that the symbolism of Alkes and cups generally “suggest that it signifies success in pregnancy, creative matters, romantic unions or spiritual quests; and that it represents the sense of honour which accompanies successful completion of long-sought aim”. Here we see all sorts of lush benefits from contact with this constellation, as well as a repetition of the questing theme: the benefits here are keyed into sedulous attending to a journey of sorts.
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