Born by Water, Made for Air: On the Fixed Stars Scheat and Markab
Today’s newsletter is a deep dive on the fixed stars Markab and Scheat, found in the Pegasus 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 Markab or Scheat touches your chart, see if you have any planets or significant placements within 2º of 23º (Markab) or 29º (Scheat). Even if not, you have so much to learn from these swift, philosophical stars.
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.
“Who Possesses Lucky Feet”
Before the Pegasus, there was the horse. Prior to becoming its winged counterpart, this constellation was known as Equus, “The Horse”. Aratus referred to the asterism as "the huge horse, parted at the navel with only half a body”.1 Within this body, we find Markab, a 2nd magnitude, white star found in the shoulder of the horse, and Scheat, found directly below Markab in the animal’s upper arm, is a 2nd magnitude star of a golden color. Note in the photo above that Scheat is directly below Markab; together they form a straight line.
One common delineation of the Pegasus stars is working with or having an affinity with horses. Firmicus Maternus, Roman astrologer, claimed that “Whoever has this star rising will be an especially famous charioteer, driver, horseman, or courier of scouts”.2 1st century Roman poet-astrologer Manilius lists some potential fates for those marked by Pegasus:
“One man will cause his horse to wheel round in caracoles, and proudly mounted on its back he will wage war from on high; horseman and soldier in one. Another will possess the ability to rob the racecourse of its true length such is his speed that he will seem to dissemble the movement of his feet and make the ground vanish before him”.3
Here we begin to see a certain character take form: one of great speed and synchronistic power with one’s tools to reach superhuman heights. The stars in Pegasus are said to be of the nature of Mars and Mercury, the planet of war and the planet of communication, respectively, both of which favor speed and activity, physically and intellectually. Manilius goes to to say Pegasus “will bring forth people endowed with swiftness of movement and limbs alert to perform every task”.4
In Vedic astrology, Scheat and Markab are part of the Purvabhadra Lunar Mansion, whose name also means “Who Possesses Lucky Feet”.5
It’s clear, then, that this star favors movement. And, as we remember Pegasus’s wings, this movement is usually upward, often towards the heavens. Even without the wings, Aratus called this constellation “divine” because, to the prehistoric world, the domestication of horses was a gift from the gods.6
The Un/steady Adventurer
Pegasus himself was born by divine forces. Though the exact details change from myth to myth, most agree Pegasus sprang from the neck of Medusa after Perseus cut off her head and discarded her body by the sea. Some also credit Poseidon, or Neptune, for helping Medusa create the winged horse, especially since the gorgon was turned into her monstrous state after being caught fraternizing with the god of the sea. The Pegaus's symbolism, thusly, connects to this ambivalent birth. The creature was described as “snowy white in colour, high-spirited, and brave, though somewhat vain and destructive”.7 Vivian Robson associates this constellation with "ambition, vanity, intuition, enthusiasm, caprice and bad judgement,"8 but it can also portend great accomplishment and victory as well as violent disaster and misfortune.9 While Firmicus sees the swiftness and potential associated with this star, he also claims that, when in conjunction with a malefic planet, it can bring death "by kick of a hoof or a fall from an overturned chariot".10 The deaths populated in this star seem to be accidental, but often coming after taking great leaps.
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