The 28 lunar mansions · 4th of 28
Al-Dabarān الدبران
The follower. A theme of following through: steady effort after the initial spark.
- Its stars
- Aldebaran (α Tauri), the red eye of the Bull, which 'follows' the Pleiades
- Where it lies
- 8°34′ Taurus to 21°26′ Taurus, as Baghdad counted it
- How often
- The Moon passes through about every 27⅓ days and stays roughly a day
- Next visit
- Calculating…
Born with the Moon in Al-Dabarān
You are the one who follows through. Al-Dabarān, 'the follower', trails the Pleiades across the sky, and you have the same steady loyalty: once you start, you keep going.
Gifts
Persistence, reliability, staying power
Watch for
Holding on to a course after it has stopped serving you
A theme your life returns to. Your story is about effort that compounds. Many of your rewards arrive late, and they last because you stayed.
A night in Al-Dabarān
The astrologers of Baghdad chose the night for a task by the Moon's mansion. For Al-Dabarān the old lists say:
Good for
- sowing
- building or demolishing to rebuild
- new clothes
Better left for another night
- marriage
- sea voyages
A thought for the night I follow through on one thing I have already started.
The readings are modern, drawn from each station's traditional name and meaning. They describe tendencies, not events, and are offered for reflection and fun.
Sources
- Al-Bīrūnī, The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology (1029), the chapter on the lunar mansions. Translated by R. Ramsay Wright (1934).
- Picatrix (Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm), Book I, chapter 4: the 28 mansions and the works begun in each.
- Ibn Abī l-Rijāl (Haly Abenragel), The Distinguished Book on the Judgements of the Stars, Book VII: elections by the Moon's mansion.
- Star identifications follow Paul Kunitzsch, Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber (1961), and the usual modern lists.
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