← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 124/235
Cazimi
What it means
Cazimi comes from an Arabic phrase meaning "as if in the heart". A planet is cazimi when it lies within 17 arcminutes of the Sun's longitude — about half the width of the Sun's own disc. Lilly's example: the Sun at 15°30' Taurus and Mercury at 15°25' Taurus, five arcminutes apart, "here Mercury is in Cazimi". DeVore records that some authorities allow up to half a degree; this site uses Lilly's 17'.
It is a striking reversal. A planet a degree or two from the Sun is combust, burnt and weakened. Move it into the Sun's very centre and the tradition says the opposite: it is purified and empowered.
Why it happens
Cazimi is simply the tightest part of a planet's conjunction with the Sun. Because the window is so narrow it is brief. The Moon passes through it in about half an hour at each new Moon; Mercury and Venus in a matter of hours; the slower outer planets over a day or so, because the Sun is doing nearly all the moving. Mercury and Venus are cazimi twice in each of their cycles: once at the superior conjunction (on the far side of the Sun) and once at the inferior conjunction, which falls in the middle of their retrograde periods.
Because the window is measured in arcminutes, a chart cast for a day rather than an exact time can miss it. Astrologers often describe a planet within a degree of the Sun as cazimi-close and read it with that in mind.
How it is read
In the tradition, Lilly scored cazimi +5, the same as being entirely free of the Sun's beams, and wrote that "all Authors doe hold a Planet in Cazimi to be fortified thereby". The image often used is of a courtier admitted to the king's presence and seated beside him: the planet borrows the Sun's authority instead of being overwhelmed by it. In horary and electional work a significator cazimi is one of the most favourable testimonies a chart can give.
In a birth chart, a planet cazimi is read as a theme that sits at the very centre of a person's identity and is expressed with unusual clarity and confidence. Where a combust planet can be a blind spot, a cazimi planet is more often a gift people notice — Venus cazimi inclining toward natural grace or artistry, Mercury cazimi toward a clear and persuasive mind.
In transit and in choosing moments, many astrologers treat a planet's cazimi as a short, potent window to begin something in its area of life, especially when the planet is otherwise well placed.