← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 174/235
Alcyone
Alcyone is the brightest star of the Pleiades, the small, misty cluster on the shoulder of the Bull, known in many languages as the Seven Sisters. On its own it is not bright — the Pleiades are seen as a soft knot of light rather than a single star — but the cluster is one of the most storied sights in the sky, watched by farmers and sailors across the world to mark the seasons. In astrology Alcyone stands for the whole cluster, and is read as a star of vision, mysticism and heightened sensitivity.
In the zodiac
Alcyone sits right at the join of two signs, at about 0° Gemini today, having crossed out of Taurus around the turn of the century. It moves forward about one degree every 72 years through precession, so a chart from 1950 places it about a degree earlier, in the last degree of Taurus.
Its nature
In the standard English translation, Ptolemy gives the Pleiades the nature of the Moon and Jupiter; most later authors, Robson among them, describe them instead as of the Moon and Mars. The tradition tied the cluster to the eyes and to tears, and its lore is full of mourning: the sisters were said to weep. Older texts read this literally and darkly.
Modern astrologers usually take it as poignancy rather than misfortune: a sensitivity that feels loss keenly and is deepened by it, an inward eye, and a gift for seeing what others miss. It is often found with visionaries, mystics and those drawn to the arts.
In a chart
A planet within about a degree or a degree and a half of Alcyone tends to take on its sensitivity. With the Moon it can describe a deep, impressionable inner life; with the Sun or on the Ascendant, a person who meets the world with heightened perception; on the Midheaven, work shaped by vision or ideals. It colours the point it touches rather than acting alone.