← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 181/235
Pollux
Pollux marks the head of the second twin in the constellation Gemini, a little way from Castor. It is the brighter of the pair, an orange giant star of first magnitude, warm-coloured beside Castor's white. In myth Pollux was the boxer of the Dioscuri and the immortal one of the twins, who gave up half his immortality so his brother could share it. In astrology it is read as a star of courage and competition: determination, physical and moral nerve, and ambition pursued hard.
In the zodiac
Pollux now stands at about 23° Cancer, three degrees on from Castor. Through precession it moves forward about one degree every 72 years, so in a chart from 1950 it sits about a degree earlier, near 22° Cancer.
Its nature
Ptolemy gave the star in the head of the following twin the nature of Mars, and noted that it was also called the star of Hercules. The tradition was blunt about it: older writers called its natives bold, crafty and rash, and linked it with fighting, quarrels and sudden reversals. Modern astrologers usually read that heat as drive — a fighting spirit and staying power that are a real strength, and that work best when matched with fairness and patience.
In a chart
Only a close conjunction is usually counted, within about a degree or a degree and a half. On the Sun or the Midheaven, Pollux is often read as ambition and a readiness to compete; with Mars it adds force and nerve, and with Mercury an incisive, sometimes cutting, way with words. On the Ascendant it tends to show a direct, spirited manner. It colours the point it touches rather than acting alone.