Al-Dabaran

Definition

Al-Dabaran is the fourth of the 28 Arabic lunar mansions, centred on the bright red giant Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri, "the eye of the Bull"). The Arabic name al-Dabaran means "the Follower," because the star follows the Pleiades cluster across the sky. In Warnock's 2019 tropical scheme — adjusted for precession, the slow drift of the star background — the mansion runs from 8 Taurus 34 to 21 Taurus 25, and Aldebaran itself sits at 10 Gemini 03 in 2019. Ptolemy gives Aldebaran the planetary nature of Mars.

In Tradition

In the medieval Western mansion practice descended from Picatrix, Al-Dabaran is read as a difficult, Mars-natured mansion — one of discord, enmity, and unsettled substance. Warnock summarises the agreed image, an armed warrior on a war horse holding a serpent, and its electional character: argument, conflict, litigation, obstacles to your goals, its strength something to be held in check. The mansion belongs to the "Royal Star" lineage as one of the four Persian Watchers, alongside Antares, Regulus, and Fomalhaut.

In Practice

You locate the Moon by longitude and read it as being in Al-Dabaran — Mansion 4 — when it falls within the assigned bounds. Its traditional electional uses are correspondingly martial: demolition, separation, breaking up unions, and contests of will. Agrippa's Three Books II.47 prescribes an Aldebaran fixed-star talisman for "riches and honor," rooted in that Mars-warrior image. The mansion's ruling spirit (Agrippa names it Azariel) is invoked when timing a talisman. In horary readings, the Moon crossing Al-Dabaran heightens themes of anger, conflict, and obstruction; practitioners usually advise against marriage, forming a partnership, or any fragile undertaking while the Moon sits here. The anchor star's longitude must be adjusted for the chart's era.

Historical Origin

The mansion appears in Al-Biruni's Kitab al-Tafhim §164 (c. 1029), which describes the "large red star in easterly eye of Taurus, follower of Pleiades also called tabir al-najm." It is preserved in the Picatrix (Arabic c. 11th c., Latin c. 1256), elaborated by Agrippa's Three Books II.33 (1531-1533) as Aldebaram/Aldelamen, and recovered for modern Western traditional practice through Warnock's Mansions of the Moon.

Further Reading

• Christopher Warnock, The Mansions of the Moon
• Al-Biruni, Kitāb al-Tafhīm
• John Michael Greer & Christopher Warnock, Picatrix