Alhena

Definition

Alhena is the star Gamma Geminorum, on the foot of the southern twin Pollux in the constellation Gemini. The Arabic name al-hanʿa (الهنعة) names a small group of stars around the figure's foot, with the star carrying the Arabic mansion-name. In the Arabic-Persian mansion-of-the-moon tradition Alhena serves as the indicator star for Mansion 6, Al-Hanʿa, at a precessed position near 9° Cancer 22' (Warnock 2019).

In Tradition

In the Arabic-Persian Manazil al-Qamar lunar-mansion tradition the 28 indicator stars delimit the boundaries of the lunar mansions along the ecliptic, and Alhena fixes the leading boundary of Mansion 6. Warnock follows Vivian Robson's 1923 identifications for the indicator-star scheme, treating each indicator-star longitude as the mansion's seed-position to be precessed forward to the epoch of use.

In Practice

Practitioners use Alhena in two distinct ways. As an indicator star, the star's precessed longitude marks the boundary of Lunar Mansion 6 (Al-Hanʿa) — Warnock fixes the 2019 position at 9° Cancer 22'. Talismanic and electional work with Mansion 6 timings reference this longitude as the mansion's seed-point; positions for other epochs are computed by adding the standard precession-rate adjustment to the 2019 value. As a per-star reading, Alhena is read when the star conjoins natal points, transits, or ingress charts, with the practitioner working from the indicator-star longitude rather than from an extended natal orb. The star sits near the ecliptic, so longitudinal conjunction-aspect is the practical reading rather than parallel-of-declination work. Modern fixed-star practitioners often emphasise the foot-of-Pollux placement in their interpretive language, building on the Arabic mansion-tradition's locational reading of the star.

Historical Origin

Alhena is attested as the indicator-star for Mansion 6 Al-Hanʿa in the canonical Manazil al-Qamar Arabic lunar-mansion scheme; Warnock's 2019 Mansions of the Moon compiles the indicator-star scheme via Vivian Robson's 1923 The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology. The Arabic name al-hanʿa is medieval Islamic-astronomical, inherited into the Western fixed-star tradition through medieval Latin transmission.

Etymology

Origin: Arabic. Meaning: From Arabic al-hanʿa (الهنعة), the name of a small star-group around the figure's foot; the name became attached to Gamma Geminorum as the brightest member of the group and the indicator-star for Lunar Mansion 6..

Further Reading

• Christopher Warnock, Mansions of the Moon
• Vivian E. Robson, The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology
• Bernadette Brady, Brady's Book of Fixed Stars