Cepheus

Definition

A northern circumpolar constellation between Cassiopeia and Draco, visible year-round from mid-northern latitudes. In Greek mythological reception Cepheus is the king of Aethiopia, husband of Cassiopeia and father of Andromeda. The figure passed into astrological reception through Hellenistic-Hermetic paranatellonta doctrine, where Cepheus rises with early Aries and late Aquarius degrees and is named alongside stellar-position attestations in Liber Hermetis.

In Tradition

Across the Hellenistic-Hermetic per-degree tradition (Liber Hermetis), Cepheus is named through co-rising degrees and through stellar-position citations in the Aquarius and Aries bright-star catalogs. The constellation has no canonical zodiacal placement; it is read paranatellonta-style or through ecliptic projection of its named stars.

In Practice

Astrologers using paranatellonta technique read Cepheus through its co-rising degrees: Liber Hermetis Ch. XXV places Cepheus at 6-7° Aries in the per-degree catalog tied to the named-degree 'Remission' (with 7-12° Aries assigned to the Venus terms in the same chapter). Liber Hermetis Ch. III (Aquarius bright-stars catalog) attests a Cepheus stellar position at 29° in the Aquarius-region per-degree register, citing 'the one in the left part of Cepheus' as the foundation of the same Moon-co-rising eminence-doctrine that opens Ch. III. The mythological framing of Cepheus as the king-husband of Cassiopeia is preserved through Greek-mythological reception consistent with the Liber Hermetis chapter pairings, though the per-degree apparatus is the substantive astrological doctrine.

Historical Origin

The Cepheus paranatellonta + stellar-position doctrine is attested in Liber Hermetis Chs. III and XXV (Alexandrian-era Hermetic synthesis, source-faithfully preserved in Zoller's Project Hindsight translation of the Gundel 1936 Latin edition).

Etymology

Origin: Greek / Latin. Meaning: From Greek Κηφεύς (Kēpheús); Latin Cepheus. The figure is conventionally identified with the king of Aethiopia in the Greek-mythological reception that accompanies the per-degree paranatellonta apparatus..

Further Reading

• Robert Zoller, Liber Hermetis