El Nath

Definition

El Nath is the star marking the tip of the northern horn of the Bull, designated Beta Tauri. The star sits at the boundary of the constellations Taurus and Auriga and was historically claimed by both figures. Its Arabic name al-nāṭiḥ (الناطح, 'the butting one') describes the gesture of the Bull lowering his horns. In the Hellenistic-Egyptian Hermetic per-degree catalogs El Nath is fixed at the 24th degree of Taurus as one of the 'Terminus' named-degrees, with a Saturn-and-Jupiter nature.

In Tradition

The Hellenistic-era Hermetic transmission preserved in the Liber Hermetis names the 24th degree of Taurus a 'Terminus' (boundary) degree, identifying the rising star as either Gamma Aurigae or Beta Tauri (El Nath) of Saturn-Jupiter nature. The Saturn-Jupiter complexion places El Nath in the gravity-and-magnification register of the tradition's planetary-pair scheme — substantial, long-reaching, and slow.

In Practice

Astrologers reading El Nath anchor the star at 24° Taurus per the Liber Hermetis Chapter XXV per-degree catalog. The Saturn-Jupiter assignment is read as El Nath's planetary complexion when the star rises, culminates, or conjoins a natal point. Per-degree practice treats the rising minute as the operative threshold: 24° Taurus in the ascendant is when the El Nath signification activates. The Liber Hermetis surrounds El Nath with related per-degree stars — the Pleiades 'Life' at 1°-3° Taurus, Aldebaran at 16°06' 'The Earth', Capella 'Mazonas' at 28°-29° Taurus (also Saturn-Jupiter) — which together compose the per-sign catalog's mapping of Taurus. El Nath's near-ecliptic position makes longitudinal conjunction-aspect the practical reading rather than parallel-of-declination work.

Historical Origin

El Nath is named in the Liber Hermetis Chapter XXV per-degree catalog for Taurus, preserved in the Gundel 1936 critical edition and translated by Robert Zoller for Project Hindsight. The Hermetic-corpus text is Hellenistic-era Greek-original (2nd c. BCE - 3rd c. CE) transmitted via Latin redaction. The Arabic name al-nāṭiḥ is medieval Islamic-astronomical, inherited into the Western fixed-star tradition through medieval Latin transmission.

Etymology

Origin: Arabic. Meaning: From Arabic al-nāṭiḥ (الناطح), 'the butting one', describing the Bull lowering its horns. Latinised through medieval Islamic astronomy as El Nath / Elnath..

Further Reading

• Robert Zoller, Liber Hermetis (Project Hindsight)
• Bernadette Brady, Brady's Book of Fixed Stars
• Vivian E. Robson, The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology