Spica

SPY-kuh

latin: Spica (Ear of Wheat) · arabic: Al-Simak al-A'zal

Definition

Spica is Alpha Virginis, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo — a 1st-magnitude blue-white binary about 250 light-years away. In the early 21st century its zodiac position sits near 24° Libra, and because it lies close to the ecliptic the Moon regularly passes in front of it. In the Virgo figure it marks the ear of wheat the Virgin holds, and it is the marker star of the 14th Arabic lunar mansion, al-Simak al-Aʿzal.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic, Arabic, and traditional Western fixed-star writing, Spica is counted among the most strongly benefic stars — one of the fortunate ones — paired with a Venus-Mercury or Venus-Mars nature. The Hermes Behenian doctrine — a set of fifteen magically potent stars — lists Spica as the ninth, tied to wealth, success in disputes, and release from anguish. Astrologers who work with fixed stars treat a close contact with Spica in the birth chart as protective and lucky.

In Practice

In practice, Spica is judged by a tight conjunction or paran with the planets, the chart angles, or the lights (the Sun and Moon), with its zodiac position updated for precession — the slow wobble of Earth's axis — which currently has it near 24° Libra, drifting about one degree every 72 years. A conjunction within about one degree of a personal planet is read as strongly favorable, especially for whatever that planet governs, and a conjunction on an angle (the Ascendant or Midheaven) counts for more. In the Behenian talisman tradition, electional charts time the making of a Spica talisman to a Moon-Spica conjunction kept clear of the malefics — the difficult planets.

Historical Origin

Spica appears as a navigational and calendar reference star in the Babylonian Mul.Apin and in Hellenistic catalogues, and its position is recorded in Ptolemy's star catalogue in the Almagest (2nd century CE). The Arabic name al-Simāk al-Aʿzal ("the unarmed Simak") is preserved in al-Biruni's Kitāb al-Tafhīm (c. 1029) and in Picatrix-tradition lunar-mansion treatises. Spica is the ninth Behenian star in the medieval Latin Hermetic recension preserved as BM Bodleian MS. 52.

Further Reading

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