Albaldah
Pi Sagittarii — the Archer's head, the town built on open ground
- Position (J2000)
- 16°15′ Capricorn
- Magnitude
- 2.88
- Colour
- Yellow-white
- Spectrum
- F2 II
- Distance
- ~510 light-years
- Nature
- Jupiter · Mercury
In the sky
Albaldah is a yellow-white bright giant of the third magnitude at the back of the Archer's head, above and behind the Teapot, about five hundred and ten light-years away and a thousand times as bright as the Sun. It is a triple: two faint companions keep it company, one close and one wider. It lies almost exactly on the ecliptic, less than a degree and a half north of it, so that the Moon passes over it often and the planets come to it in turn; it is one of the few bright stars in the sky that can be hidden by the Moon.
The name is the Arabic al-baldah, which means a town, and also the open ground a town is built on; it was the name of the twenty-first mansion of the Moon, the one station on the Moon's road with no bright asterism in it, the bare stretch between the Ostriches and the first of the lucky stars. The star took the mansion's name, but the mansion is the space, and Albaldah is the one light in the clearing.
The myth
The Archer is Crotus, the centaur who invented the bow and hunted on horseback, set among the stars at the asking of the Muses; his head is turned toward the Scorpion and his arrow is drawn at its heart. The back of his head, where Albaldah sits, is covered by the cloak the old painters gave him, and Ptolemy gives the stars of the cloak and back the nature of Jupiter and Mercury, breadth and intelligence together, the mind of the archer rather than his arm.
The star's own meaning comes from the mansion. The open ground is where a town is founded, and Albaldah is the founder's star: the single light in the clearing around which a settlement gathers. In a chart it speaks of founding, of hospitality and plain speech, of the mind that sees a town where others see bare ground, and of the room that such a mind gives to everyone who comes to settle near it.
What it gives
- The founder's eye A town seen on open ground. The native begins durable things where there was nothing, and others come to settle around what they began.
- Room The clearing around the light. This native gives space, to feelings, to people, to ideas, and is the one near whom nothing has to be performed.
- Plain speech with breadth Jupiter with Mercury: a voice that says large true things simply, the archer's mind behind the archer's aim.
- Hospitality of the town The founder keeps a table. Fortune under this star comes through the people drawn to the light in the clearing, and is shared with them.
What to watch for
- The clearing never built on Room kept open so long that nothing is ever founded; the native alone in a space that was meant for a town.
- The one light Being the only star in the mansion can become loneliness by position; the founder whom everyone settles near and no one knows.
- Breadth without the arrow Jupiter's generosity of mind unaimed, the town planned in every direction and begun in none.
- Speech too plain The archer's directness turned on the near ones; what was honest at the founding is blunt at the table.
How to work with it
The native does well to build on part of the ground and keep the rest open. The clearing is their health and the founding is their gift, and the town stands when both are honoured.
It helps to let someone else be a light in the clearing: a partner or a friend given the founder's place for a season, so that the one star is not the only one.
Breadth is aimed by a date. The native who chooses one direction a year and begins it finds the generosity of mind becomes a town rather than a plan. And plain speech is kept kind by one added sentence, the one that says what the true thing means for the hearer.
In brief
Albaldah is the Archer's head and the one light in the open ground: the founder's eye, room, plain speech with breadth, the hospitality of the town. Its difficulties are the clearing's, ground never built on, the loneliness of the only light, breadth without aim, and speech too plain for the near ones. The placement works best where part of the ground is built on and another light is let into the clearing.