Albali
Epsilon Aquarii — the Swallower, the lucky star where the earth drinks the rain
- Position (J2000)
- 11°43′ Aquarius
- Magnitude
- 3.77
- Colour
- White
- Spectrum
- A1 V
- Distance
- ~208 light-years
- Nature
- Saturn · Mercury
In the sky
Albali is a white star of the fourth magnitude at the western edge of the Water-Bearer, on the raised arm of the figure, about two hundred and eight light-years away, hotter and some two hundred times brighter than the Sun and spinning fast. It is the leading star of the twenty-third mansion of the Moon, the second of the four fortunes, and its name is the mansion's: sa'd al-bula, the lucky star of the swallower. The desert watchers saw two stars close together with a third between them, as if one had swallowed the other, and they said that when this fortune set at dawn in the wet season the earth swallowed the rain, drinking it down to the roots.
The star lies eight degrees north of the ecliptic, so that its contacts in a chart are by longitude.
The myth
The Water-Bearer is Ganymede, the boy carried up to Olympus by the eagle to pour for the gods, and his urn pours the stream that runs down to the Southern Fish. Ptolemy gives the stars of the Water-Bearer's shoulders, face and left hand the nature of Saturn and Mercury, and the older astrologers read this star severely, as a star of hardship and of being swallowed up. The desert lore is kinder and truer: the swallower is the thirsty earth taking in the rain, and the fortune is the fortune of a thing wholly absorbed and turned to growth.
Albali is the star of taking in. In a chart it speaks of appetite for experience, of learning by immersion, of the self that becomes what it studies, and, with Saturn's weight, of the danger of being swallowed in turn, into a partner, a household or a habit, until the self is inside something else. The mansion's grace is in its lore of release: what this star has taken in, it also knows how to let out.
What it gives
- Appetite for life Experience taken in whole and made part of the self. The native is rich in what they have absorbed and generous with it.
- Learning by immersion Languages, crafts, places and people learned by being swallowed into them. This native becomes what it studies, and studies by becoming.
- The earth that drinks Saturn's patience in the taking in: nothing is wasted, and what was drunk in the wet season feeds the roots through the dry.
- Complete release The mansion's liberty of captives. When this native lets something go, it is gone, and the health that follows is whole.
What to watch for
- Swallowing the poison The bond, habit or influence taken in whole that should have been tasted first; the native changed by what they absorbed before they knew what it was.
- Being swallowed Absorbed into a partner, a family or a cause until the self cannot be found; the old severity of the star lived from the inside.
- Appetite without end Taking in that does not stop, and never digests what it has.
- Saturn's drought Having swallowed poison once, a refusal of all nourishment after; the thirsty earth that will not drink.
How to work with it
The native does well to taste before swallowing: a week with a new person before they are inside, a season with a new habit before it is the native's own. What is swallowed is nourishment or poison, and the difference can be tasted if time is taken.
It helps to keep one thing that no one else may absorb, a practice, a friendship or a place that stays the native's alone, so that the self remains findable inside the household or the bond.
When release is needed, this is the star that can do it completely; the only fear is the emptiness after, which the earth knows is where the next rain goes.
In brief
Albali is the Swallower, the lucky star where the earth drinks the rain: appetite for life, learning by immersion, the patience of the thirsty ground, complete release. Its difficulties are the swallow's, poison taken in whole, the self absorbed into another, appetite without end, and a drought of refusal after one bad cup. The placement works best where tasting comes before swallowing and one thing is kept that no one else may absorb.