Alkaid

Eta Ursae Majoris — the tail-tip of the Great Bear

Position (J2000)

26°56′ Virgo

Magnitude

1.86

Colour

Blue-white

Spectrum

B3 V

Distance

102 light-years

Nature

Mars · Moon

In the sky

Alkaid marks the end of the Plough's handle, the last point of the Great Bear's tail, at magnitude 1.86 and about a hundred and two light-years away. It is one of only two stars in that familiar shape not travelling with the rest: most of the Plough forms a single moving group, while Alkaid and Dubhe are passing through independently, and in fifty thousand years the shape will have dispersed. From most of the northern hemisphere it is circumpolar and never sets.

The myth

The Arabic name derives from al-qa'id banat na'sh, the leader of the daughters of the bier. That tradition saw no bear: the bowl of the Plough was a coffin and the three handle stars were mourners walking behind it, with Alkaid at the head of the procession.

This is the source of the star's reputation for mourning. The image repays a second look, however, since the mourners in it are upright, walking, and being led. The astrological material attaching to Alkaid concerns those who continue after a loss rather than the loss itself.

What it gives

• Steadiness formed by difficulty Natives commonly meet loss early or work close to it, and acquire from that a composure which easier circumstances do not produce.
• Capacity to be present in a crisis The native can sit with someone in the worst hour of their life without flinching and without hurrying them. This is uncommon, and those on the receiving end of it generally remember. At its widest this becomes public work: the one who gives a shape to a family's or a community's grief — the eulogy, the memorial, the rescue effort — without claiming the grief as their own.
• Endurance Seriousness of purpose and a long tolerance for work that does not resolve quickly.
• Compassion without sentiment Help under this star arrives and stays, rather than expressing itself and departing.

What to watch for

• Grief refused Sorrow that is not felt through does not disperse. It hardens, generally into fatalism or into a fixed attachment to the funereal.
• Loss becoming the whole identity There is a temptation to let what happened become the native's entire account of themselves, which the image in the sky does not support.
• Carrying everyone Natives who are competent with grief tend to be handed all of it, and rarely think to decline.
• Heaviness mistaken for depth The seriousness this star gives is genuine, but it can be cultivated past the point where it is useful to anyone.

How to work with it

Allow grief its full course without being hurried, and extend the same latitude to others. This is the central measure with the placement, and most of its difficulties follow from ignoring it.

Decline some of what is brought. Saying no on occasion does not undo the capacity or the reputation for it.

Note that the procession in the image arrives somewhere. Natives of this star are permitted to finish mourning, and often need explicit permission to do so.

In brief

Alkaid is traditionally a star of mourning, but the material it actually describes is what people become by continuing after loss: steadiness, endurance, and the capacity to remain with someone in serious trouble. Its difficulties arise where grief is refused rather than felt, where the loss becomes the native's whole identity, or where the capacity is exploited by others because the native does not decline.