Regulus

Meaning

Regulus is the bright blue-white star at the heart of Leo. Its Latin name means “little king”, like the Greek Basiliskos that Ptolemy uses. It shines at about magnitude 1.4 and lies some 79 light-years away.

It sits almost exactly on the ecliptic, less than half a degree north of it. The Moon passes in front of it in some years. In 2000 it stood at 29°50′ Leo. Precession, about a degree in 72 years, carried it into Virgo around 2011–12, and it will stay there for some two thousand years.

Ptolemy gives Regulus the nature of Mars and Jupiter: courage joined to generosity and command. Tradition reads it as the most kingly of stars, linked with leadership, honour, ambition and the warmth of a born host. Its difficult side is pride.

In practice

• On the Sun or the Ascendant, Regulus is read as presence, a wish to lead and a natural dignity that others notice.
• On the Midheaven, it is read as a public role of responsibility, best held with fairness and grace.
• On Venus or the Moon, tradition reads warmth, loyalty and a generous heart that likes to give openly.
• Leo or Virgo? Charts from before 2011 have Regulus at the end of Leo; later charts have it at the start of Virgo.

Across traditions

• Babylonian astronomers already called this star the King, long before the Greeks.
• Indian astrology places it in the nakshatra Magha, ruled by the ancestors and linked with thrones and lineage.
• Chinese astronomy calls it 轩辕十四 Xuānyuán shísì, the fourteenth star of the Yellow Emperor group.
• The four royal stars. Modern books often call Regulus, Aldebaran, Antares and Fomalhaut the four royal stars, or watchers of the sky. They credit the idea to ancient Persia. The grouping is popular, but its ancient basis is debated. The four do lie roughly a quarter of the zodiac apart. Around 3000 BC, Aldebaran and Antares stood close to the equinoxes, Regulus and Fomalhaut within about ten degrees of the solstices.

Origin and history

In the Babylonian star lists, Regulus is the King, a reference star for the Moon and the planets. Ptolemy’s Almagest lists it as the star on the Lion’s heart, called Basiliskos. In the Tetrabiblos he likens it to Mars and Jupiter. Medieval magic counted it among the fifteen Behenian stars, and Agrippa lists it in his De occulta philosophia. Vivian Robson, in 1923, gathered the readings of honour, power and high office. Bernadette Brady, in 1998, tied its success to one condition: avoiding revenge.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune places Regulus from the Swiss Ephemeris star catalogue, sefstars.txt, where it is Alpha Leonis. Its position is the apparent one at the chart’s moment, with precession, nutation, aberration and the star’s own motion applied. A chart from 2010 shows it in late Leo, a chart from 2013 in early Virgo.

A body within 1° of Regulus’s longitude counts as on it; latitude is not compared. The Stars part of the chart table lists every body, point and angle on the star except the lots, closest first. Without a birth time, a contact that may not hold all day is marked ~. On the wheel, Regulus is an overlay turned on in the Bodies panel. Its mark names the closest of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars or the four angles within 1°.

Correspondences