An astrological stellium identifies something special about you. It's a complicated mixture of issues, interests, challenges, and gifts that are central to your life. It's often a career indicator, but in any case, it's undoubtedly your passion.
What Is a Stellium?
A stellium is simply a cluster of three or more planets that are in a conjunction aspect in a single sign. A stellium can actually eclipse your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant in terms of importance. Why? Because you have a laser-like focus on the qualities the sign represents, as well as in the house or houses it occupies, and the house in which the planet that rules the sign of your stellium resides. A stellium can be a gift, or it can become an obsession that takes over your life.
Stelliums in the 12 Astrological Signs
If you want to know if you have a stellium and what house or houses it occupies, you can get an accurate birth chart at AstroSeek by entering the date, time, and place of birth.
Aries Stellium
If you have a stellium of Aries planets, you're action-oriented and enthusiastic about life but tend to be an impulsive, competitive loner.
Taurus Stellium
If you have a stellium of Taurus planets, you're a bit of a hedonist who appreciates beauty and takes life slow and easy.
Gemini Stellium
If you have a stellium of Gemini planets, you're a talker and thinker who's curious and always up for fun and witty repartee.
Cancer Stellium
If you have a Cancer stellium, you're a loving, empathetic, nurturing, and selfless person who is also sensitive, easily hurt, and needs to feel secure in life.
Leo Stellium
If you have a stellium of Leo planets, you're dramatic and want to be seen, loved, praised, and appreciated.
Virgo Stellium
If you have a stellium of Virgo planets, striving for perfection is paramount, and you're more efficient, productive, and concerned with your health than other people.
Libra Stellium
If you have a stellium of Libra planets, you're a people person, and your focus will be on others.
Scorpio Stellium
If you have a stellium of Scorpio planets, you're a transformer and are also likely to undergo large and small transformations throughout your life.
Sagittarius Stellium
If you have a stellium of planets in Sagittarius, you're an optimist who can always look on the bright side and come up with the biggest, boldest ideas possible.
Capricorn Stellium
If you have planets in a Capricorn stellium, you're super ambitious and have the potential for success and respect.
Aquarius Stellium
If you have planets in an Aquarius stellium, you're a rebel innovator who's intelligent and thinks out of the box.
Pisces Stellium
If you have planets in a Pisces stellium, you're a dreamer who's soft, gentle, compassionate, imaginative, and highly intuitive.
The Planets in a Stellium
The planets in a stellium are like a team of players who each has a job to do and must work together. Astrologer Donna Cunningham, in her book The Stellium Handbook, writes the "sequence of planets in the stellium... tells the story." This means the planet at the lowest degree of the sign is the leader. But how and to what extent you feel the effects of a stellium depends on the planets involved.
The Personal Planets
If a stellium consists of only the inner planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, or Mars), it's relatively easy for them to work together.
The Social Planets
Jupiter always expands what it touches, and as part of a stellium, it can extravagant how the planets and the energy of the sign express, often to excess. While Saturn can limit their expression or, on the other hand, make them extremely structure and well defined.
The Outer Planets
When the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto, are part of a stellium, they are so complex and powerful that they are key players.
- Uranus brings eccentricity, inventiveness, and breaking with the past into the mix.
- Neptune adds inspiration and the need to rise above self and connect to something greater to the mix.
- Pluto brings power, control, trust, transformation, and manifestation into the mix.
A Stellium's House
The house or houses in which a stellium is located is of utmost importance. A stellium is more powerful when it is both a stellium by sign and house. One house is not stronger than another, so regardless of what house a stellium occupies, it can produce many accomplishments in that arena of life.
- A stellium on or near the cusps of the four angular houses is considered high profile.
- A stellium in one of the more life affirming houses (the 1st, 5th, or 9th), for better or worse, is there for all the world to see.
- A stellium in the more social houses (the 3rd, 7th, or 11th), makes personal connections a significant concern and strongly affects your relationships.
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A stellium in one of the substance houses (2nd, 6th, and 10th) have a significant concern with money and success.
- A stellium in the more private houses (the 12th, 4th, or 8th) may become a private struggle for self-mastery.
Transits to a Stellium
It's significant when a stellium is activated by transit or progression. This is particularly important when the planet doing the triggering is an outer planet. As an example, Pluto can take as long as 6 to 7 years to cover a 12-degree orb, so if the planets in a stellium are conjunct within 2 to 3 degrees, they will be hit together. As a transit triggers one planet after another, it sparks a series of events and developments related to the house, planets, and signs in the combination. Knowing how to use the positive potentials represented by a stellium can help an individual make more conscious and better choices.
Feeling a Bit Lost?
Astrology is complex, but so are human beings. If you have a stellium in your birth chart, you're extraordinarily complex. Stelliums are challenging to interpret in a natal chart. So, if you're feeling a bit lost trying to piece your stellium together, the best advice is to consult a seasoned professional astrologer and let them zero in on that part of your birth chart.
