Under the beams

Meaning

A planet is under the beams when it lies near enough to the Sun to be lost in its light. For several weeks around each conjunction with the Sun, a planet cannot be seen in the sky at all: it rises and sets with the Sun, and daylight drowns it. Astrologers read this invisibility as weakness. The planet is present, but it cannot show itself or act openly.

The Greek phrase is hupo tas augas, "under the rays" or "under the beams"; Arabic authors say taḥt al-shuʿāʿ, with the same meaning. Latin and English writers turned it into "under the Sun-beams", which is the form William Lilly uses [4].

Being under the beams is the mildest of three solar conditions. Closer to the Sun the planet is combust, "burnt", which is worse. At the very centre it is cazimi, "in the heart of the Sun", which reverses the picture and counts as a great strength. Under the beams is the outer band, where the planet is dimmed rather than burnt.

Origin and history

The idea comes straight from observation. Ancient astronomers tracked the days on which a planet first became visible again before sunrise (its heliacal rising) or last disappeared after sunset. In Hellenistic astrology these phases (phaseis) carried meaning, and a planet that could not be seen was said to be under the rays. Hellenistic authors usually give a round figure of 15° from the Sun for this zone. Paulus of Alexandria, for example, treats a planet within 15° of the Sun as making its morning or evening setting, and says that within 9° the planets become still more ineffectual [1]. Brennan explains the link with visibility and the special weight given to a planet that emerges from the beams within a few days of birth [5]. Porphyry's introduction also treats the planets' phases in relation to the Sun [2].

Arabic astronomers-astrologers refined the rule. Al-Bīrūnī describes the sequence around conjunction in detail: cazimi (Arabic taṣmīm) within about 16′ of the Sun, then combust out to about 6°, then "under the rays" until the planet is far enough away to begin its morning phase. He gives different distances for different planets: 12° for Venus and Mercury, 15° for Jupiter and Saturn, and 16° for Mars as they emerge (with slightly larger figures, up to 18° for Mars, as they approach the Sun), and 12° for the Moon [3]. He also notes that the moment of visibility really varies with the country and climate, so any fixed figure is a convention.

By the seventeenth century the rule had become a single number. Lilly writes that a planet is under the Sun-beams until it is fully 17° away, either before or after the Sun [4]. For combustion he allows half the Sun's orb, 8°30′, and he limits it to a planet in the Sun's own sign [4]; the 17° of the beams matches the full orb that figure implies.

How it is used

Under the beams is an accidental condition: it depends on where the planet happens to be in this chart, not on its sign. It weakens the planet's capacity to act visibly or to bring its matters into the open. In Lilly's horary practice it is one of the impediments to weigh against a significator; he reserves his strongest language for combustion, which he says shows the querent in fear and overpowered [4].

The −4 comes from Lilly's table of fortitudes and debilities, where "under the Sun beams" is debited four points, one less than combustion [4].

Where authorities differ.

• How far? Hellenistic sources typically use 15° [1]; al-Bīrūnī varies the distance by planet [3]; Lilly uses 17° [4]. This site follows Lilly's 17°, and uses a round 8° for the inner combust boundary rather than his 8°30′.
• Same sign or not? Lilly limits combustion to the Sun's own sign [4]. Many modern programs, including this one, measure distance only.
• Coming or going? Several authors distinguish a planet that is sinking into the beams from one that is emerging from them, and treat the emerging planet more kindly. Lilly makes the same point about combustion: the planet is more afflicted when the Sun is hastening towards it than when the Sun is moving away [4]. This site does not change the points for direction.
• The luminaries. The Sun cannot be under its own beams. The Moon's closeness to the Sun is usually described as her phase (new, waxing, and so on) rather than scored in the same way, and this site does not apply the condition to the Moon.

Examples

• The Sun is at 10° Taurus and Venus at 23° Taurus, 13° away. Venus is under the beams (−4): she is near her invisibility, and her matters work quietly or behind the scenes.
• Mars is at 2° Leo with the Sun at 17° Cancer, 15° away. Under this site's rule Mars is under the beams (−4). In a Hellenistic reading with a 15° limit it sits right on the boundary, and al-Bīrūnī's larger figure for Mars would also count it.
• Mercury is 5° from the Sun. It is not under the beams but combust (−5), the more severe condition.

See also

Read combust and cazimi for the inner bands, and oriental and occidental for the phase of a planet as it moves away from the Sun.