What Alkaid means
Alkaid means "the leader". The name comes from the Arabic al-Qāʾid, short for qāʾid banāt naʿsh, the leader of the daughters of the bier. Where Greek astronomers saw a great bear, Arabic star lore saw a funeral: the four stars of the Big Dipper's bowl were the bier, naʿsh, and the three stars of its handle were the mourning daughters, banāt naʿsh. Alkaid, the last star of the handle, leads them.
The same phrase gave the star its second name, Benetnasch or Benetnash, from banāt naʿsh. Astronomers know it as Eta Ursae Majoris, and in 2016 the International Astronomical Union adopted Alkaid as its proper name. Other skies named it too: in China it is the seventh star of the Northern Dipper, and Hindu tradition counts it among the seven sages, as the sage Marīci.
Finding Alkaid in the sky
Find the Big Dipper and follow its handle away from the bowl: the star at the very end is Alkaid, the easternmost of the seven. Keep following the curve of the handle onward and it arcs to Arcturus, the bright orange star of Boötes. Alkaid lies about 49 degrees north of the celestial equator, so from latitudes north of about 41°, which takes in the northern United States, all of Canada and most of Europe, it circles the pole without ever setting.
The star itself
Alkaid is a hot, young blue-white star of spectral type B3, about five times the mass of the Sun and only some six million years old. It spins so fast that it bulges at its equator. At magnitude 1.86 it is the third-brightest star in Ursa Major, and, unlike most of the Big Dipper's stars, it does not belong to the group of stars that travel through space together as the Ursa Major moving group: Alkaid only happens to line up with them.
Alkaid in astrology
Astrology reads a fixed star chiefly by conjunction. Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos likens the bright stars of the Great Bear to Mars. Alkaid is also one of the fifteen Behenian fixed stars of the talismanic tradition, each with its own gemstone, herb and engraved image. In Canopy, Alkaid is a Behenian star of the natures of Mars and Venus, with magnetite (lodestone) as its gemstone and chicory as its herb, and the app describes the image the tradition engraved on its talisman. By tropical longitude it stands near 27°17′ of Virgo (2025 position).
In your birth chart, Canopy sets Alkaid against your planets, Ascendant and Midheaven. When it lies within three degrees of one of them, the reading, drawn from the classical sources, speaks of losses that come before greater achievements, and of the power to recover and rise from adversity.
See whether Alkaid, or any of 35 fixed stars, touches your chart.
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Questions
What does Alkaid mean?
Alkaid comes from the Arabic al-Qāʾid, the leader, short for qāʾid banāt naʿsh, the leader of the daughters of the bier. Arabic star lore saw the four stars of the Big Dipper's bowl as a bier and the three stars of the handle as the mourning daughters, with Alkaid at their head.
Where is Alkaid in the sky?
Alkaid is the star at the end of the Big Dipper's handle, the easternmost of its seven stars, in the constellation Ursa Major. Follow the curve of the handle onward and it leads to Arcturus. From latitudes north of about 41°, Alkaid never sets.
What is Alkaid's other name?
Benetnasch, also spelled Benetnash, from the Arabic banāt naʿsh, the daughters of the bier. Astronomers also call it Eta Ursae Majoris, and the International Astronomical Union has adopted Alkaid as its proper name.
What color is Alkaid?
Blue-white. Alkaid is a hot, young B-type star, about five times the mass of the Sun and only some six million years old, spinning fast enough to bulge at its equator. At magnitude 1.86 it is the third-brightest star in Ursa Major.
Is Alkaid a Behenian star?
Yes. Alkaid is one of the fifteen Behenian fixed stars of the talismanic tradition. Canopy gives it the natures of Mars and Venus, magnetite as its gemstone and chicory as its herb, and describes the image engraved on its talisman.
What does Alkaid mean in astrology?
In a birth chart Canopy reads Alkaid by conjunction: when it lies within three degrees of a planet, the Ascendant or the Midheaven, the reading, drawn from the classical sources, speaks of losses that come before greater achievements, and of the power to recover and rise from adversity. It stands near 27° of tropical Virgo.
