Capella, al-ʿAyyūq: the fixed star in astrology, its talisman and its election

Capella star meaning: the name al-ʿAyyūq

Capella is Latin for "the little she-goat", and it is still called the Goat Star: the brightest star of Auriga, the Charioteer, it is the goat he carries on his shoulder in the old star maps. To the Arabs it was al-ʿAyyūq, the name Canopy uses for the fixed star in its astrology. The word has no clear meaning in Arabic; some students of star names think it echoes the Greek aix, the goat. In one Arabian story al-ʿAyyūq stands between al-Dabarān, the Follower, and the Pleiades he pursues across the sky: a tale, not a translation.

Canopy's natal reading calls the star "the Goat Driver", a gloss taken from the picture of the constellation, not from the Arabic word. Capella is also one of the fifteen Behenian fixed stars, to which the talismanic tradition gave a stone and an herb of their own; hence its talisman and its election.

Where the Capella fixed star sits

By tropical longitude Capella stood at 22°10′ Gemini in 2025; on October 25, 2026, its star page in Canopy showed 22°11′. Precession carries it forward by less than a minute of arc a year, about a degree in seventy-two years. Its degree lies in the arc Canopy counts as the seventh lunar mansion, al-Dhirāʿ, the Forearm, from 17°09′ Gemini to the end of the sign.

The sign measures the ecliptic, not the star's place in the sky. Capella lies about 46 degrees north of the celestial equator: north of about latitude 44°, in Montreal, Paris or London, it never sets, and south of about 44°S, at Dunedin or Ushuaia, it never rises. It is the sixth-brightest star of the night sky, magnitude 0.08 in Canopy, and in fact a close pair of yellow giant stars about 43 light-years away.

Capella in astrology: a star of Jupiter and Saturn

Canopy files Capella as a benefic star of the natures of Jupiter and Saturn. Its star page reads the pairing as ambition widened by Jupiter and held to patient work by Saturn: honor and wealth reached through persistence and civic virtue, earned rather than inherited, and not by a sudden stroke of fortune.

Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos (I.9) gives the bright stars of Auriga the temperament of Mars and Mercury instead, and Canopy's star page notes that some versions of the tradition gave Capella that nature. Canopy itself gives it Jupiter and Saturn, as the later Behenian lists do. Even so, the natal reading opens with "martial honors".

The star page's Talisman Correspondences card lists what to seek under Capella, honors, civic trust and wealth, and what to avoid, scandal and waste.

Capella conjunct the Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Midheaven

Canopy calculates your chart from your birth date, time and place and reads Capella by conjunction. When the star lies within three degrees of one of the seven planets, the Ascendant, the Midheaven, the Vertex or either lunar Node, the Chart tab lists the contact under Behenian Fixed Stars, and the star page gives the reading, drawn from the classical sources: Capella "brings martial honors combined with wealth and fame" and grants "success through self-reliance and determination". The Descendant and the IC are not tested.

So Capella conjunct the Sun, the Moon, Mercury or the North Node all receive that one reading. The Sun reaches Capella's degree in mid-June, so a natal Sun within orb belongs roughly to births from June 8 to 16, while a Capella Ascendant or Midheaven depends on the birth time and place.

Day by day, when a transiting planet comes within two degrees of an aspect to Capella, the Today screen's Fixed Stars card names it, with "Nature: Benefic" and "Star nature: Jupiter–Saturn". The full reading's Fixed Star Influences casts a wider net, so a transit of Mercury conjunct Capella appears there with the same reading.

How to make a Capella talisman: the stone, the herb and the natures

Canopy defines the Capella talisman by three things it shows and a moment it finds. On a window's About & Correspondences page, the Correspondences card gives the gemstone, al-jawhar, as sapphire; the herb, al-ḥashīsha, as horehound; and the planetary nature as Jupiter and Saturn. The star page agrees, and its Traditional Uses line states the purpose: "Talismans for gaining honors and riches, using sapphire and horehound."

The same window page opens with its purpose line, "Nature of Jupiter", and the tier of the moment, then the app's summary: "Capella (al-ʿAyyūq) is a benefic fixed star of the nature of Jupiter and Saturn. It is one of the fifteen Behenian stars of the talismanic tradition." Canopy gives the stone, the herb and the minutes, not a procedure. The planets' own talismans follow other rules: see the Jupiter talisman and the Saturn talisman.

When to make a Capella talisman: the Capella election

Canopy runs the Capella talisman and the Capella election as one search under one set of rules. A moment qualifies only when Capella's zodiac degree stands within one degree of the Ascendant (rising) or the Midheaven (culminating); the Descendant and the IC do not count. The test is the degree: Canopy does not check whether Capella is above the horizon. For a star this far north of the ecliptic that matters: its own rising and its degree's rising can fall well apart, while on the Midheaven the two pass close together.

The Moon must be applying to Capella by conjunction, sextile or trine within two degrees. She must not be combust, nor applying a hard aspect to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn, a conjunction to an afflicted planet, or an aspect to the South Node, nor to an undignified Mars or Saturn (only Algol and Alkaid are excused from that last rule). Capella itself must have no Mars, Saturn, South Node or afflicted planet within three degrees. A moment that fails any test is set aside. One test never bites: the Moon is refused in Scorpio and Capricorn, her fall and detriment, but a Moon applying to 22° Gemini by conjunction, sextile or trine stands in Gemini, Aries, Leo, Libra or Aquarius.

A window that passes is scored on three terms: the Moon's aspect, where a conjunction counts double; the angle; and the Moon's condition, best when she is waxing and not void of course. A Moon conjoining Capella gives 80 to 100 percent, a sextile or trine 50 to 70, and the tier reads Excellent from 70. Capella's benefic nature does not enter this score. Say the degree culminates while a waxing Moon at 21° Leo, not void of course, applies to a sextile of the star: 3 points for the sextile, 2 for the angle, 2 for the Moon, 70 percent. Put Mars at 20° Gemini in that sky and the moment is set aside. In purpose searches, such as a wedding, a benefic star like Capella on an angle adds to a window's score instead.

Windows last minutes: the exact crossing, plus the time the angle takes to move one degree either way, at most half an hour each side and a few minutes at mid-latitudes. The Timing block shows the time, the start and end, the hour and day rulers, both angles' signs and the Moon's aspect. The rules every star shares are under fixed-star talisman windows in Canopy.

Finding a Capella window in Canopy

In the Talismans tab, open Fixed Star Talismans, or reach the same search from the Elections tab under Fixed Stars, where results are called elections. The picker lists all 35 of Canopy's stars with their Arabic names, the fifteen Behenian stars preselected: tap None, choose Capella, set the place and a range of up to about six months (a week by default), and tap Search Stars. The search needs a subscription.

Canopy returns up to fifty of the best-scored windows, sorted Soonest or Top Rated, with filters for the Moon's phase and motion, the angle and the lunar mansion. With Capella alone chosen, setting the mansion filter to al-Dhirāʿ leaves only the windows in which the Moon is conjoining the star. Each opens on its own page, headed Capella Talisman or Capella Election; an empty range reads "The great stars offer no moment here."

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