Stellium

Definition

A stellium is an astrological configuration formed by three or more planets gathered inside a single sign or a single house of the natal chart, with orbs tight enough to count them as a cluster. Modern astrology uses the word (borrowed from the Latin stella) to name the symbolic stack that concentrates planetary activity at one point of the map. Most practice asks for at least three planets, though some schools require four to reserve the name for denser cases.

In context

If you have Sun, Mercury, and Venus stacked in Aquarius inside the fifth house, you carry an Aquarian stellium in the territory of creative play and self-expression: the sign and the house concentrate that patch of the map symbolically. A stellium weighs heavily on a reading because the planetary family it gathers talks among itself with force, and it shifts the gravity center of the map toward the sign and house it inhabits. The ruler-of-house of the stellium's sign also picks up extra weight as the cluster's delegate.

To go deeper

A stellium belongs to the catalog of planetary configurations:

• Configuration: family of complex angular patterns.
• Grand trine: another three-planet compound pattern.
• T-square: complementary pattern by tension.