Draco Constellation Meaning

Draco Constellation [Stellarium]

Constellation Draco Astrology

Constellation Draco the Dragon, is a northern constellation coiling around the north pole. Draco spans over 250 degrees of the Zodiac from the Signs of Aries to Sagittarius, and contains 18 named fixed stars.

Constellation Draco Stars

2000	2050	Star	Name	Sp. Class	Mag.
12♓12	12♓46	42 Dra	Fafnir	K2III	4.82	1°00′
03♈22	04♈01	π Dra	Tais I	A2IIIs	4.60	1°00′
17♈09	17♈49	δ Dra	Altais	G9III	3.07	1°30′
20♈21	21♈02	ρ Dra	Tais II	K3III	4.51	1°00′
00♉19	01♉00	σ Dra	Alsafi	K0V	4.67	1°00′
02♉39	03♉22	ε Dra	Tyl	G8III	3.84	1°10′
20♉19	21♉00	υ Dra	Athafi I, Shǎobì	K0III	4.82	1°00′
25♉01	25♉42	τ Dra	Athafi II	K3III	4.45	1°00′
11♊08	11♊49	φ Dra	Aldhiba, Zhùshǐ	A0p (Si)	4.22	1°00′
15♊59	16♊41	χ Dra	Alahakan	F7Vvar	3.55	1°20′
13♋51	14♋35	ψ¹ Dra	Dziban	F5IV-V	4.57	1°00′
10♌20	11♌03	λ Dra	Giausar	M0IIIvar	3.82	1°10′
12♌22	13♌09	ω Dra	Al Dhib	F5V	4.77	1°00′
16♌15	16♌58	κ Dra	Shǎowèi	B6IIIp	3.85	1°10′
22♌57	23♌40	7 Dra	Tianyi	K5III	5.43	1°00′
24♌47	25♌30	9 Dra	Diyi	K2III	5.37	1°00′
26♌11	26♌54	8 Dra	Taiyi	A5n	5.23	1°00′
26♌37	27♌26	27 Dra	Adfar Aldib I	K0III	5.07	1°00′
07♍27	08♍10	α Dra	Thuban	A0III SB	3.67	1°10′
03♎23	04♎09	ζ Dra	Aldhibah	B6III	3.17	1°30′
04♎56	05♎40	ι Dra	Edasich	K2III	3.29	1°30′
14♎28	15♎13	η Dra	Athebyne	G8III	2.73	1°50′
16♎39	17♎23	θ Dra	Shǎngzǎi	F8IV-V	4.01	1°00′
24♏44	25♏27	μ Dra	Alrakis	F5	4.91	1°00′
10♐17	11♐01	ν¹ Dra	Kuma	Am	4.89	1°00′
10♐22	11♐05	ν² Dra	Kuma	Am	4.86	1°00′
11♐56	12♐39	β Dra	Alwaid, Rastaban	G2II	2.79	1°40′
18♐43	19♐26	HD 161693	Alruba	A0V	5.76	1°00′
24♐43	25♐25	ξ Dra	Grumium	K2III	3.73	1°10′
27♐56	28♐38	γ Dra	Etamin, Eltanin	K5III	2.24	2°00′

Draco represents the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides. According to other accounts, however, it is either the dragon thrown by the giants at Minerva in their war with the Gods, or the serpent Python slain by Apollo after the deluge.

According to Ptolemy, the bright stars are like Saturn and Mars. Draco gives an artistic and emotional but somber nature, a penetrating and analytical mind, much travel and many friends but danger of robbery and of accidental poisoning. It was said by the Ancients that when a comet was here poison was scattered over the world. By the Kabalists, it is associated with the Hebrew letter Mem and the 13th Tarot Trump “Death.” [1]

Draco (Dra) was circumpolar about 5000 B.C., and some of its stars have been pole stars in the past. Ptolemy states that the bright stars of this constellation have the nature of Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter. The early astrologers called Draco “The Poisonous Dragon” and asserted that a comet within its borders scattered poison over the world. The constellation is especially hurtful to mineral resources The Dragon’s Head (North Node) and the Dragon’s Tail (South Node) refer to the Moon’s undulating course symbolized by the twisting of the Dragon about the North Pole. [5]

Outermost is the Snake (Draco), which, placed between the two Bears, glides along in the manner of a river with sinuous windings. Whoever was born with this constellation rising will be Marsi (wizards and snake-charmers), who are accustomed to prepare beneficial remedies from poisons and the pigments of herbs. But if this constellation is found in the DSC, they will perish struck by the bite or serpents, or surely by having drunk poison.

Draco, the Dragon, circles around the North Pole. It was described in the Shield of Hercules, with the two Dogs (Canis Major and Canis Minor), the Hare (Lepus), Orion, and Perseus, as “The scaly horror of a dragon, coiled Full in the central field”; and mythologists said that it was the Snake snatched by Minerva from the giants and whirled to the sky, where it became Sidus Minervae et Bacchi, or the monster killed by Cadmus at the fount of Mars, whose teeth he sowed for a crop of armed men.

Babylonian records allude to some constellation near the pole as a Snail drawn along on the tail of a Dragon that may have been our constellation; while among the inscriptions, we find Sir, a Snake, but to which of the sky serpents this applied is uncertain. And some see here the dragon Tiamat, overcome by the kneeling sun-god Izhdubar or Gizdhubar, our Hercules, whose foot is upon it.

Draco’s stars were circumpolar about 5000 B.C., and, like all those similarly situated, — of course few in number owing to the low latitude of the Nile country, — were much observed in early Egypt, although differently figured than as with us. Some of them were a part of the Hippopotamus, or of its variant the Crocodile, and thus shown on the planisphere of Denderah and the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes. As such Delitzsch says that it was Hes-mut, perhaps meaning the Raging Mother. An object resembling a ploughshare held in the creature’s paws has fancifully been said to have given name to the adjacent Plough.

Constellation Draco [Urania’s Mirror]

The hieroglyph for this Hippopotamus was used for the heavens in general; while the constellation is supposed to have been a symbol of Isis Hathor, Athor, or Athyr, the Egyptian Venus; and Lockyer asserts that the myth of Horus which deals with the Hor-she-shu, an almost prehistoric people even in Egyptian records, makes undoubted reference to stars here; although subsequently this myth was transferred to the Thigh, our Ursa Major. It is said that at one time the Egyptians called Draco Tanem, not unlike the Hebrew Tannim, or Aramaic Tannin, and perhaps of the same signification and derived from them.

Williams mentions a great comet, seen from China in 1337, which passed through Yuen Wei, apparently some unidentified stars in Draco. The creature itself was the national emblem of that country, but the Dragon of the Chinese zodiac was among the stars now our Libra: Edkins writes that Draco was Tsi Kung, the Palace of the Heavenly Emperor, adding, although not very clearly, that this palace is bounded by the stars of Draco, fifteen in number, which stretch themselves in an oval shape round the pole-star. They include the star Tai yi, xi, omicron, sigma, s, of Draco, which is distant about ten degrees from the tail of the Bear and twenty-two from the present pole. It was itself the pole in the Epoch of the commencement of Chinese astronomy.

Draco extends over twelve hours of right ascension, and contains 130 naked-eye components according to Argelander; 220, according to Heis: but both of these authorities extend the tail of the figure, far beyond its star lambda, to a 4th-magnitude under the jaws of Camelopardalis, — much farther than is frequently seen on the maps. [2]

The Bears are not set face to face: each with its muzzle points at the other’s tail and follows one that follows it. Sprawling between them and embracing each the Dragon separates and surrounds them with its glowing stars lest they ever meet or leave their stations. [3]

The Serpent represents him as the Deceiver; the Dragon, as the Destroyer. No one has ever seen a dragon; but among all nations (especially in China and Japan), and in all ages, we find it described and depicted in legend and in art. Both Old and New Testaments refer to it, and all unite in connecting with it one and the same great enemy of God and man. In the Zodiac of Denderah it is shown as a serpent under the fore-feet of Sagittarius, and is named Her-fent, which means the serpent accursed!

There are 80 stars in the constellation; four of the 2nd magnitude, seven of the 3rd magnitude, ten of the 4th, etc. The brightest star α (in one of the latter coils), is named Thuban (Heb.), the subtle. Some 4,620 years ago it was the Polar Star. It is manifest, therefore, that the Greeks could not have invented this constellation, as is confessed by all modern astronomers. It is still a very important star in nautical reckonings, guiding the commerce of the seas, and thus “the god of this world” is represented as winding in his contortions round the pole of the world, as if to indicate his subtle influence in all worldly affairs.

The next star, β (in the head), is called by the Hebrew name Rastaban, and means the head of the subtle (serpent). In the Arabic it is still called Al Waid, which means who is to be destroyed. The next star, γ (also in the head), is called Ethanin, i.e., the long serpent, or dragon. The Hebrew names of other stars are Grumian, the subtle; Giansar, the punished enemy. Other (Arabic) names are Al Dib, the reptile; El Athik, the fraudful; El Asieh, the bowed down. [4]