Constellation Lepus Astrology

Constellation Lepus the Hare, is a southern constellation sitting below constellation Orion, between constellation Eridanus and constellation Canis Major. Lepus spans 18 degrees of the Zodiac in the Sign of Gemini, and contains 2 named fixed stars.

A young man of the Isle of Leros greatly desired a hare and brought some over, for none were to be found on the island. The other inhabitants also wished to keep hares, but eventually the animals multiplied to such an extent that there was not enough food for them and they devoured the corn in the fields, whereupon the inhabitants joined together and destroyed them all.

According to Ptolemy, Lepus is like Saturn and Mercury (profound liar, thief, blackguard, scandal and slander.) It gives a quick wit, timidity, circumspection, fecundity and defiance. [1]

Lepus is located just below Orion and westward from his Hound (Canis Major)… Aratos characterizing its few and faint stars by the adjective glaukos. With the Greeks of Sicily, the country noted in early days for the great devastations by hares, the constellation was leporis (hare), whence came the fanciful story that our Hare was placed in the heavens to be close to its hunter, Orion.

The Arabians adopted the classical title in their Al Arnab, which degenerated into Alarnebet, Elarneb, and Harneb; and the Hebrews are said to have known it as Arnebeth; but the early Arabs designated the principal stars — alpha, beta, gamma, and delta — as Al Kursiyy al Jabbar and Al ‘Arsh al Jauzah, the Chair of the Giant (Orion) and the Throne of the Jauzah (Orion).

Hewitt says that in earliest Egyptian astronomy Lepus was the Boat of Osiris, the great god of that country, identified with Orion. The Chinese knew it as Tsih, a Shed. Caesius made the constellation represent one of the hares prohibited to the Jews; but Julius Schiller substituted for it Gideon’s Fleece. The Denderah planisphere has in its place a Serpent apparently attacked by some bird of prey; and Persian zodiacs imitated this. Gould catalogues in Lepus 103 stars down to the 7th magnitude. [2]

To those born under this constellation nature all but gives wings and flight through the air – such will be the vigor of limbs which reflect the swiftness of the winds. One man will come off winner in the footrace before even receiving the signal to start; another by his quick movement can evade the hard boxing-glove and now lightly avoid, now land a blow; another can with a deft kick keep in the air a flying ball, exchanging hands for feet and employing in play the body’s support, and execute with nimble arms a volley of rapid strokes; yet another can shower his limbs with a host of balls and create hands to spring up all over his body with the result that, without dropping any of the number, he plays against himself and causes the balls to fly about his person as though in answer to his command. Such a man devotes wakeful nights to his concerns, for his energy banishes sleepiness whilst he spends happy work-free hours in games of divers kinds. [3]

In the Persian planisphere the first constellation was pictured by a serpent. In the Denderah (Egyptian) Zodiac it is an unclean bird standing on the serpent, which is under the feet of Orion. Its name there is given as Bashti-beki. Bashti means confounded, and Beki means failing. It is a small constellation of 19 stars (all small), three of which are of the 3rd magnitude, seven of the 4th, etc.

The brightest, α (in the body), has a Hebrew name, Arnebo, which means the enemy of Him that cometh. The Arabic, Arnebeth, means the same. Other stars are Nibal, the mad; Rakis, the bound (Arabic, with a chain); Sugia, the deceiver. [4]

References

1. Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson, 1923, p.49.
2. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard H. Allen, 1889, p.264-265.
3. Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, p.313.
4. The Witness of the Stars, E. W. Bullinger, 33. Lepus (the Hare) .