Thuban
Alpha Draconis · Draco
Last updated
Position (2026)
♍ 7°50′ Virgo
Magnitude
3.67
Planetary Nature
Saturn / Mars (Robson)
Robson: Saturn and Mars. The former pole star (Alpha Draconis).
Spectral Type
A0III SB
Appearance
A white giant binary in the coils of the Dragon, the pole star of the ancient Egyptians
Name Origin
Language
Arabic
Original Form
Al Thu'bān
Meaning
The Serpent, the Dragon
Alpha Draconis. From the Arabic Al Thu'bān, the Serpent or Dragon, the name for the entire constellation applied to the alpha star. Thuban was the pole star during the age of the Egyptian Old Kingdom (c. 2700 BCE), when the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed. The pyramid's narrow descending passage, angled at 26 degrees, pointed directly at Thuban's lower culmination, and was likely designed so the pole star could be observed from the passage floor both day and night. At that epoch Thuban stood less than two arcminutes from the true pole, closer than Polaris is today. Its slow displacement from the pole over centuries (due to the 26,000 year precession cycle) meant that by the time of the New Kingdom, the star Kochab in Ursa Minor had taken its place. Thuban now sits far from the pole at third magnitude, an inconspicuous star carrying the memory of a former cosmic centrality.
Known As
Between the two Bears, Draco winds around the sky, with Thuban near the middle of the figure. This former pole star belongs to the Dragon who guards the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides. Guarding and sharing are central to Thuban. Its care preserves something valuable, whether a possession or knowledge that took years to acquire. Attachment grows through the work of keeping it safe. The Dragon's sombre, analytical character suits that careful attention, but protection can become hoarding. Thuban's difficulty lies in allowing others to use what has been preserved and to take responsibility for its care.
A guard can protect a treasure so thoroughly that others struggle to use it. Bernadette Brady reads Thuban through that difficulty. You keep something safe, then face the harder business of giving and sharing it. The Dragon's former pole star asks how much of your protection has become hoarding.[1]
With a close contact, look at what you feel responsible for keeping safe and how readily you let someone else use it. Perhaps you keep a possession long after you have stopped using it, or preserve knowledge carefully but rarely teach it. The effort of preservation becomes a reason to keep the thing out of anyone else's hands.
The older planetary natures describe Draco's bright stars collectively. Ptolemy includes Jupiter with Saturn and Mars, while Hephaistio and Robson give Saturn and Mars.[3][4][5] Brady writes about Thuban individually. Her guard has something worth protecting, and must decide when to let another person take a share.[1]
Thuban by birth year
On 1 January 2026, Thuban stood at ♍ 7°50′ Virgo in the tropical zodiac.
It entered Virgo in December 1474.
Positions are for 1 January of each year; a star moves about 50 arcseconds a year, so a birth late in the decade sits close to the next row.
| Born in | Position |
|---|---|
| 1900 | ♍ 6°02′ Virgo |
| 1910 | ♍ 6°10′ Virgo |
| 1920 | ♍ 6°19′ Virgo |
| 1930 | ♍ 6°27′ Virgo |
| 1940 | ♍ 6°36′ Virgo |
| 1950 | ♍ 6°45′ Virgo |
| 1960 | ♍ 6°53′ Virgo |
| 1970 | ♍ 7°02′ Virgo |
| 1980 | ♍ 7°10′ Virgo |
| 1990 | ♍ 7°19′ Virgo |
| 2000 | ♍ 7°27′ Virgo |
| 2010 | ♍ 7°36′ Virgo |
| 2020 | ♍ 7°44′ Virgo |
| 2030 | ♍ 7°53′ Virgo |
From latitudes poleward of 25.7° S it never rises, and from latitudes poleward of 25.7° N it never sets (geometric horizon, refraction ignored).
Computed by the Augurine engine on the apparent equinox of date from HYG coordinates with proper motion applied (engine build 1c1cc33).
Thuban and the guard of the golden apples
Draco represents the dragon that guarded the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides.
Robson gives the Hesperides dragon as one identification of Draco. He also names Python, slain by Apollo, and the dragon thrown at Minerva. Brady develops the guardian image around the celestial pole, then reads Thuban as active protection. The same guard eventually has to share what has been kept safe.[5][1]
If you have a Thuban contact, start with the thing you protect. It may need real care. Before calling the attachment possessive, account for the work involved in preserving something. Then look at how hard it has become to let anything go. Ask who benefits from the protection, and whether those people have access to what you preserve.
Fiorenza's modern sidereal reading puts responsibility on a much longer timescale. His Thuban concerns evolutionary affairs begun in the distant past and their fulfilment in the present.[7] In a chart consultation, stay with the responsibility the person knows. Establish whether it still needs their attention and whether sharing it would help the work continue.
The Right-hand Pivot after Thuban's polar years
Allen derives Thuban from the Arabic title for the whole Dragon. He also records the seafaring name Dragon's Tail and the Chinese Yu Choo, which he translates as Right-hand Pivot. Several alternative names come from the hyena and were also used for other stars in Draco and elsewhere.[2] As Alpha Draconis, Thuban has a distinct designation even where the older names overlap.
In Allen's account, Thuban lay less than ten arcminutes from the north celestial pole around 2750 BC. He describes the constellation turning around it and reports that the star could be seen from deep within the Great Pyramid's northward corridor. He allows an interval after Thuban's polar years, with possible intervening candidates before Polaris.[2]
Allen quotes Proctor's suggestion that Draco's movement away from the pole might explain stories of the Dragon's downfall. Proctor calls the connection fanciful.[2]
Thuban's move into Virgo in December 1474
Thuban entered tropical Virgo in December 1474. Its longitude was 6°19′ Virgo in 1920 and is 7°50′ Virgo in 2026. That movement changes which natal conjunctions fall within the orb, even though both positions are in the same sign.
For a birth in 2000, Thuban's position is 7°27′ Virgo. A Sun at 7°27′ Virgo in that chart has a close Thuban conjunction. Comparing the same Sun with the 2026 position would put the star outside the orb.
What Thuban's guard keeps for each planet
Brady gives Thuban an individual natal treatment; Robson discusses Draco and has no separate Thuban entry.[1][5] Read guarding and sharing through the contacting planet's concerns. The Sun puts identity at stake; the Moon puts security at stake. Augurine's calculator uses a conjunction orb of 7′30″ for Thuban, whose position is about 66° north of the ecliptic.
With Thuban on your Sun, keeping something safe becomes a source of pride. Sharing the work is difficult when it feels like becoming less necessary. The Moon shifts the emphasis to what feels safe enough to give away or let someone else care for. Holding on promises security, even when you no longer use what you keep. Before judging the attachment excessive, establish what would make sharing feel possible.
For Mercury, start with knowledge and access to it. Does careful study lead to teaching, or do you find reasons why others are never ready to learn? Robson describes an analytical Draco; Brady asks what happens to what Thuban guards.[5][1] With Venus, examine how you protect affection and valued possessions. Valuing a relationship deeply still leaves each person a say in it. Care becomes restrictive when every choice requires your permission.
With Mars, look at what prompts you to intervene and how you recognize that the need has ended. With Saturn, giving up a duty feels irresponsible, even when someone else is ready to take it on. Establish what still needs doing before deciding who must do it. Handing over part of the work leaves you responsible for a smaller share.
With Thuban on your Midheaven, look at the responsibilities for which others rely on you. Delegation amounts to little if you supervise every decision. An Ascendant conjunction turns attention to how readily you take the guard's position when meeting a situation. Brady gives particular attention to culmination because Thuban's northern position limits its rising and setting contacts.[1] With the Ascendant, notice whether you take responsibility before anyone has asked you to.
The sombre Dragon and Ptolemy's Jupiter
According to Ptolemy the bright stars are like Saturn and Mars. Draco gives an artistic and emotional but sombre nature, a penetrating and analytical mind, much travel and many friends
Robson's Draco has more feeling and sociability than a bare Saturn and Mars label suggests. His description continues into warnings about robbery and accidental poisoning.[5] Read those literal dangers as historical predictions, then weigh his account against the whole chart. His sombre, analytical temperament describes someone who examines a responsibility closely, with feeling as well as calculation involved in the decision.
Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos Book 1, section 9, in Robbins's translation, gives Draco's bright stars Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter. Hephaistio gives Saturn and Mars, the pair Robson repeats under Ptolemy's name.[3][4][5] Jupiter belongs in Ptolemy's mixture. Calling Thuban wholly adverse also leaves out the giving in Brady's individual reading.[1] Keeping something in good condition prepares it for someone else's use.
Firmicus describes Anguis between the Bears through snake charmers and the preparation of medicines from poisons and herbs. His rising account concerns the northern serpent collectively.[6] The snake charmer handles difficult material with skill. Read that image through the person's handling of what they protect. Some responsibilities require a careful approach and continued use; locking everything away would defeat their purpose.
Thuban within the coils of the apple guardian
Ladon guards the garden of the Hesperides and watches over its golden fruit. The Dragon winds between the two Bears like a river. In Allen's description, the guardian never sets; its continued presence above the horizon suits its watch over the garden. [2]
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.
Cadmus kills a different monster at the fount of Mars. He sows its teeth in the ground, and armed men grow from them. Minerva's dragon reaches the sky by another route. She snatches the snake from the giants and whirls it into heaven. Allen includes both stories among Draco's identities. [2]
Allen describes Draco winding between the Bears, with Thuban near the middle of the figure. When Thuban lay near the pole, the Dragon turned around it like clock hands running in reverse. [2]
How the authors read Thuban
| Source | Nature | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Ptolemy | Saturn / Mars / Jupiter | Ptolemy gives this mixture to Draco's bright stars in Tetrabiblos Book 1, section 9.[3] |
| Hephaistio | Saturn / Mars | Hephaistio assigns Kronos and Ares to Draco's bright stars in Book 1, section 4.[4] |
| Robson | Saturn / Mars | Robson describes an artistic, emotional but sombre Draco, with an analytical mind.[5] |
| Brady | no planetary mixture given | Brady reads Thuban through active protection and the difficulty of giving and sharing.[1] |
| Firmicus | no planetary mixture given | Firmicus reads the rising northern Anguis through snake charmers and the preparation of medicines.[6] |
| Fiorenza | no planetary mixture given | Fiorenza reads Thuban through responsibility for evolutionary affairs begun in the distant past.[7] |
Natal Conjunctions
Find your conjunctions →Thuban Conjunct Sun
The guarded treasure gives this solar reading its concern with purpose and the pride of preservation. Brady's Thuban asks whether a treasure can be shared, and her Sun example concerns creative work made available to the world. Applied to a conjunction, this includes satisfaction in seeing others use what you have preserved. You may feel less necessary when someone else gains access. Reaching people through the work can give you a reason to keep creating.
Thuban Conjunct Moon
What feels safe enough to share is central to this lunar reading. Brady's lunar example concerns emotional attachment to ideas and the reluctance to publish them. Read the conjunction through what feels difficult to share, whether that is a possession or something you have learned. The attachment deserves to be understood before anyone presses for release. A modest first act of sharing can reveal how much care remains possible after another person gains access.
Thuban Conjunct Mercury
Careful study matters here, along with the access you allow others to what you have learned. Robson gives Draco an analytical mind; Brady's Thuban makes the use of what is guarded a central concern. With Mercury, examine the boundary between careful preparation and repeatedly postponing publication or teaching. You may be waiting for the work to be complete enough to survive scrutiny. A clear account of what you already understand gives others something they can learn from now.
Thuban Conjunct Venus
Within a valued relationship, protection can become difficult to distinguish from reluctance to allow change. Brady's guarding and sharing gives this Venus reading its starting point. The same concern may appear around possessions that are kept carefully but seldom enjoyed. Notice whether protection makes the valued thing more available or less. Affection can include trusting another person's care, and a cherished object can be used without losing the reason you keep it.
Thuban Conjunct Mars
Someone approaches what you have been entrusted to protect, and your first impulse is to intervene. The Saturn and Mars nature that Hephaistio gives Draco's bright stars suits sustained resistance; Brady's Thuban asks what that resistance protects. Applied to Mars, the issue is how to recognise when intervention is warranted. Someone approaching a guarded resource may have a legitimate need for it. The distinction matters when someone needs access: an agreed condition for using the resource gives you a reason to admit them.
Thuban Conjunct Jupiter
You may hesitate to give when a resource seems difficult to replace. Brady reads Thuban through the fear that using a gift might exhaust it, while Ptolemy includes Jupiter in Draco's planetary mixture. With Jupiter involved, examine whether preserving an opportunity has begun to prevent anyone from taking it. When you teach, another person learns what you know while you retain the ability to develop it further.
Thuban Conjunct Saturn
Custody involves practical discipline in this reading, including the procedures used to keep a resource safe. Robson's sombre, analytical Draco supports that seriousness; Brady adds the difficulty of allowing others to share what has been kept safe. With Saturn, a careful procedure can outlive the reason it was introduced. Review who can use the resource and what preparation they reasonably need. Someone trained in its care can take real responsibility while you remain available for difficult decisions.
Thuban Conjunct Uranus
Access is sometimes opened by changing an arrangement that previously seemed essential to preservation. Applied to Uranus, Brady's guarding and sharing suggests examining the rules around ownership or specialist knowledge. You may alternate between strict control and an abrupt wish to release everything. Work out which restrictions protect the material and which merely preserve your position. Opening access deliberately lets others use the work while preserving the arrangements needed to maintain it.
Thuban Conjunct Neptune
An unfinished creative work stays untouched by ordinary use, but another person has little chance to respond to it. This reading applies the guarded treasure to Neptune's concern with imagination and devotion. You may preserve a creative possibility by leaving it unfinished, or keep a belief distant from daily practice. Give one part of it a finished form so another person can respond in ways an unrealised possibility never allows.
Thuban Conjunct Pluto
When you alone control access, other people's dependence might become difficult to give up. The guarded treasure takes a more controlling form here when other people's dependence starts to feel necessary. Examine who can reach what is being preserved and who decides whether they are ready. A change in ownership or responsibility may expose that arrangement clearly. Sharing authority over the resource can let its usefulness survive a change in your own role.
Thuban Conjunct North Node
In the groups you choose, keeping something safe and passing it on belong to the same responsibility. Brady's Thuban gives this application to the Node its basis in using a capacity rather than keeping it in reserve. You may join a project as its careful custodian and gradually become its teacher. The development lies in letting other people use what you have preserved, with enough instruction to continue the work themselves.
Thuban Conjunct Ascendant
Before deciding whether a situation needs protection, you might already have taken the guard's position. Brady's active protection gives the reading its basis, with attention to how you meet a new person or situation. A longitude conjunction to the Ascendant differs from Thuban's actual rising because of its high northern position. In consultation, examine the first impulse to assume responsibility. You can assess what needs care before deciding that its protection must become your job.
Thuban Conjunct Midheaven
A collection or body of knowledge entrusted to you gives professional standing a specific responsibility. Brady gives particular attention to Thuban's culmination and reads the star through giving and sharing. The application to the Midheaven concerns the responsibilities others entrust to you, including whether access depends too heavily on your personal approval. A well-maintained collection or body of knowledge needs people able to use it. Delegating a meaningful part of its care can extend the value of your work.
Paran Interpretations
Parans describe what happens when Thuban and a planet simultaneously occupy the four angles (rising, culminating, setting, nadir) at a given location.
Thuban in Paran with Sun
Rising
Keeping something safe gives pride an early focus, while learning to let others use it tests how readily you share that responsibility.
Culminating
Your creative production may find appreciation as your work reaches its height. Brady's Sun example favours making the treasure available through sustained work.
Setting
Sharing a valued responsibility with a later partner gives identity room to develop beyond your role as its sole guardian.
At the Nadir
What you preserve privately may become accessible much later. Clear arrangements let others use unfinished work after your direct involvement ends.
Thuban in Paran with Moon
Rising
Letting someone handle a familiar possession might feel uncertain early in life. Confidence grows when they prove able to care for it.
Culminating
Attachment to your ideas becomes visible as public recognition grows. Brady's lunar example asks whether fear of exposure prevents publication.
Setting
When family responsibilities change later in life, letting someone else care for something precious gives closeness room to continue.
At the Nadir
What you store at home might help you feel safe. Private reflection concerns how much you still use and how much stays untouched.
Thuban in Paran with Mercury
Rising
Collecting and protecting information gives early study a focus. Explaining it to someone else lets teaching begin while you are still learning.
Culminating
Colleagues recognise your specialist knowledge during your most visible working years. Its public value depends on whether they can understand and apply it.
Setting
Passing on expertise calls for a decision about what a learner needs first as you turn to teaching later in life. Preparation needs to lead to actual teaching.
At the Nadir
Unpublished ideas can occupy years of private attention. Clear notes give later readers a way to follow work that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
Thuban in Paran with Venus
Rising
A treasured object or friendship receives unusual care early in this reading. Enjoyment includes trusting another person's handling of what you value.
Culminating
A collection gains public value when others encounter it directly. At the height of your work, appreciation depends on access as well as careful preservation.
Setting
An agreement about using possessions gives both people a share in what was once held separately as their partnership changes later in life.
At the Nadir
Belongings kept untouched for years hold sentimental value at home. Daily use might renew the attachment that first made them worth keeping.
Thuban in Paran with Mars
Rising
When something valued seems at risk early in life, refusal might feel immediate. Experience helps distinguish an approach that threatens it from one that allows cooperation.
Culminating
Defending a resource puts you in view at the height of your work. Deciding when access is safe belongs to that responsibility.
Setting
Longstanding defensive arrangements may be challenged by partners later in life, particularly when one person needs access that the other has restricted.
At the Nadir
Keeping a private resource safe takes time and effort. An agreed arrangement for its care allows someone else to take a turn.
Thuban in Paran with Jupiter
Rising
Giving early in life tests the fear of using things up. Sharing knowledge lets you experience retaining something while another person uses it.
Culminating
Stewardship of a larger resource can widen your public responsibilities. Generosity needs procedures that let the intended recipients use it.
Setting
A student needs room to develop beyond your preferred approach when you teach later in life. Your experience becomes something others practise.
At the Nadir
For those who inherit a resource kept in reserve, its purpose needs to be clear. Private preparations determine whether they can use it.
Thuban in Paran with Saturn
Rising
Being entrusted with a resource early teaches the work of maintenance. Part of that responsibility is learning how someone else can safely share it.
Culminating
An institution's trust rests on years of your care by middle life. Training a successor becomes as demanding as maintaining the resource.
Setting
Reducing a longstanding duty can feel irresponsible in later years, even when shared practice has prepared someone else to take responsibility for its care.
At the Nadir
An inherited obligation might organise your private life. What still needs preserving, and who has the capacity to continue its care?
Thuban in Paran with Ascendant
Rising
Active guarding becomes immediately personal when the star is angular at birth. Your first response may be to secure something before asking who needs access.
Culminating
Others recognise your custodial manner more readily as your work gains public attention. They experience both the care involved in protection and the difficulty of gaining access.
Setting
People close to you may question an increasingly guarded stance. Later relationships can help you negotiate access without abandoning the care involved.
At the Nadir
Arrangements for keeping valuables safe shape your sense of security at home. Letting someone trusted participate makes the work less solitary.
Thuban in Paran with Midheaven
Rising
A custodial role receives early emphasis when the star is angular at birth. Initial work experiences test whether responsibility includes teaching someone else the procedure.
Culminating
Public stewardship places the guarded resource within your professional remit. Brady's sharing concern becomes practical when colleagues need access to do their work.
Setting
Access to what you preserved becomes a question when you leave an office. A successor needs usable knowledge as well as formal permission.
At the Nadir
Preparations outside public view determine whether others can continue using a collection. A professional legacy depends on clear arrangements for access.
Notable Charts
Isaac Newton
Moon setting as Thuban culminates, a paran
Brady reads Newton's reluctance to publish his mathematical work through an emotional attachment to ideas he guarded closely. She connects that attachment with his later struggles for recognition. [1]
Frequently Asked Questions
What degree is Thuban in 2026?
Thuban is at 7°50′ tropical Virgo in 2026. It entered Virgo in December 1474. For a natal conjunction, use the position for the birth year. In 1920, for example, Thuban was at 6°19′ Virgo.
What does Thuban conjunct the Sun mean?
With the Sun, the importance of being a protector can make sharing that responsibility difficult. Brady's Thuban concerns active guarding and the difficulty of sharing.[1] Ask whether letting someone else help feels like losing your purpose, and what would allow you to trust them with the work.
Can Thuban be on the Ascendant?
Thuban can conjoin the Ascendant by longitude, though physically rising is a separate contact. Brady limits its use on all four angles to charts near the equator and discusses culmination for northern births.[1] An Ascendant conjunction concerns how readily you assume responsibility for protecting what you encounter.
Is Thuban a malefic fixed star?
Thuban's planetary nature varies by author. Robson gives Draco Saturn and Mars, while Ptolemy includes Jupiter. Brady reads Thuban individually through protection and giving.[5][3][1] Look at whether your protection allows people to use what you have preserved, and whether you let them care for it themselves.
Are Thuban and Rastaban the same star?
Thuban is Alpha Draconis; Rastaban is Beta Draconis. Robson's Dragon's Head derivation for Rastaban contains the word Thuban, which makes the names easy to confuse.[5] For Alpha Draconis, Brady's individual reading gives guarding and sharing as the subjects to pursue.[1]
What does the name Thuban mean?
The name Thuban comes from Arabic: Al Thu'bān, meaning "The Serpent, the Dragon." Alpha Draconis. The star is known by 3 different cultural names across world traditions.
Sources
- Bernadette Brady, Brady's Book of Fixed Stars, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1998. Used for Thuban's individual reading of guarding and sharing, and its polar geography.
- Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Dover Publications, Inc., 1899. Used for Thuban's names and former polar position, Draco's guardian and Cadmus stories, and accounts of the Dragon's displacement.
- Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, translated by Frank Egleston Robbins, 1940. Used for the Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter nature of Draco's bright stars in Book 1, section 9.
- Hephaistio of Thebes, Apotelesmatics, Book I, translated by Robert Schmidt, The Golden Hind Press, 1994. Used for the Saturn and Mars nature of Draco's bright stars in Book 1, section 4.
- Vivian E. Robson, The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, American Federation of Astrologers, Inc., 1923. Used for Draco's legend and influence, and the distinction between Thuban and Rastaban.
Text of the 1923 edition; the site quotes a 2017 reprint.
- Firmicus Maternus, Ancient Astrology: Theory and Practice, translated by Jean Rhys Bram, Noyes Press, 1975. Used for the northern Anguis rising account in VIII.17.7.
- Nick Anthony Fiorenza, An Introduction to Astronomical Astrology, 2015. Used for the modern sidereal reading of responsibility over long timescales.
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