Preface:

I first intend to lay out some significations and astronomy of Altair and its constellation of Aquila . Then add a definition for the word meaning and some musing of its mythology as many star names and their mythology appear to be significant in the stars signification and at very least worth taking into consideration. I will mention past astrologers significations of the star then I will explain my own research and give some conclusions on Altair’s overall signification.

Altair:

Altair is currently approaching the 2nd degree of Aquarius in the tropical zodiac, a pale yellow dwarf star it is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, found in the neck of the eagle it’s also the star at the southern apex of the larger star pattern known as the summer triangle along with Deneb and Vega. While it’s the 12th brightest star in the night sky at a magnitude of 0.76 and is a measly 16.8 light years from earth. Being 11 times brighter than our sun and spinning on its axis in an incredible 10 hours it appears to flatten or spin in an oblique shape. To date it has been photographed in more detail and sophistication than any other star, needless to say the star in the eye of the eagle is clear to see.

Altair’s Constellation Aquila:

Aquila is a constellation in the northern hemisphere close to the celestial equator. It comprises of 11 stars Altair, Alshain, Tarazed, Deneb el Okab Epsilon, Deneb el Okab Zeta, Bezek, Tseen Foo, Al Thaliman Lota, Al Thaliman Lambda, 15 Aquilae and Tso Ke. The constellation in the shape of an Eagle is said to represent the roman God Jupiter’s Eagle. In early configurations or depictions of Aquila it carried arrows in its talons, but recent depictions omit this.

Altair Name definition:

Altair has Arabic origins and its meaning was, the flyer. While the name Aquila in Latin means, eagle. It is thought regarding the constellation it may have meant a group of birds containing eagles. Also, it was a name used in the bible and had the meaning of eagle attached to that name.

Altair Past Signification:

Ebertin Hoffmann believed Altair to be the nature of Mars with a Mercury and Jupiter blending, that if un afflicted by malefics it was good for high honours and advancement. William Ramesey noted Altair as the Eagle or flying Vulture and gave it a signification of Mars and Jupiter he was influenced by Ptolemy’s earlier views. It is interesting to note however that Robson concours with Hoffmann and that the Mercury influence was given by both astrologers observing Altair since it transited into Aquarius.

Altair Mythology:

Greek Mythology mentions the Eagle belonging to Zeus the God of thunder and lightning. In an early tail Hebe Zeus’s daughter was the cup bearer (pourer of wine) she forfeited her place upon exposing herself or some say upon her marriage and was taken by the eagle and placed in the stars of Aquarius. The Eagle in the myth of Ganymede Zeus’s love choice following his daughters departure lifts him to the heavens and places him in the stars of Aquarius to become the Cup bearer of Zeus. It should be mentioned that the Romans name for Zeus was Jupiter and of course Ganymede as we know is Jupiter’s largest and most visible of many Moons, and Aquarius is the constellation beside Aquila in the night sky.

Altair Research:

Altair conjunct the MC:

I have gathered the closest 10 well know people with conjunctions between Altair and their MC (midheaven). It should be noted that in 9 of the 10 cases Altair was transiting Aquarius an air sign and dignified for an eagle, however in the case of Joseph Liouville Altair was in the last degree of Capricorn so I will look closely for a more individualistic and grounded Altair in his case possibly the eagle in detriment. Here are the top 10 in order of closest conjunction.

1-Wendy Makkena 40N43 74W00 New York New York, USA

Wendy Makkena is an American actress and was a classically trained harpist at Julliard, as well as that she trained in ballet until 18 when she had to stop due to injury. She has a diverse career in both music, television, Broadway and the big screen. She is well known for her roles in Sister Act on the big screen, Santa Barbra on tv, Spider Man on Broadway and playing harp at Carnegie hall. She is obviously a very driven person as on top of all this she is a successful businesswoman, interestingly she also appeared in Santa Barbra the daytime soap Joel Crothers number 3 on the below list starred in as well.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0538655/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

2-Bill Guerin 42N16 71W48 Worcester Massachusetts, USA

Bill Guerin is an America professional hockey player, he played 18 seasons in the NHL. He represented USA at 3 Olympic games and was the first player of Hispanic descent to play in the NHL. He is currently the assistant managers of the Pittsburgh Penguins and general manager of the Wilkes barre/Scranton Penguins. Given that only 4 percent of NHL players reach 1000 games that makes Bill an extremely determined an exceptional athlete.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Guerin

https://www.hhof.com/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=10582

3-Phillip Edward Jr. Tovrea 33N26 112W04 Phoenix AZ, USA

First lieutenant Phillip Edward Tovrea Jr was a US air force fighter ace during WW2. He was awarded the Silver star for gallantry and the flying cross for extraordinary achievement while a P-38 fighter pilot in the 27th fighter squadron. He is credited with shooting down 8 enemy aircraft in combat the 65th highest no of kills recorded during the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Edward_Tovrea_Jr.

4-Jean Pellerin 45N26 6E01 Pontcharra, France

Jean Pellerin was a poet and writer best described as having a mocking freedom that skilfully hide a desperate nature. He served in WW2 as a sergeant quartermaster of an aviation group. His poems where collected by Francis Carco and made into a posthumous collection after his death called Le Bouquet Inutile.

https://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Pellerin&prev=search

5-Achille Urbain 49N30 0E08 Le Havre, France

Achille Urban was a French biologist and military veterinarian, who was concerned about the protection of nature in a national and international context. Not so much his immunology work but his ability to network the media, politicians and society until his succession to the national academy of medicine, and posting as director of the zoological park of Vincennes.

https://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01129030&prev=search

6-Bob De Moor 51N13 4E25 Antwerp, Belgium

Robert Frans Marie De Moor was a Belgian comic artists and writer. He was well known for being able to collaborate and on many occasions finish of other artists and writers unfinished works. He is best known for his collaboration with Herge on the adventures of Tintin. He also finished of many story’s of others like of the author Edgar P. Jacobs after his death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_de_Moor

7-Franco Giacchero 44N38 8E38 Ovada, Italy

Franco Giacchero was a professional Italian touring cyclist. Races he competed in were up to 200km in stage length and were raced in the gruelling hills of Belgian, France, Italy and Monaco. His most notable achievement was winning the tour of Monaco in 1952. He was a professional for 6 years before being hit by a motorcycle causing a serious shoulder injury and ending his career.

https://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.museociclismo.it/content/articoli/12-Storia%2Bdi%2BFranco%2BGiacchero/index.html&prev=search

8-Willis Eugene Jr. Lamb 34N03 118W15 Los Angeles California, USA

Willis Eugene Lamb was an American Scientist that won the 1955 Nobel prize for taking quantum mechanics and electromagnetic phenomena to greater lengths and refinements. Lamb later become a professor at Stanford, Oxford, Yale and the university of Arizona. On many other occasions he built on and took others research to new levels during his career.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Willis-Lamb-Jr

9-Stefania Belmondo 44N18 7E10 Vinadio, Italy

Stefania Belmondo is a 2 time Olympic champion and 4 time world champion Italian female cross country skier. She holds the record for the most winter Olympic medals 10 in total by a female. She was well known for her huge training regime covering over 10,000km per year on skis, wow that’s a long way.

https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/be/stefania-belmondo-1.html

10-Joseph Liouville 50N45 2E15 St Omer, France

Joseph Liouville was a French mathematician and writer who’s publications numbered over 400 memoirs the most notable was the journal des mathematiques pures et appliquees that he founded and was editor. He proved the existence of transcendental numbers which form the basis of statistical mechanics. This is called Liouville’s constant, a number that is constant or static which brings me to my final reflection. He was the only one of the above list to have Altair in Capricorn not Aquarius and his greatest breakthrough was constant and grounded in statistics unlike the others that where detached in thought or presence etc.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Liouville

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Liouville.html

Altair Mid Heaven Conclusion & Statistical information:

So, our top 10 included, 3 sportsman, 3 scholars, 1 actor/musician, 1 writer/military/aircraft, 1 military/aircraft, 1 artist/writer, the over whelming commonality though is there ability to complete endure and go the distance in some way either on individual projects or their careers. It appears at least 9 out of 10 where at the top of their selected fields so the MC placement correspond to that and I don’t have enough information on Franco Giacchero to really confirm that for him, however he was cycling in the alps at times, so the MC placement is consistent with that as they are always at the peak of the skyline.

As a guide to the most typical career I looked to Altair conjunct the Mc. The groups below are all AA charts and scored the following averages. Each of the groups use only Gauquelin data except the famous people group which of course are all known celebrities. So, in general we are looking at stats of the average joe etc. If I mention they are statistically significant the probability that Altair is the reason for the career being True compared to another group is either .05 = 95% accuracy .01 = 99% accuracy .001 = 99.9% accuracy.

career score charts T-test

Writers 2.03 1456 /

Actors 2.38 1466 /

Scientists 4.63 3646 .05# .01*

Aviator 0 17 /

Sports Champ 3.61 2538 /

Military 2.03 3399 .05#

Famous people 2.50 37340 .01*

So, you can see that Scientists clearly scored as the most likely career followed by sports champions and they are both well ahead of the others that are closely bunched after that. Interestingly being a scientist is 99% accuracy over famous people and 95% over military personnel. This is significant and would mean Altair does not signify fame nor the military at its core signification and that they are merely lesser significations or by products of Altair on occasions. What is even more interesting is that the two clear high scoring groups have something in common that the others don’t and that is, to go one better than those before or build on a legacy. Like how a scientists refines research that leads to new discoveries and an athlete attempts to set new records.

Altair conjunct the AS:

I have gathered the closest 10 well know people with conjunctions between Altair and their AS (ascendant). Unlike the MC people above all of the AS people had Altair in Aquarius.

1-Martin Alfons 51N13 4E25 Antwerp, Belgium

Martin Alfons was a Belgium champion water polo player and swimmer.

https://www.olympic.org/alphonse-martin

2-Kirk Douglas 42N56 74W11 Amsterdam New York, USA

Kirk Douglas served in the navy during WW2 before heading to Broadway then the big screen. He become one of Hollywood’s leading men during the 50,s and 60,s. He dabbled in directing and later become quite a well known writer and author while even after a severe stroke he continued to work and be successful in writing and acting. He championed blacklisted writers like Trumbo and continued on unabated. His unwillingness to give up on himself and others was profound in later life and many of his movies had this theme throughout them also, such as Spartacus, Champion and the bad and the beautiful, his books stroke of luck and climbing the mountain also have these themes of not giving up. He is a well known philanthropist and has been honoured with life achievement awards from the Academy awards and American film institute.

https://www.biography.com/actor/kirk-douglas

3-Joel Crothers 39N09 84W27 Cincinnati Ohio, USA

Joel Crothers was a child actor from the age of 9 using a pseudonym and later a well known daytime tv actor. Many of his roles had a darker or bizarre twist to them he unfortunately died at the age of 44.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0189402/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

4-Adrien Bosc 43N57 4E49 Avignon, France

Adrien Bosc is a French writer who wrote a very successful book called constellation, about the Paris to New York transatlantic flight that crashed in 1949. He has one many literary awards for that novel and is now a publisher. He has also written another book about a transatlantic boat journey called Captain. There is a theme of long journeys in both and the first and highly successful book constellation was arguably about a bird in a book called constellation which is interesting to say the least.

https://www.albertine.com/staff-picks/capitaine-by-adrien-bosc/

https://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrien_Bosc&prev=search

5-Willem Defoe 44N16 88W25 Appleton Wisconsin, USA

Willem Defoe an American actor with a prolific career making over 100 feature films. He frequently played psychotic villains or wounded mentors that are in relentless pursuit of there goals. A tireless worker who often played roles of soldiers if not crazies and may have the record for on screen deaths at least 7 in feature films.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000353/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

6-Jean Loup Hubert 47N13 1W33 Nantes, France

Jean Loup Hubert is a French screen writer and director that has had a carer spaning from 1981 to the present day. He won multiple awards in France and Canada for his films in the 1980’s he is still making films but not as successful at least commercially as he once was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Loup_Hubert

7-Bill Steinkraus 41N29 81W41 Cleveland Ohio, USA

William Clark or Bill Steinkraus was an American show jumping champion. He participated in five Olympic games and one gold in 1968 and silver and bronze medals in other Olympics. He started riding at the age of 10 and one the national equestrian event at an early age before attending Yale university. He joined the army’s mounted cavalry and was in one of the final classes trained on horseback. He joined the 12th cavalry division and was shipped to Burma during WW2 at the wars end he completed university at Yale before becoming a businessman and riding in the Olympics began in 1952. He continued in the equestrian arena till this day even after retirement as a judge and a commentator at the Olympics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Steinkraus

8-Charles Spaak 50N50 4E20 Brussels, Belgium

Charles Spaak was a Belgian screenwriter who was prominent in 1930’s French cinema. His long list of films where known to be realistically written with sharp dialogue. His successful career spans from 1928 – 1971 within which he continued making films while in occupied France and also made a series of films based on the French judiciary system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Spaak

9-Sara Aldrete 25N53 97W30 Matamoros, Mexico

Sara Aldrete aka La Madrina a Mexican serial killer and high level member of a cult that practiced sacrifices etc. She initially was a bright student studying physical education before becoming a member of a cult. The killings became ritual and satanic in nature and she believed they would protect the cult and there drug trafficking, it is clear without a doubt she went to extremes in more ways than one.

https://murderpedia.org/female.A/a/aldrete-sara.htm

10-Brian Stuart Goodell 37N58 121W17 Stockton CA, USA

Brian Goodell is an American Olympic long distance swimming gold medallist and previous world record holder. Brian was male world swimmer of the year in 1977 and inducted into the swimming hall of fame in 1986. He is now a politician and real estate agent but it’s clear he was someone who could go the distance and had stamina in his chosen field.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Goodell

Altair conjunct Ascendant Conclusion:

So, our top 10 included, 3 sportsman, 3 actors, 3 writers, 1 serial killer. The AS people tended to have a more personal experience rather than a collective one, and where the MC people were generally known for one trait or thing in particular. The endurance longevity and willpower within the AS people was evident as in the MC people. The AS people were made capable to complete what they were known for by those traits, but they we not necessarily part of the visible manifestation.

My signification of Altair:

It is of my opinion that Altair given all of the above information is most dignified when in Aquarius and or in good aspect or one of the domiciles of Jupiter. That aspects in particular hard ones to the malefics would seriously alter a natal interpretation to be less fortunate. However even if un aspected the star is benefic in nature. Altair gives enthusiasm to go one better than those before or build on a legacy, to succeed under any circumstances. It has the natural nature of Mars Jupiter and Mercury; the Mercury influence is able to flourish and be more evident while in the detached, yet structured Saturn ruled air sign of Aquarius as like mercury it is not attached to being either the morning or evening star, yet it has a routine.

References for Altair:

Erol Jud Coder, Myths of the stars ISBN-13-978-1475030785

Richard Hinkley Allen, Star names their lore and meaning ISBN-0-486-21079-0

Ebertin Hoffmann, Fixed stars and their interpretation ISBN-978-0-86690-091-1

William Ramesey, Astrologia Restaurata ISBN-9781169334212

Archives Gauquelin http://cura.free.fr/gauq/17archg.html

Astrology blog written by William Lamont Bellingen astrologer Australia on the fixed star Altair.