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Conditions

Combust

Modern

A combust planet (about one to eight degrees from the Sun) has its function overwhelmed and obscured by the central self, the way a star vanishes in the Sun's glare. This is not a flaw so much as a planet working too close to the fire to be seen clearly: its energy is real but absorbed into your identity, often unconscious or hard to own. The gift, once recognized, is a function fed directly by your core vitality. The shadow is acting it out blindly because you cannot see it. The work is bringing the burned function into conscious view. At your best you reclaim a power that was hidden in your own light.

Traditional (Hellenistic)

Combustion places a planet roughly one to eight degrees from the Sun, near enough that its light is overcome by the Sun's rays. The tradition reckons the combust planet weakened and hidden: its significations are obscured, harder to access, as a star is washed out near the Sun at dawn. It is a debility of accidental condition, the planet burned rather than, as in cazimi, sheltered in the heart. The closer to the eight-degree bound, the less severe; nearest the Sun, the more its nature is consumed.

Sources

  • Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology (2017), ch. 6Reads combustion (~1 to 8 degrees from the Sun) as the planet burned and its significations obscured.
  • Lilly, Christian Astrology (1647)Treats the combust planet as weakened and hidden under the Sun's beams.
  • Hand, Horoscope Symbols (1981)Gives the modern reading of combustion as a function absorbed and outshone by the core self.