Conditions
Combust
Modern
A When a planet sits very close to the Sun and is lost in its glare, usually within about eight degrees. The planet's meaning is said to be weakened or overwhelmed. 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 A general term for a planet weakened by its sign or circumstance, the opposite of dignity. It signals that the planet struggles to do its job cleanly. of accidental condition, the planet burned rather than, as in When a planet is in the exact heart of the Sun, within about sixteen arcminutes. Rather than being burned up, the planet is considered enthroned and unusually empowered., sheltered in the heart. The closer to the eight-degree bound, the less severe; nearest the Sun, the more its nature is consumed.
- combustion
- identity
- condition
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.

