The Behenian Stars are the fifteen fixed stars considered potent for astrological magic. Each corresponds with a sigil, planet, plant and gemstone, which are incorporated in rituals to invoke the star’s influences.

The name is derived from behenii, the Latin translation of the Arabic bahman, meaning “root”. In the order of the celestial spheres they are above the planetary spheres. Therefore the fixed stars are rooted to the wandering stars (planetos). Renaissance astrologers regarded the fixed stars to be the link between the “Divine World of Ideas and Angels and the Material World”.

Agrippa attributes their lore to Hermes Trismegistus, while the 19th century Egyptologist Sir E.A. Wallis Budge credits the ancient Sumerians for the source of their significance.

Aside from astrological talismanic magic, the fixed stars are also considered in horary and traditional horoscopic astrology for supplying deeper analysis, and in electional astrology for ensuring permanence and success.

Johannes Kepler’s *Mysterium Cosmographicum*, 1596

“I have said elsewhere that down from every single star there hangs its own series of things down to the lowest....
Under the celestial Serpent or the entire constellation of the Serpent-bearer, they place Saturn and sometimes Jupiter, afterwards daemons who often take on serpent’s form, in addition men of this kind, serpents (the animals), the snake-weed, the stone draconite which originates in the head of a dragon, and the stone commonly called serpentine....
By a similar system they think a chain of beings descends by levels from any star of the firmament through any planet under its dominion.”

— Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, Bk. III

Naji Hounon

Mother, Writer, Multi-hyphenate Creative, Seer, Chthonic Priest, Trauma Informed LMT and End of Life Doula, Consulting Astrologer

Astrologue Royale Officielle Palais d’Agondji, Ouidah, Bénin

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