The Harvester: on fixed star Vindemiatrix
Exploring the third-brightest star of Virgo through three hand-picked example charts!
Vindemiatrix, Epsilon Virginis, is the third-brightest star of constellation Virgo, and is currently projected at 10° Libra in the tropical zodiac.
Vindemiatrix comes from Greek through the Latin vindēmiātrix, vindēmiātor meaning 'the grape-harvestress'. Additional medieval names are Almuredin, Alaraph, Provindemiator, Protrigetrix and Protrygetor. This star, along with Beta Virginis (Zavijava), Gamma Virginis (Porrima), Eta Virginis (Zaniah) and Delta Virginis (Minelauva), are Al ʽAwwāʼ, which is Arabic for 'the Barker'.
The region of the ecliptic which corresponds to Vindemiatrix’s projected degree is also associated with the stars of Corvus, which are on the other side of the ecliptic. The 13th Lunar station is Hasta within Jyotish; Hasta being Sanskrit for “hand”. Indeed this nakshatra is associated with the symbol of the hand in the sky, formed by Corvus stars — evoking dexterity, collecting, counting and all sorts of actions requiring fine motor function.
There is overlap with themes associated with Vindemiatrix, obviously! Bernadette Brady writes that this star indicates a collector or gatherer; someone action-oriented albeit in a patient way, focused on taking the time to harvest what has been planted, and includes the examples of art collectors, stamp collectors and people who gather facts of things.
Let’s review example charts for people born under Vindemiatrix’s influence — I’ve gathered three1.