Stellium Astrology: 3 or 4 Planets?

Hey, my name is Chris Brennan, and in this video, I'm going to answer the question, is a stellium three planets or four planets in the same sign or in the same house? So, I've been on some of the astrology subreddits on Reddit lately, and this question keeps coming up in different threads. Like, for example, there was one thread where somebody posted asking if they had a stellium in their chart, and they had three planets in the sign of Leo, and this led to this whole discussion and debate about whether a stellium required there to be three planets in the same sign or if it required there to be four planets. I've actually seen a bunch of different posts asking this same question and a lot of different debates about it that have come up, so that it seems to be something that there's a lot of contention about and a lot of questions about. So, one of the things I wanted to say is right from the start is I wrote an article on stelliums about a decade ago for the Astrology Dictionary, and I researched some of the history of stelliums and some of the different contemporary definitions. One of the realizations I came to pretty quickly in doing that is that there's never really been a standard definition of what a stellium is. There's been different definitions all along, and it's not something that's standardized. So, for the most part, it's not something where you can just point to and say, this is the singular definition of this. So, as a result of that, we have to deal with the question more generally in terms of what is actually being conveyed by a stellium and what is the utility of identifying that there is a stellium in a chart versus there not being a stellium. So, for me, a stellium is just a concentration of planets in a certain sign or in a certain house of the chart. As a result of that, for me, if you have just three planets in a sign, then you have a concentration of planets in that specific sign of the zodiac and in that specific house in your chart, especially that specific whole sign house. So, there's different astrologers that say three, there's different astrologers that say four. If a stellium is just a concentration, then any concentration of planets will do. Obviously, it's going to be more intense if there's four planets or more rather than just three. But I think with just even three planets in the same sign, that's already drawing a lot of energy and a lot of focus to that specific sign of the zodiac in a person's chart, and especially to that specific house. Not only is it that each of those planets' rules are going to be going back to the same house, but it also means that whenever a transit goes through that sign, it's going to be activating all three of those planets or more if you have more than three. In some years, for example, with annual perfections, when the perfection comes around to that sign of the zodiac, it's going to be activating all three of those planets. For me, the answer to this question is just that a stellium can consist of three planets or more in the same sign or in the same house. Obviously, it's going to be more intense the more planets you have in a specific sign. This can go anywhere from three planets all the way up until seven planets or more. I saw a that somebody posted the other day where they had all seven traditional planets in Taurus, I believe. That was a chart from around the year 2000 or so, so that's obviously a super stellium. There's also a debate that comes up sometimes about whether they have to be personal planets or whether they can be outer planets. Obviously, this is an important distinction in the sense that it's going to be more personally important as a stellium if they are three personal planets that you have all clustered around the same sign, especially inner planets or the traditional visible planets like the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Even Jupiter and Saturn are starting to get into the realm of generational planets, but nonetheless, I would still count those essentially as personal planets because they're still relatively quick-moving, with Jupiter only spending about a year in a sign and Saturn only spending about three years in a sign. I do think it's more important if you have three personal planets or more in a sign and that's definitely a stellium. When it comes to outer planets, though, sometimes I don't make as close of a distinction as I think some people do where they say that outer planets cannot count as part of a stellium. I don't think that's necessarily the case either. I understand the rationale, which is that when it comes to outer planets, you have entire generations of people that all have the same planets in a certain sign. For example, in the 1980s, we had the Capricorn stellium, which was Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus, I believe, all in Capricorn in the same sign. I do think it can be a mixture of inner planets and outer planets and that's still a stellium of sorts. For example, let's say you have your Sun and your Venus and then Uranus all in the same sign. That's still going to be three planets in your chart that not only can be activated in terms of their natal placement, but also in terms of receiving transits to those planets. I do think that outer planets can be involved even though obviously the inner planets or the visible traditional planets are going to be more important as part of a stellium, but I wouldn't completely discount outer planets as part of a stellium. Although, certainly if the stellium is completely composed of outer planets, like let's say you were born with Saturn and Neptune and Uranus all in the same sign, that is more of a generational stellium that's going to apply to a large group of people. Nonetheless, that also means that you were born as part of a generational stellium. That still, in some instances, can be very personally relevant in your life and in your birth chart when that stellium gets activated. It will activate it for a lot of people of your generation or of your age group, but nonetheless it can still be important. That's another distinction. Another distinction I see people making sometimes is whether the stellium has to be within a certain number of degrees or whether it can just be a bunch of planets in the same sign. For me, again, it goes back to this idea of there being an idealized version or the best-case scenario versus the general scenario. For me, for the most part, it's just about having three planets in the same sign or three planets in the same house, no matter how far apart they are in that sign or house, because then it just gives you a concentration of energy. Either, let's say, three planets in the sign of Leo or three planets in the sign of Scorpio, that's going to give you a concentration of energy of that specific zodiac sign in your chart as some sort of signature. That in and of itself is a stellium. Additionally, those planets are going to get activated in that sign at different points in your life by different things like perfections or transits or what have you. It can be more intense if you have a stellium where all of those planets are within, let's say, a few degrees of each other, but I don't think that's something that's necessary per se to count it as a stellium if we define a stellium primarily as just a concentration of planets in a certain sign or in a certain house. When it comes to other stuff, you're talking more about a great conjunction or a multiple conjunction when you have planets all in a close span of degrees, which almost gets into something slightly different conceptually compared to a stellium, which is more of a concentration. I think what it comes down to ultimately is, like I said at the beginning, it's about there not being a standardized notion for this. So even though this is the way that I conceptualize it at this point, that it can be three planets or more in a specific sign, in a chart, or in a specific house, this is going to continue to be something that's not standardized and that different astrologers have different, sometimes strongly held opinions about, and different people can be right from different perspectives. It's not necessarily even something that invalidates where one perspective invalidates the other or what have you. So I'd love to hear what people think in the YouTube comments and how you define a stellium. Let me know if you have a stellium in your chart and how you experience that. And finally, especially if you have a stellium in a specific house, let me know if the topics associated with that house come up prominently in your life. For me, that's often the main way that stelliums manifest. When you have three or more planets in a specific house in the chart, especially a whole sign house, you'll see that area of the person's life becoming particularly prominent in some way that stands out above some of the other houses in the chart. Ultimately, that's why for me it's really just a matter of identifying if you have three or more planets in a specific sign or house because then it will just make that house or make that sign more prominent in the chart. Alright, so I think that's it for this video. So let me know what you think in the comments. Let me know how you define a stellium and let me know if you have a stellium in your chart. Alright, thanks a lot for watching and I'll see you again next time.