Lynn Koiner - Astrological Research

THE STELLIUM
by Lynn Koiner

A stellium occurs when 4 or more planets fall in a House. This configuration creates too much energy coming into the activities and affairs of that House. It generates obsessive energy. The individual becomes obsessively focused with the activities of that House. The affairs of that House take up all of the energies of the individual. It is essential that the individual GET OUT OF THAT HOUSE by going to the opposite House. A stellium likes an opposition to it. The opposition makes the individual clearly aware that there is a choice whereas a stellium without an opposition can get trapped more easily in the congested House. Besides the obsessive quality, the House activities will be upset for long periods when any planets transit a hard aspect to the planets in T-square. Everything goes awry!

1st HOUSE: When 4 or more planets fall in the 1st House, so many energies are coming into the personality segment that the individual can change from one day to the next. This can cause physical disabilities. If the individual cannot control the energies of all of the planets, they become too strong. Lessons in patience and self-control are needed. Since self-centeredness can become a problem, working through partnerships and 7th House matters such as counseling or consultant work can be helpful. A partner or other people, such as clients, can balance the personality by drawing the energy, the focus, away from the individual’s own personality. One young man with a stellium in Libra was excessive self-conscious. He did not like the focus to be on himself. He submerges his identity with others. He went into the most dangerous brand of the Israeli army. His mother commented that “You cannot say anything to him. He is sensitive to any criticism (self-absorbed).” His attitude is “What’s wrong with me?!!”

NOTE: Lyndon Johnson had a stellium in Virgo with Leo rising. He was a very arrogant man but he accomplished great things when he took the focus away from himself and obsessed upon human rights issues.

2nd HOUSE: Too much energy in the 2nd House is not good for finances, even though these people can do well salary-wise. With too many energies, too many choices, the financial reins should be given to a partner, a financial consultant – letting go of attachments to the physical is essential here! These people can get so wrapped up in managing their own possessions and finances that these things rule their lives. Any little transit from Mars or, worse yet, an outer planet, will cause chaos in the area of finances and possessions. This, in turn, can affect the health. One client had real estate holdings around the country and he wrote a book. He would not release the energy to an agent -he was promoting the book himself and he traveled around the country trying to sell his properties. He exhausted himself holding on to everything.
A friend with that unpleasant outer planet stellium in Leo (late 1940s) says that she is always being sucked into financial crises.

3rd HOUSE: Many planets here can produce a “mental collector” with all sorts of ideas and mental interests. Too much energy here can short-circuit the mind so that it does not feel comfortable in literary areas – too many choices. They find it hard to relax mentally. The mental energy should be thrown into the 9th House wherein knowledge is shared and theories and concepts are developed from what is acquired mentally. There is a potential for consciousness expansion. Formal education is essential here. I have talked with many clients with this pattern. They know they have abilities for writing and teaching but they do not know what subjects they should choose. Yet, when they focus, they obsess mentally, losing perspective and becoming oblivious to what is going on around them. Travel without any mental activity is a release.

The daughter of one client writes ads freelance but she obsesses over ideas causing mental frustration. She acted as a surrogate mom to her siblings (obsessing over them). She is very into her own thinking.
Anytime many planets are focused in a cadent House the individual becomes a mental ponderer. They think so much that they actually miss opportunities. They find their timing is bad as a result. It is like sitting at the bus stop thinking so hard about what you are going to do at the Mall once you get there that you miss the bus – all of the buses! People with many planets in Houses 3, 6, 9 and 12 need to get out of their heads and be more physical.

An old astrological axiom is that, if the ruler of the 2nd House is part of a 3rd House stellium, the individual has a lot of ideas about making money but NO MONEY!

4th HOUSE: There is a need to take the energies out of the “personal” home and put them into a professional activity that deals with 4th House issues. The home life is often tumultuous, especially finding upset with every little transit. They do well in such 4th House areas as real estate, building and construction, archeology and anthropology, history, historical preservation or activities connected with the past. It favors working with weather conditions and environmental issues. One woman helps adoptees find their biological parents. Another was a mortician! Their obsession is dwelling too much on their own past when they keep their energies in the personal sector.
The past is always a frame of reference for almost any 4th House placement, stellium or not. The individual gets emotionally stuck in the past. Getting out and working the land is very helpful. I have observed that people who work with environmental issues obsess and lose perspective about what is really workable.

5th HOUSE: This is the house of creativity but, with a stellium, there can be too many options. Hence, there may be a potential for helping to cultivate their own creativity. They work well with creative groups. In romance, the love life can be a maze. There is a need to concentrate more on social relationships in order to take the heat off of the solar plexus and its personal, emotional involvements. They need to work with impersonal relationships and KEEP them impersonal’ While they often do not have children, their own children do take up too much of their energy. They frequently have child-like qualities – do whatever is fun. I know 2 individuals with a 5th House stellium. One was a teacher whose students were like her own children. She invited them to her home. She became very involved in their problems. She loved being a teacher because she was the drama teacher and helped the students create films.

The 5th House rules a specific field of psychology – the development of the personality, psychodramas and the use of the chakras in healing and personality training (Carolyn Myss). The 2nd individual is a psychotherapist. She has studied chakra therapy. Her favorite is child therapy. She never has clients hang on for years. They work on their problems and they get cured and leave.

6th HOUSE: Many Virgo traits show up with a stellium in the House, even when there are no Virgo planets. They obsess upon their jobs and their work. They are perfectionists who too easily get wrapped up in their work and menial tasks. Work and service activities absorb too much energy because of their affinity with the menial. This can lead to hypochondria or, at least, a lot of complaining about their work. They are dedicated to some service work – professional and personal (care-taking others). They need to be in charge and to be self-sufficient (people never get so close that they car criticize, try to change or tell them what to do) but they also need to learn to delegate the menial to others.

Always there is a need to go to the 12th House and get away from work and find some seclusion. They must also find work that has a purpose. Unfulfilling, menial, routine tasks can lead to health disorders in the nature of the sign but relating to assimilation and elimination. A Libra stellium would cause lower back pain (kidney connected) when work and work relationships become chaotic, Virgo would produce skin irritations or constipation (holding it all in), Leo causes back problems from shouldering too much of a work load, Cancer would cause stomach and digestive disorders due to fears and insecurities in work activities, Gemini could cause allergies and respiratory problems when the individual feels trapped and cannot “breath” in the workplace.
The emphasis here is to take charge in service activities, delegate the menial and get away from work as much as possible. Never work more than 40 hours per week.

One individual with a Virgo stellium has lupus. She is a perfectionist and becoming ill forced her to take a break from her work obsessions.
NOTE: I have found that the 6th House rules congenital health problems.
7th HOUSE: Individuals with a 7th House stellium as the least likely to marry or stay married. So many energies come out in a relationship that they feel swallowed up by other people in close relationships. They are often loners or they suddenly end relationships to break the relationship obsession. Libran traits manifest in relationships, specifically indecision when dealing with others. It is excellent for work in counseling or consultant occupations. These de-personalize the one-on-one relationships. The many planets in the 7th can describe many types of clients with whom the individual would deal. This is excellent for a lawyer, arbitrator, psychologist and business consultant.

I have observed this stellium firsthand. The individual complains that the relationships takes up so much of their energy that they lose their own identity. It is easier to be a loner. However, upon closer inspection, I observed that, when involved in a relationship, the individual obsesses upon that relationship to the point wherein he or she loses perspective, becoming oblivious to anyone or anything else. A friend with such a stellium visited the United States. He stayed in Baltimore for 2 weeks and then he stayed with me. When he was with me, he forgot all about his friends in Baltimore. And, when he left to stay with one of my students, he became oblivious to me and certain obligations that he had to me. He focused in on the person he was with and lost sight of everything else. If I had not seen this myself, I never would have understood this phenomena. A very independent friend with such a stellium would always lose herself in a relationship, devoting all of her energies to what the partner needed without regard for her own needs To end this obsession, she would just run away from the relationship.

8th HOUSE: The 8th House stellium must be in control of one’s own resources and finances. If not, situations that seem totally beyond his/her control or upheavals seem to plague the life. Gaining control over the uncontrollable is important sc that studies in the occult, life after death, medicine, holistic health, financial planning are good outlets. In handling large amounts of money, the individual should always be personally in charge. Accountants and other financial planners can really mess things up.

I believe that the 8th House rules all things totally beyond our control and our attitude towards such affairs. There is a pattern of taking control and then knowing when to release. Obsessions with the uncontrollable can greatly complicate the life. One individual with a stellium in Cancer in a financial planning yet he always feels out of control in his relationships because I have observed that he disempowers his relationships – he does everything and makes all the decisions, and then the other person cannot stand alone. This is a problem in knowing when to release. The healing talent of the 8th House is taking control, orchestrating the changes and repairs alone and then releasing it (to a client).

There can be problems sorting out sexuality or a conflict between sexuality and spirituality.

9th HOUSE: As with all Cadent Houses, the individual can come to live too much in the head – the ponderer -and not enough in the practical reality of life and real, livable philosophies. These mentally oriented people can easily live in a world of philosophy and theory. Theories about life and relationships can keep them from living in the real world which is so typical of Sagittarius. Rather than become moralistic, they need to teach and share what they know – then allow others to draw their own conclusions. They should never be oriented towards any single religious, spiritual or academic point of view – of course, they are never really sure of what they believe anyway! Instead of always searching for a philosophy, something to believe in, a meaning to life, they should share what they know and travel to learn from others.
Travel always helps to gain a perspective. I have observed some people with the a 9th House stellium in Fixed signs always thinking about travel but they stay at home! In going to the 3rd House, you teach what you know, get the information out rather than just consuming more.

In a class with two 9th House stellium students, one was aggressive and one was passive but both agreed that THEY HAVE AN OPINION, especially about religion and politics! They were obsessive in their beliefs. One was offended when people asked for advice but did not follow it or ignored it.

10th HOUSE: With a stellium in the 10th House, there are problems with the professional choice and dealing with authority figures. The professional life should be connected with the home and one’s own property (hotel, day care or just being a house wife) or working out of one’s own home or property. Being one’s own boss takes the pressure off of authority figure confrontations with every minor transit that afflicts the 10th House! There could have been a very intense relationship with one parent and this, in turn, can create intense confrontations that affect the career.

11th HOUSE: Involvements with groups, associations and organizations swallow up the individual and keep the individual from gaining a perspective (lost in the group cause or values like a lemming going to sea). They find that they become part of the herd in terms of collective values when in any group. They need to work with more personal goals and values and work with small, creative groups in which they feel a sense of control and stability.
In going to the 5th House, I say to stay with a group of about 5 people. This could be a scouting group, an exercise gathering, a study group or a small support group. Greater fulfillment goes through focusing with one’s own children.

12th HOUSE: This is the Serve-or-Suffer House. These people may have come from a past life monastery experience. In this life, they need to get outside of themselves and involve themselves with service to others or they can become quite neurotic! In coming from a past life situation of seclusion which formed a life pattern of isolation, they must break this pattern now! There is a need to get outside of one’s self and work with others. It is easy, however, to escape within rather than go out into the world.

One woman with a stellium in Aquarius had her finest hour when she dedicated many years of her life to taking care of a disabled child. When not involved in service, she retreated to being a neurotic recluse!

It must be noted that 12th House people can never be out all of the time. They need to retreat, to be alone and to be quiet. They cannot be ON 24 hours a day. They find it easy to disappear, to be invisible and tune out when around more aggressive or assertive types. I have observed 12th House students simply shut down when more assertive types speak up or interrupt.