History of the star: Binary stars gamma¹, 3.3, and gamma², 5.8 on the calf of the right front foot of the Little Bear Ursa Minor.

The Arabic spelling for Pherkad is Al-Farqad (1), "The calf". These were known by the Arabs as one star, Ahfa al Farkadain, "the Dim One of the Two Calves", but by us as Pherkad Major and Pherkad Minor, 57 minutes of arc apart.

With beta (Kochab) and others they were the Dancers, and with beta alone the Guards, or Wardens, of the Pole (Polaris), that old Thomas Hood said were "of the Spanish word guardare, which is to beholde, because they are diligently to be looked unto, in regard of the singular use which they have in navigation;" and Recorde said; "many do call the Shafte, and others do name the Guardas after the Spanish tonge."

Also called the Guardians, or the Mouth of the Home"; and "the Guardens of the north pole."

Shakespeare, in Othello, wrote: "These Guards, like the stars in Charles' Wain (Ursa Major), were a timepiece to the common people, and even thought worthy of special treatises by navigators, as to their use in indicating the hours of the night".

[Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning, Richard Hinchley Allen, 1889]. 

The astrological influences of the constellation: It is said to give indifference and improvidence of spirit and to lead to many troubles. By the Kabalists it is associated with the Hebrew letter Tau and the 21^st Tarot Trump "The Universe", "The World". (Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology , Vivian E. Robson, 1923)

The astrological influences of the constellation given by Manilius:

"Now where heaven reaches its culmination in the shining Bears, which from the summit of the sky look down on all the stars and know no setting and, shifting their opposed stations about the same high point, set sky and stars in rotation, from there an insubstantial axis runs down through the wintry air and controls the universe, keeping it pivoted at opposite poles: it forms the middle about which the starry sphere revolves and wheels its heavenly flight, but is itself without motion and, drawn straight through the empty spaces of the great sky to the two Bears and through the very globe of the Earth, stands fixed, since the entire atmosphere ever revolves in a circle, and every part of the whole rotates to the place from which it once began, that which is in the middle, about which all moves, so insubstantial that it cannot turn round upon itself or even submit to motion or spin in circular fashion, this men have called the axis, since, motionless itself, it yet sees everything spinning about it.

"The top of the axis is occupied by constellations well known to hapless mariners, guiding them over the measureless deep in their search for gain. Helice (Ursa Major), the greater, describes the greater arc; it is marked by seven stars which vie with each other under its guidance the ships of Greece set sail to cross the seas.

"Cynosura [Ursa Minor] is small and wheels round in a narrow circle, less in brightness as it is in size, but in the judgement of the Tyrians it excels the larger bear.

"Carthaginians count it the surer-guide when at sea they make for unseen shores. They are not set face to face: each with its muzzle points at the other's tail and follows one that follows it. Sprawling between them and embracing each the Dragon (Draco) separates and surrounds them with its glowing stars lest they ever meet or leave their stations." [Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, p.27].  

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