Algol - Contemporary interpretation?

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Dear friends,

What are your thoughts and experiences of "evil" Algol? Traditionally it signifies being beheaded, but I don't know of anyone with a close Algol conjunction who has been beheaded in the western world in modern times! So how would we interpret its traditionally malefic influence nowadays? If we translate being beheaded into "losing your head", that would imply something quite the opposite of the steady, cautious, systematic sign of Taurus that it sits in, and is more something the native would bring on themselves than something done to them as in the case of being beheaded, so can it realistically be interpreted that way? Isn't that just something a person whose native language is English would say - "losing your head"?

So I am wondering, how do we interpret Algol these days, both as a malefic, and any possible positive interpretations? Mostly positively, some astrologers say that Algol can indicate a person who stands up and speaks out about injustice which they feel passionately about, and who attracts dificult/intense life situations but who also has the ability to handle them. Negatively it is said that Algol folks will be cruel, harsh, brutal, destructive.

What would be some positive manifestations of Algol? And how would you interpret its malefic nature? What have you observed in charts you have worked with?

Discuss!

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Hello Star,

The fixed stars in general are a pretty malefic lot, although there are exceptions, Spica for example. There are some severe misunderstandings of how traditional astrologers looked at charts, and that is usually because moderns superimpose their own methods on the tradtionalists. I seriously doubt a traditional astrologer, ancient, classical, or contemporary would look at a tight conjunction with Algol, and by itself, predict malefic influence. Algol is somewhere in every chart.

The association with being beheaded is also exaggerated, but there is no question that it is generally acknowledged as the most malefic star in the sky. On the other hand I have it within a couple of degrees of my MC and as of this writing my head is still attached to my shoulders.

Efforts have been made to bring Algol and the other stars more "up-to-date," whch often coincides with a loss of accuracy. It does no good to predict sunshine and roses over and over again because it is "positive," if you're always wrong.

Let's start with Robson:

Influence: Of the nature of Saturn and Jupiter. It causes misfortune, violence, decapitation, hanging, electrocution, and mob violence, and gives a dogged and violent nature that causes death to the native or others. It is the most evil star in the heavens.
This is the Algol we all know and love. Examples abound. I'm not sure where (and I don't feel like looking it up), but Algol was prominent at the execution of King Charles I in 1649 (on the MC?). JFK had Jupiter on Algol in the 8th in his nativity. Jupiter is the exaltation ruler of his MC and Saturn is conjunct his MC. At the time of his death Algol was on the 4th cusp - end of the matter. Stars that are angular, conjunct a star of their nature or otherwise prominent (e.g. angular) are the ones most likely to be active in a chart.

Ebertin had other things to say about Algol, most of them absurd. Apparently suffering from a theosophical hangover he wrote:

As everything has two sides, it has to be said that high spiritual rays are emanting from Algol also, but only those human beings can receive them who have already reached high spritual development.
Putting aside the lack of mention of the cheery side of Adolph Hiter, Joseph Stalin et al (he did say "everything"), this is patent nonsense. This is just a "new age" form of snobbery. If it ended here we could tolerate it, but:
In conection with Algol, artificial teeth are often the case
.

Reducing the most malevolent star in the sky to association with dentures, is, to be kind, idiotic. Is this the good side? It must be because he follows that aphorism with:
1. Female, born 29. 5. 1912, Saturn 25 Taurus. Her husband was counted among the missing personnel in the battle of Stalingrad, 1945. She fled via the Baltic Sea, was raped by Russians in 1946, contracted syphillis which was not detected until too late, lost all her teeth: had to put up with dentures, lost much of her hair, had a weakening heart condition. She married again 21. 11. 1952.
Bald, toothless, and syphlitic, but she still found a husband. I think that's the uplifting part.

More recently Bernadette Brady has done yeoman's work with the fixed stars. I cannot explain everything she's done with the stars, but I will mention her delineation of Algol. Brady in the appropriately named Brady's Book of Fixed Stars, lists the major stars and their delineations from Ptolemy forward. She also gives her own delineations, and for this she's received some criticism. Well if you buy the book, you will a) learn quite a bit, and b) can choose not to use her delineations, and still learn a lot. If you buy Brady's book only for the delineations, you're cheating yourself.

Algol represents a strong consuming passion that may devour you with anger and rage. If one can contain an unconscious compulsion to take revenge, and focus that passion into a more productive outcome, Algol is one of the most powerful stars in the sky. Whatever planet it affects in your chart will be charged with strong intense, sexual energy that has the potential to be wonderful or, if repressed, to lead to rage or violence."
Brady is taking the contemporary psychological approach to the delineation. Yes, the star has malefic influence, but if you express it properly it can be productive. She states elsewhere that if Algol is the heliacal rising star at your birth, you are a person who can handle intensity. She follows that up with reference to some contemporary feminist beliefs, and then lost me. I'm not one to believe the cosmos arrange themselves to validate particular political viewpoints - mine or others. Still, if you're interested in the fixed stars and visual astrology, tainted with some contemporary psychological astrology, you need this book.

The best way to figure out Algol, or anything else, is, as always, look at charts where it is prominent*. See how others handled it or how it affected them. It's the only way to learn.

Tom

*For the record, Algol is not on the ecliptic and appears to be at different longitudes at high and low latitudes. This could account for its being important in some charts and not in others. See Brady for a full explanation.

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I?ve just heard some modern definition that Algol can indicate losing the election, like a presidential. I know that Al Gore has Algol significant in chart - an example.
Though, he is the Oscar winner for his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" :)

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I have Algol within two degrees of my IC, in my 4th house. I've always felt that my somewhat rootless and lonely childhood (only child, single workaholic mother) may have been a reflection of this, (a 'headless' childhood, as it were). I've also failed, at the age of 37, to *ever* have settled into one house or one place for longer than a few years, and I mean I have lived in over twenty-five different houses in my life, at last count.

However, all of this could also be explained by other planetary aspects and houses in the chart, so I don't know that Algol is actually the influence it's thought to be...

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Thanks friends for the input, and especially Tom for the elucidating thesis :-) What orb would you consider pertinent? 1.5 seems to be about its limit of efficacy in most cases I have looked at. It's good to hear from people whose lives have not been blighted by an Algol conjunction, and who still have their heads! Bald toothless and syphyllitic but not husbandless is a great picture :lala . I think the passion plays into Algol charts, allied with the intensity and power of Pluto. And I just read an article where it is described as "vivid and intense creative power". So the most malefic star in the heavens ain't all bad after all. Maybe....

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Hi Star,
I think the passion plays into Algol charts, allied with the intensity and power of Pluto.
I'm not a Pluto fan, but the idea of passion and Algol is interesting. I suppose I should have pointed out Nick Kollerstrom's fine article on Algol that is on this site, but I forgot about it.

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/algol.html

1.0 - 1.5 is about right for most stars, but I would go a bit wider for the four Royal Stars of Persia (Aldebaran, Antares, Formalhaut, and Regulus), as well as Algol and Spica and maybe one or two others, perhaps 2.5.

On the subject of delineating fixed stars, John Frawley reccomends reading up on the myths that are associated with the constellation that holds the star, and then applying the myth to the native. It gives a more individual flavor to the reading and can be surprisingly accurate. The stars are worth a lifetime of study on their own, as Bernadette Brady will attest.

Tom

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1.0 - 1.5 is about right for most stars, but I would go a bit wider for the four Royal Stars of Persia (Aldebaran, Antares, Formalhaut, and Regulus), as well as Algol and Spica and maybe one or two others, perhaps 2.5.
Yegheh? I?ve my Mercury conjunct Algol with 0.36 degree, not angular, and I?ve experienced Algol?s influence on my life. Though, having Spica conjunct my AC with 0.30 degree, I haven?t evidently any significant effects of this star. My be just in generally Spica balancing some bad aspects in the chart.

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Thanks Yuriy, how have you experienced your Algol Mercury conjunction? Some others with this are Oliver Cromwell (politician & persecutor of Catholics), Salvador Dali (surrealist painter - Mars also conjunct), Van Gogh (artist, cut off his ear). Any similarities???!
Star

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Star
Thanks Yuriy, how have you experienced your Algol Mercury conjunction? Some others with this are Oliver Cromwell (politician & persecutor of Catholics), Salvador Dali (surrealist painter - Mars also conjunct), Van Gogh (artist, cut off his ear). Any similarities???!
Well ? unless they have had some dental problems since childhood :-T :-?

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I think that Frawleys advice on reading the myth and see if it can be applied is very good and basically necessary. This is also how I understand Bradys work.

The myth about Perseus and Medusa also contains a development that justifies the psychological view of sublimation inherent in that approach. After Medusas head is severed, Pegasus springs fully formed from her neck.

it would be very interesting to see if this was also present in Algol people besides syphilitic traits, misplaced ears etc