← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 173/235
Algol
Algol is the bright star in the constellation Perseus that marks the severed head of Medusa, the Gorgon the hero carries in his hand. Its name comes from the Arabic for "the head of the demon". It is an eclipsing double star: every two days and twenty-one hours or so its brightness drops for a few hours as a dimmer companion passes in front of it, a winking that ancient watchers seem to have noticed. In astrology it is the most notorious of all the fixed stars, a byword for intensity.
In the zodiac
Algol stands at about 26° Taurus today. Like every star it moves forward about one degree every 72 years through precession, so a chart from 1950 places it about a degree earlier, near 25° Taurus.
Its nature
Ptolemy gives the stars of Perseus the nature of Jupiter and Saturn. Older astrologers called it Caput Algol, the Head of Medusa, and the tradition was grim about it: writers linked it with violence, misfortune and loss of the head, and Lilly counted a planet joined to it among the marks of weakness. These were the fears of their age, and they say more about how the old authors saw a star named for a monster than about any person born with it.
Modern astrologers usually read Algol as raw, concentrated force: strong passions, a capacity to meet crisis head on, and an intensity that others feel. Handled consciously it can be formidable focus and courage; the work it tends to ask for is learning to hold that power rather than be carried by it.
In a chart
A planet within about a degree or a degree and a half of Algol takes on its intensity. With the Sun or Moon it can describe a forceful temperament or strong emotional currents; on the Ascendant or Midheaven, a presence that is hard to ignore. The star colours the planet it touches rather than acting alone, so the planet's sign, house and aspects still tell most of the story.