Astrological Forecasts

Is there such a thing as coincidence? For as I try to make sense of, Algol, the always impeccable Thomas Decker has already done a magnificent job of the emotions simmering under the cool reserve our binary eclipsing, Algol:

“Algol is described by Ptolemy as having the nature of Saturn and Jupiter.
It is associated with uncontrolled emotion and violence through which the
native literally or figuratively loses his head. At first it seems curious that it
should be of the nature of Jupiter and Saturn. But if you meld the warmth
and expansiveness of Jupiter with the coldness and brittleness of Saturn you
have a noxious combination. You can imagine it this way:

” Suppose someone falls deeply in love, their heart expands and enfolds the
beloved with warmth and joy. But what happens if this love isn’t returned in
the way expected, or worse, appears to have been given to another? Then all
the joy and generosity bestowed upon the beloved becomes poisoned. The
bitter cold and above all jealous voice of Saturn turns the beloved into a
calculating and heartless creature full of deceit. Love becomes hatred and
fury and vindictiveness are now directed towards the ‘beloved directed
towards the ‘beloved’. All rational thought is put aside, one loses one’s head
with an emotional surge that strives to damage and hurt, cost what it will.
This is the stuff of tragedy and Shakespeare’s “Othello” comes to mind.”
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I only wish that some day, I may learn to write with half the verve and just plain raw talent that Thomas Decker can summon. Thanks to his astute observations, we are reminded that Algol is not just a bloody killer, but also expansive and forgiving, ruled as she is by the magnanimous, Jupiter. It is this all inclusive, nature of Algol, before being ‘jilted’ that Thomas so exquisitely describes in his recent piece, that made me sit up and take notice. Here we see that our binary eclipsing star, is not just a shrew, out to kill, but also has an intriguing and magnetic side, a welcome side, that until Thomas’s apt description, I have never seen discussed, but in all the Algol personalities, I have had the good fortune to meet, I have seen this, what can I call it, but a gentleness, that is always magnetic, and sometimes, even charismatic.

It was Thomas’ recent piece on Algol that reminded me how differently the very same constellational degree of Taurus is treated in western tradition, as opposed to eastern. In the west, we tend to focus rather heavily upon the bloody severed head, in Perseus’ hand – in other words, here in our western paternalistic society, we only concentrate on Medussa’s negative qualities. Yet, had we grown up in the astrological tradition of the east, Jyotisa, if we saw this very same exact same place in for the Moon, we would rejoice! Indeed, where we in the west place a severed head, is the very same spot that the Indian Seers placed the most revered degree for the Moon, that of her exaltation. Since traditional Jyotisa is star based, Algol stays on this very spot through time.

Now how can this be? How can the two systems be so alike, yet so different when it comes to this spot in the zodiac? I can only offer my humble explanation.

Consider for a moment, just how mesmerizing beauty really is.

For example, when we see a beautiful woman go by, so often, a portion of our rational brain is stopped dead in its tracks as we stretch our necks to take in the sight. Maybe, before being cast into the heavens, Medusa was not ugly, but instead, was perhaps, extremely beautiful and alluring. Never forget, it was not the intelligence that launched 1000 ships. It was Helen’s beauty. What we might be forgetting in the west, what our paternalistic forefathers were intimidated by was this very powerful female magnetism that is so imbued in this portion of Taurus, that makes us lose our heads when those possessing this fixed star strongly in their chart cross our path.

Next, let’s ponder how rumors grow, over time, until eventually they give way to myth.

First there is the truth, that is, what ‘really happened. Then as time goes by, rumors foment, and truth becomes muddled in the pain and torment of rejection that Thomas Decker so aptly describes. Each time the story is told, it is dramatized, perhaps to engage the listener or to win a supporter, perhaps just to tell a good yarn. Eventually, instead of hearing what ‘really happened, as time goes on, reality becomes twisted and magnified into something hardly even resembling the actual course of events. What I am trying to say is a millennia or two is a very long time.

Maybe, just maybe, when our Algol myth was first born, instead being the ugliest of three horrid sisters, perhaps Medusa was, the both the most beautiful and the brightest woman of the realm. Perhaps it was this heady combination that intimidated the egocentric Perseus or perhaps she spurned his advances, and so he offered Medusa’s skull to his king as a wedding present? We shall never know, but one thing we do know is how drastically a story can veer from the truth in but a few short months. We can only imagine how much a story can change over the course of several thousand years.

With this in mind, I thought it would be interesting to present some charts of some Algol folks, we all know and love……

Our first example of the Medusa/Lunar Exaltation Degree in action (MLED), is in the chart of a woman who was not only known for both her beauty and brains, but one who was also a legend in her own time…..but alas, you will have to wait until morning, for Morpheus is calling me……