People whose charts feature prominent Algol placements include... Margot Fonteyn ... Mozart ... Johnny Depp ... Picasso ... Princess Diana

and ... Dame Nellie Melba, Salvador Dali, Van Gogh, Albert Einstein, Karl Abraham (psychoanalyst), Carl Jung, Ramakrishna (Indian saint), Muktananda (Indian mystic), Werner Erhard (guru "est"), , Al Gore (the name is close), Tony Prker, Enya, Dennis Hopper, Suagr Ray Leonard, Andrea Corr, Billy Joel, Glen Campbell, Liberace, Princess Diana, Prince William, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Zola Budd (runner), Erica de Jong (author), Mary Jo Kopechne, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Dean Martin, Ryan O'Neil, Josef Stalin, Pat Schroeder, Carl Sagan, Cecil B. De Mille (film producer), Isadora Duncan, Mata Hari (Spy), George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Michael Caine, Henry Fonda, Ruhollah Khomeini (Iranian leader), Stephen King, Florence Nightingale, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Enya, Madame de Pompadour, Katherine Hepburn, Christine Keeler, Martin Luther King.

Algol must be the most misunderstood of all the fixed stars - and is directly connected to Goddess energy. If you do a Net search on Algol, you will find yourself plunged into an abyss of misery - but there is no need to be scared.

Found in the constellation of Perseus, Algol represents Medusa, the most misunderstood of all the Goddesses -

Medusa's name comes from the Sanskrit Medha, which means 'sovereign feminine wisdom,' and is another name for the Goddess Saraswati who revealed language - speech and writing - to humans, and who governs science, music and the arts.

Click here to hear an Indian chant dedicated to Medha (Saraswati)

Could it be that Algol was originally feared by (mostly male) astrologers because they feared feminine wisdom? ~

Men scared of a wise women? Surely not?!

People whose charts feature Algol strongly include Johnny Depp (Mercury and Venus on Algol) and Mick Jagger (Moon on Algol), not to mention Mozart, Picasso and Einstein (who have Algol's powerful culminating degree in their charts). Another perfect example is Carl Sagan, who so brilliantly combined science and the arts. Writers George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde are two more.

As Fixed Star expert Diana K. Rosenberg says: some born under these stars reach the very pinnacle of their professions, becoming “immortals”. Correct.

And Fixed Star expert Bernadette Brady adds: "This star seems to contain immense female passion and power. It is the power of the feminine or the potential power of Mother Nature, not to be called evil for being strong.” In that way, Algol is perhaps mostly about the power to create.

Medusa is one of the so-called powerful Dark Goddesses... (see here for an amazing photo of the Medusa Nebula in Gemini)

The Medusa Nebula

The slaying of the Medusa by Perseus [is] thought to be a mythic account of the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy

Writes Dr Glenys Livingstone: "The Dark Goddess... nurtures a strength, a fierce love that is purifying, liberating and creative. She knows the wisdom of the ages... (She) knows the necessity of the journey into her inner terrain, to fave with open eyes our deepest fears.

"Often we meet her unprepared - an accident, an illness, an emotional break; somehow we are broken down. Hers is an invitation to transformation that does indeed mean death to our old selves, old beliefs about ourselves. Usually we know somewhere that we have wanted it, but have not known how.

"Her dismembering, then, is an act of love, and in her cauldron at the bottom of the pit, we find our essence for remembering ourselves."

Says astrologer Kim Falconer: "Algol (representing Medusa) in the chart may indicate an place where the sacred feminine is most potent..." She adds we should stop looking at Algol and Medusa as negative. "Sometimes the thousands of years of gathered knowledge is thousands of years of bias. We just have to pick the baby up and then pull the plug!"

Now as the Comet Holmes lights up the constellation where Algol is found, it's hard not to wonder if this bright new energy shining down from us is not all about illuminating us mere mortals down here on Earth about how and why women and the Stars that represent our Goddesshood have been portrayed. Algol represents the Goddess who represents the move from matriachial to patrichial society. Hello.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT REGARDING THE SIGNS IN THE SKY AND THE RE-EMERGENCE OF THE DIVINE FEMININE

Ceres - the soon-to-be-a-planet-asteroid - was discovered on January 1 1801. Ceres signifies The Great Mother. Ceres was conjunct (in the same place as) Algol, the Saraswati Star, at the moment of her discovery.

Now we have the mystical comet Holmes in the constellation of Perseus, the constellation of Algol. Holmes has stunned astronomers everywhere by brightening almost one million times - demanding our attention.

As Jonathan Cainer put it: In legend, Perseus killed Medusa and proudly held aloft her head. Medusa, though, was once synonymous with 'sovereign feminine wisdom.' Some scholars believe the patriarchal Greeks deliberately demonised her by depicting an ugly 'Gorgon'. The new bright explosion in the realm of Perseus may therefore portend the redress of an ancient imbalance. If so, expect a time soon, when strong, wise women begin to reclaim the spiritual and political leadership of society!

And where was Comet Holmes when it was discovered on November 6 1892? At 26 Taurus, the precise location of the Saraswati Star Algol today.

And when the asteroid Medusa was discovered in September 21, 1875 Pluto was conjunct Algol.

Meanwhile, October 2006 - saw a conjunction between the asteroids Medusa and Pallas-Athena. Most people only know the Homeric versions of the Medusa story - the Homeric-versions being "the male version". In the male version, Pallas-Athena was a very masculine Goddess who ordered the slaying of Medusa.

In the pre-Hellenic accounts of the Medusa story, Pallas-Athena and Medusa were actually harmonious and parts of the same beautiful triple Goddess. It was the male telling of their tale which saw them split asunder and set against each other.

Some scholars believe that the Greek and Roman Medusa myth, as told by Ovid, expresses the vanquishing of the great goddess religions as the male gods Zeus/Jupiter and Poseidon/Neptune gained power.

Others view it as expressive of the subjugation of women's bodies and enslavement of their spirit by a violent and oppressive male-oriented culture, which viewed Medusa's life-giving, creative, primal energy as threatening.