Algol, Raʾs al-Ghūl: the fixed star in astrology, its talisman and its election

Algol star meaning: the head of the ghoul

Algol is the fixed star the Arabs named raʾs al-ghūl, "the head of the ghoul", the demon of Arabian lore, and the Algol star meaning starts there: the English "Demon Star" comes from the same phrase. It marks the head of the Gorgon Medusa that Perseus carries, hence its other name, Gorgonea Prima. In Algol astrology it has long been the cautionary star, and Canopy's own reading calls Raʾs al-Ghūl "the most malefic fixed star". This page sets out the Algol fixed star as Canopy shows it: its degree, its reading in a birth chart, the materials of an Algol talisman, and the narrow window of the Algol election.

Astronomers know Algol as Beta Persei, a system of three stars. The close pair's orbit lies nearly edge-on to us, so every 2 days, 20 hours and 49 minutes the fainter star passes in front of the brighter, and for some ten hours Algol fades from magnitude 2.1 to 3.4. Geminiano Montanari noted the change in 1667; John Goodricke published its period in 1783. Whether the demon's name records that blinking is unknown: al-Ṣūfī's Book of Fixed Stars, written about 964, says nothing of it.

Where the Algol fixed star sits: 26° Taurus

By tropical longitude Canopy places Algol at 26°29′ Taurus for 2025; its star page, which prints the current position, read 26°30′ Taurus on October 25, 2026. Precession moves every fixed star forward about 50 seconds of arc a year, so older books give an earlier degree, and a birth chart uses the star's place on your birth date. The degree lies in the fifth lunar mansion, al-Haqʿa, less than four degrees short of the Pleiades, whose Alcyone Canopy places at 0°18′ Gemini.

The star itself lies about 22 degrees north of the ecliptic and 41 degrees north of the celestial equator. North of about latitude 49°, as in London or Berlin, it never sets; south of about 49°S, as at Ushuaia, it never rises. Canopy times a star by its zodiac degree, not its light, so a window can still come wherever 26° Taurus reaches the Ascendant or the Midheaven, and the star and its degree rise at different times.

Algol in astrology: Canopy's reading

Canopy files Algol as a Malefic star of the natures of Saturn and Mars, and a talisman window's About & Correspondences page opens with "Nature of Saturn". Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos (I.9) gives the stars in Perseus, as a group, the effect of Jupiter and Saturn; Canopy follows the later Behenian lists. Of the fifteen Behenian fixed stars, only Algol and Algorab carry the Malefic badge. The star page's Avoid callout draws the consequence: not a star for good fortune or success.

Algol conjunct the Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Midheaven

In your birth chart Canopy sets Algol against every planet, the Ascendant, the Midheaven, the Vertex and both lunar Nodes, with an orb of three degrees. A contact appears in the Chart tab's Fixed Star Conjunctions as a row such as "Conjunct your natal Sun (al-Shams) · 1.2°", marked "Star: Malefic" and Behenian. Canopy's reading is the same whichever point Algol touches: "When conjunct a natal planet, it grants intensity and the power to face darkness, but requires conscious management of destructive tendencies. You may experience dramatic transformations through crisis." There is no separate text for the Sun, the Moon or the Ascendant; the row names the point and the orb. The Descendant and the IC are not checked on their own.

Day to day, the Today screen's Fixed Stars card reports a transiting planet in aspect to Algol within two degrees, with "Nature: Malefic", "Star nature: Saturn–Mars" and the first two items of each list.

How to make an Algol talisman: the materials Canopy shows

Canopy gives each Behenian star its correspondences, and Algol's are brief: diamond for the gemstone, mugwort for the herb, and the natures of Saturn and Mars. A window's About & Correspondences page lists them as Gemstone · al-Jawhar, Herb · al-Ḥashīsha and Planetary Nature; the star page's Talisman Correspondences card gives the same three as Stone, Plant and Planetary Natures. The window's about text sums the star up: "Algol (Raʾs al-Ghūl) is a malefic fixed star of the nature of Saturn and Mars. It is one of the fifteen Behenian stars of the talismanic tradition."

What such a talisman was for, the star page says under Traditional Uses: protection, and only in the hands of those who understand its dangerous nature. Beyond the materials and the moment, this page gives no procedure for making the object. For Algol, the moment is the strictest part.

When to make an Algol talisman: the Algol election

In Canopy an Algol window is a moment when Algol's degree, near 26°30′ Taurus, stands within one degree of the Ascendant or the Midheaven: the star rising or culminating by degree. Setting and the lower meridian do not count. The Moon must be applying to Algol by conjunction, sextile or trine, within two degrees of exact, which puts her in late Taurus, late Cancer or Pisces, or late Virgo or Capricorn. A Capricorn trine is set aside, Capricorn being her detriment; the conjunction falls in Taurus, her exaltation.

The Moon crosses each two-degree approach in three or four hours, and Algol's degree reaches each angle about once a day, so the two seldom coincide, and a week's search can come back empty. When they do, the window lasts as long as the angle takes to move a degree: a few minutes either side of exact at middle latitudes, never more than thirty.

Each of the usual star faults also sets a window aside: the Moon combust, applying by a hard aspect to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn, applying to the South Node, or applying by conjunction to an afflicted planet; Algol itself within three degrees of Mars, Saturn, the South Node or an afflicted planet (the fixed-star talisman rules). One rule bends for this star: other star windows are set aside when the Moon applies to Mars or Saturn out of dignity, Algol's are not, and only Alkaid shares the exemption.

Algol's malefic nature neither lowers nor raises its score. Every star window is scored out of ten: six points for a Moon applying by conjunction or three for a sextile or trine, two for the angle, and up to two for a waxing Moon that is not void of course. An Algol window reads 50, 60 or 70 percent by sextile or trine and 80, 90 or 100 percent by conjunction, labeled Good or Excellent like any other star's.

That neutrality belongs to this search alone. In Canopy's purpose searches, for a wedding, a launch or a contract, a window with Algol rising or culminating is set aside, and a malefic star's nature counts against a moment. Fixed Star Talismans lifts that veto so that Algol can be chosen on purpose. The faults that strike any election are set out under how Canopy reads an election.

Finding Algol in Canopy

Open the Talismans tab and choose Fixed Star Talismans. All 35 stars Canopy carries are listed with their Arabic names, the fifteen Behenian ones preselected; tap None, then Algol, to search it alone. Set a place and a range of dates, a week by default and up to about six months, with optional filters for Moon phase, angle, applying Moon and lunar mansion. Search Stars returns at most the fifty best-scored windows, listed Soonest first or Top Rated; an empty stretch reads "The great stars offer no moment here." The Elections tab's Fixed Stars entry runs the same search, so a window is headed "Algol Election" instead of "Algol Talisman".

A window gives the exact time, its start and end, the hour and day rulers, the signs on the angles and the Moon's aspect to the star. Talisman scanning needs an active subscription.

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