At the Lodge - 24 March 2003

Lodge Lecture | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

Nick Kollerstrom ventured to show us the head of the Medusa, the fixed star at its centre: Algol, currently situated at 26 deg Taurus. (To find it in the sky, start with Cassiopeia, move down the constellation of Perseus and then slightly to the right.)

There are various myths around the Gorgon Medusa, but all speak of her incredible beauty, which tempts Neptune/Poseidon into raping her. This in turn enrages Venus/Aphrodite and, falsely accusing Medusa of volunteering her favours, she turns her into a monster with a hideous head covered in snakes that turns into stone those who look at it directly.

The fixed star Algol has always been associated with disaster, with 'loosing one's head' and Nick gave us ample evidence for the truth of this view, found in both, individual and mundane horoscopes. Just to name a few of his examples: JFK, shot in the head, had Mars conjunct Algol. Princess Diana, visiting AIDS victims and walking through minefields, had Venus in that place. Albert Einstein, who unwittingly laid the foundation for nuclear weapons, had Pluto conjunct this star, which is called "Heap of Bodies" by Chinese astrologers. The invention of the guillotine and the bloodbath of the French revolution were connected to a solar eclipse on Algol in 1790 and the following transits over the Algol/eclipse point, while the recent foot and mouth outbreak in the UK was accompanied by the transit of Saturn over Algol in 2001.

Nick also analysed the similarities between the two greatest rock bands, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones: Both lead singers (John Lennon and Mick Jagger) have Algol contacts in their natal charts, both had very talented musical partners (Stuart Sutcliffe and Brian Jones) at the beginning of their career, who's charts featured Algol as well and who died under as a result of violence in mysterious circumstances.

To learn more about fixed stars and Algol in particular, Nick advises to visit the website of Diana K. Rosenberg.

Interesting synchronisitc detail: At the end of the evening, there was a traffic accident right in front of the Lodge: Two red cars were a total loss and two people had injuries to their heads... (We will be reviewing the charts next week in Charts discussion as one of the cars belonged to Carole West, our Marketing Officer!

Helene Schnitzer

Lodge Ritual

This is a meditation on the Planets which the Lodge Members take part in twice yearly as close to the Equinoxes as possible.

More comments to follow next week.

Carole West

Lodge Lecture | Lodge Ritual