Hela's Star: Nastrond
This was the first star that was given to me. By “given”, I mean that I looked at the sky, identified a star, and Hela said: That’s one of mine. It was autumn and I was identifying the constellation of Perseus, and I was especially interested in Beta Perseus because it blinks on and off and goes into eclipse periodically. It wasn’t in eclipse at the moment, but still, I was thinking about finding the online tables that would tell me when to watch it. Beta Perseus, or Algol, is a two-star system that rotate around each other, and periodically get in the way of each other’s light, thus its appearing-and-disappearing act.
One of Hela’s? I went in and looked up Algol. The name comes from the Arabic Ras al-Ghul, or the Ghoul, the demon that feeds on corpses. The Hebrews called it Rosh Ha-Satan, or the Head of the Adversary. In Greek mythology, it is the head of Medusa that Perseus carries and uses to turn people to stone. In Chinese mythology, it is called “Piled-Up Corpses”, and was part of a big asterism referred to as the Great Burial Trench, which we will visit again later. Algol is said to be one of the most unfortunate stars of all. Bernadette Brady associates it with female power and female death-energy; she also associates it with survival in times of crisis.
It is associated with violence, execution (especially beheading), hanging, murder, and other unpleasant things. Many mass murders have taken place when Algol was importantly aspecting in some way; the French Revolution began their reign of beheadings during the summer when there was a solar eclipse exactly on Algol, and the beheading of Robespierre which ended the brutalities came when Saturn, the naysayer, finally reached Algol. This star was conjunct Pluto for Stalin, who killed between twenty and forty million Russians (the numbers have been hidden well enough that no one is sure how bad they are). Astrologer Diana Rosenberg has gone into extreme detail chronicling all the disasters that have happened congruent with Algol, and many people with Algol prominent in their charts who have died horribly, or committed murder, or created beautiful but gruesome art, or called people’s attention to mass cruelties. It is no accident that the word “algolology” is the study of pain and its effects on people.
As I read this, I heard Hela again: That’s Nastrond. The Shore of Corpses, where Nidhogg does her recycling act with the Dead. The temple with the open door where those who feel that they need to suffer lie screaming under snakes dripping venom from the rafters. Even the fact that this star is sometimes bright and sometimes dim is reminiscent of Hela; the Chinese said that when Tsi-Chi was dark people were safe and there would be few deaths, but when it was bright there would be piles of corpses. This is eerily synchronous with the tradition of Hela, with the live-and-dead sides of Her face, blessing with Her skeletal hand while holding out Her living hand only to those She is about to take.
Note: Since I wrote this, I calculated which star I was literally "born under", meaning it is closest to being conjunct with my Midheaven, and it turned out to be Nastrond. I was not surprised. I did more research on it, and discovered that while Nastrond does have all the above violent aspects, its overriding meaning when in a chart is that the person's life is bound up with death and seeing the darkness clearly in some way. That can be inflicted, or it can be calmly sought - a common example was someone whose experiences with death and darkness inspired them to help stop violence, or seek the positive aspects of Death. As a dedicant of Hela, I can only agree.