Vertcliff Publishing · the fixed stars

Ras Algethi

Alpha Herculis — the head of the Kneeler

The constellation Hercules drawn in gold foil, with the star Ras Algethi marked at the head of the Kneeler.
Hercules — Ras Algethi marked, the head of the Kneeler
Position (J2000)
16°09′ Sagittarius
Magnitude
3.06 (variable)
Colour
Orange-red, with a yellowish companion
Spectrum
M5 Ib–II
Distance
~360 light-years
Nature
Mercury

In the sky

Ras Algethi is a red giant of enormous size, some 360 light-years away, whose width swells and shrinks between about 264 and 303 times the Sun's; set in the Sun's place, it would reach beyond the orbit of the Earth. It pulses irregularly, wandering between about magnitude 2.7 and 4.0. Beside it lies a yellowish companion, and old observers, seeing the two together, famously called the pair orange-red and bluish-green.

Although it bears the first letter, it is only about the fifth-brightest star of Hercules. It lies close beside Rasalhague, the head of the Serpent-Bearer, so that the heads of the two giant figures nearly touch. The name comes from the Arabic ra's al-jathi, the head of the kneeling one.

The myth

The Greeks first knew the figure without a name, as Engonasin, the one on his knees: a kneeling man with one foot on the head of the Dragon. Later writers made him Heracles, perhaps at his struggle with Ladon, the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides. The figure is drawn upside-down against the rest of the sky, with club and lion-skin, and Ras Algethi is its head, which in so inverted a figure hangs lowest of all.

Ptolemy gives the Kneeler the nature of Mercury, and Robson follows him, reading strength of character, tenacity and fixity of purpose, an ardent nature and dangerous passions. Later writers gave the star itself Mars and Venus, and from them comes its reputation for boldness and for trouble in love. Mercury is the more telling note. The kneeling hero is a figure of mind as well as muscle: strength that has bowed, that works close to the ground, and that knows the dragon by study before it sets a foot on its head. The kneeling is at once the posture of labour and the posture of reverence.

What it gives

  • Fixity of purpose The native holds to a labour long after others have abandoned theirs. The task that takes years and the slow campaign suit this star, and its natives are often the last still working when the result arrives.
  • Strength with a mind Mercury gives the effort its intelligence. The native studies the dragon before engaging it and wins by understanding as often as by force.
  • Humility in strength The hero kneels. This native, however capable, is able to bow to the work, to a teacher or to something greater, and the reverence gives their power a gentleness that others trust.
  • An ardent heart The warmth the later writers found in Venus and Mars is real. The native loves boldly and brings a heat to affection and loyalty that makes them unforgettable to those they choose.

What to watch for

  • The labour without end Fixity can outlast its purpose, so that the native keeps kneeling to a task that no longer needs them. The gift returns when each labour is given a clear end and is honourably laid down once that end is reached.
  • Cleverness turned to plotting The mind that studies the dragon can begin to scheme against people instead. It is restored when the native's plans are made in the open and can be spoken aloud to those they concern.
  • Strength that will not bow Where the humility is lost, strength becomes pride in strength, and the native refuses the teacher, the help or the pause. The balance comes back through one discipline or loyalty to which the native freely submits.
  • Passion without a task The ardent heart, left with nothing to do, turns to the dangerous passions and troubled loves of the old texts. The remedy is to give the heat real work, so that ardour flows into devotion rather than into conflict.

How to work with it

Define every great labour before beginning it: what it is for, what finishing would look like, and when it should be reviewed.

Keep the strategy honest. The native's intelligence is formidable in planning, and the simplest safeguard is to make no plan that could not be explained to the people it affects.

Keep something to kneel to — a craft, a teacher, a faith, a vow — and give the heart a work worthy of its warmth. The Kneeler's power has always come from the bowing.

In brief

Ras Algethi is the head of the kneeling hero, a vast red giant whose name remembers a posture of labour and of reverence. It gives fixity of purpose, strength guided by a mind, humility within power, and an ardent heart. Its dangers are the hero's — labours that never end, cleverness bent into plotting, strength that refuses to bow, and passion with no work to do. The placement works best where each labour has a limit and the native keeps something to kneel to, and least well where strength forgets why the hero was kneeling.

The shared observatory

For thousands of years astrology was built one way: someone watched the sky, watched a life, and wrote down what seemed to answer what. Everything in the tradition — every verdict the old texts hand down about Ras Algethi — began as one person's observation, kept, compared, and corrected across generations. This page continues that work. If Ras Algethi stands close upon a planet in your chart, add your observation to the record: what it has given, and what it has asked of you.

Which planet does Ras Algethi stand upon in your chart, and how close is the orb? How do you experience the conjunction — where does it show in your life, and what has it taught you? The calculator will find your conjunctions if you have not looked yet.

No account needed — a nickname and your words. Observations are reviewed before they appear, which usually takes a day or two.

Read Ras Algethi beside its hundred and twenty-two companions in A Book of Fixed Stars, or raise your own chart to see which stars stood close at your birth.

These stars walk the world in the novel. Our Sidereal World: Selena and Lilith — Anastasia Vertcliff's mythopoetic, philosophical fantasy of souls and free will, where the fixed stars come down wearing faces, eager to help, and not to be trusted.

Meet them in the novel →