In pre-buddhist times, the word dakini* denoted a female spirit haunting battlefields, cremation grounds and cemeteries in border regions today comprising Pakistan, Kashmir and Ladakh. (Its earlier form was dakshini. See the tale about Daksha, in the essay about FIRE.)
*the -ini ending is not plural but feminine

The word has been equated with ghoul, from Arabic al-Gol, ancient name of a prominent star of variable brightness known in astronomy as b(beta)Persei*. The star also known as Algol is a binary; not surprising given the nature of the dakini as explained below.
* Latin genitive: Perseus, slayer of Medusa, the serpent-tressed Gorgon!

In fierce form, she resembles the valkyrie of Teutonic mythology; maidens who carry heroes from the battlefield
to Valhalla, abode of the gods. Richard Wagner composed a famous theme for the entrance of valkyries* in his 1852 opera-cycle The Ring of the Nibelungs, the tune that heralds the arrival of Sikorsky helicopters in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film Apocalypse Now. * German: Die Walkure

It is surprising to find in Barbara G. Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets dakini classified as a sort of angel, albeit an angel of death. Angel is a term usually given to an asexual divine messenger, and the dakini is an agent in herself; a sort of daemon*as the Gnostics would term such a being. The English-language editions of Alexandra David-Neel's books about her experiences in Tibet refer to dakinis as fairies, as does L. Austine Waddell's classic Buddhism of Tibet originally published in 1895.
*also daimon, not to be confused with demon, the current transformation of the word.

{Gnostics hold that since this world is full of suffering, and the beings in it certainly imperfect, it is not logical to believe in an all-powerful, all-wise Creator that made us in his/her/their own image(s) as scriptures such as the Old Testament relate. Hence a lesser, mischievous being must be responsible whose nature requires resistance or appeasement. The gnostic Cathars of France whose name means the pure, were virtually exterminated at the hands of the Inquisition. The Bogomils of eastern Europe, also gnostics, have disappeared.}

read the rest of this great article on dakinis here~
http://pages.infinit.net/khandro/dakini.html