“This day prov’d as favourable to our purpose as we could wish, not a Clowd was to be seen … and the Air was perfectly clear, so that we had every advantage we could desire in Observing the whole of the passage of the Planet Venus over the Suns disk: we very distinctly saw an […]
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Hundreds of articles are contained within this archive on politics and people, music and film, celebrities and culture, history and social issues: all through the lens of astrology, of course. Also there are articles here on all aspects of astrology from asteroids to zero. Most of them are written by me, Christina Rodenbeck, astrologer and writer, expert and enthusiast. There are a handful of outstanding guest posts though, which I highly recommend.
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Putting A Spin on Pluto
My good friend Isy pointed out in a recent comment that we should not think of Pluto as a simple lump of rock spinning through space, but as a group of objects with a great big hole in the middle. So I asked her to write about it. Understanding the astronomy of Pluto can help […]
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Jubilee: The Cult of the Queen
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Cor blimey, ma’am; 60 years on the throne, god bless her. For a while, it seemed as if it were mainly a marketing opportunity for paper napkin, bunting and biscuit-tin makers. It’s been Union Jacks agogo for a month in the shops and nothing anywhere else. But [...]
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Unpacking My Library: The Artist’s Way
Most self-help books have about three ideas in them which are padded out with a lot of white space and bullet points. But there are a few which are absolutely brilliant. Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way has sold about a gazillion copies in the two decades not because it’s [...]
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Keeping It Authentic
I had lunch the other day with a well-respected and very experienced astrologer, who also writes. Our conversation was pretty intense since we’d never met before and we have a lot in common, especially when it comes to thinking about how to do good, authentic astrology. We had to fit in [...]
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Astrology of Now: The Drums of Uranus-Pluto
The energies of the planets work together like an orchestra. Sometimes one section is louder, sometimes it’s stately, sometimes it’s raucous, sometimes there’s harmony, sometimes there’s not. There are themes and variations that weave in and out of time, repeating once [...]
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The Kitchen Gods
The idea of a deity who reigns in the kitchen, blessing and protecting the household, is common all the way around the globe. In China, he is called Zao Jun, in Mesoamerica, he was called Huehuetotl, in Rome she was Vesta. Vestal Virgin by Leighton Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth, [...]
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How Donna Summer Unleashed Lilith One Spring
It was the spring of 1975, when a willowy black woman from Boston and a diminutive German-speaking Italian got together in a music studio in Bavaria and unleashed the most famous series of female orgasms in pop music. When Donna Summer came for 17 minutes into a microphone and Giorgio Moroder [...]
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Europe: When Bread Runs Out, Enter the Circus
About two thousand years ago, peace reigned across the Roman Empire. From Alexandria to the Hadrian’s Wall, all opposition had been crushed and people were able to trade, farm and prosper without fear of being molested by marauding barbarians. Meanwhile, in the bustling, wealthy, [...]
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Astrology of Now: Gilded Venus
Yes, I know we like to talk about roses and kisses and sweet romance, about Romeos and Juliets, the ones that got away and the ones that might just come back now that Venus has turned retrograde… But Venus is not just the planet of love – she rules money, cold hard cash. And she’s [...]
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10 Things To Do With Mercury in Taurus
Mercury, which rules thought and communication, is currently in practical Taurus. This is good for everybody, because it means we have a real chance to get a few things done. You have until May 24, when we return to just talking about everything a lot. Mercury rules the hands, so do any tasks [...]
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Reader’s Question: Shall I Go To the Ball?
Here’s a letter a reader wrote to me recently, reprinted with permission. “I hate my chart. I hate its ambiguities, its lethargy (thanks Libra stellium) and its inability to just take a decision and stick to it. I hate my Virgo Moon, and its crippling inability to let me feel [...]
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The Ideal Gift For Taurus
Me: “What would you like for your 9th birthday?” Taurus: “A voice-activated safe, please.” I’m not making that up. She got a safe: her Dad’s a Leo. Here’s a link to a piece by Pippa on Taurus and hoarding.
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The Nation’s Soul
Ted Hughes was best known as a powerful nature poet before he was made laureate in 1984. It seemed like a strange choice; this poet of fox and moor, black-backed gull and deadly pike, above all of wildness, asked to write about the baroque, many-layered, structured, civilised, profoundly tamed [...]
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Those Sexy Bulls
Does Scorpio have a corner on sex appeal? “Nooo,” shout the rest of us. “We have a smidgin of the x-factor too.” Of course we do. I write that in my most reassuring manner. Besides smouldering across the Zodiac from Scorpio are those earthy Bulls, who have a certain je [...]
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RIP Maurice Sendak: “So he gave up being king of the wild things…”
“The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him wild thing and Max said, “I’ll eat you up!” so he was sent to bed without eating anything.” Maurice Sendak’s short masterpiece Where The Wild Things Are is a [...]
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Looking At Your Kids’ Charts: Is It A Bad Idea?
A couple of weeks ago I was banjaxed by a stomach virus. I spent about 24 hours wrapped around the toilet bowl weeping. Naturally, I looked at my chart to see if anything jumped out at me. I felt as if Pluto himself had put his arm down my throat and pulled up the contents […]
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It Takes All Sorts, So Why the Martial Emphasis?
A while ago I was asked to talk about astrology to some teenagers at the Museum of the History of Science here in Oxford. For a bit of fun, I asked them each to fill out a short questionnaire. They were to choose three words to describe themselves from a list of different character traits. [...]
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Astrology of Now: Fat Full Moon Coming
Fertile, fecund, luscious – this Full Moon (on the 6th) is bursting with promise. Ceres, the planet of fertility is conjunct the Sun – and so is the wild one, Lilith – all in the most fertile sign, earthy Taurus. The Sun is applying to Jupiter, who magnifies all energies. This is a creative, [...]
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Lilith: Both Anima and Animus
Munch’s Madonna. He had Lilith in Cancer opposite the feminine Moon in her fall. “Oh, Mother, my mother!” cried the agonized girl, turning passionately upon her parent as if her poor heart would break. “How could I be expected to know? I was a child when I left this house four [...]
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