Elements & Qualities Archives - The Oxford Astrologer

Category: Elements & Qualities

Earth, air, fire and water: the elements. Cardinal, fixed and mutable: the qualities. These basic categories describe the signs of the Zodiac.

Astrology of Now: Sizzle, Sizzle

Venus and her lover Mars meet quite often — at least once a year — but usually their trysts are brief, a matter of a few days at most. Perhaps that’s because their meetings are illicit, since Venus was, of course, officially married to Vulcan, the smith. This year, things are [...]

Venus in Pisces: The Little Mermaid

Venus, the goddess of love and harmony, art and laughter, dives into the deep waters of Pisces on February 25. Looking up people with Venus in Pisces, I noticed that Hans Christian Andersen, writer of fairytales, was born with this particular signature. Which set me thinking about his [...]

Thoughts on the Great Conjunction

Details from the Journey of the Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli in the Palazzo Medici. These are the two senior kings — Balthazar and Melchior. The mightiest planets known to the ancients, great Jupiter and stern Saturn, will meet on December 21, 2020 for the first time in 20 years. They will [...]

Mister Rogers: The Opposite of Cynical

In Mister Rogers’ neighbourhood people are honest, your feelings are important, and you are special. Mister Rogers exuded goodness of heart, purity of intention and folksy wisdom. He was the opposite of cynical. I was tiny when I watched his show but I still remember how Mister Rogers [...]

Mars is in Aries a long time this year, so we need to get to know what that means. Here are some thoughts and context about this transit. By the way, a few minutes in I say the First World War, and I mean the Second!

Notre Dame: She Will Rise Again

Notre Dame, the great church of Our Lady in the heart of Paris, at the sharp end of the Ile de la Cité, burned spectacularly last night. One of her spires pointed a flaming finger at the sky. She crackled, she roared. But today she’s still standing. The images were shocking, of course. [...]

Astrology of Now: Inferno to Paradise

A huge fire whirl, sometimes called a fire devil, roars down a road; people are incinerated in their homes; the sun is reduced to a glowing orange ball behind the smoke; chaos. Spin the globe, blood-red flowers drip from lamp-posts, memorials, statues; wrap around park benches, line streets, [...]

June Horoscopes: Magic In The Air

June is looking pretty good, with nice, flowing astrological aspects. To sign up for the horoscopes or sign in if you’re already a subscriber, click here.

Jupiter in Scorpio: Underworlds

Within the earth, beneath the mountain, through the dark lake, there is another world. Sunlight does not penetrate. You must bring your own light. This is the realm of the dead, a place of ghosts and shades, a place of buried wealth, secrets, hidden desires. Gilgamesh, Inanna, Psyche, Demeter, [...]

The fourth wall of that apartment was sky — straight out west to infinity. At sunset, the colours were delirious: orange, magenta, fuchsia, red, burning in the west. And then, through dusk, subtle mauve and bruises. In the distance the planes circling to land at Heathrow blinked in the [...]

Venus in Aries: Anish Kapoor

Continuing the series on artists with Venus in Aries. The picture tells the story really. Anish Kapoor has Venus at 0° Aries — the Ur degree, the alpha … the very beginning of the whole Zodiac. And well, is here is a great big Mons Venus in Aries own colour. Kapoor loves red. It’s nice that he [...]

Astrology of Now: Volcanic Forces

Mars and Pluto are having their biannual conjunction — today, tomorrow, and the day after. Yes, that’s two warriors having a confab in ambitious, driven, earthy Capricorn; the planet of action, Mars, and the planet of the Underworld, Pluto, working together; war plus power. On the mundane [...]

Astrology of Now: Eclipse — It’s All Maya

Tomorrow, September 16, there will be a partial eclipse of Lady Luna. You will be able to see this from Europe to the Western Pacific. The point of closest eclipse is at 18.54 GMT. Right now the Moon is already in Pisces. The eclipse takes place at 24°. Last night, I stood in the garden [...]

Astrology of Now: Equinox, Public Humiliation and Mercury Rx

I’m writing this just as the Sun approaches the celestial equator. It is the equinox, when night and day are perfectly balanced. We enter the sign of Libra today, which this year is already hosting Mercury’s retrograde. Libra is one of the four cardinal signs that open the seasons [...]

Dr Elaine Aron’s book The Highly Sensitive Person validates something astrologers have always known — some people are more sensitive than others. Dr Aron puts this figure at about 20% of the population. In other words, it’s perfectly normal, but sensitivity is not always [...]

Sadko In The Underwater Kingdom by Ilya Repin (Wikimedia Commons) From Tunisia to Elizabeth Taylor, you never know who you’re going to swim past down there in the blue, blue sea. With the Sun still in Pisces, visit or revisit these OA posts on or about the sign of the Fishes. A Fortnight [...]

The Lord of Wealth: Pluto in Capricorn

Three things are changing right now that will have an affect on every single citizen of this planet. They are the global economy, the climate and power. I’m writing this as the Lunar Eclipse in Libra completes, and Pluto, the planet of transformation appears to stand still in the sky. [...]

The roiling, tumultuous energy of this spring seems to be in full spate already, but it promises to become stronger and stronger into April. The question is: how do we shoot the rapids in our own little coracles without tumbling into the flood? There is no getting away from the fact that the [...]

Floods, I Ching and the Return of the Isle of Glastonbury

Port Meadow, Oxford this morning. The water level is still rising. First rain and snow, then floods. The old gods. Thousands of years ago, we’d have thrown iron into the water to propitiate them, or maybe sacrificed a white bull. Today we gaze at screens. There’s awe but surely [...]

Venus in Capricorn: Male Beauty

Elvis. Capricorn Sun. Venus is beauty. Capricorn is how these men are beautiful. Strong brows, kissable lips, a direct gaze. No wonder, on a cursory search, I found seven of Hollywood’s handsomest ever leading men have Venus in Capricorn. There’s a fleshy, mobile quality to quite a [...]