James Taylor’s soft, reedy baritone is so sweet and his melody-weaving so certain, his lyrics so perfectly distilled and his phrasing so effortless — he truly was blessed by the gods of music and song. Indeed, his first album, which included classics like Carolina in My Mind and Rainy Day [...]

Los Angeles will eat you. The LA music biz specialises in packaging young girls into pop stars — Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Nicky Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears. The singer-songwriter Kesha is one of those. Spotted by producer Dr Luke at the age of 17,  she was [...]

The composer, Maurice Ravel, was born on March 7, 1875 into a musical family in the town of Ciboure, where the River Nivelle meets the Atlantic Ocean in the Basque country. (We are catching up with some missed dates for In The Key Of Pisces…) He was an innovator and a rebel. Rejected by the [...]

As you probably already know, the 27 Club is a term for all those singers who died too young, at the age of 27. The list is long and it includes, off the top of my head, Amy Winehouse, Jeff Buckley, Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin. In fact there is something important [...]

  How appropriate in a week when we are playing Bowie back to back with Motorhead. The Oxford Astrology Group is hosting another set of lectures at Trinity College, Oxford on February 13. The subject looks fun: sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Neptune’s going to come into that, I [...]

David Bowie must have known he was dying when he recorded ★ (Blackstar), his final album, released on his to birthday three days ago. It’s a privilege to hear from this liminal place, the place between this world and the next, from such a great artist and poetic visionary. The title song [...]

It’s an extraordinary — and rather difficult — start to 2016. But amidst the tumultuous energies there are some strong positives. Here’s the gen. Mercury is retrograde in Aquarius, then from January 8th, in Capricorn . The time calls for rethinking and practical [...]

This is a good news story, so bear with me and see where it leads. Victims of the condition variously labelled Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or Myalgic Encephalitis (ME) are used to being disbelieved, disrespected, and ignored. They know about being labelled liars, shirkers, fantasists. [...]

With Jupiter’s move into Virgo this summer, and Saturn’s move into Sagittarius, we are seeing a shift of emphasis into the mutable signs. Neptune and Chiron, also both slow-moving, are already in Pisces. This creates a T-square pattern — at least by sign if not by exact [...]

Neptune goes direct November 18, 16.30GMT. 7’01 Pisces Salt water is sucked backwards over the shingle, and you are pulled over loose sand and pebbles. You can see the shore, but the wave drags you away. The energy is concentrated, focused in the belly of the wave. Then it seems to stand [...]

My grandparents had stacks of yellow-edged National Geographics in the basement of their house, some dating from the days before photographs were on the front cover. On rainy days in summer or awkward Christmas holidays, I escaped down there, opened those shiny covers and travelled the world. [...]

“Love is the one thing stronger than desire and the only proper reason to resist temptation.” ― Jeanette Winterson, Venus and Mars in Virgo “The kiss itself is immortal. It travels from lip to lip, century to century, from age to age. Men and women garner these kisses, offer them to others and [...]

I started writing about Pluto generations with the intention of keeping these summaries short and letting the pictures tell part of the story. These were meant to be ready references to spark off ideas. Then the subject ballooned out of control, and I had to stop for a bit. Now I’ve cut [...]

The movement of the outer planets, Pluto, Neptune and Uranus, is generational. In particular, Pluto’s movement is slow enough — it takes about 15 years to get through a sign — to give us a wide cohort. Pluto tells us what is powerful, what is transformed, what is lost. [...]

This New Moon in Libra (18°) is exactly opposite the planet of explosive opportunity, Uranus. Some of us will be sprinting out of the blocks tomorrow into the next big adventure. Use this energy wisely because we have help from both optimistic Jupiter in Virgo and ruthless Pluto in Capricorn. [...]

Venus, who has spent the whole summer lolling around in the lap of luxury (Leo), moved into Virgo today. This means she will be out of the shadow of her retrograde by tomorrow. If you have been having to rethink, reinvent or reassess your attitudes to love, money, values or friendship this [...]

As Venus strolls through each sign, she dons different clothes or new makeup; she sheds jewellery, cuts her hair, adds glitter, goes natural. The goddess shows that allure comes in many guises, not just physical beauty. The Rising sign, Sun sign and prominent planets are also important in [...]

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 [...]

Saturn in Sagittarius 23 December 2014-15 June 2015 September 17, 2015-December 20 2017 You can just imagine Saturn walking into Sagittarius’ flat — and reeling at the chaos, the freewheeling coffee cups, the jumble of throws, the mysterious sticky saucer under the sofa, the stacks [...]

Jupiter in Virgo opposition Neptune in Pisces — September 17 Readers of the horoscope will know that the coming opposition between Jupiter and Neptune is the most important aspect this month, influencing this entire period into the next season and possibly the whole year.  For some [...]