“I had expected that technology would be core to the identity of the cohort I call Generation K—young people aged 13 to 20 years old, born between 1995 and 2002, ” writes Professor Noreena Hertz in The New York Times.  You’d be right, Prof, because you’ve chosen the [...]

I wrote this piece originally for March edition of The Astrological Journal. Like a certain Transylvanian immigrant, Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, has a habit of rising from the dead. Just when his enemies think it’s all over, there he is again climbing out of his coffin [...]

As you tuck into your Easter egg this morning, you may want to as yourself  this: what is the difference between joy and pleasure? This week I listened to the writer Anthony Seldon talking on the radio, distinguishing between pleasure, which we might get from eating chocolate, happiness which [...]

A sensational murder trial has finally come to a close. After seven long years, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were cleared of the murder of Meredith Kercher yesterday by the highest court in Italy. All of the major actors in this drama are playthings of the gods, acting out an archetypal [...]

Saturn is the most distant and by far the slowest moving of the planets used by traditional astrologers. Therefore he has the deepest impact on the sign in which he finds himself. Saturn rules boundaries, gloom, depression, restriction, rules, harvest, death, structure, bones, old age, [...]

As Saturn, the reaper, slows to a halt before turning retrograde in mid-March, let’s pause to reflect what the transit of this great planet through the sign of the centaur means. In this post, I’ll look briefly at the past Saturn in Sag period to give us a handle on this one. Then [...]

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 [...]

Saturn’s move into Sagittarius back in December came as a huge relief to many people — except maybe those born under the sign of the centaur and those born with Saturn in Sagittarius, for whom this will be the dreaded “Return”. This month, the planet Saturn is [...]

The Sun, which brings light to us, and Neptune, lord of mystic revelation, are conjunct this week.  Magic is all around us, especially if we know how to look. To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity […]

Lush with satin and velvet, beautifully lit by candles and England’s cool northern daylight, the TV adaptation of Wolf Hall is as enthralling as the book. At the centre of the bedizened, voluptuous court of Henry VIII, there is a still, dark point, Thomas Cromwell. For more on the story [...]

The New Moon in a few hours falls in the last minute of the last degree of Aquarius, the sign of the waterbearer, but the Moon certainly continues to be New as it slides into the ocean of Pisces. Something ends, something begins. This is a threshold Moon. A potential-filled moment. Both [...]

“I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to [...]

A statue of the Celtic sea god Manannan Mac Lir was stolen from an Irish mountaintop on January 21, the day Mercury, the planet of thieves, went retrograde. Although Manannan is the “son of the sea” and a deity of storms, but he has more in common with Mercury than Neptune. [...]

Twelve people at the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were gunned down on January 7. In the same week, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi received the first 50 lashes of his 1000-lash sentence for blasphemy, ironically, an echo of the Charlie Hebdo cover that caused such offense in [...]

Happy New Year! I hope the holiday season was a pleasant one for you. As of today we are into the swing of the new year: already the bulbs at the end of the dining table — paper whites and hyacinths — have bloomed and their sharp green leaves are an augury of spring; my [...]

It’s Boxing Day, a perfect day for slothing on the sofa and succumbing to the magic world of the movies. I’ve noted before that I think this period of Neptune in Pisces (2011-2024) should be great for the moving image. One thing that’s already clear is that we’re going [...]

The darkest night of the year is almost upon us. The nadir, the bottom, the grave, the tomb — and the womb. We are sliding gently into this zero hour, lighting our candles and fireworks to keep away the creeping shadows. Christmas is a beautiful celebration, and a deep understanding, of [...]

St Nicholas liked to leave coins in people’s shoes — apparently. It’s his saint’s day today, December 6, right in the middle of Sagittarius, the sign which is solely ruled by Jupiter, and it’s hard not to see a bit, OK quite a lot, of Jupiter, in the legend of St [...]

Only three weeks until Saturn turns his back on Scorpio. But this last sprint to the finish will see Saturn making some last ditch changes to the Scorpionic chapter. It’s been quite a transit. Saturn’s been there since 2012. And it does seem to have had some powerful effects on the [...]

You are familiar with the story of Sleeping Beauty, so familiar that the horror of it has ceased to horrify. This is the story of a baby, born perfect, sentenced to death. She is cursed in the cradle by a vengeful fairy to die at 16. Only by the actions of a good fairy is her […]