Ingres: The Turkish Bath. Aries is the sign of beginnings, haste, inspiration. It’s the fire sign that strikes the spark that sets the world aflame. So what happens when the planet of speed, Mercury, turns tail and retreats in such a go-getting part of the Zodiac? And hang on, [...]

The late lamented Heath Ledger as the Joker in Batman. Mercury’s dark side is on show now. Here’s what happened to this post. I was lying in bed thinking about how often the word chaos has been in the news in the last couple of days.  Some guests at a party have decided to [...]

This Merc Ret has taken place in my 12th house, the house of confinement. So guess what… Schloss Astrology has been a house of sickness for the past week and looks set to be a house of convalescence for several days more. My little Mercury-ruled daughter has been looking positively [...]

6. Give an abandoned cat a home. This one is called Bean and he’s staying with me. Mercury the messenger shimmies backwards in Leo until the 27th, so you still have time to redo all those leonine things. Here are some suggestions. 1. Go see a revival of an old favourite at the theatre 2. [...]

  Mercury back through Sag means review the map of your life – or plan to take a trip that you’ve taken before. So last week, I found myself watching the first series of the West Wing, which wasn’t a bad way to enjoy the messenger planet’s review of the sign of [...]

Take a leaf out of Rodin’s notebook and have a little think. Here’s one of the simplest ways to use astrology: work with the energy of the retrogrades. So hurray, Mercury retrograde is here again, so it’s time to re-think, re-evaluate, review and renegotiate. This time [...]

Hokusai’s Great Wave print (1831). Watch the wave. Water is pulled up into its belly. Some pushed forward from the ocean and some sucked backwards, pulled against the tide, across sand and shingle. The energy gathers. The wave grows – higher, stronger, faster – for a moment it seems to [...]

Yes – it’s that time again. Mercury is retrograde, so astrologers say don’t put anything in the post, don’t sign contracts, don’t buy computers, don’t make plans bla bla bla. If you paid attention to that you’d be spending about a fifth of your year [...]