What was the Devil wearing when he offered Tony Blair a sackful of cash for his immortal soul? Was he in a sharp Armani suit, did he don stilettos and shades, or was it a dishdasha and a stetson? Was the approach made in Granita, the Islington restaurant made famous by New Labour, or was it [...]

I went for a run the other morning, starting through the University Parks — orderly paths thick with joggers and dog-walkers, an arboretum of specimen trees, a lily-pad spattered pond, smooth green playing fields — and crossed over the River Cherwell to run through the [...]

Now, if I could just get Wolverine to sort these people out… Mercury Retrograde, brought to you by the people who brought you the Mayan Prophecy, dun dun daah. Communications go crazy, your electrical goods grow teeth, your commute turns into the Normandy landings, the internet crashes [...]

On the first day of the Mercury Retrograde, February 6, I found myself deep in my attic, surrounded by piles of junk: old bedsteads, mysterious boxes, a couple of boogie boards, a broken dollhouse even. I’ve been meaning to clear out the attic since last year, but every time I thought [...]

Well, Mercury has begun his long walk out of the Underworld. Today he is at 2° Scorpio — only another 28° to go. It’s was a powerful retrograde, as you might expect when the planet of mind goes through the sign of depth psychology. Of course, Mercury is still in Scorpio until the [...]

Jean Marais as a modern Orpheus, in Cocteau’s visionary and beautiful movie of the same name. Someone said: “Bring the bodies upstairs.” The house I’m staying in is 300 years old with walls as thick as the span of your arm. The room I sleep in is as dark and close as a coffin. I […]

In Blue. Wassily Kandinsky: Saturn in Scorpio, Venus in Sagittarius The weather changed yesterday and a dry, icy wind sent tiny clouds fleeting across the sky, trees rattling and swaying, branches to the floor, drifts of leaves whirling up like spirits. Autumn had arrived overnight. Today, [...]

Sea Nettle jellyfish. Photo by Fred Hsu from Wikimedia Commons. I have just been attempting to write a post inspired by the following aphorism. “Madness is the exception in individuals; the rule in groups.” On the whole, I think Nietzsche had a point. Yet, the more you think about [...]

D likes to mooch around the local junk market on Thursdays. Today he came home with an old record player. We are spinning discs that have been in storage for – ahem – decades this afternoon. Perfect on a sunny evening with Mercury retrograding through the sign of nostalgia, [...]

Danny Kaye had a Sun-Uranus conjunction in Capricorn. I read a post over at Libra Seeking Balance this week which reminded me that Uranus + Mercury = funny. Now I can vouch for this personally since I live with the funniest man I could find, and he has Merc + Uranus on the Ascendant. [...]

The creatures of the Zodiac cavort in a loop through the sky that takes us from midwinter to midsummer and back again. We are used to thinking of them as starting with Aries the Ram and ending with Pisces, the Fishes. But there is another way of ordering the Zodiac that can help you to […]

The Rhinemaidens The Elbe, the Vistula, the Inn, the mighty Danube himself, the busy Rhine – the rivers of central Europe are swollen, bursting their banks, rolling across the countryside, swallowing roads, cars, houses. Twenty people have lost their lives. The river gods are hungry. They are [...]

I’ve just had the best massage I’ve ever experienced. Waves of healing energy swooshing all over the place. And S came and did it on our lawn in the golden afternoon sunshine. Mercury rules the hands and he’s opposite Pluto -deep healing – right now, creating a glorious [...]

The Reader by Federico Faruffini. I found this on the wonderful blog Reading and Art. “I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies the return of consciousness. As I lay and looked through the eastern window of my room, a faint streak of peach-colour, dividing [...]

Various Aspects by Deborah Stevenson Is your head about to explode  From information overload? Just asking. Last time Jupiter was in Gemini, the internet was probably not in your pocket. That was 12 years ago. Jupiter is the planet of expansion. Gemini is the sign of facts, data, journalism, [...]

Yesterday evening my daughter told me that her friend has been receiving nasty anonymous notes. These have been left in her desk for about a week. It is a recrudescence of previous bullying but in a new form. I thought it was a perfect example of astrology in action. Mercury, the planet of [...]

A detail from Hieronymous Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights “Beware the slinking whisperer who whispers into the hearts of people, whether he is from the world of spirits or the world of humans.” – Sura 114, The Qur’an “The mind is its own place, and in [...]

Freddie Mercury. Mercury, the trickster, lay down and took a nap in the Sun last week. Now he’s staggered to his feet and is laboriously retracing his steps through Leo. He’s a little dazed and confused poor fellow, asking this question: who am I? Mercury in Leo: it’s about [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]