Before time began, gods emerged from chaos. Uranus, the god of the sky, made love to the earth, Gaia, every night, and from their union were born giants and Titans, both hated by their father, who, consequently, imprisoned his children in the deepest depths of the earth. One, Saturn, escaped. [...]

You still have until May 20 to use the energy of Mars, the planet of passion, retrograde in Libra, the sign of negotiation. This retrograde began on March 1, so we’ve had a few weeks to begin to see and feel how it works. Personally, I have noticed a surge in my vitality. I’m not [...]

War (1924) by Otto Dix, who had Mars in Libra and turned his experience of battle into art Planets traditionally have signs which they love or hate, where they are comfortable or uncomfortable. The assignment of these rulerships happened a long time ago though — in another time and [...]

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 [...]

Chart data is from astrodatabank. I can’t tell if Woody Allen is a child molester from looking at his astrological chart. No one can. But I can tell you that transiting Pluto-Venus is smack-dab on his North Node in Capricorn in the fifth house of children. The North Node is your point of [...]

The defence ministers of Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany. Here a picture truly does say a thousand words. You don’t need me to explain why it’s momentous. The photograph  was taken on Saturday February 1 at around 3pm and on the telephone of the Dutch minister. From [...]

Within a moment that distinctive, deep voice, rich in inflection, complex in character could take you away to another place or into another’s soul. No wonder Paul Thomas Anderson cast Philip Seymour Hoffman as the mellifluous, mesmerising guru in The Master. It’s so sad that Philip [...]

Vasilisa in the Wood, Ivan Bilibin (1899). Vasilisa the Beautiful escaped from the child-eating witch of the deep, dark forest Baba Yaga, using one of the witch’s own torches, hand-crafted, as they might say on etsy, from a human skull. Baba Yaga, a drooling hag who terrorises the [...]

Narcissus (detail) John William Waterhouse. When the hunter Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection, he was looking into a pool of water. Self-love is so much easier these days: we have mirrors. Even 200 years ago, if you were an ordinary person you might have seen your reflection in a [...]

Mars and Venus by Sandro Botticelli (c.1483) The god of war –- naked, defenceless, vulnerable – sleeps with his mouth half open, exhausted by lovemaking (we suppose), while Venus, the goddess of love, with not a hair out of place, fully clothed, regards him quite coolly, stroking his ankle [...]

Eurasian shaman, early 20th century from a Russian ethnographic collection. “Sometimes a wild god comes to the table. He is awkward and does not know the ways Of porcelain, of fork and mustard and silver. His voice makes vinegar from wine. “When the wild god arrives at the door, [...]

Gravity opens with the longest, loveliest view of our pearlescent planet, so large and luminous — and behind it black space. The Earth is our home, our heart, our mother — but what happens when we cut the cord that ties us to her? (Spoiler alert. Pretty much all is revealed.) Dr [...]

Two Fridas (1939) Frida Kahlo’s paintings have become so much part of popular culture that it is possible to forget just how great they are. Her Venus is in Gemini, the sign of the storyteller, and it is closely conjunct Pluto, the planet of transformation. Her self-portraits tell the [...]

Dona Elena Flores de Carrillo by Diego Rivera. (1952) The Mexican muralist Diego Rivera was born on December 8, 1886. The British painter Lucian Freud was born on December 8, 1922. The sign of Sagittarius – half-man, half-beast. Centaurs were notorious for their brawling and rapine. Animal [...]

Walter Crane imagined the beast as a boar. Once upon a time, in a country rather like this one, not very long ago, lived a young woman called Belle… Anne Anderson imagined a sort of beaky beast The first written version of Beauty and the Beast comes from mid-18th century France, but such [...]

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 [...]

Scarlett Johansson. Sun in Sag. Venus-Jupiter conjunction in Cap Venus is about money and love and beauty. Her natal placement tells us about all those things. It tells us about how we love, what we love and what makes us loveable. Venus is also about seduction. How we are attractive, whom we [...]

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 [...]

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 […]