Marc Chagall The Eve of the Day of Atonement Today, 27 September 2012, is the Jewish Day of Atonement. The Books of Life and Death have been closed, the tally of good and bad deeds has been taken for the year, and you’ve apologised to your family, friends, colleagues, the milkman for the [...]

Ivan Shishkin. Autumn My mother is celebrating the end of Saturn’s passage through Libra with a new hip. The symbolism could not be simpler. She has a Sun-Mars conjunction at 24° Libra. This represents both her actual body and her physical energy among other things. Saturn, which rules [...]

When Pluto walks into town it could be time to retire to the back room with the shutters down and a loaded shotgun. Or maybe just get under the covers and hum a cheerful little tune. The problem is he’ll flush you out of your hiding place. This is the planet of purging, drains, [...]

The Bather, Ingres.He was born with Venus in Leo and Sun in Virgo. This picture combines Virgo mastery of technique & perfectionism with Leo luxury. The planet of beauty is in the golden sign of Leo, what could be more luxurious. Here are some suggestions of how to make the most of this [...]

OK – I’m on holiday, but I was just popping by to update the horoscopes so I thought I’d briefly post on the Olympic Opening Ceremony – what a hoot! Have you ever wondered what the shiny, happy face of Pluto might be? If so, you might want to watch the Opening Ceremony [...]

What with all those shiny bodies flinging themselves around giant stadiums filled with cheering crowds – the marching, the uniforms, the survival of the fittest, the faux-historical ceremonies – there’s always been more than a touch of fascism about the Olympics. Jesse Owens going for [...]

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 [...]

Gustav Klimt’s Pallas Athena, 1895 Pallas Athena, the asteroid of strategy and weaving is in a cosy huddle with Uranus, the god of bright ideas. And the Moon is right there with them today, shining a soft silver glow on proceedings. The Ram is, of course, the sign of beginnings, [...]

Shakyamuni and his two attendants. Source: The Tibetan Museum Jupiter is going to be in Gemini until next summer. You have a full year to take advantage of this very interesting, rather unsettling energy. But it only comes every 12 years, so start paying attention to it now. In the first air [...]

Just in case you’ve missed it, 50 Shades of Grey is a story about a young woman who meets an insanely wealthy, mysterious, tortured but alluring older man. They have a passionate affair during which she discovers herself as a sexual being – and his tough facade is penetrated by her sheer [...]

Gandhi’s morning walk, photographed by Margaret Bourke White (b. June 14, 1904)   In the tangled intricacy of the natal chart, the Sun sign is so often dismissed as too vague or too broad an indicator. But when it comes to career, it should never be overlooked. Migrant Mother by [...]

“This day prov’d as favourable to our purpose as we could wish, not a Clowd was to be seen … and the Air was perfectly clear, so that we had every advantage we could desire in Observing the whole of the passage of the Planet Venus over the Suns disk: we very distinctly saw an […]

My good friend Isy pointed out in a recent comment that  we should not think of Pluto as a simple lump of rock spinning through space, but as a group of objects with a great big hole in the middle. So I asked her to write about it. Understanding the astronomy of Pluto can help […]

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Cor blimey, ma’am; 60 years on the throne, god bless her. For a while, it seemed as if it were mainly a marketing opportunity for paper napkin, bunting and biscuit-tin makers. It’s been Union Jacks agogo for a month in the shops and nothing anywhere else. But [...]

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 [...]

A couple of weeks ago I was banjaxed by a stomach virus. I spent about 24 hours wrapped around the toilet bowl weeping. Naturally, I looked at my chart to see if anything jumped out at me. I felt as if Pluto himself had put his arm down my throat and pulled up the contents […]

A while ago I was asked to talk about astrology to some teenagers at the Museum of the History of Science here in Oxford. For  a bit of fun, I asked them each to fill out a short questionnaire. They were to choose three words to describe themselves from a list of different character traits. [...]

André Durand – Prometheus Stealing Fire* A long time ago, Prometheus, one of the lesser immortals, stole fire from the great god Zeus and gave it to humans. That immortal flame set them free. Ironically, Prometheus himself was punished by being chained to a rock. Prometheus was a [...]

As I was making soup just now, I had some (very obvious) thoughts about Anthony Robbins chart that I thought I’d better share immediatement. Right now, of course, Mercury is over his South Node and Mercury, so it makes sense to think about him again. Also he has just resold his abortive [...]