The mistress of love and harmony, Venus herself, is usually pictured reclining, either ready for love or just finished.  The power of the goddess subsumed into the erotic fantasies of generations of artists and patrons. The goddess of love diminished into an object of desire. Her astrological [...]

“1. “L AUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, […]

The gardens froth blossom. Petals flake the lawns. Now the very first bud of apple and pear swell. The birds peck green cherries. It’s Taurus’ month and Eden. Taurus’ partner across the Zodiac, Scorpio, sometimes signified by the snake. This New Moon is free and easy, not [...]

In Arabic, Egyptian Arabic anyway, when you want to describe someone as really beautiful, you say she is like the Moon, or she has a face like the Moon. (How unlike “moonface” in English). When Venus is in the sign of the Moon, two of the most feminine energies in astrology are [...]

“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 am off on holiday for a few days, so unable to respond to correspondence. Meanwhile enjoy these seasonal posts from the archives of The Oxford Astrologer. How Donna Summer Unleashed Lilith One Spring 11 Things To Do While The Sun Is In Aries Aries Self Portraits Icons: Venus in Aries 10 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 […]

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 [...]

O I FORBID you, maidens a’, That wear gowd on your hair, To come or gae by Carterhaugh, For young Tam Lin is there. There’s nane that gaes by Carterhaugh But they leave him a wad, Either their rings, or green mantles, Or else their maidenhead. Janet has kilted her green kirtle A little aboon [...]

I’ve often thought that Bill Clinton looks an awful lot like an older, whiter version of the actor Will Smith.     When the planet of beauty is in her own sign of Libra, you’d expect to find some real physical beauty. In particular, you might expect to find some perfectly [...]

The month of Virgo was beautiful here, one warm soft day follows another. But the weather was also strange and unseasonable. The nights draw in but the days are as warm as summer. It’s dreamlike. Being deep in the dream of Virgo this year — with the help of an opposition from [...]

    Anthony Hopkins’ trademark is intense stillness broken by an electrifying stream of words, or a sudden violent movement, or a flash of those unsettling pale eyes. He was born in the dark of winter. His powerful, stony Capricorn Sun is buried in the 12th house – the [...]

Saturn in Scorpio September 13, 1924 – December 2, 1926  October 22, 1953 – January 12, 1956 May 13, 1956 – October 10, 1956  November 29, 1982 – May 6, 1983 August 24, 1983 – November 16, 1985  October 5, 2012 – December 23, 2014 June 14, 2015 – [...]

In the Mohawk language the word for shaman ” means “dreamer” in the sense of one who dreams strong, one who dreams true, one who can travel in dreaming and heal others inside the dreamspace. It also means “doctor” and “healer.” There we have the [...]

I am sitting at a desk in a high-ceilinged room in Brighton. The tall window frames blue, at the lower edge lavender blossom and then a few inches above, the horizontal of prussian blue sea meeting pale, brilliant summer sky. In the distance, the sounds of church bells, surf, cars’ [...]

  It’s that time again. It’s been a long, lively 12 years since Jupiter, the planet named after the king of the gods himself, was in Leo, the sign of royalty, gold, the Sun, self-expression, glamour, drama and perhaps above all playfulness. It’s time to throw off that [...]