Fours: Corners of the earth Noble Truths of Buddhism Suits in a deck of cards Directions Limbs Gospels Basic castes in India Aims of life for a Hindu Building blocks of DNA The Tetragrammaton – YHWH, the Hebrew name of God Horsemen of the Apocalypse In astrology Elements Signs of each [...]

Cancer is the first water sign – an immediate, unmediated emotional response to the world. Maybe that’s why so many artists have been born under the sign of the golden claws. To read last year’s piece and get an eyeful of gorgeous portraits by artists with the Sun in Cancer, click here.

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 [...]

 It is indeed a dreamy night tonight, a night to stay up until dawn inventing epics and love stories. Neptune, master of illusions, rises as the Sun moves into Cancer. The two cast a knowing beam to each other through the imaginative, watery signs of Cancer and Pisces. What’s more the [...]

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 [...]

I’ve just re-read last year’s Gemini self-portraits piece again and it made me smile. Take a look and enjoy how surprisingly alike some of the artists look, right down to the facial hair and the rebel attitude. To see the whole piece click here. Main pic: Diego Velazquez, born June [...]

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 [...]

Me: “What would you like for your 9th birthday?” Taurus: “A voice-activated safe, please.” I’m not making that up. She got a safe: her Dad’s a Leo. Here’s a link to a piece by Pippa on Taurus and hoarding.

Does Scorpio have a corner on sex appeal? “Nooo,” shout the rest of us. “We have a smidgin of the x-factor too.” Of course we do. I write that in my most reassuring manner. Besides smouldering across the Zodiac from Scorpio are those earthy Bulls, who have a certain je [...]

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. [...]

Happy May Day to all my readers.As you may know, May Day is celebrated with some ferocity in Oxford – drinking, dancing, dressing up. It starts with a choir greeting the dawn from the top of Magdalene Tower and continues with dancing in the  streets.It’s been raining all night here [...]

Can you guess this man’s sign? Let me give you some clues. His black shirt and his shaved head, his solitude and his silences, his solo morning swim in the sea. His job: he is a police detective. His love life: messy. Have you guessed yet? You’ll laugh when you look at the chart. [...]

Anthony Robbins, self-invented Anthony Robbins is a phenomeon. If you haven’t come across him yet – well, you will. In a nut-shell he is the top, or one of the top, personal development salesmen in the world – hosting seminars, writing books, making the infamous [...]

One of the things that astrology teaches is that we need all kinds of different skills and qualities to keep the ship of life afloat. Society needs to work together to get things done.  And quite often the person who is most annoying in one role – say, the gossip at the school gates – […]

Click here for to read my piece on Aries self portraits published here last April.

The action planet Mars has slowly toiled backwards through Virgo for months, but now there is only one more week to go. He turns on the 14th. Then we’ll still have another two months of Mars in Virgo as he makes his way back through almost the entire sign. On July 4, he moves into […]

Steal away with the fairies for the next few months while Venus dances in Gemini “At the beginning of each summer, when the milk-white hawthorn is in bloom, anointing the air with its sweet odour, and miles and miles of golden whin adorn the glens and hill-slopes, the fairies come forth [...]

Is this the most influential portrait of a woman from the 20th century? You wouldn’t believe it now, but way back in 1991, this cover of Vanity Fair showing the then highest-earning actress in Hollywood naked and heavily pregnant caused a storm of controversy. Why? Because some people [...]

This cover was designed by Len Deighton in the late 50s. If Jack Kerouac had not drunk himself to death at the age of 47, he would have turned 90 on March 12 this year. He was in many ways the perfect Pisces author – a drunken, dreaming mystic visionary who seemed to just spew out his […]

Pablo Picasso loved the virile masculinity of the bull – the cojones. He painted and drew and modelled and made hundreds of bulls. It’s well known that he especially identified himself with the Minotaur, the mythical monster half-man, half bull: tender and bestial. So, astrologically [...]