Mars in Cancer June 4- July 20 Mars the fiery planet of war jumped into the soothing waters of Cancer last week. It’s time to take action in the realms of emotions, beaches and kitchens. Water Sports Jump on a surfboard — preferably on a wave. Failing that take up sailing or waterskiing or [...]

“It’s more like I’m having an experience than making a picture.” — Cy Twombly Cy Twombly’s work is unmistakable: giant scribbles, smudges, words and phrases crash together across vast stretches of white. They look as if they’ve been made in an instant, a flash, a dash, a moment of possession — [...]

In the early spring of 1970, jazz fans were only talking about one album — a rich, textured blast of sound played with freestyle mastery and driven by an enormous rhythm section. Miles Davis, the prince of cool, had plugged in and gone electric. Not only was Davis’ use of electrical [...]

Last year, we featured  a series of musicians born during the month of Pisces — one for each day, but there were just too many to fit in. Here is Adam Levine, another for our sweet-sounding Pisces male voice choir, that includes James Taylor, Chris Martin, Nat King Cole, George Harrison, Tom [...]

The late Alexander McQueen said that he wanted people to feel afraid of the women who wore his clothes. His shows were legendary: shocking, emotional, Gothic, visceral — absolutely exquisite. In 1995’s The Birds — inspired by Hithcock’s movie — models stumbled down the catwalk, dresses torn [...]

Tom Chaplin, of the British band Keane, sings with all the tortured melancholy you’d expect from a fish-boy with Sun squaring Neptune, the planet of music. That Neptune is in Sagittarius, the sign of excess, so it also comes as no surprise that Chaplin has had his share of drug problems. One [...]

Fiery energy is gathering around the coming eclipse on February 26. We are in an unusually unstable period. The times are angry enough and polarised enough already. Know that the planets are stirring the pot this week and next, adding a huge dollop of chilli to the cosmic soup. Be cautious, [...]

Last year, The Oxford Astrologer published a post on a musician every day during the month of the fishes — that most musical of signs. In case you missed it — or would like to do it all over again. Here is the list and links for the first week… Many, many musicians were born […]

So versatile, so clear, so direct: there’s no one like Nancy Wilson. I love her easy listening albums from the late 1960s/early 1970s (which included some of the best interpretations of Latin American music in English). They sparkle. Her voice is so pure and powerful, but it’s her ability to [...]

Continuing the series on artists with Venus in Aries. The picture tells the story really. Anish Kapoor has Venus at 0° Aries — the Ur degree, the alpha … the very beginning of the whole Zodiac. And well, is here is a great big Mons Venus in Aries own colour. Kapoor loves red. It’s nice that he [...]

Venus, the planet of love and art, harmony and sweetness, spends a long time in Aries, a sign that represents some quite contrary energies, in 2017. So we have an opportunity to look and think about how Venus behaves here. I’ve been looking at the charts of artists, fashion designers and film [...]

With the lovers Mars and Venus both in hot and impulsive Aries, opposite the Moon in Libra, the sign of relationships, this looks like quite a zingy sort of day— and indeed a day to focus on relationships. Later in the day, the Moon will trigger that ferocious Uranus-Jupiter-Pluto [...]

February is a fast and urgent month with Mars, Venus and Uranus in fiery, furious Aries. Mars in his own sign is rather unbridled, Venus in her opposite sign is not doing her usual harmony, sweetness and light thing and Uranus is spitting sparks. Somewhere in your life there’s probably a bit [...]

Imagine you are walking up a mountain trail. You’re slowing down because the way is getting steeper, and rougher — and your sense of dread and unease grows with every step. A dark shadow looms on the path in front of you, filling you with dread. You turn tail and fly, tripping down the [...]

Mars and Pluto are having their biannual conjunction — today, tomorrow, and the day after. Yes, that’s two warriors having a confab in ambitious, driven, earthy Capricorn; the planet of action, Mars, and the planet of the Underworld, Pluto, working together; war plus power. On the mundane [...]

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: a game based on the idea that any player in Hollywood can be linked, through the films they have worked on, to character actor Kevin Bacon within six steps. So say, Kevin Bacon has a value of 0 — he being the centre of the Hollywood universe — then try linking […]

  Since music and astrology are in some senses soul-sisters, it’s surprising (perhaps) that so little music based on our cosmic art has been written in the classical tradition. So it’s hugely satisfying that award-winning composer, visiting professor at the Royal College of Music, [...]

Tomorrow, September 16, there will be a partial eclipse of Lady Luna. You will be able to see this from Europe to the Western Pacific. The point of closest eclipse is at 18.54 GMT. Right now the Moon is already in Pisces. The eclipse takes place at 24°.   Last night, I stood in the garden [...]

“I wanted to come out with a cane, come down slowly, have it stick into one of the bricks, get up, fall over, roll around, and they all laugh and applaud. The director asked, ‘what do you want to do that for?’ I said from that time on, no one will know if I’m lying […]