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 [...]

It’s not many people who have their own typeface, but then Carlos Santana has Sun in the third house. This is his latest album. Here’s a fun one. Carlos Santana, the shimmeringly brilliant guitarist who periodically gets rediscovered by new generations, has a fascinating natal [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Are these the 12 faces of Chiron — or just a bunch of actors in funny clothes? If you want to get a handle on a certain well known asteroid/planetoid/…er… comet… er … thingie whizzing around between Saturn and Uranus right now, then you might do well to watch a [...]

In case you missed it last time, here is the link to Doctor Who astrology. Enjoy.

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 [...]

The four gospels surround the lamb of god. When a medieval craftsman lovingly carved a representation of the four gospels for the cover of this book, he was using symbols that had been sacred for thousands of years before the birth of Christ. The four gospels – Luke, Mark, John, and Mathew – [...]

Oh how we love Eleanor Catton, winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Her massive historical novel The Luminaries boggled the judges minds. How did she structure it? Using proper, grown up astrology. Twelve characters are based on the signs of the Zodiac, and seven on the [...]

Francesco Pesselino – The Seven Virtues (male and female personifications To live a moral life, according to Plato, you needed the following qualities: justice, temperance, courage and prudence. These are the “cardinal” virtues and the foundations of a civilised society. But [...]

In case you missed this post in celebration of the great Rothko.  

The Return of Persephone by Frederick Leighton. Wikimedia Commons. Golden-bright Persephone, Demeter’s beautiful daughter, was picking flowers one day in the wide, scented valley of Enna in Sicily when Hades, the prince of hell, burst out of the ground and grabbed her and pulled her down [...]

God or, more correctly, G-d opened the Book of Life on Wednesday, the first day of Rosh Hoshanah, and will be snapping it shut again next Friday, September 13. During these ten Days of Awe, he’s going to be watching you, taking notes and making a decision about your coming year. You have [...]

Mother Ayahuasca Image source unknown. If you know who this is by, tell me. “I was looking for the will of the wild. I was looking for how that will expressed itself in elemental vitality, in savage grace. Wildness is resolute for life: it cannot be otherwise; for it will die in [...]

Last year, Tig Notaro had quite an interesting four months. To begin with, she contracted pneumonia. The cure almost killer her though. A flesh-eating bacteria invaded her gut and she had to go to hospital where she hovered between life and death or a while. When she came out, her mother [...]