Prometheus, Nicolas-Sebastien Adam. Prometheus, the rebel god, stole fire from heaven and brought it to the human race. This made Zeus, king of the gods, cross, because fire was one of the gods’ secrets, along with lightning and thunder and stuff. According to some versions of the story, [...]

Elders At night the moon shakes the bright dice of the water; And the elders, their flower light as broken snow upon the bush, Repeat the circle of the moon. Within the month Black fruit breaks from the white flower. The black-wheeled berries turn Weighing the boughs over the road. There is no [...]

This terrific self-portrait dates from 1927. Just as a supplement to the Satie piece: here is Suzanne Valadon’s chart. She was a wonderful woman, a free spirit, single mother, great painter and an inspiration for many other artists (Neptune in the 7th), in particular Renoir. For a while [...]

Erik Satie painted by Suzanne Valadon c.1892, the epitome of the 1890s aesthete The composer Erik Satie, a well-known figure in Parisian bohemia at the turn of the 20th century, was noted for his elegance. He had seven identical beautifully-tailored grey suits which he wore in rotation. He [...]

Danny Kaye had a Sun-Uranus conjunction in Capricorn. I read a post over at Libra Seeking Balance this week which reminded me that Uranus + Mercury = funny. Now I can vouch for this personally since I live with the funniest man I could find, and he has Merc + Uranus on the Ascendant. [...]

Monet by his friend Renoir (1875) When a grocer’s son from Le Havre and a young factory worker from central France met in a studio in Paris in 1862, one of the most important friendships in the history of art was born. Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir were in the midst of torrid, [...]

Andy Murray: finding the emotional strength The Men’s Final at Wimbledon this year was so graceful and exciting. And always, it was not just a test of physical prowess – although the sheer animal magic of the occasion was beautiful – but a contest of mental stamina and [...]

Lying in bed, feeling a little strange, a little light-headed. The sun sends blocks of light across your duvet; because it is broad daylight, and you alone are not at work or at school. Everyone else is busy. There are noises in the house: a tap runs in the kitchen; a distant radio, a car in [...]

Lévi- Strauss’s seminal book La Pensee Sauvage is translated into English as the Savage Mind, which is not quite right, of course, and sounds vaguely pejorative. Sauvage means wild, as in the opposite of domesticated. Pensée is thought. So you could read this more as Untamed Thinking. [...]

The art establishment’s favourite entrepreneur is on the radio this morning, so I thought I’d repost a piece I wrote about him. It made me laugh again, but that is part of Hirst’s charm. To read it, click here.

Yesterday Angelina Jolie told the world she’d had an operation that reduces her risk of cancer from 87% to 5%. She’d had a double mastectomy. That one of the world’s most beautiful women should choose to have both breasts removed is a powerful notion. Jolie in particular has [...]

Halvor kills the troll in Soria Moria Castle. “My name is Amanda Berry.” The first words she spoke after she crawled out of the house of her enslavement in Cleveland, Ohio were a statement of her identity. Amanda Berry is much more than what happened to her. Her decade-long [...]

I wonder if Walt Whitman was experiencing a Pluto transit when he wrote this poem.    Pluto is now retrograde until September. The dark planet spends quite a lot of his time in retrograde motion, so it’s not unusual. He’s moving between 11’35 and 8’59 Capricorn.   You [...]

Cherry blossoms and snow outside my house. How do you know that the pilgrim track Along the belting zodiac Swept by the sun in his seeming rounds Is traced by now to the Fishes’ bounds And into the Ram, when weeks of cloud Have wrapt the sky in a clammy shroud, And never as yet […]

Blue, Green and Brown by Mark Rothko I do wonder how much astrology is used in the Vatican. The timing of Benedcit XVI’s resignation and then the papal conclave that starts today, on the day of the Pisces New Moon, is perfect. This Pisces energy is well-used in prayer, contemplation and [...]

Mami Wata 1999, by Moyo Ogundipe   It’s Mothering Sunday here. The Moon (Mama) is in the sign of the Fishes, coming up to conjunct the Sun in a day or so. Mama Wata, Yemanya, La Sirene — these are all names for the mother of the ocean worshipped in West Africa, Brazil, the [...]

Benedict XVI steps down tomorrow Pope Benedict XVI has the chart of a true “Prince of the Church“. He has the two planets of power, Saturn and Jupiter,  near the axes of his chart. This is something you see in royalty, people born to rule. In the case of the Pope, Jupiter is in the [...]

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln. Sitting in a darkened cinema and watching Daniel Day-Lewis filling up and spilling out of the screen is a pleasure: sometimes terrifying, sometimes heartbreaking, always visceral. He’s an actor who gets right into your guts. There’s no time of [...]

The Reader by Federico Faruffini. I found this on the wonderful blog Reading and Art. “I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies the return of consciousness. As I lay and looked through the eastern window of my room, a faint streak of peach-colour, dividing [...]

Spanish does not have to be your first language if you want to make it in Hollywood, you’re a man and your Sun is in Pisces. But maybe it helps… Javier Bardem (March 1, 1969) Benicio del Toro (Feb 19, 1967) Raul Julia (Mar 9, 1940) Just wondering…