The Glastonbury Festival, the pop music extravaganza held in bucolic south-west England every June is now part of the established summer season, along with the Proms, Glyndebourne and Henley Regatta. It started off as Pilton Festival on Michael Eavis’ farm just outside Glastonbury, [...]
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Art, music, books, poetry, fashion, dance, television… the products of our imaginations and the people who make them. The Oxford Astrologer’s blogs on astrology and culture.
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Talking About Teaching Teenagers & Helping Families
As you know, members of the Oxford Astrologer have a monthly Q&A, which really ought to be relabelled a salon, since, in fact, everyone pitches in. Usually, it’s closed so that people can talk freely, but I am publishing this one because Alex Trenoweth was kind enough to come along [...]
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Was Sherlock Holmes A Capricorn? Astrology Talk Investigate
In honour of Pluto, the detective, entering Aquarius, the sign of networks and the internet (and maybe podcasts!), Sally and I are launching a new feature: Astrology Talk Investigates. We’ll be looking at mysteries, histories and more, focusing on just one question, every month. Do send [...]
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In Conversation with Astrologer Barry Goddard
You probably know that I do a Q&A for subscribers to the horoscopes (which happens most months). The format varies, and this month, we were lucky to have Barry Goddard over to chat about astrology and shamanism, what Pluto wants, and more. He also answered questions from the audience in a [...]
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Book Review: Surfing the Galactic Highways
“Reading an astrology chart is an act of faith, for there is no good rational reason why any of it should work. Why should the position of the planet Mercury in the sky at the moment of your birth say anything about how your mind works? Or Venus say something about the kind of person [...]
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Book Review: Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead
If you haven’t read eco-thriller Drive Your Plough (or Plow) yet, you are in for a treat. I asked my friend Heather, astrologer & playwright. to review it briefly. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. At last a great story which dares to touch on astrology. [...]
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Mars in Gemini — in His Own Words
Mars, the planet of pepper and passion, is in the sign of Gemini for a very long time (20 August 2022 – 23 March 2023). The warrior is unbuckling her sword, laying down her shield and lying down by the campfire to trade stories for a long stretch too. In short the red planet is [...]
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Patterns on the Way
Astrology is the study of patterns. Patterns in the sky repeat as patterns in the soul, repeat as patterns on the Dao. Patterns on the way repeat every few years or decades or days or hours. Not all are lovely. But sometimes we have to repeat them for a while before we know how leave […]
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Salman Rushdie: Rebel, Story-teller, Gemini
Midnight’s Children — a tale of twins, mistaken identities, India and Pakistan, doubling and mirroring, knees and nose — catapulted its author, Salman Rushdie, a double Gemini, of course, to international fame in 1981. He did things with English that no one had read before [...]
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Brad Pitt’s Saturn Return Goes Neptunian
The second Saturn Return at around the age of 58 or 59 is a time when a chapter closes and a new door opens into what may be the final third of a person’s life. It’s as important as the one at 28, when real adult life begins and the first flush of youth is […]
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Kate Bush’s Surge
Kate Bush, visionary song-writer and performer, is being rediscovered by a whole new generation, thanks to the inclusion of her song Running Up That Hill in the TV series Stranger Things. For a person born with a Uranus-Sun conjunction in Leo, of course, nothing is strange, and anything can be [...]
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Paula Rego, Strong Women
“This is another thing that is not in our culture, which I show in the picture of the girl with her legs up, Lila.” Paula Rego, feminist, artist, storyteller died this week, leaving behind one of the most consistenly extraordinary and powerful bodies of work of the past 50 years. [...]
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The Podcast: The Material and the Immaterial
The podcast with Sally is up a little late this month, because I had no voice for a while. As you will hear, I’m only just getting it back. We had an interesting discussion about the Taurus-Scorpio axis, Jupiter going into Aries and more. Here’s a link to the home page where you [...]
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Iris Apfel, Rare Bird of Fashion
“Doing your own thing is very good… if you have a thing to do.” — Iris Apfel Playful, eccentric, glamorous, wry, Iris Apfel has an eye for the shiny, feathered, glittering, colourful thing. Her apartments in Palm Beach and New York City are eclectic bower-birds’ [...]
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Astrology of Now: Valentine’s Day
It is such a pleasure to be able to tell you what a wonderful planetary alignment we have for Valentine’s Day — for the first time in years! Venus and Mars, the lovers of the Solar System, embrace in earthy Capricorn, which means it’s certainly time for some of us to finally [...]
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Sedna’s Not A Sulky Selkie
A few days ago, my dear friend, Isabel Tifft, wrote to me with some of her thoughts about possible astrological meanings of Sedna, one of the minor planets beyond Neptune, discovered and named in 2003. I found what she said so fascinating that I asked if I could share it with you. I found it [...]
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Adele’s Saturn
One thing’s certain about the singer Adele: she likes Saturn. At her one-night only special in Los Angeles the other day, she sported ginormous, dangly Saturn earrings, flashed a tattoo of the ringed planet on her right forearm, and was otherwise clad in black head to foot — [...]
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Astrology of Eris: Cultural Disruptor, Truth-Force
You know the story, but it bears repeating. The hero Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis had a magnificent wedding on Mount Olympus. Everyone was invited, except for the goddess Eris, or Discordia, as she’s known in Latin. Big mistake. Just to mess things up, Eris threw a golden apple marked [...]
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