Boris Karloff in the 1931 film Frankenstein. In the summer I wrote a post about Dracula with some suggestions about which planets we could associate with the fanged one. I ended that piece by suggesting that Frankenstein might be associated with the planet Uranus. |’ve  come back to [...]

I’m giving a talk on Scary Monsters. February 16 at the Oxford Astrology Group. For more information look at their site. Come along if you’re in the neighborhood.

I’ve always thought it more than a little ironic that the day of the year designated for lovers is February 14. After all the Sun is in Aquarius – and Aquarius, as we all know is cool, calm, friendly, intelligent, rational. But passionate? Romantic? Heart-broken? Love-struck? Frenzied? [...]

Aquarius is the sign of the avant-garde – and who could be more emblematic of the avant garde than Edouard Manet. Some of his paintings are still kind of shocking when you think about it. Dejeuner sur L’Herbe scandalised Paris when it was exhibited in 1863. You can see why. What’s [...]

Here is a tale of two books written about 2000 years apart.All the hooha about the intruder constellation Ophiucus sent me to my well-thumbed copy of Manilius’ Astronomica, the Roman astrology manual dating from around the second century. I knew there’d be a tit-bit in there.It [...]

There are two main ways I like to use astrology when I’m thinking about art. 1. Knowing an artist’s birth chart or simply natal Sun can give you real insight into how planets might work out in real life. Works of art are a non-verbal expression of character that often speaks more [...]

Winter Moonlight by George Inness captures the stillness of this time of year. The end of December. In the northern hemisphere, the darkest, quietest and stillest part of the year. The time when the earth’s energy is at its weakest and we have a little more time to think – reflecting on the [...]

A priestess of the goddess Vesta, “tutelary deity” to Capricorn.Here imagined by 19th century painter  Lord Leighton. Capricorns is a dull sign, ruled by that old curmudgeon Saturn – right? It’s all about status and work and dads and being sensible bla bla bla. [...]

  Captain Beefheart (far right) and the long-suffering Magic Band, back in 1969. A creative visionary died this week. Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) (born January 15, 1941 at 4.25pm) was a legendary avant-garde musician and performer and a damn fine painter. In both his chosen [...]

Death and Life, Gustav Klimt 1911. Death catches up with us all – but in what guise. As a virus? A car crash? Will it come slowly or will it be sudden? Are our days numbered from the moment we are born? Medieval astrologers certainly believed they could foretell the hour of your death. The [...]

St Giles at Dusk by Francis Hamel. For more of his Oxford views click here. Sometimes, on a winter evening when the yellow lights in the buildings that line St. Giles cast a glow on the frozen street, I like to to imagine that I can see through the walls of stone. And behind the […]

Prometheus, the revolutionary fire-stealing Titan whom historian Richard Tarnas argues should be associated with the planet Uranus. I agree with him Uranus has navigated the Piscean ocean with panache over the pat seven years, making waves in all kinds of directions. At the same time, [...]

Creepy thoughts should never be limited to autumn nights. In fact when I started this blog back in the summer the very second post was on the subject of horror movies. Back in July, my five year old’s musings on vampire squid lurking behind the shower curtain prompted me to investigate [...]

As you know, there are seven heavenly bodies in traditional astrology. The boys – Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The girls – Moon, Venus. Five against two. Now does that seem fair to you? Does that even seem like life? Ceres, goddess of fertility, is sometimes assigned to [...]

Two kids from the wrong side of the tracks play pretend. Norma Jean Mortensen teaching Bernie Schwartz how to kiss – one of the sweetest scenes on celluloid. That great movie Some Like it Hot. still makes me laugh. Of course, Norma Jean and Bernie had blossomed into Marilyn Monroe and [...]

I find reading old astrology books a very good way to get to sleep. Dane Rudhyar is marvellously soporific. I hope some of it will filter into my dreams, and be reborn as a brilliant insight. Last night I turned to CEO Carter, who is an old stand-by in the wee small hours. And in […]

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Brazil. Is the mother goddess giving a helping hand? In Brazil, Dilma Rousseff; in Australia Julia Gillard, who’s next? Are sisters finally doing it for themselves? Here’s what I think happened in the heavens that might give us a clue. On the [...]

Once upon a time there was a miller who had three sons. When he died his oldest son took the mill, his middle son took the donkey, and that left the youngest son with nothing but the cat. Well, we know who got the better deal in the end. Puss-in-boots helps the youngest son to […]

Can you believe the shoes? Lady Gaga has finally sauntered onto my middle-aged radar by wearing that outrageous dress. Wow – it’s punk and glam rock simultaneously! She’s got chutzpah. Every generation has (at least) one – popstalala with ass and attitude. So it’s [...]

Hades (Pluto) Oxford is a small town with a famous university in the middle of England. But it’s much more than that too. It’s the centre of a web of influence that stretches forward and backward in time and across continents. This influence is intellectual and political, but also [...]