A Musical Zodiac, composed and conducted by Debbie Wiseman (with sleeve notes by Jonathan Cainer). Launched September 16.   A crab yearns for the moon, a seamstress stitches in a pool of sunlight, twins play — Debbie Wiseman’s musical character sketches of the signs of the Zodiac are [...]

“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 […]

Self-named, self-invented, self-motivated, champion boxer Muhammad Ali was a modern embodiment of the archetype of hero. He was charismatic, strong, graceful, poetic in speech, courageous in deed. He spoke up for the millions and laughed at the powerful. He took his punishment squarely and [...]

Kirsty Mitchell has a magical opposition between Venus in Gemini and Neptune in Sagittarius. Her imagination, rooted in fairyland, branches out into stranger worlds. She is an artist whose brush is a camera. She is a photographer — a province of Neptune — and she photographs beauty (Venus) in [...]

In his long, long musical career, the great French balladeer Charles Aznavour has written hundreds of songs and recorded thousands. His Sun is at 0° Gemini, the sign of the songsmith. “I can write on any subject. Just give me the first line, which is the most important.” Aznavour will turn 92 [...]

Neptune rules fashion and glamour and it’s been interesting to watch what’s happened since he roared into Pisces in 2011. Men rediscovered their inner dandies; women went kind of dishevelled and started dying their hair crazy colours. Neptune in Pisces 2011 -2025 Hair has gone all the shades [...]

Mercury, messenger of the gods, will be crossing the face of the Sun in a few hours.  You’ll be able to see this from Earth — with the right equipment. This particular event is not rare — but it is unusual. It happens about 14 times per century — and it’s always in Taurus or Scorpio — […]

When we talk about Venus, we talk about allure. When Venus, the planet of beauty and attraction, is in Taurus, she is in her own sign. Fixed Earth: the sign of full-busting spring in the north, when thoughts turn to what the birds and the bees do. Venus is, of course, the planet of love and [...]

“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” Willa Cather I can add “failure to hire leather-trousered pirate as childminder” to my Mother’s List of Shame. My kids are a tad irritated that Captain Hook is not [...]

Just gutted. She was only 62. A comic genius.  

Aries is not a sign associated with philosophy — that is Sagittarian territory according to tradition. However, the Ram knows how to get to the essence of things. In fact, the father of modern western philosophy himself, René Descartes is an Aries Sun. His Sun conjuncts Uranus, the planet of [...]

A spongey, grey-faced Johnny Depp and his beautiful wife Amber Heard read an apology to the State from an autocue, staring sullenly into a camera set at a strangely low angle. No, the State is not North Korea, but Australia. If you wondered whether Johnny Depp’s birth time deserved the AA [...]

John Dee — astrologer, alchemist and magus, one of the great characters of Tudor England — had the greatest private library in the western world. But when he was off on a European tour, it was pillaged by “friends” and the contents were lost. Some turned up in other collections over the [...]

One of the pleasures of this retrograde period… Saturn Rx in Sagittarius, the sign of higher learning, the exotic and libraries Mars station (Rx on April 17) also in Sagittarius Mercury in shadow (Rx on April 28) in Taurus, ruled by Venus the goddess of beauty and art Jupiter Rx in Virgo, the [...]

This extraordinary gory painting, possibly by Caravaggio, was found in an attic in the French city of Toulouse a couple of years ago, but not presented to the public until yesterday. It’s fascinating that it should be revealed at just this time of retrogrades, a time of retrieval — perhaps [...]

Dame Elizabeth Machonchy was hailed as a girl-wonder at the age of 23 and then told she had only a few years to live. However, she beat TB and went on to live a long and full life. I don’t have the time of birth, but I note the conjunction of Chiron and Venus. Her […]

Nat King Cole… perfect phrasing, casual grace, immortal. Cole was an outstanding jazz pianist who just happened to be able to sing — to start with. Of course, it’s his gorgeous voice for which he’ll be remembered — and indeed he has a packed second house, which we might associate with voice, [...]

Thanks to Rachel for suggesting Astor Piazzolla, the late great Argentinian maestro of tango. Loss, plangent longing, melancholy love — so romantic — that’s one side of Piazolla’s work. Uncompromisingly avant-garde, experimental and cutting edge — there’s an utterly different side too. [...]

James Taylor’s soft, reedy baritone is so sweet and his melody-weaving so certain, his lyrics so perfectly distilled and his phrasing so effortless — he truly was blessed by the gods of music and song. Indeed, his first album, which included classics like Carolina in My Mind and Rainy Day [...]

Los Angeles will eat you. The LA music biz specialises in packaging young girls into pop stars — Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Nicky Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears. The singer-songwriter Kesha is one of those. Spotted by producer Dr Luke at the age of 17,  she was [...]