Ariel Sharon aged 19 wikimedia commons Ariel Sharon lived a life of mythological proportions. Villain, hero, warrior; farmer, politican, bully; killer, peacemaker; and in every role “the bulldozer”. And those were just his public faces. So how come the unstoppable bulldozer [...]

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 [...]

  “…[The ANC struggle] is a struggle of the African people, inspired by their own suffering and their own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live. During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, [...]

Singing the cheerful refrain, “Holy shit, shit, God’s shit”, while parodying prayer in the sanctum of one of Russia’s most revered cathedrals, the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, managed to get right up the noses of the Russian establishment on February 21, 2012. The [...]

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 – [...]

In Blue. Wassily Kandinsky: Saturn in Scorpio, Venus in Sagittarius The weather changed yesterday and a dry, icy wind sent tiny clouds fleeting across the sky, trees rattling and swaying, branches to the floor, drifts of leaves whirling up like spirits. Autumn had arrived overnight. Today, [...]

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 [...]

The Neighborhood Bully – John George Brown Politics just go nasty again in the UK. Let me explain. In this country, there’s a “Leader of the Opposition” in parliament who is the head of the main party that’s out of office, and whose job it is to question the [...]

It’s hard to believe but it seems as if Iran and the United States might make friends, Syria might let in weapons inspectors, and Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama are back on speakers. Oh and global warming is on the agenda thanks to a UN report… maybe this time something [...]

Beleaguered PM David Cameron was born with Uranus-Pluto conjunct. Under the square, things are falling apart. Hooray! The British Parliament has voted against a military intervention proposed by the Prime Minister – possibly for the first time ever. At the start of the week, Prime [...]

The Death of Arthur by John Carrick (1852). Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (the main source for all King Arthur legends) was published a few weeks after Richard III’s death “And thus I clothe my naked villainy With odd, old ends stol’n out of holy writ, And seem a saint, [...]

On 11 August 1988, three men met in the dusty city of Peshawar on Pakistan’s northwest frontier. On that day, Osama bin Ladin, Ayman Zawahiri, and “Dr Fadl” decided it was time to set up an international jihadist organisation that would make spectacular attacks on the [...]

No. Really. Astrology is not science. I know this won’t come as a surprise to you, because, well, obviously it’s not science. Astrologers use some scientific data, like the position of the planets at a particular time, and often some good statistics, but you could never do a double [...]

Reading a baby’s chart is seldom a useful exercise. It tends to lead to too much projection and expectation on the part of the parents. But taking into account my misgivings about babies’ charts, this child is an exception. Because he is a future king, for better or worse, his life [...]

The petition that started this wave of revolution was sponsored by a group calling itself Rebel. Uranus, the rebel planet, is currently trining Egypt’s Moon which represents the people. Egypt, or the Egyptian people, have caught, amplified  and expressed the planetary energy of now. What [...]

Old Emir/new Emir The little kingdom of Qatar, which sticks out like a thumb into the Arabian Gulf, is a fiefdom belonging to the Al Thani family. Happily for them, it’s a thumb that’s stuck in a magic pudding, which just goes on and on giving – at current estimates more than $200 [...]

As you know, astrology works through metaphor and imagery. You arrive at an understanding of a sign or a planet elliptically, and a story unfolds through the multiple elements weaving together. But all combinations have the potential to tell different stories. So for example, consider Neptune [...]

Hands off our national treasure My friend down the road never “bakes a cake”, she “does a Nigella”. I’m sure she’s not alone. Is there a kitchen bookshelf in Britain that does not have a thumbed edition of How To Eat or Feast or some other of Nigella [...]

Rupert and Wendi: A Perfect Match I wrote a piece about Rupert Murdoch a couple of years ago, because he’s a fascinating character. At the time I wondered what had happened when Pluto went over his Ascendant  — and how come he was still standing – since he seemed to be doing OK at [...]

The angels are calling Nelson Mandela. He may not go yet, but they are very close. When a death is at the right time, often Jupiter, the planet of benevolence and generosity arrives, ready to shepherd the soul on its journey. Mandela’s Jupiter Return is on June 3Oth. When Mandela was [...]