Amy Winehouse (born with Saturn in Scorpio) Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just gloss over the nastier side of human nature and pretend there’s no jealousy, no murderous rage, no stomach churning fear, no madness? We could all live in a happy, smiling Libra world…. but we [...]

It turns out that the seven-times Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong cheated. Apparently, he was doped up to the eyeballs, bullied other team members into joining him and lied and lied and lied. The US Anti-Doping Agency says Armstrong was the leader of “the most sophisticated, [...]

Mahatma Gandhi was born today, October 2 1869. He exemplified the best of Libra the peacemaker, with Sun and Ascendant in the sign of the scales. But he was also a revolutionary. Here’s something he said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” He had Uranus [...]

Romney: Sun in Pisces (the mirror) Gemini Rising…. Mitt Romney is the son of two truly remarkable people: his mother Lenore – clever, beautiful, a trained actress and a candidate for the senate when women did not do that, and his father George – an immigrant who pulled himself up from [...]

Could this be the next Prime Minister? Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has had a fantastic summer, using the Olympics to upstage the Prime Minister David Cameron, repeatedly. His season of triumph climaxed with a rabble-rousing speech on Monday outside Buckingham Palace, when he [...]

On that day, 41 Liverpool fans might have survived had those in charge acted more swiftly. It’s taken 23 years to expose the police cock-up that caused the Hillsborough Disaster – and the cover-up that followed. On that day in April 1989, 96 people were crushed to death in a football [...]

What with all those shiny bodies flinging themselves around giant stadiums filled with cheering crowds – the marching, the uniforms, the survival of the fittest, the faux-historical ceremonies – there’s always been more than a touch of fascism about the Olympics. Jesse Owens going for [...]

Thomas Cromwell: fixer, strategist, statesman – Scorpio. Hans Holbein King Henry VIII – charmer, playboy, wife-killer and the first head of the Church of England – had an axe-man, Thomas Cromwell, whose job it was to facilitate the King’s desires – divorce, dissolution, beheadings, [...]

As you probably know, Oxford is a World Heritage Site. There’s Radcliffe Camera, the Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street, St Giles… all beautiful, historic, and full of life, much used, much loved. Radcliffe Camera: probably one of the world’s most famous library annexes. The [...]

It used to be like this… When we talk about the City of London, we are talking about both a place and an idea. The City is the square mile that was once a fortified town founded by the Romans, that developed into the heaving moiling medieval trading centre on the banks of the River […]

Those bankers are incorrigible: first they cheat, then they lie, then they try to cover it up, and then they shop each other. A charming bunch of people we have taking care of our money. It was revealed  today that traders at Barclay’s Bank have been fiddling the figures to make [...]

As we all know now, we are living in interesting times, but sometimes it’s hard to keep up with just what is going on. The scene changes so rapidly; opinions vary so wildly. The financial astrologer Ray Merriman has written a brilliant piece for The Mountain Astrologer which  explains [...]

At last Egypt has a democratically elected president, Mohammad Morsi, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is not a surprise if you paid attention to the astrology. Here’s what I wrote about Egypt back in November 2011: “I suspect the importance of the Muslim Brotherhood will [...]

This beautiful hybrid orchid is named after Aung San Suu Kyi. You never know who you’re going to see in Oxford. A while ago I got to say good morning to a fistful of bishops as I got out of the car. This afternoon, we saw Aung San Suu Kyi whizz past in a security […]

There’s been a creative explosion of graffiti in Cairo post-January 25 “Given a choice between eating shit or eating shit, most Egyptians have decided they’re not hungry,” Omar Kamel, Egyptian activist. He was talking about the phony elections held in Egypt over the [...]

I watched the current Chancellor of the Exchequer and an ex-Prime Minister lie on oath yesterday. And I have to admit, I was a bit shocked. I’m just not that cynical. I thought George Osborne and Gordon Brown would probably tell the truth. But neither did – intentionally. I should not [...]

“This day prov’d as favourable to our purpose as we could wish, not a Clowd was to be seen … and the Air was perfectly clear, so that we had every advantage we could desire in Observing the whole of the passage of the Planet Venus over the Suns disk: we very distinctly saw an […]

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Cor blimey, ma’am; 60 years on the throne, god bless her. For a while, it seemed as if it were mainly a marketing opportunity for paper napkin, bunting and biscuit-tin makers. It’s been Union Jacks agogo for a month in the shops and nothing anywhere else. But [...]

About two thousand years ago, peace reigned across the Roman Empire. From Alexandria to the Hadrian’s Wall, all opposition had been crushed and people were able to trade, farm and prosper without fear of being molested by marauding barbarians. Meanwhile, in the bustling, wealthy, [...]

Yes, I know we like to talk about roses and kisses and sweet romance, about Romeos and Juliets, the ones that got away and the ones that might just come back now that Venus has turned retrograde… But Venus is not just the planet of love – she rules money, cold hard cash. And she’s [...]