Ted Hughes was best known as a powerful nature poet before he was made laureate in 1984. It seemed like a strange choice; this poet of fox and moor, black-backed gull and deadly pike, above all of wildness, asked to write about the baroque, many-layered, structured, civilised, profoundly tamed [...]

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France. Sun Aquaris/MoonPisces Like so many nations, France is in a right mess. Unemployment, social unrest, shambolic finances, a failing education system – and perhaps worst of all, no clear vision for the future. And France is in the midst of general election. [...]

A member of the Free Syrian Army, an avatar of Pluto wearing his helmet of invisibility. This was written by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats in the 1919 in the aftermath of World War 1 and the Easter Rising in Ireland. As well as being a poet, Yeats was a visionary and a mystic. […]

To celebrate the sweeping victory of Aung San Suu Kyi and her party in yesterday’s election, I’m posting links to all the pieces I’ve written about her and her country over the past 18 months. Aung San Suu Kyi: Embodying the People’s Dream Burma: The Ugly Face of [...]

PM David Cameron was last spotted eating a Cornish pasty two years ago. Ooo – the spin doctors have been getting themselves in a twist this week here in Blighty. I’ll explain briefly for my non-UK readers. First, Chancellor George Osborne cut the top rate of tax for the very, very [...]

The 1998 World Cup winning French football team was an emblem of French diversity. The National Front said it wasn’t “French” enough. France is having a weird and unnerving time of it. Everything that seemed certain about the country is being shaken, questioned and has yet to [...]

Rebekah Brooks: she made it up the greasy pole Oh, the irony. The woman who made a living dragging people’s good names through the mire is being dragged through it herself. Yesterday, she was arrested (again) at her home near Oxford. Rebekah Brooks was until last July the chief sewage [...]

Second Afghan War Six British soldiers were killed in Kandahar province this week. The oldest was 33, the same age as Jesus when he died, and the youngest was 19. The Afghan War has been going on for 10 years and 153 days. World War Two lasted just under six years in comparison. British [...]

War reporter Marie Colvin in Homs. Photo: Democratic Underground. Homs, Syria is a long way from Oxford, England. It’s on another continent, the people speak another language, have different customs than mine. They are in the midst of a bloody civil war. But the same sun rises, and then [...]

Princesss Elizabeth and her dashing consort Philip at a polo match in Kenya, just days before she succeeded to the throne in 1952. The 33 daughters of the Roman emperor Diocletian, cast adrift in the grey sea (after murdering their 33 dreary husbands), saw land – a white land, rising from the [...]

Bosnia: concentration camps in the 1990s What’s happening in Syria is very, very nasty. It’s reminding me too much of Bosnia in the early nineties, when the UN decided not to intervene and the result was horror. In June, I wrote a piece about Syria which is accurate. Please click [...]

Thatcher: Saturn Rising Recently, I asked a businesswoman friend, who was complaining about bankers’ bonuses, when she thought the rot had set in. She answered with one word: “Thatcher.” And she’s right, what we are experiencing now, financially and socially is the [...]

Margaret Thatcher in her prime in 1983. I have a few thoughts on potentials in the UK chart for 2012. Here’s one of them. Back in 2010, I predicted riots and a royal wedding for 2011, since I thought we were likely to see some themes from 1981 repeat.* In 1981 the riots were a […]

A stamp commemorates Kim Jong Il’s meeting with Hu Jintao. Well, it’s been quite a year for departures, has it not. Ben Ali, Mubarak Bin Laden. Berlusconi, Papandreou, Havel. Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s beloved, is just the latest leader to vacate his throne. Will North Korea [...]

Merkozy: Scorpio Rising, Taurus Sun – not to be messed with. In Europe, there is someone in charge now and her name is Merkozy. It’s taken her a while to sort herself out, but she’s really beginning to wield the whip now. It’s not going to be easy, but for the first [...]

Back in October I wrote a piece about David Cameron, which I think is worth re-reading. Here is the link. I asked this question: “Will he choose class or country? I ended with this short paragraph which turns out to have been on the money. “His country needs him. He [...]

Eclipses always signify endings. Some more major than others. This ending is a biggie. On Friday, by rejecting closer fiscal co-operation, UK Prime Minister David Cameron put Britain in a minority of one within the European Union. The British departure from the European project has closed [...]

Pluto abducts Proserpine. Bernini. Venus meets Pluto tomorrow (December 2), setting the tone for a very “interesting” month ahead. Venus and Pluto do have two very important things in common: sex and money. And their one night stand is in the earthy moneybags sign, Capricorn. [...]

Praying in Tahrir Square Back in February, I concluded my piece on Egypt with this remark: “Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if the junta makes way for a genuine democracy. Getting rid of Mubarak may turn out to have been the easy part.” To read the rest of that post, Killing [...]

I have been down at the bottom of the garden this week, turning my compost, mulching the autumn leaves, sawing up wood, stacking old flowerpots and sharpening blades. It’s creating a surprising amount of room under the laurel trees. The action planet Mars has gone into Virgo, the sign of [...]