Two temples to Hera at Paestum and one beautiful Persephone A couple of weeks ago, I walked around the ancient city of Paestum under a bright, broiling southern Italian sun. It’s a beautiful place. Buttery yellow temple columns reach into a cerulean sky, graceful umbrella pines and [...]

Gustav Klimt’s Pallas Athena, 1895 Pallas Athena, the asteroid of strategy and weaving is in a cosy huddle with Uranus, the god of bright ideas. And the Moon is right there with them today, shining a soft silver glow on proceedings. The Ram is, of course, the sign of beginnings, [...]

Beaker and Bunsen. Apparently, it’s the most important breakthrough in physics since they smashed the atom. Now as students of astrology know, Pluto is associated with atomic energy, so how wonderful that on the day of the Full Moon (a project coming to completion) conjunct Pluto – and [...]

Lord Shiva, the transformer Today, the god of transformation is joined by the Full Moon in the sign of institutions, establishment, organisation. And the head of Barclays Bank resigns… The Moon slides over Pluto at 8° Capricorn and then opposes then Sun, which is at 12° Cancer. If you [...]

When you’re trying to draw something right in front of you, the key to getting it right is often to look at the space between. When you start to look properly, you can see that space has a shape and vivacity all its own. Look at the “negative space” in this painting by [...]

Like all things numinous and mysterious, the point of astrology is not always something that can be put into words. It’s poetic, it’s slantwise, it’s a feeling, an image, a fleeting thing. And just when you think you have it all pinned down and neatly explained, the meaning [...]

Just in case you’ve missed it, 50 Shades of Grey is a story about a young woman who meets an insanely wealthy, mysterious, tortured but alluring older man. They have a passionate affair during which she discovers herself as a sexual being – and his tough facade is penetrated by her sheer [...]

 It is indeed a dreamy night tonight, a night to stay up until dawn inventing epics and love stories. Neptune, master of illusions, rises as the Sun moves into Cancer. The two cast a knowing beam to each other through the imaginative, watery signs of Cancer and Pisces. What’s more 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 […]

My good friend Isy pointed out in a recent comment that  we should not think of Pluto as a simple lump of rock spinning through space, but as a group of objects with a great big hole in the middle. So I asked her to write about it. Understanding the astronomy of Pluto can help […]

The energies of the planets work together like an orchestra. Sometimes one section is louder, sometimes it’s stately, sometimes it’s raucous, sometimes there’s harmony, sometimes there’s not. There are themes and variations that weave in and out of time, repeating once [...]

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 [...]

Mercury, which rules thought and communication, is currently in practical Taurus. This is good for everybody, because it means we have a real chance to get a few things done. You have until May 24, when we return to just talking about everything a lot. Mercury rules the hands, so do any tasks [...]

Me: “What would you like for your 9th birthday?” Taurus: “A voice-activated safe, please.” I’m not making that up. She got a safe: her Dad’s a Leo. Here’s a link to a piece by Pippa on Taurus and hoarding.

Does Scorpio have a corner on sex appeal? “Nooo,” shout the rest of us. “We have a smidgin of the x-factor too.” Of course we do. I write that in my most reassuring manner. Besides smouldering across the Zodiac from Scorpio are those earthy Bulls, who have a certain je [...]

“The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him wild thing and Max said, “I’ll eat you up!” so he was sent to bed without eating anything.” Maurice Sendak’s short masterpiece Where The Wild Things Are is a [...]

A couple of weeks ago I was banjaxed by a stomach virus. I spent about 24 hours wrapped around the toilet bowl weeping. Naturally, I looked at my chart to see if anything jumped out at me. I felt as if Pluto himself had put his arm down my throat and pulled up the contents […]

Fertile, fecund, luscious – this Full Moon (on the 6th) is bursting with promise. Ceres, the planet of fertility is conjunct the Sun – and so is the wild one, Lilith – all in the most fertile sign, earthy Taurus. The Sun is applying to Jupiter, who magnifies all energies. This is a creative, [...]

Happy May Day to all my readers.As you may know, May Day is celebrated with some ferocity in Oxford – drinking, dancing, dressing up. It starts with a choir greeting the dawn from the top of Magdalene Tower and continues with dancing in the  streets.It’s been raining all night here [...]