André Durand – Prometheus Stealing Fire* A long time ago, Prometheus, one of the lesser immortals, stole fire from the great god Zeus and gave it to humans. That immortal flame set them free. Ironically, Prometheus himself was punished by being chained to a rock. Prometheus was a [...]

Mars, the planet of the physical, is going backwards slowly, coming to an opposition with Neptune, planet vague, which drifted into his own sign, Pisces, just a little while ago. Mercury has slipped backwards into Pisces too for another brief swim in the sea. Pay attention to your dreams, your [...]

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 [...]

Is this the most influential portrait of a woman from the 20th century? You wouldn’t believe it now, but way back in 1991, this cover of Vanity Fair showing the then highest-earning actress in Hollywood naked and heavily pregnant caused a storm of controversy. Why? Because some people [...]

Ingres: The Turkish Bath. Aries is the sign of beginnings, haste, inspiration. It’s the fire sign that strikes the spark that sets the world aflame. So what happens when the planet of speed, Mercury, turns tail and retreats in such a go-getting part of the Zodiac? And hang on, [...]

Today is the gorgeous, anarchic, joyful Hindu Festival of Colour, Holi, which welcomes spring and all that goes with it. You ought to run around outside, splashing perfumed colours and smearing each other with wild hues. It’s the full moon, of course, in Virgo. The Moon at 18° is just [...]

Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Bottom (Kevin Kline) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream My friend J has great big, baby blue eyes. They’re beautiful. She comes across as a little flaky, vague, kind, not quite of this world, when she walks along, these days in a kaftan likely as not, she [...]

Nude by Francis Cadell. “There must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale.” – Ralph Ellison, Born March 1, 1913 Sun in Pisces, Mercury in [...]

John and Yoko married on March 20,1969. It’s nearly February 29th, the day we laydeez are supposed to get down on our bended knees and propose. So it’s nice that Venus, the maiden planet, is in trousers right now, sorry that’s in Aries. And she is just reaching an opposition [...]

 “What if you had a really big seed and you could draw on it and if you planted it, your drawing would grow into a real thing?” “What would you draw?” “A kitten.” Neptune (imagination) is squaring my six-year-old’s Mercury in Gemini (story-telling) [...]

Pisces arrives. JW Waterhouse’s Miranda I felt some relief as the Sun slipped out of detriment in Aquarius and into Pisces yesterday. It was as if we’d suddenly remembered to take off the handbrake and now we’re gliding gently down the lane with the engine turned off to the [...]

JMW Turner. Snow Storm. Let me tell you why you haven’t heard from me for a few days. This is how it was meant to be. I was meant to go out to France on Wednesday and come back Sunday, having graced my elderly parents with my presence, and caused as little disruption to the […]

Tiger Mom: me me me As an indulgent, child-worshipping Western mother, the Tiger Mom thing really gets up my nose. In case you missed it, (which I’m sure you didn’t), last year a law professor at Yale published a book explaining how she was a brilliant mother as well as a [...]

“Am I in love? – Yes, since I’m waiting.” The other never waits. Sometimes I want to play the part of the one who doesn’t wait; I try to busy myself elsewhere, to arrive late; but I always lose at this game: whatever I do, I find myself there, with nothing to do, [...]

2011: Idealism + action / Neptune + Uranus Neptune, the god of idealism, illusion, fashion, faith, glamour and mist, is in the very last degree of Aquarius now. This is momentous because he will not return to this spot for, oooh, another 160 years or so. We are in the very end game of Neptune [...]

Blimey! It’s been quite a year. The rebel planet Uranus has fast-tracked the whole world into a revolutionary ferment. And Uranus is about to catapult forward on the same day as the Full Moon Lunar eclipse on Saturday. Fasten your seat belts. Also, if there’s something you want to [...]

The ugly step-sisters flank Cinderella in last year’s panto at the Oxford Playhouse. What is it about our brothers and sisters? It’s the longest relationship for most of us. And so often it is a knot of jealousy and loyalty, love and loathing, betrayal and trust. We share a [...]

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. [...]

Race ahead during an eclipse like this chap in the film Stagecoach All of us, without exception, are on a journey of evolution and change. Sometimes the road is smooth and even, we roll along at a steady pace; sometimes we stop for a long, long time at a roadside cafe pausing perhaps to enjoy [...]

Alison Uttley’s Little Grey Rabbit has the bright eyes and busyness of my darling mother out law I am blessed with a very lovely mother-out-law, who is both charming and sweet-tempered. What is more, she really loves my children. The feeling is mutual. The astrology is so apt, it makes [...]