We’ve just had a wonderful weekend here in Oxford discussing the meaning of Ceres, Vesta, Juno and Pallas in the horoscope. This is my general introduction to the weekend. Enjoy!

    As the goddess of grain and agriculture,  Ceres was one of the most important deities in Rome. The “world of Ceres”, a pit with a stone lid, was ceremonially opened three times a year – August 24, October 5 and November 8 – and offerings were left for the goddess of abundance. [...]

This American election is an archetypal battle, the stuff of fairytale or legend. The two sides line up, accusing each other of hatred, lying and lasciviousness; of baseness, vileness, bestiality. In their vagueness sometimes, the smears require a leap of imagination from the public. What’s [...]

The dwarf planet Ceres, named after the goddess of fertility and agriculture, takes four years to make her way through the Zodiac, spending about four months in each sign. But this year, due to retrograde, she will be spending an unusually long time in Aries and the early degrees of Taurus. [...]

On June 23, the people of United Kingdom will go to the polls to make the most important collective decision of a lifetime. Should we stay in the European Union or should we go? The decision taken now could change the country’s future absolutely — probably not in the ways predicted by any [...]

“1. “L AUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, […]

Someone asked last week when the white-masked people were coming to fight the black-masked Islamic State killers. Maybe the answer is, they are already here; but they’re busy. Healthworkers tackling the Ebola outbreak are sheathed in plastic. The white hoods and masks they wear do make [...]

… and on the subject of great American poets, it’s Walt Whitman’s birthday today. What a marvellous expression of the joyful Gemini soul. This is from the beginning of Leaves of Grass. Come, said my soul, Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,) That should I [...]

Poet, dancer, dreamer, darer, storyteller, Maya Angelou, died yesterday. Her life was a hero’s journey from mocked child to lauded grand dame. Her own life story became a mirror for America to reflect on. And then there are her pithy observations on everything from creativity, [...]

We all know it’s been a right old spring so far, or should that be a rite of spring (a ballet which ends with a ritual sacrifice)? With Jupiter in Cancer, emotions have been huge, billowing things, like overfilled water balloons leaking all over the place. Then there were the eclipses in [...]

I am giving a talk about the dwarf planet Ceres and its astrological influence on May 22 at the Aquarius Severn Astrological Society in Cheltenham. If you’re local do come. I hope I’ll have time to put some charts up from the audience so bring your details too. For details of how [...]

The rest of the world divorces, separates, splits up, breaks up, calls the lawyers, tears each others eyes out; film-star Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin “consciously uncouple“. We may all roll our eyes at the (conscious or not) superiority of their announcement, [...]

Eurasian shaman, early 20th century from a Russian ethnographic collection. “Sometimes a wild god comes to the table. He is awkward and does not know the ways Of porcelain, of fork and mustard and silver. His voice makes vinegar from wine. “When the wild god arrives at the door, [...]

Gravity opens with the longest, loveliest view of our pearlescent planet, so large and luminous — and behind it black space. The Earth is our home, our heart, our mother — but what happens when we cut the cord that ties us to her? (Spoiler alert. Pretty much all is revealed.) Dr [...]

The Return of Persephone by Frederick Leighton. Wikimedia Commons. Golden-bright Persephone, Demeter’s beautiful daughter, was picking flowers one day in the wide, scented valley of Enna in Sicily when Hades, the prince of hell, burst out of the ground and grabbed her and pulled her down [...]

Mother Rose and her baby. Mary Cassatt (Ceres conjunct MC in Scorpio) who became famous for her intensely emotional pictures of the mother-child bond Wikimedia Commons. To caress the soft downy scalp of a baby, her head small enough to cradle in the palm of your hand, her hands like [...]

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 [...]

Benedict XVI steps down tomorrow Pope Benedict XVI has the chart of a true “Prince of the Church“. He has the two planets of power, Saturn and Jupiter,  near the axes of his chart. This is something you see in royalty, people born to rule. In the case of the Pope, Jupiter is in the [...]

Indians have taken to the streets to protest against violence against women. India, the world’s biggest democracy, is a great big bhel puri of languages, religions, customs and manners.  Special interests are as diverse as religious customs, but for the past month Indians have been [...]

Gadgets, car chases, kiss kiss, bang, bang. Was there ever a deeper examination of the modern condition than James Bond? Just kidding. A Bond film is about wallowing in style over substance, stuff over emotions, materialism over spirituality. Ian Fleming: debonair For this country, of course, [...]