“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, […]

For readers outside the Britain, here’s a quick summary of the British general election campaign. Voting is on May 7 (tomorrow). For most of the last couple of hundred years, voting in Britain has boiled down to a choice between two parties. Since WW2, that choice has been between Labour [...]

The rulers of Olympus, Jupiter and Juno will be exactly conjunct on May 17 at 14° Leo. This puts the royal couple in the royal sign together for the first time since 1966. But already they are just a few degrees apart. This is a very significant energy throughout May and into June that will [...]

Zeus & Hera were the ruling couple on Mount Olympus, but they weren’t always the happiest pair. Their rows were, naturally, epic — and caused all kinds of problems for us humans crawling around on Gaia’s skin. Those Greek myths, at least the ones we still know, focus on [...]

The goddess of nursing clearly decided she needed a personal word with me after that last post: I broke my wrist ice skating yesterday and spent the rest of the day at A&E! Hygeia turned up in the shape of a sweet bearded doctor. More later, I am off for round two.  

The image of Hygeia is a constant in modern times. Although we do not always recognise her for the goddess that she is, perhaps there are more images of her in the media than any other Greek goddess except Aphrodite. In the Greek pantheon, she is one of the daughters of Aesculapius, the [...]

The darkest night of the year is almost upon us. The nadir, the bottom, the grave, the tomb — and the womb. We are sliding gently into this zero hour, lighting our candles and fireworks to keep away the creeping shadows. Christmas is a beautiful celebration, and a deep understanding, of [...]

You wouldn’t expect a year like 2014 to sidle out quietly would you? Nope, it’s more of a door-slamming, hair-tossing, name-calling kind of exit. But before we get to the end of the month, there is a lot of intriguing planetary activity that promises to make December 2014 [...]

You are familiar with the story of Sleeping Beauty, so familiar that the horror of it has ceased to horrify. This is the story of a baby, born perfect, sentenced to death. She is cursed in the cradle by a vengeful fairy to die at 16. Only by the actions of a good fairy is her […]

Not only was the news this morning sad, it was troubling, horrifying, grotesque, macabre — satanic even. I’m referring to the murder of the American hostage Abdul-Rahman Kassig and 18 unnamed Syrian troops by Islamic State. All were gruesomely killed for the camera, and the video [...]

“….I am the incomprehensible silence and the much-remembered thought. I am the voice of many sounds and the utterance of many forms. I am the utterance of my name. Why, you who hate me, do you love me And hate those who love me? You who deny me, confess me, And you who confess me, […]

From egg to naiad to dragonfly. All our stories have the same beginning and the same ending. We are born and we die. A dragonfly may spend five years as a naiad and just a few months as a pond-skimming, silk-shimmering dancer. How does a naiad feel when it loses its husk and finds that, after [...]

In three days time — October 23 — we’ll experience the second of this month’s pair of eclipses. The first, the awesome and eerie lunar eclipse, on October 8, delivered some shocking revelations — Ebola, the economy, or something closer to home for many people. [...]

When Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal wanted to check the best way to cook a really nifty pulse, allegedly he wrote a fan letter to Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, the kitchen-nerd’s Bible. Harold McGee is the doyen of the science of cooking, from creating the perfect [...]

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 [...]

In the Mohawk language the word for shaman ” means “dreamer” in the sense of one who dreams strong, one who dreams true, one who can travel in dreaming and heal others inside the dreamspace. It also means “doctor” and “healer.” There we have the [...]

  Since his first work as a feather-clad glam-rocker in the art-school band Roxy Music in the early 1970s to his latest incarnation as producer of extraordinary “generative” music apps, Eno has been a dynamo of ideas, energy and experiment. He is incredibly prolific. If you [...]

… 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, [...]

May Magnificat May is Mary’s month, and I Muse at that and wonder why: Her feasts follow reason, Dated due to season— Candlemas, Lady Day; But the Lady Month, May, Why fasten that upon her, With a feasting in her honour? Is it only its being brighter Than the most are must delight her? [...]