In my last post I pointed out that the extraordinarily brilliant writer Patricia Highsmith had dark, disturbing Lilith conjunct her Mercury, the planet of mind and writing. One of the things that makes her writing so remarkable is her ability to get under the skin of evil. Her greatest [...]

Joan Crawford. picture by George Hurrell Lilith – baby-strangler, seducer, mistress of secret knowledge, outsider, feminist icon — Black Moon. In Jewish folklore, she is Adam’s first wife. But her roots are much older – an Assyrian she-demon, a serpent goddess, queen of the underworld. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

BB Some people are emblems of their Sun sign. These three women all have Libra Sun, but more than that they have Libra at a critical angle of the chart. Venus, the goddess of beauty, rules Libra. Catherine Zeta Jones Brigitte Bardot – Sun Libra, Libra MC Catherine Zeta Jones – Sun [...]

Happy Durga Puja! In some parts of the world, the goddess has never been denied. She’s never had to hide her identity, change her gender – and she’s never lost her power. In India, she’s alive and well and riding a lion. This week, Hindus will be celebrating the Mother [...]

This is similar to the one I looked at but a photograph doesn’t tell you an eighth of it. I had a strangely lovely experience yesterday. I went to pick up a carpet that had been cleaned and got talking to the owners of the shop. Now I know very little about oriental carpets. I […]

You may have read some of my previous posts on the “tutelary deities” used by Roman astrologers. These came as a surprise to me when I read about them last year since I’d not come across them in any astrology texts or lectures that I’d attended previously. Suffice to [...]

Shopping for bread in the middle of a riot can be hectic. Tunisia. Have you looked closely at your grocery bill recently? It’s gone through the roof in the last 12 months right. I’m sure inflation for food is way ahead of the official figure. So I was intrigued to read this piece [...]

La Grande Bouffe Vesta was the most widely worshipped deity in the Roman empire since every house had a shrine to her – the hearth itself. That is why I associate the asteroid named after her with cooks. Back in January I wrote about Vesta in the charts of well-known cooks, pointing out [...]

The Queen’s trip to Ireland this week shifted Anglo-Irish relations a lot closer to normal. The relationship between Britain and Ireland has often been like a bad marriage: with Britain in the role of abusive husband. He loves her and he hits her. He can’t understand it when she [...]

“That old black ram is tupping your white ewe.” Othello strangles Desdemona  from Othello Othello rose to the highest public office; he fell because of a fatal flaw, a personality defect so big that it opened its mouth and swallowed him. Right now we are witnessing a tragedy. [...]

The Virgin at La Salette, France “MAY is Mary’s month, and I Muse at that and wonder why:     Her feasts follow reason,     Dated due to season—   Candlemas, Lady Day;         5 But the Lady Month, May, [...]

Imagine you are trotting down the Appian Way in Rome sometime around 202 BC. It’s a hot spring day and you’re working up quite a sweat. Your toga is flapping behind you and your slave, a rather dashing Gaul (with rippling muscles and bedroom eyes – hang on a minute…back to [...]

Pallas Athene from the Temple of Aphaia c.500 BC One of the readers of this blog recently pointed out that pattern-recognition was a key component of astrology – and my tiny astrologer’s mind went click and then clickety click click. I got excited. Because there is an asteroid associated [...]

I’ve always thought it more than a little ironic that the day of the year designated for lovers is February 14. After all the Sun is in Aquarius – and Aquarius, as we all know is cool, calm, friendly, intelligent, rational. But passionate? Romantic? Heart-broken? Love-struck? Frenzied? [...]

A 19th-century wooden centaur attributed to a Mr Dines. The planetoid Chiron, which orbits between Uranus and Saturn, was discovered in 1977 and has caused some excitement among astrologers ever since. It takes about 50 years to make it’s way around the zodiac, which means that you will [...]