All about Astrology
Short Introduction to Astrology
This introduction can help make you familiar with most of the astrological techniques and give you a basic understanding of how it's all done.
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Advanced Astrology Articles
Articles by and for astrologers and those who want to become one. Topics: Astronomy, psychology, mundane astrology, fixed stars and much more.
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First steps in Astrology
Although once written for children, this introduction in Astrology by Liz Greene is very interesting for everyone who wants to take first steps in astrology.
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Zero Aries, that point when the north-climbing Sun crosses the equator, marks the beginning of the tropical zodiac and launches spring in the Northern Hemisphere. It brings warmer days, renewed vitality, new growth and new optimism. Where Aries appears in your chart, you have a gift for beginnings, for blazing new trails, for leaping where spirit wants to take you.
Neptune is what we often think of as God/dess—or at least our spiritual, mystic connection to a higher self, space, or consciousness. Aries knows perfectly well, with the supreme confidence of a freshly minted arrival, that they are God/dess’s favorite! As a cardinal (initiating) sign, Aries embodies the confidence to be first, go first, head first—like the Fool pictured in Tarot, about to step off a cliff. Setting off on a brave new adventure, blazing trails, and doing it their way.
‘Moody’ and ‘unpredictable’ are adjectives that come up frequently in online descriptions of Elon Musk. ‘Business genius, ‘micro manager’ and ‘disruptor’ are also common. Employees are routinely warned to tread very carefully in his presence, and it has been reported (Sunday Times 12/1/25) that wearing patterned clothing, suede shoes or a fragrance can send Musk into a rage.
The time is now... And Neptune is performing the first of three wand hits on 0º Aries in a magical transit that will complete by the end of January 2026. It seems that we might literally take the “highway to hell” by confusing the godhead with our need for speed... Yet, alternatively, we could set out to feel our way into the Heart of the Cosmos, that mysterious centripetal point around which everything else revolves - also in our birth chart.
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new…" You would have to be hiding under a rock somewhere very remote without wifi not to have noticed the above, aptly summed up by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his prophetic 1842 poem "Morte d' Arthur.” The Old Order is indeed changing yet again, here in the early Spring of 2025.
In April, the influence of Neptune in Aries on the zeitgeist will become apparent for the first time. The first weeks of the month are relatively relaxed and bring quick successes. However, the quality of time is still somewhat confusing and forces us to define our goals well. In mid-April, deadlocked situations start to flow again. However, high tension will prevail in the last third of the month, and there could be violent confrontations.
For many months I journeyed in the underworld, scooped out, frightened beyond comforting, forced to surrender. I was so profoundly humbled, I had to let go of all the naive and selfish notions that had gotten me there. From that release, I was reborn. In the years since, I've been so grateful for that transit that when I talk about Pluto, I have to watch my words.
Gemini can correspond to splitting, doubling, and multiple points of view, but it is also a sign of ingenuity, invention, humor, and intelligence. Uranus enters Gemini on July 7, 2025, returns to Taurus briefly on November 8, then re-enters Gemini on April 26, 2026. Uranus departs Gemini in May 2033. During its stay, Uranus will be part of an important emphasis on air and fire signs and an exciting minor grand trine with Pluto in Aquarius and Neptune and Saturn in early Aries.
On the nights of May 10 and 11, 2024 an unheard of event occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area: the appearance of Northern Lights. Yet according to Norse mythology, Northern Lights signal the presence of Valkyries. Three days later, a delightful synchronicity occurred. The Bay Area’s WNBA team was christened and henceforth will be known as the Golden State Valkyries. The team’s birthchart has several notable features, but now the most compelling topic is the new name.
Experiential Astrology is a powerful healing tool whose origins are a mystery but which opens the doors to the magic and archetypal potency inherent in our birthcharts. Its core practice can act as a pivot that can bring together the astrological, psychological, therapeutic and spiritual in ways that are embodied, practical, emotionally relevant and profoundly healing.
In anyone’s chart, Chiron may represent aspects that we reject of ourselves. Parts of us that we find faulty and are ashamed to show openly. And we might see these characteristics as our own twisted nature. But because we all have Chiron in our horoscope, we are all ‘wicked’ in one way or another. In this article, the author takes a look at the hit musical fantasy movie and its connection to Chiron and the process of healing.
On April 18, 2025, the long journey of visionary, mystical, dreamy Neptune in Pisces ends, traveling into Aries's cardinal territory of initiatory, action-based courage. As the energy moves from Neptune's mystical egolessness in Pisces into the bold realm of Aries, it is an opportune time to decide what dreams and visions are worthy of action.
In the Uranus Zone, we're the square peg surrounded by a field of round holes. We know we're different. We suspect we're even smarter than the rest. We're rebellious. Too, we're inventive, progressive, and creative. We feel an urgency to improve things. But we won't always like the society our creativity aims to serve. Nor will it always like us.
Uranus doesn't come with a handbook of rulerships for things like foods, ingredients, plants or medicines as previous planets do whose associations have been studied for millennia, therefore, we were challenged to be inventive and come up with a dish that would suit a Uranian theme. What may a Uranus dish look and taste like?
Although dance and astrology seem worlds apart, the reality is that both invite us to explore and understand our internal and external world, and give us the opportunity to connect with something bigger than ourselves. Both share a focus on symbolic interpretation and connection with the universe, although they are expressed in different ways. Dance is an artistic expression that has existed since ancient times, and its importance transcends the mere interpretation of body movements. Throughout history, different cultures have used dance as a way to connect with the cosmos and channel universal energy.
A recurrent question raised by both astrology practitioners and sceptics is how can it be that individuals born with the same chart (born within few minutes of each other), whether biological twins or astrology twins, will not necessarily lead the same lives. While some astrologers will put it on the minute discrepancies caused by those few minutes gap to explain the divergent developmental courses, I would like to bring to this equation the soul age factor.
Saturn does bring lessons. And teachers are authorities (a Saturn word). But "teacher" and "Saturn" just weren't emotional equivalents for me. Here was another elementary astrology rule I had apparently missed. Nor was it the only time I'd find these two planets fully capable of dancing in each other's shoes.
As my friend and colleague Brian Clark is fond of saying, transits are about participation rather than anticipation. And with four of the outermost planets—Saturn to Pluto—moving sign in the coming months, 2025 is an opportunity to be actively involved in these changing times. The astrology I practise focuses on honouring the planets and recognising the invitation in the transit. So once we determine what is being activated in our chart during 2025, we can ask: Which part of our sacred contract are we being asked to read, understand, explore and carry out differently?
Tracking the sign of our parents' and (great)grandparents' natal Pluto can be such a life-changing experience. Going clockwise with our birth chart and mapping what Pluto was doing long before we were born feels like a homecoming release, since a light is cast on blind spots and conflicted areas where we tend to feel “fated” to lose power. There is power in clock-wise reading, for it reveals perceived missing links in the relationships across generations and “fatal attractions” among our ancestors, all of which many of us feel summoned to include now in our sense of identity.
The transiting Nodal Axis of the Moon ingresses into Virgo/Pisces on January 11, 2025. It will remain in these signs for 18 months and egresses on July 26, 2026. The Nodal Axis moves in a retrograde fashion through the zodiacal wheel and so the South Node will move from Libra to Virgo and the North Node from Aries to Pisces. In Evolutionary Astrology, the transiting Nodes are the leading edge of soul growth in the present incarnation.
Mars likes action. Notwithstanding the media's lust for violence, most of us lead relatively safe and quiet lives. This puts many a Mars warrior behind a desk, staring at a computer, attending business meetings, shopping, doing the laundry, maybe fantasizing on porn sites, or watching a privileged few athletes parade their Mars on TV.
This article is a primer for how the three main feminine asteroids Juno, Vesta and Pallas Athena plus dwarf planets Ceres and Eris contribute to a vital and holistic reclamation of feminine wisdom~gnosis through the 19month Venus Cycle.
My old friend, the dearly departed Carl Fitzpatrick, shared a helpful way of explaining something important about the meaning and influence of Uranus, and he did it by comparing its effects with those of Jupiter. “Both planets have a quality of ‘expansion,’” he pointed out, “but in uniquely different ways.”
Aretha Franklin fused tradition and innovation in her music just as she upheld family values while living an ‘unconventional’ life – seeming contradictions captured in her birth chart. Aretha’s genius flowered in large part because of what she went through...Not only the hardships she endured. But she was surrounded by the love of her family. And so, her genius was allowed to continue to flower...
Quite early, at age four or five perhaps, I gave up on being a girl. With Venus conjunct brainy Mercury, I've always gone for an androgynous, bookish style. Whatever passions I'm due from the Scorpio vibration, I've sublimated into 3rd house pursuits, as an ardent love for the beauty of language, a zeal for learning, a desire to probe the depths of thought.
From the beginnings of time we have watched the earth and her elements in full power, trying to understand the world we live in and how it works. The 4 elements make up all that is around us, we are used to experiencing them as the seasons change. But what of the elements within us? Many ancient cultures came to similar ideas of how the elements work within our bodies, flowing in health or being blocked in times of disease/imbalance.
As the planet of language, Mercury is both a Magician and a Trickster. There's magic in Mercury's words. Through prayer and sacred mantras, words link us to the gods; through the power of naming, words encourage our mastery over chaos; through language, we communicate with others; we invent, build, change minds, and reshape our world.
Listed by Time magazine as among the 100 most influential people in the world for 2024, the ‘dark pop’ singer-songwriter Dua Lipa has won seven Brit Awards and three Grammys so far. Her natal chart reveals a more complex picture than her image suggests – a Sun Leo with Moon in Cancer. The past is as vivid to her as the present…
This year's Advent calendar is all about the goddess in her various forms and her connection to astrological symbolism. Texts and images come from the wonderful oracle “Goddess Cycle” by astrologer Ulla Janascheck and artist Cambra Maria Skadé. We would like to thank the authors for their permission to publish excerpts from the oracle!
The discovery of the invisible planets in the solar system came with the advent of telescopes, expanding our view and understanding of the solar system and the universe. The newly discovered planets added a completely new layer to our chart analysis, and a greater focus on identifying the evolution of consciousness. In this article, Maurice Fernandez points out the interrelationship between the transpersonal planets Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune, and the personal planets Mars, Mercury, and Venus, respectively.
All of us have an area of life where we feel restricted, limited and unable to throw off some great burden that holds us back. As well as corners of our mind that we seldom look at, but where we know the darker aspects of the psyche linger. In astrological terms, these two psychological components are represented by Saturn and Pluto, and if you know where these are placed within a person’s chart, you know where they encounter issues in their life.
The Moon tells the juiciest stories. Our Moon remembers when we cried out in our diapers, wanting nurture, the warmth of touch, a breast or bottle of milk. It remembers what happened next, whether our needs were met and we learned our world was generous and cheerful or stingy and impatient. 
Taylor Swift, the girl who grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania, is today one of the world’s best-selling music artists. Her Eras tour, which ends on 8 December 2024, is the highest-grossing tour of all time, and in 2023 she attained billionaire status. Her tens of millions of fans worldwide are called ‘Swifties’ and she has 14 Grammy Awards to her name, among so many other accolades. What lies ahead for this mega-talented Sagittarian singer-songwriter – in life and love?
Over the years, I’ve received more inquiries about the 12th than any other house. The ones who write are usually in distress. Sometimes they’re new to astrology and are panicked to learn they’ve got planets here: “I’ve heard the 12th is a terrible house. Am I doomed?” Other times, it’s people who know all about the 12th. In fact, they’ve got a long tale of 12th house woe and are hoping I can predict the precise moment its trials will end. 
No planetary cycle is all good or all bad, since each and every one is inevitably a mixture of both. That’s especially true in the case of a planet like Pluto, which embodies such dramatic extremes in its essential nature. What’s been happening in America these last few years could be seen as a massive Plutonian power struggle. But there are also Pluto’s more constructive and transformative potentials, which allow us to see these struggles in a much broader context.
The 11th is the house of friends. Opposite the 5th, that sandbox of child-like innocence and fantasies of our specialness, the 11th house describes our first experience of tribal society, the playground where we meet the world.
How does one think of cooking with Saturn? Saturn food would be that which sustains and nourishes, does the job so to speak, without any fuss and bother, without any lavish extras or expensive outlay. Saturn is traditional and represents the past, family traditions and parental controls.
As schoolteacher, it was my privilege to teach Mary Shelley’s Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus to pupils both willing and not as part of their English Literature GCSE exams. As I listened to my pupils discussing the themes of the novel, it struck me how the defiance and inventiveness of Victor Frankenstein seemed to match the astrological themes found in Uranus; and the themes of death and resurrection seemed to match those of Pluto.
If you are an astrologer who regularly reads charts, you will almost certainly have found that people seek you out around their Saturn Return, when they are 27-30 years old. Similarly, many people will consult an astrologer near their Chiron Return, which occurs at age 49-52, closing the longest planetary cycle of our life thus far.
Every astrological house has its secret anguish. In the 10th house it's failure, the discovery that we didn't make good on our dreams. I'll never forget the chilling confession of one of my high school English teachers, the one with the impressive Jesuit education and the faint smell of alcohol always on his breath.
Here we feel adventurous and free. The 9th holds our personal Alps, where the spirit soars, the mind expands, and life acquires new meaning. The 9th takes us to uncharted territories and gifts us with new perspectives. It rules travel to faraway places, higher education, religion, philosophy, mysticism, divination.
The following article was first presented in 1986 as a lecture for the Institute for the Study of Consciousness in Berkeley, and then in a longer plenary address given to the First International Cycles and Symbols Conference, a gathering of psychologists and astrologers held in San Francisco in 1990. We believe it represents a particularly succinct statement about astrology’s broader implications in ways that continue to hold relevance for our times—perhaps even more today than thirty years ago. For that reason, we felt it was worth bringing to the public’s attention again.
Writing about the 8th house isn¿t easy. "After all," says my friend Geraldine, "who truly feels comfortable talking about their experiences of love, death, and sex outside the privacy of personal conversation?" The 8th carries your psychological inheritance—the potent invisible currents that no one talked about. 
In the 7th house we strive to harmonize here, one-on-one, with not just one but a parade of significant others—teachers and counselors, business colleagues and lovers. We can dance with these partners for just a moment, a season, or for all eternity. But through them we step outside ourselves. They provoke us to grow. Through 7th house people we become more whole. That sounds nice, but it’s often painful in practice, for the 7th isn’t just a dance floor.
The Astrological Association based in the UK has launched a new, free online astrology magazine. It’s called Stellar. And it’s designed specifically for the social media and digital age. The formal launch of Stellar takes place in late October 2024. 
The 6th house refers to daily time and how we spend it. Here most of us defer to the cultural norm — which is to do time mechanically. We fill it with productive activity: We work. Most of us have no choice. This could indeed be the “bad fortune” the ancients were talking about! However, most of us would admit that working is not entirely bad. There is something in us that likes a regular structure in our days. 
Allegories and myths are stories that help us to understand what it is to be human. Imagination is a playful kind of story making. We can use story to address the chart, to weave and create living interpretations to offer our clients images of possibility. We can gather words and images to describe all the astrology colouring our mind’s eye. As an example, and to move from theory into application, here are some playful stories offered in relation to lunar aspects.
This is the house of joy and spontaneous self-expression. It's the house of risk-taking, creativity, children, and love. There's a simplicity and innocence in this house that revels in the unbridled pleasure of being alive. What could be wrong with that? This is the house about which many are curious when they schedule astrology readings: Is a romance on the horizon? Will a child be conceived? Will a creative project come to fruition? 
The 4th is where we go when we collapse. It rules home and family, ancestors and homeland. It provides a literal retreat. Push ourselves too hard and we'll likely end up at home, sick in bed. But the 4th is just as much a retreat of the imagination. It is our psychic hearth. It holds the memories that both comfort and haunt us. As the base of our chart, it represents both the ground and mystery of our being.
Joanna Grant shows how she interprets an horary horoscope for the sale of a house. The owner was always aware that the house held painful memories and that moving out of the house would ultimately be a positive step. Is now the right time to sell?
The 3rd house rules siblings, neighbors, short trips, grammar school, the acquisition and use of language. But underneath these keywords lies a profound mystery: our fundamentally human dance of development--of curiosity, imitation and communication, of adapting to and connecting with our immediate world.It is not so much a house of "things" as it is a zone of activity.
The rhythm of the Moon gives us the rhythm of nature. We evolved with the Moon governing the ebb and flow of natural energy. Once in harmony with nature's energy, it is surprising how easily we can take care of ourselves, our health, gardens, farms, pets, and animals. Basically, we need to pay attention to two rules: Moon phases which are waxing and waning, and Moon signs, which are either fertile or barren.
After its discovery in 1846, astrologers debated the possible meanings of Neptune in horoscopes, and over time eventually settled onto a few basic qualities, which included such keywords as spiritual, nebulous, illusions, sensitivity etc. But there is one aspect of its influence that’s been too often overlooked by astrologers. What is that, exactly? In a word, obligation.
When you're discussing the 2nd house, you have to talk money. Yet in most spiritual circles, money is a dirty word. Craving dollars is an affront to spirit and decidedly uncool (except of course, for those spiritual teachers whose hands are always open for donations).
There are houses on the coast built right to the cliffs, with breath-taking views of sea and sky. What would life be like being born into such a home? Or how different might one’s perspective be, starting out in the desperate tangle of a South Bronx tenement? Location counts. And it makes its strongest statement in the 1st house of your chart. 
Symbols are like magical doors - one day Saturn will tell you about skin, bones and joints and another day about boundaries, structures and morality. If Jupiter expands whatever it touches, Saturn does the opposite. Saturn contracts, tightens, structures, tests, shrinks, condenses, slows down.
“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time…” Andre Gide (1) That quotation occupied a prominent place in my kitchen for a very long time. I needed all the inspiration I could get, having been pitched into what amounted to a frightening inner voyage of discovery with no landmarks, no map, no companions – and no idea if I would ever again reach dry land.
Since Chiron's discovery in 1977, astrologers have been experiencing and exploring his themes, listening to new tales that resound to his ancient myth, and coming to some understanding of his archetypal impact. Liz Greene sees Chiron as essential in deepening our understanding of solar consciousness; for in order to choose to live life to the full, we have to face that part in us that would rather seek death.
In this article, Liz Greene sets her gaze on the Sun and the solar god Apollo. She writes in her sparkling, lucid style about the main mythic functions of Apollo, namely cosmocrator, prophet, breaker of family curses, healer, and culture-bringer, and the relevance of these to understanding the astrological Sun.
"It is Haumea’s creative genius and prominence in the upcoming Pluto Aquarius ingress that has led me to the world of genetic engineering, cloning and other scientific manipulations of DNA, the stuff of life", writes Lianne McCafferty. "I hope that in looking at not only Haumea herself but also Haumea in relation to Pluto, an avenue has perhaps opened leading to further research and understanding of our future evolution".
Jupiter’s archetype is expansive, optimistic, ambitious and lucky, it exudes confidence and indulgence in all of life’s good things. To cook from the inspiration of Jupiter is to find food that enhances and prolongs life, foods that represent longevity, that grow quickly, plentifully and easily.
Every 36 years, Saturn and Neptune come back together. As they swim the Piscean depths today, we find them at the end of their last 36-year cycle and the beginning of a new one in 2026. In speaking with astrologers, whenever the subject of Saturn and Neptune comes up, there is an ominous overtone of dread. But is there an upside to their fearsome associations with lack and loss?
Between 2025 to 2035, Pluto will go out-of-bounds (to the south) for the last time for the next few thousand years. History tells us that a “redemption, a revolution, a mass-awakening of consciousness becomes not only possible but likely” in the time ahead.
The wound of Chiron runs much deeper than being a surface scratch. There are actually two wounds we are taking about and according to myth and a dash of psychotherapy one could speculate whether these wounds are indeed connected. We often see our own inner wounds materialised into life situations that again perpetuate the original wound. 
Both Jupiter and Uranus share an unrestrained, adventuresome, often stormy, character. As boundary crossers, both disrupt social and collective patterns through expansion, inflation, rebellion or interruption. The convergence of these two planets evokes images of innovative shifts in education, culture, religion and science, as well as liberation movements, original trends, and collective protests in response to an intensification of social inequality. It suggests a growth of Promethean qualities, a spirit of change and rebellion against rigid definitions and structures.
We think of Mars as a dynamic force. But its cycle can also be used to guide us on how and where to direct constructive energies. Mars is the principle of action, the force. To quote Erin Sullivan, it’s the planet that “gets us out of bed” and as such is the cosmic coach that guides our personal development as he orbits our personal Sun.
Over the course of 6-7 years, the Mercury retrogrades move through the four elements in reverse zodiacal order, from the fire signs, to water signs, to air signs, to earth signs.
I first became aware of this phenomenon through the late great Erin Sullivan’s seminal work, Retrograde Planets. She explains that this elemental expression of the retrogrades is collective. In my research and practice, I have definitively found this collective influence to be very true and often very obvious. 
Welcome to the third installment of Artful Counsel for Modern Times. Here, we turn to a zodiacal council of savvy elders and young wizards for pithy revelation, punchy wit, and inspired art that can make you happier and wiser when all else fails.
Over the years that I’ve been following planetary movements through the signs, it’s been fascinating to see what sorts of historical changes happen around those times when the slow-moving planets first move into new zodiacal signs – a process astrologers call ‘ingresses’.
Some films entertain. Others change the world. Even people who look down on Star Wars as childish or ridden with clichés must still recognize that it struck a chord as few films ever had before. Now, almost half a century after the premiere of the first film in the series, retroactively titled A New Hope, its characters remain cultural archetypes, and the vocabulary it created has entered the collective dictionary.
The 27 Club is a notional list of musicians, artists or actors who died at age twenty seven, often as a result of drug and alcohol abuse, or violent means such as homicide, suicide, or transportation-related accidents. Originally, the deaths of several twenty-seven-yearold musicians, namely Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and James Morrison from The Doors between 1969 and 1971 led to popular supposition that deaths are more common at this age.
Search "astrology" in Psychology Today or any other mainstream clinical magazine and you will find pages of scathing articles claiming its relationship to narcissism and lack of scientific legitimacy in general. It would come as no surprise for anyone to think that many in the scientific community would likely align with this critical position as well.
In this extract from Erin Sullivan’s reissued book Where in the World? the rectification tool of Astro*Carto*Graphy is applied to the disputed chart of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. Is Libra or Sagittarius the rising sign? The author reaches a surprising conclusion. This essay is part of a seminar given in 1997 shortly after the princess’ death and includes audience interaction.
Beyond Mars and before Jupiter we find the 1000’s of asteroids that circulate between them. Yet the largest of them all and the 1st to be discovered in 1901 was Ceres. In 2006, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in the same group as Pluto, Eris and others and is now very much considered part of our planetary pantheon. So, too, we include her here for our next inspiration for Cosmic Cooking.
Astrologer Erin Sullivan passed away in December 2023 after a long illness. She worked as a consultant astrologer from 1972 and taught in Canada, the USA and the UK. She lived in London for a time and was also a lecturer at Liz Greene's Centre for Psychological Astrology. Read more...
The Natal Chart is the tool we use to work "with ourselves," to "understand ourselves better," to feel more "inner" fulfillment through the recognition of lights and shadows, and potentials. This is absolutely necessary. However, it is no longer sufficient. Inner work is fundamental to the development of healthy bonds with others, with the environment, and with life. The personal process must be integrated into the global process, which is collective.
Forty-six years ago, Chiron was discovered by Astronomer Charles Kowal on November 1, 1977. Kowal timed the discovery to “A few minutes before 10 am." The chart was rectified by astrologers Zane Stein and Al H. Morrison to 9:56 am in Pasadena, California. Chiron is in mid-Aries at the 2023 December Solstice, about 7° from the True North Node, a conjunction that perfects on Feb 19, 2024.
Looking back at recent history, many of us can recall the last conjunction of Saturn with Neptune in Capricorn: November 1989, marking the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire. The next Saturn–Neptune conjunction will occur at the 0° Aries point, the first degree of the zodiac, itself marking the birth of a new era. The conjunction will be near exact in July 2025, and will perfect at 0° Aries on February 20, 2026.
On 20 April 2024 the Jupiter-Uranus exact conjunction occurs in Taurus – and this is not just an aspect for one day. Its ‘influence’ occupies a considerable timeline from build-up to aftermath, and here I examine what the past tells us of its historical correlations when these two powerhouse celestials join.
In the same way that cinema can be merely either for pleasure or education, do we listen to astrology for mere entertainment, draining our emotions or perhaps to better understand the deeper pathways of possibility beyond that of our conscious sensory awareness? The intention of our astrology is a personal choice, but there exists a deeper, more evolutionary transition beyond that of the ego.
Did you know that wines taste differently on different days? I suppose we all know the experience of drinking a lovely wine on holiday, and, taking it home, its delicious flavors seem to have transformed into … well, something else. But when Ralph De Amicis sent me the Astrology Wine Tasting Calendar, explaining that the wine tasting experience changes with every Moon sign, I was hooked (enjoying a good glass myself now and again).
Munakara is a word used to describe a condition arrived at through a particular sequence of planetary rulerships. Munakara is a two-step process based on the planetary sect principle that each of the seven original planets can be divided into either the diurnal or the nocturnal sect. This is determined by whether a planet’s qualities (hot, cold, wet and dry) are compatible with, or modified by, their belonging to one of the two sect divisions.
No matter how far back we explore the realms of myth and religion, we invariably meet the Sun, a timeless and ubiquitous symbol that holds profound meaning across cultures and civilizations. The earliest forms of religious worship across cultures and continents are intrinsically linked to the Sun. It’s no surprise, as It is hard to ignore the physical presence of the Sun, as it dominates the heavens.
In 1999, Time ranked Pokémon mascot Pikachu #2 on its annual Best People of the Year list. Yellow and mouse-like with red, supercharged cheeks, according to Pokémon lore, “When several [Pikachus] gather, their electricity could … cause lightning storms.” Pokémon indeed struck like lightning, taking the world by storm as the highest-grossing media franchise of all time.
In the realm of astrology, the winds of change have been blowing since astrologer Bernard Eccles penned his dissertation in 2004. In this, he mused about the fate of astrology, illuminating the decline of its allure, even as New Age and spiritual trends flourished. Bernard’s work dissected the reasons behind this fall from grace, offered potential lifelines, and envisioned a symbiotic future with ecological and neo-pagan movements.
Well, it’s that time of the year again. Mercury went retrograde on 13th December 2023, not resuming direct motion again until 2nd January 2024. I was entertained by my colleague Victor Olliver’s brief posting on Facebook today, and his opening salvo, ie ‘…Such is my contempt for the Mercury retrograde nonsense…’
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. So when I was asked to distill some of my ideas for a magazine issue devoted to the Leo/Aquarius axis, I immediately thought back to one image in particular that, to my mind, best captured the essence of this zodiacal dynamic: Two or three children on a playground, laughing and singing in blissful abandon, while circled around them are a dozen scientists in white lab coats, carefully observing and recording every move for a research study on the nature of play.
There are a few basic inquiries that comprise an astrologer’s bread and butter. One of the top three questions must be “Is this a good relationship?” Honestly, my eyebrows furrow when I hear this question. Don’t get me wrong. I am always inquisitive to find the answer and excited to evaluate the charts. The furrow forms because the client usually has an agenda and wants a “Yes.” Unfortunately, the answer may not be what the client wants to hear.
The marriage of creative media and communication technology was the great gift of the late 20th century. But what astrologically led to this integrative lifestyle, and how did it become ubiquitous with modern living? In this article, I shall explore how the Uranus–Neptune conjunction of the early 1990s occurred under very special circumstances, how it influenced the media we consume today, and how it was tested under extreme conditions in 2020.
Forget the most common version of the Star of Bethlehem: it was not a Saturn-Jupiter conjunction that shone down on the baby Jesus, but Venus! In this scientifically based derivation, philosopher and archaeoastronomer Dieter Koch deciphers the reports from the Gospels and comes to a surprising conclusion.
“Prometheus is a kind of inspirational daimon. He is a force within the psyche that has access to knowledge of how the cosmic system works, and how to apply it to the everyday affairs of human beings.” In understanding this, we gain a truer sense of what Uranus is about.
It all started on Facebook, as a way of drawing attention to his services as an astrologer. Jean-Marc Pierson had studied astrology and was trying to make a living from it, so he started writing posts on Facebook. People told him he should write a book. So, he started a blog, never imagining that he would actually really write a book. Well, ultimately, he did end up doing exactly that!
In Australia as in many countries around the world, our native wildlife is being threatened. This is due to the natural habitat slowly being eradicated due to new housing developments, roads, pipelines, mining and other hallmarks of industrial developments. The majority of Australian’s couldn’t care less as to what is happening to the wild life as long as it does not impinge on their life style and happiness. But here is the story of one person who does.
The traditional Astrodienst Advent Calendar is online! Every day until Christmas, astrologer Liz Greene takes you on a little journey into the mythological backgrounds of zodiac signs and planets. We hope you enjoy it!
We know there is a direct connection between astrology and mythology, but this is not neutral, but situated in a time and space, referring to the cultures of Greece and Rome: war was a core ethos, worshipping male gods, with women occupying secondary and suffering positions; mythical stories were instrumental to certain forms of production and organization, being a central part of that society and culture.
If the boomers and the Generation X, the Pluto in Leo, Virgo and Libra, are the Facebook generations and the Pluto in Scorpio, often associated with the millennials, is the Instagram generation, then Pluto in Sagittarius, Generation Z, must be the Tik Tok generation. Social media habits change with each generation, and it certainly doesn’t take long before anyone is a dinosaur at the speed of which things are moving for the time being.
On October 10, 2019, Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature, noted by the Swedish Academy for her “narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.” Olga is an important figure for the astrological community to be aware of.
Astrodatabank is an extensive collection of horoscope data you can use free of charge for astrological research. The interview with Alois Treindl gives an insight into the beginnings and background of this valuable service.
This article is the first in a series of selected examples of interpretations that Christl Oelmann published on her website between 2010 and 2019 for learners to practise. We would like to thank her for her kind permission to publish them here. There are three more case studies, if you use the 'continue' arrow at the top or bottom of the article.
Strictly speaking neither mistress nor prostitute, the courtesan occupies an ambiguous role in national histories – a usually educated, glamorous, strong-willed and sexually alluring companion of male monarchs and plutocrats. She nonetheless retained an independent mindset and acted largely in her own interests, thinking ahead to the time when she might need to find other protectors in a society of patriarchs. The charts of three such women are examined – do they share certain features?
All transits invite us to grow further into ourselves, each planet in its own way. Jupiter, for example, motivates by giving us a green light forward; Mars motivates us with a boost of adrenalin. Less comfortably, Saturn motivates us by showing us what we could be, but are not yet. Saturn plays a long game: that of getting us to know ourselves better and better through the passage of time.
Johannes Schneider spent decades researching the psychological meaning of colors and developed his own color test. Later he came to link his system with the basic astrological principles, which resulted in a convincing tool: the Color Horoscope.
Rock-pop singing legend Tina Turner passed away on May 24, 2023, at the age of 83. Tina was born with Uranus retrograde at 19° Taurus 12’, and on the day of her death Uranus was at 19° Taurus 46’. She died one week into her Uranus Return, just following the first of what would be three conjunctions total. To take a brief look at the life of this extraordinary woman from an astrological perspective, what does her birth chart reveal?
Over the years I've had any number of friendly debates with colleagues as to exactly how astrology works. During those exchanges I've come across multiple theories which try to answer that question, drawing on such wide-ranging concepts as geo-magnetism, quantum non-locality, fractals, gravity, string theory, sacred geometry, Jung's theory of "synchronictiy," or perhaps some subtle-but-as-yet-unknown energy of nature.
On 23rd March 2023, the planet Pluto, symbolising the most deep working and powerfully transformative energy in our solar system, entered Aquarius (for the first time since April 4th 1777). On that exact March date, we saw the beginning of the steep upward curve of public awareness of the far-reaching implications for good or ill of the Artificial Intelligence revolution. It was the day that OpenAI connects ChatGPT to the internet.
There has been a lot of rhetoric about genders in the media. When filling in forms, there are often three boxes you can tick. Are you female, male or other? Emotive articles are frequently in the news concerning gender identity and gender politics. Astrology often employs the terms ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ to describe the different qualities or energies of the signs and planets.
When I was a young child I had a dream that set the tone of much of what one day I would consider my vocation. I dreamed that the Moon was trying to kidnap a close family male friend and I was desperately trying to convince her not to. Seeing that she was unmoved by my efforts, I called upon the Sun who eventually convinced the Moon to allow the man to stay...
In late 2020, the asteroid Vesta entered tropical Virgo for an extended stay, ingressing on October 23, 2020, going retrograde at 21º 24’ on January 20, 2021, stationing direct at 6º 47’ Virgo on April 21, and finally emerging from the Virgin’s clutches and entering the Scales on July 19, 2021.
Vesta called to me, and I began an extended dialogue with her through the creation of seven talismanic oils. Along the way, she taught me some potent new lessons about her work, and how to interpret her that I would like to share.
I have met a guy with whom I have a lovely connection, we get on very well, but he is going off travelling in a few months, so our relationship has to be casual. Sometimes I'm fine with this idea, as I'm not looking for anything long-term and am happy to enjoy our time together, but I also worry about getting attached and having my head wrecked again. To continue seeing him or not is my question.
Around the beginning of this century three small orbiting objects were discovered, and consequently named Eris, Haumea and Makemake. Their sightings have challenged the IAU in reconsidering the status of Pluto as a ‘planet’, as it became evident that it is not the only small celestial body whose solar orbit lies beyond Neptune’s path. Therefore Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake are now considered to be ‘Dwarf Planets’.
Genethlialogy, or natal astrology, is predicated on the understanding that the placement and condition of the planets at the moment of a person’s birth explain and contribute to that person’s character and fate. These influences are
what gives rise to the notion that one’s soul — or psychē, if you prefer — is endowed with vices and virtues during its planetary descent; a concept rooted in the deepest strata of the Platonic tradition.
In Medical Astrology, there are two main charts to assess when consulting with a client. We can create a decumbiture (horary) chart for the moment the person falls ill or asks for help. This chart gives us a better sense of the present medical situation and can offer clues that help with diagnosis and possible courses of treatment. We also look to the natal chart as a blueprint of a person’s core strengths and weaknesses and the lessons that may help them navigate their health issues over their lifetime.
British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.
Are you ready to embark on an adventure in astrology and grapple with new terms, such as ‘arc opening’, ‘resonance’, ‘event ecology’ and ‘personal points’? Then take a deep breath and read on. The author gives an introduction to Symmetrical Astrology which invites us to look at stargazing work in an entirely fresh way for the 21st Century and offers a more 3-D view of our lives.
In this article, I will briefly describe the generational impact of the natal sign position of Pluto, including its shorter transits. But first, we need to understand the limitations of Generational Astrology. No one has ever learned astrology just by reading a textbook. In order to get real information about generational trends, we have to depend on polls and surveys and the observations of academics who make it their business to follow these trends.
Mars, the ancient war god, would not be what you would automatically associate with cooking and food, yet it’s curious that male chefs remain dominant in the restaurant world. It must be the love of knives and cutting! Mars relates to all things red and sharp, spiky, hot and iron-rich. It represents strength, stamina and courage.
Since 1939 Pluto has been moving at roughly the same rate as Neptune, and the two planets change sign at almost the same time. Because of this we have quite specific generational tendencies, described by the signs of Neptune and Pluto. This dance between the two outer planets continues until the 2040s: a hundred years of sextile companionship which defines the underlying themes of 7 generations.
The planet Venus is the brightest object shining in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. Venus is attractive and alluring. When you see her in the sky, notice if she speaks to you softly or invites you to pay attention to something new. Learn the value of the Venus cycle and explore personal astrology affirmations for each zodiac sign.
Chiron’s story is most clearly and poignantly enacted, not on the global stage by armies, health organisations, politicians, and politically motivated groups, but in our most personal exchanges with the people closest to us. The astrological Chiron seems to be as much an enigma today as it was at the time of its discovery in 1977.
In Venus retrograde we have the opportunity to consider second chances. The planet Venus will be retrograde in the sign of Leo, July 23 to September 3, 2023. In his book, Hellenistic Astrology, The Study of Fate and Fortune, Chris Brennan mentions the word retrograde comes from the Greek word anapodismos meaning “walking backwards”, or hupopodizontes meaning “retracing steps.”
One summer evening, I found myself as a guest speaker talking to a rather unlikely audience: the national sea bird rescue organisation. Many of them probably wondered why on earth the event organiser engaged an astrologer to give this month’s talk. I wondered the same, but I have found that explaining astrology to a completely lay audience is one of the most exciting lecture experiences I have.
Pluto is in Aquarius since March 23, 2023 and we don't keep track of the lectures, webinars, articles, and videos published on this subject: we are living in an extra-ordinary age and Pluto could well be the key to the evolution of our world, for better or for worse. Is it for instance a mere coincidence that the abrupt and alarming emergence of the AI (Artificial Intelligence) is now taking place?
On more than one occasion I’ve had a student or client come to me and say something along the lines of, “I have my Venus in Virgo. I’ve heard that this is the worst placement for Venus. Is that true?” I find comments like that disappointing, because they reflect a basic misunderstanding of horoscopes and the nature of astrology generally. We have to be careful in placing rigid value judgments on our astrological interpretations.
As in the twelfth harmonic, to calculate the Dwad, each chart factor is multiplied by twelve and converted back to degrees and minutes of longitude - but its Sign is found visually from its original, radix, sign position; every 2½ degrees of the "parent" sign becomes a micro-sign, and the sequence starts with the parent sign itself. Aries starts with Aries and ends with Pisces, but Taurus starts with Taurus and ends with Aries, and so on.
A few years ago a woman named Anna came for a consultation. She was in her late 50s, in the midst of her second Saturn Return. Australian, of Chinese descent, she was the mother of a student of mine who was learning Craniosacral Therapy. Anna had just come back from Peru where she’d been participating in ceremonies using plant medicines such as Peyote and Ayahuasca. She told me that in Peru she had been using these medicines to create a direct line to the energies underlying each of the planets.
Saturn has entered Pisces on March 7, 2023, where it will remain through February 13, 2026. Saturn has an important relationship to Pisces, bringing structure and order to the boundaryless oneness of Pisces. The interests of the whole need to be reorganized and guardrails established against extremes. Saturn’s power is being able to walk into a room and respectfully command attention, requiring that its issues be addressed. It will be very interesting to see how the organizing principles of Saturn play out in the Piscean arena of infinite possibility and compassion.
As Saturn brings boundary to the boundless, form to the formless, and limit to the limitless, it is a most suitable vessel for navigating the expansive Piscean ocean. Artists and designers sail the Piscean seas of creative potential, not always guaranteed to make landfall, yet with Saturnian discipline and dedication, this wealth of possibilities can, in time, be brought into form. One such Piscean sailor is the legendary haute couture (“high fashion”) designer Yves Saint Laurent
The American writer and humourist Mark Twain allegedly wisecracked that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but often it rhymes”. His words came to mind as I studied two urban fires, separated by 90 years, which destroyed large parts of a city I used to call home. The first fire was caused by an act of war during the opening year of the American Revolution.
From a very young age, I was fascinated by the idea of discovering my life’s calling and purpose. In my vivid imagination, I thought an angel messenger would come and speak my calling to me, clearly letting me know what I was here to do. My Catholic teachers planted the idea that God would let us know our calling; I started quieting my mind to ensure I wouldn’t miss the summons.
What’s the book about? As the title states: it is about Draconic Astrology, and it is meant as an introduction. This is very useful, as Draconic seems to be on the rise in the astrological world, from a niche interest to ever-spreading popularity (in certain niches of the astro community). But what do Dragons have to do with astrology, you might ask. A fair question, which is explained in the first chapter of the book, which provides a brief history of Draconic Astrology.
With 2023 beginning and ending with Mercury in retrograde motion, this year offers a prime opportunity to more deeply examine our relationship to our own intuition and clairvoyance. If forward motion Mercury focuses on details and day-to-day thinking, retrograde motion Mercury loves the big picture and intuitive perception. Every Mercury retrograde cycle gives us a chance to listen more and plan less.
On a glorious spring day in Sydney, I met with a friend and esteemed astrologer for lunch. The conversation flowed from what was happening in our lives to astrology. “How are you tracking with your midlife transits?” “Don't ask,” she began. “I have lost all respect for Pluto. He turned my life upside down this year. I’m not the same as I was before.”
I have decided to talk mainly about transits because I have long been disillusioned with some of the effects that transits are supposed to produce. You see it seems that we in astrology are not exacting enough from our science. I think we have to ask whether we can refine our techniques to get something more nearly approaching perfect results.
The Part of Fortune is the most well-known among the calculated points known as the Arabic Parts or Lots. Even though it is no celestial body, I have found that they work wonders for obtaining a fresh, empowering direction about our destiny as individuals, the path of personal development that C.G. Jung called individuation.
Two major ingresses occur in March 2023: Saturn enters Pisces March 7th, while Pluto enters Aquarius for the first time on the 23rd. Amidst these celestial thresholds, Jupiter and Chiron conjoin March 12th, inaugurating their cycle that unfolds over the next 13 years. Their new cycle invites us to reconsider their archetypal bond and how we may be more conscious of weaving their ways of wisdom together.
Venus the goddess of beauty and love holds the rulership over everything beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, sweet and delicious. She answers to our tastes, what we like and dislike in arts, music and sensual pleasures. When considering Venus in cooking we want to be able to combine all of these principles into something that looks and tastes divine!
How are you feeling these days? I have been – unusually for me – pretty lackadaisical, unmotivated. Left field unpredictability, some of it welcome, some not, has been a distinct theme. Inability to make firm plans, experiencing even tentative plans having to change…sharing with fellow humans both locally in my small nation of Scotland, nationally in the UK, and internationally a general feeling that the world is falling to bits, the Old Order is no longer sustaining us and somehow has to change… Does any of this sound familiar?
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed the astrological field in recent years that there’s something of a divide between those who adhere to more traditional methods and those practicing so-called “modern astrology” (also sometimes referred to as “psychological astrology”—but more on that in just a bit).
Her presence felt yet rarely embodied; her wisdom offering insight and a fresh perspective on deeply felt matters; never one to seek acknowledgement or acclaim, this spirit guide presence within your cosmic consciousness serves to plant liminal ideals in your mental body to enable you to unite heaven with earth. Discovered on the 15th of February 1997, she is the largest known Centaur, orbiting just outside that of Saturn yet extending beyond Uranus’ perihelion, with whom she is a steady 4:3 orbital resonance, generating a tone akin to the 4th in contemporary musical theory.
“The human being is not a discrete ‘self’ but born into a moment where much else is taking place…we are an amalgam of many drives that seek expression within us.” This philosophical contention challenges ways in which astrology is currently researched and practised – for instance, do Jungian psychological ‘theories’ (as applied to the horoscope) limit understanding of ourselves?
Most of us are familiar with the three phases or archetypes of the Divine Feminine known as Maiden, Mother, and Crone (MMC). These “faces” of the feminine have passed to us through the years as representing the Triple Goddess and the Moon’s three phases. In this article, I will explore why we need to retire this triune and work instead with a tetrad of Maiden, Mother, Queen, and Crone.
Apart from sharing genetics and DNA, twins usually have virtually identical, or at least very similar, natal charts. From an astrological standpoint, one can expect them to share the same personality traits and to have similar life experiences, especially since, in most cases, they also receive the same upbringing.
Humanity currently stands at one of the most significant transformational turning points in its long history. With climate change and the accompanying extreme temperatures and weather conditions; economies rising and falling across the globe on a dime; divisive governmental stalemates and the rise of authoritarian rule in many countries; culture seemingly eroding, with the arts and artists as we knew and experienced them being eclipsed by “content” and influencers...
The Sun is the heart, centre and life support system of a living, breathing Solar System, which is as dependant on it as any body is to its heart. The amount of power coming to Earth from the Sun is estimated at over 1kw per sq meter per second. This energy isn’t as obvious and straightforward as we might think, because it doesn’t come to us in the form of heat. Mostly it arrives as light, which is absorbed by the Earth (and sea) and then turned into heat which is released into our atmosphere.
In the zodiac, the second stop on the path of learning is Virgo. Learning is different from Gemini in this process. Virgo takes over the direct self-expression, the revealed raw creativity from the previous sign, Leo, to polish and bring them to perfection. After Leo, this process is one of ore raw material processing, the process of making oneself ready to function within a larger whole and be of use to it.
In Pisces, Saturn loses its footing, its certainty. The maps we formerly used to navigate the world may no longer apply. Our guidance system becomes erratic. As Saturn leaves Aquarius on March 7, 2023, the last of its ‘home’ signs, the old rules crumble, and the new ones may be hard to grasp. We are asked to take a leap of faith and develop other forms of perception as the boundaries of the world shift and change.
In Britain’s 1890s, Queen Victoria’s long, dreary, po-faced reign of sexual hypocrisy experienced a reality wake-up call on a spectacular scale. A scandal erupted that makes the lurid Depp/Heard court case of 2022 look like a village panto. Two men – the famous, middle-aged playwright Oscar Wilde and the young, pretty aristocrat Lord Alfred Douglas nicknamed Bosie – had fallen in love.
The current constellation of Mars retrograde in Gemini is drawing to a close: Mars will be stationary direct on January 12, 2023. You can now read the complete article on how this constellation can be used with regard to how you can improve your way of communicating.
To consider Mercury in cooking, does seem quite odd, until we look closer at this trickster's associations. Mercury is the planet associated with learning, communication, cognition, and perception, it represents how we assimilate, exchange and share information, reading, the movement and exchange of ideas through speaking, writing & networking. As messenger of the gods, he symbolizes our thoughts and our minds that can go anywhere!
Pluto was discovered at the Lowell Observatory on 18 March in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh, an amateur astronomer from Kansas who was hired by the Observatory specifically to photograph the sky with a special camera and search for a hypothetical planet predicted from the calculations of the Observatory's founder, Percival Lowell, who had died 14 years earlier.
The impact of family relationships and history is inescapable. In my practice, I combine the knowledge system of astrology with the therapeutic technique of systemic or family constellations to analyze client issues and support their personal development and goal attainment.
After about 15 years in Capricorn, Pluto's gradual transition into Aquarius begins in 2023. This sign change will take place in three steps. In 2023, Pluto will first change to Aquarius for about three months, and then return to Capricorn for a little more than seven months. In 2024, it will remain in Aquarius for more than seven months before returning to Capricorn for two and a half months in the fall, from where it will finally and permanently change to Aquarius on November 19, 2024.
Not only are children the living embodiment of a moment in time, but they are also the extension from that moment into the future — both collectively for the evolution of the human race, and for individual families to carry on their legacy. Nature has it that we are immortalized through our children by passing along our genetic inheritance as well as our planetary patterns in infinitely myriad ways.
The birth chart is a map in which the planets, which symbolise the psychic functions, describe life trends and potential. If Heraclitus was right in stating that “character is destiny”, then we could say that the qualities with which we are born suggest the course that our life will take.
Standing alone, between space and time, retrieving both new and old, a mediator of worlds, a guardian of those memories stored within both the Deep Mind and the heavens, a Guide whose prompts opens pathways familiar and whose voice is felt and experienced but not heard. Alien to this physical realm yet oddly familiar, a being whose presence occasions your everyday awareness but prefers to hover just beyond the physical senses, the Walker strikes a lonely path, without permanent home or solid family, yet his presence offers insight and healing for those with eyes to hear and ears to see.
This study explores some areas of my developing relationship with astrology in general and the Moon’s Nodes in particular. It also speaks of aspects of my work as an astrology teacher and writer, focusing here on the significance of the Moon’s nodal axis and eclipses in both personal and collective life.
When we think of the Moon, we think of natural rhythms, the cycles of waxing and waning, of emotional tides, of home, of emotional bonds and feelings, of memories, of comfort and security. When we add this to food, we automatically think of comfort food, of something that will satisfy and nourish, food that provides a consolation or a feeling of well-being.
Dreaded fixed star Algol plays a major role in the nativities of the Windsors – including the late Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III – and in major turning points of royal history. Algol, currently at 26° Taurus 25′, is associated with the Gorgon Medusa, who is cursed with snakes for locks of hair, and she turns all who look at her into stone. She is eventually beheaded by Perseus who uses a mirror to reflect her image back at her, so he didn’t suffer being petrified.
Mars symbolizes a power and a daemon essential for living with vitality, passion, and purpose. Yet, the God of War doesn’t always get the respect he merits. Indeed, we often–individually or collectively—try to stuff Mars into a closet. But he’s everywhere, of course, not only at traditional Mars-ruled turfs like sporting events and wars but also in drive-by shootings and online trolling. And let’s face it, he’s often not at his best.
Astrology is a remarkable tool, sometimes referred to as the only reliable “map of the psyche” that we have. Yet, despite its continued refusal to ever go away, even in this technocratic age, astrology is often taken for granted and unpromoted by its adherents – and too often attacked by skeptical assailants who seem ignorant of even its most basic workings.
This article uses Steve Jobs’ career as an example to demonstrate how planetary cycles can increase our understanding of a person’s creative journey.
The first part presents the cyclic patterns found in Steve Jobs’ career. The second part looks at planetary transits around his birth chart to tell the stories of his creative journeys towards his innovations. And the third part looks at his career from the perspective of synodic cycles to put it into the wider context of the history of the digital revolution.
We begin our series, of the astrologer and the chef, as 2 long term friends come together in C*I*A Timelord’s Magazine’s new column. Agent 57 Peta, our much loved C*I*A Retreat chef and Julija begin this series on astro-cooking to bring the inspiration of the planets, the zodiac and the cosmic turning into our lives with the food we eat and atmosphere we create. Our first planet is the Sun.
Eighty-five years ago, an American divorcée spirited away a royal from the UK. In 2018, history seemed to repeat itself when Prince Harry married American divorcée Meghan Markle. There are interesting points of comparison between the two biwheel synastry charts of Wallis Simpson/Edward VIII and Prince Harry/Meghan Markle. But also points of contrast.
Both Tarot and Astrology are symbolic maps of our consciousness. Tarot is more accessible than Astrology in that it’s a more intuitive form of divination and Astrology requires study. The benefit of using Astrology with Tarot is a deepening of understanding and, therefore, aids in sharpening our intuition and the ability to unlock our potential.
Queen Elizabeth II was born a Taurus with her Moon in the sign of Leo, the sign of leadership, loyalty and royalty. (Obviously not all Leo Moons are Kings and Queens, but I would venture to say that most would prefer to be treated as such). This combination embodies the qualities of strength, resolve, persistence, fearlessness, loyalty and willpower, for which she was known.
When I first became involved with astrology, a number of things intrigued and even startled me about this discipline. One of those was the fact that it even was accurate at all and said things about my life the astrologers I spoke to couldn’t possibly have known.
Every Full Moon phase we have an opportunity to invite more self-awareness and emotional wisdom through balancing our inner world of emotions with our outer world of identity - aka our Moon and Sun. When the Moon has its own space in the sky it can be an ideal time to focus on feeling what needs to be felt and attuning to our unique lunar state and attachment patterning.
Horoscopic micro-analysis through midpoints and synastry (with the actor’s former wives and girlfriends) sheds further subtle light on the Pirates of the Caribbean Hollywood star whose public court fight with ex-wife Amber Heard in Virginia astonished the world this year.
We first begin exploring birth charts with the Primal Triad, or Sun, Moon, and Ascendant. The Ascendant is named as such because it is on the eastern horizon where the Sun ascends into the sky at dawn. The Descendant, where the Sun descends under the horizon at dusk, is less commonly explored.
Crises can materialise in the form of dramatic entanglements. We might find ourselves caught up in complicated situations with no easy way out. The 8th house, more than any other place in the chart, is associated with entanglements, and can indeed hold serious troubles in store. These might arise through power games, boundary crossings, or dealing with taboos.
Joseph Campbell came from an Irish Catholic family. Pio Enrico came from an Italian Catholic family. The parents of both families were middle-class and financially successful. Both boys delighted in attending the movies.
The origin myth of Uranus brings us to ancient Greece, where at the beginning of time, there was nothing but a void. Out of that void came chaos, and out of the chaos emerged Gaia—the Earth. Gaia then realized she was lonely, and so out of her own body—out of the Earth, she molded, created, and gave life to Uranus.
The first part of this article consists of an introduction to draconic astrology and the general principles involved. The second part deals specifically with draconic timing techniques, as illustrated by examples of Margaret Atwood, Rami Malek and Laverne Cox.
Ever since I first came into astrology in the 1960s, I have been concerned with the question: “How and why does astrology work?” It certainly seems to work, but nobody knows how and why. We know that the movements of the Sun and Moon affect the tides through the process of gravitation, but nobody knows of a process which might cause a small and distant planet like Pluto to have a complex and subtle influence on earthly events and on the behaviour of human beings.
In the year 2003, several Kuiper Belt Objects were discovered. Two were named for mythic figures from J.R.R.Tolkien’s pre-history of Middle Earth. The astronomical tradition gives first dibs to the discoverer to suggest a name fitting the appropriate mythic category— in this case, indigenous creator deities. How delightful that Tolkien’s characters were included in this category! At least two astronomers must be Tolkien fans.
In the beginning, astrology was alive. Our ancestors had a relationship to the natural world, and the contemplation of the heavens was a vital, primal communion that brought meaning to life. Today in the West, we have an impoverished relationship to the heavens, weakened by a too-strict adherence to the Newtonian—Cartesian scientific worldview. Experiential astrology seeks to remedy this by putting us back into direct contact with our horoscopes.
Saturn and Neptune together have an essential role in resolving how meaningful our life is on Earth. Once the resolution of these two planets is understood the meaning and purpose of Uranus and Pluto falls into place. The timing of when such contemplation and realisation is optimised is detailed in this text where a new look at retrogrades is proposed.
I had what seemed an unusually productive session with a client not long ago. Which is to say I offered some information she seemed to find helpful, while managing to hit a few “home runs” along the way, as far as coming up with specific insights into her life and personality.
It’s May 25th, 2022, and I’m exhausted. I realize I need to apply the Astro-therapy I’ve cultivated for many years to myself. I call it Universal Healing Protocol, a fusion of shiatsu (Asian finger pressure) with the precepts of astrological wisdom.
The sabian oracle of the 1st degree of the zodiac is "A mermaid emerging from the ocean". Humanistic astrologer Dane Rudhyar writes that this degree represents: Emergence of new forms and of the potentiality of individual consciousness. Jupiter now expands and accentuates this point.
Which of the celestials can take on Pluto –planet of abuse, terrorism and tyranny? Step forward Ceres, dwarf planet of pleb consciousness that challenges patrician power – and is Pluto’s mother-in-law!
What an idea for a book! You really have to have an inspired moment to think this up. And that’s exactly what Alex Trenoweth had, when she was watching Julie & Julia with her mother, because in her childhood the author had been a huge fan of Julia Child. During the film she was wondering how the average sized Meryll Streep could fill out the huge frame (6ʹ2ʺ) of the television cook from the 1970s and 80s. But she did. Big time.
The setting: India. The time: probably the Middle Ages. The occurrence: a rather obscure and not so obvious aspect doctrine whispered from the ethers, probably to some astrologer eccentric enough to lend an ear!
Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Jim (‘Roger’) McGuinn of The Byrds and others: their Saturns on his Sun did him few favours in personal encounters… In the fall of 1969, when I was 17, I went to a Rolling Stones concert in Chicago with my close friend Rick Andresen. As it turned out, the three-hour concert began with two opening acts: Terry Reid and Chuck Berry.
For thousands of years, the Moon has captivated people. Our ancestors called La Luna the “Great Mother.” The words “measure” and “Moon” have the same root. Meanwhile, the word horoscope originated from the ancient Greek words hora, or “hour,” and skopéin, “to observe.” The term Moonscope is a reference to it and describes nothing less than that: to observe the Moon.
There you are, a tiny bit of space debris, endlessly circling the Sun in a predetermined orbit that can be calculated time out of mind. So far, no one has even noted your existence, but one day, just as you are rising in Chicago, Illinois, a child is born there, who would grow to become one of America’s best-loved and most talented comedic geniuses, a multiple Oscar nominee and Best Supporting Actor winner.
Harmonic charts show the vibration of planets with each other. They are derived from the natal chart itself. Using them it is possible to analyze a natal chart like under a magnifying glass. Thus, harmonic charts are nothing else than a magnification and allow a more differentiated analysis than the natal chart itself which is the 1st harmonic chart (H1).
The word ‘draconic’ means dragon-like. Once upon ancient times, people thought lunar and solar eclipses were the result of a dragon living in the Moon’s nodes which periodically ate the Sun and Moon (what we now know as eclipses). How else to explain the curious dimming and occultations of the luminaries?
What was the truth of Kurt Cobain, the leader singer and founder of US rock band Nirvana? What was the unique melody coming from his core? And has it been heard? Kurt Donald Cobain born on 20 February 1967 at 19:38 in Aberdeen, Washington, US, openly shared a profound longing to reconnect with something more meaningful, non-superficial, perhaps of alien origin that his inner child was yearning for.
We’ve all had those face-palm moments: misjudgements, overreactions, lousy timing, crossed wires…our poised sense of self inverted. In a culture of perfectionism, one mistake can feel like a significant ego-death. Luckily, astrology loves mistakes. Training to be an astrologer means training your eye for where a chart gets stuck. Thus, astrology has many techniques for finding the “whoops”…one of those being Essential Dignity.
People have farmed in accordance with celestial rhythms for millennia. But in the last few decades, as large-scale conventional agriculture came to prominence, much of this wisdom — recorded in almanacs, calendars, mythology, and folklore — became disregarded or lost.
The querent, a man in his mid-50s, shares a house with his parents, his daughter and son-in-law and their three children. They all live on separate floors and the family has three cats and two dogs. The question was asked after the querent’s 80-year-old father found one of the cats dead in the yard.
To understand the title ʺKepler's Perpetual Checkʺ, it will be necessary to give some information to the reader who is not familiar with the game / sport / science of chess. There are three possible outcomes. A game can be won, drawn or lost. The outcome is defined by two main scenarios.
Human beings are no strangers to passion, the innate, emotional desire that attracts us to someone or something. Oftentimes, passion can be a motivator that leads us to follow our dreams and achieve success. However, when expressed in a maladaptive manner, this primal human emotion can quickly be perverted into something more akin to a dangerous obsession and/or infatuation.
Launched in 1921, Chanel No. 5 continues to hold its place within the five top-selling perfumes in the world. Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel, already a highly successful couturier, decided that she ought to have a perfume to complement her famous dress designs. She scored in fashion with simple, elegant lines. Now, she scored with a simple, rectangular perfume bottle.
Harmonics had seemed to have fallen into disuse but there are signs of a revival – they can yield fascinating new insights into the interpretation of charts which otherwise would not be available.
Is there a place for Medical Astrology in this day and age? You betcha! It has come a long way since the times of Paracelsus, Hippocrates and Galen, and bridging the gap between the 17th Century and today is Nicholas Culpeper, whose Complete Herbal has been in continuous publication since it was first published in 1652.
Due his extraordinarily original works, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), is considered one of the most important authors of the 20th century, known for his bizarre and absurd stories and novels. In this article, we explore the value of the AGE POINT (AP) to explore the different milestones of Kafka’s life.
Whatever events and changes Uranus in Taurus might bring, many of them will have been set in motion some time ago. Uranus and Taurus are an interesting combination to attempt to fathom. Taurus — the sign that, out of the entire zodiac, is the most resistant to change — meets the planet that insists upon it. Uranus challenges the status quo and forces both the individual and society to change and, in particular, to break with the past.
Every so often, someone asks me what I think my job as an astrologer is. It’s a good question – it makes me ‘return to base’, as it were, and set out the basics again, both for the questioner – and for my own benefit. Here goes!
Mercury has a penchant for threes: it has three synodic cycles a year and it goes retrograde three times a year, each approximately for three weeks. The “sacred geometry” of the planet’s cycle and its unique timetable for making decisions and undertaking other actions are examined.
Neptune and Pluto are in an almost exact sextile during a long period of several decades. The aim of this article is to describe the long-lived aspect between two planets and its influence on our past and future. We combine an accurate astronomical description of this constellation with the effects it produces.
In my experience, a horoscope cast for the first time two people meet/connect is more important than a wedding chart, a midpoint chart (such as the Davison or composite), or any other horoscope cast for a pivotal moment in two people’s lives together.
The planet Venus is the brightest object shining in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. If you look up and listen to her, you might notice she is speaking to you softly, or maybe radically raging for you to pay attention to what is important.
The celebrated but troubled lives of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and her relative Diana, Princess of Wales are separated by over two centuries, yet the similarities between them in their personal lives and public roles are uncanny, as their birth charts demonstrate.
The famous theme plays and a gun barrel frames a striding figure in a tuxedo--who suddenly turns and fires. The gun barrel drips red, and the adventure begins. These yarns about vanquishing megalomaniacs and thus saving the world can star only one man: that paragon of alpha-malehood and suavity... sophisticated and yet raw...the most famous secret agent in the world--007 himself, James Bond.
When Uranus and Neptune, the first outer planets, were discovered, one way of understanding these new energies was the concept of a “higher octave.” According to the theory of higher octaves, the energy of an inner planet gets expressed at a more spiritual level. Uranus was considered the higher octave of Mercury and Neptune the higher octave of Venus. After Pluto was discovered, it became known as a higher octave of Mars.
Various years have been singled out by film critics as the “greatest” for film production, with some of the candidates proposed including 1962, 1972, 1994, 1999, or 2007. But the general consensus among most cinephiles have focused on 1939 as Hollywood’s most distinguished “Golden Year.”
This lecture – delivered on 27 June 2020 at the online Astrological Association Conference – traces the development of eclipse analysis which is regarded as one of the most powerful tools in astrology, as demonstrated in a series of amazing examples by a leading financial and world affairs forecaster.
In the summer of 2009, I persuaded my mother to watch Julie & Julia with me. As a kid, I was fascinated with Julia Child and I’d faithfully watch her on television. I didn’t understand what she was doing but I loved the way she did what she did with such passion. By the time she died, just a few days before her 92nd birthday, I still hadn’t understood her unique contributions to fine cuisine. Julie & Julia changed all that.
On a frosty morning in winter last year, I stood on top of a hill on my property before dawn, waiting to see Venus as she made her first appearance in the morning sky after being invisible for the past couple of weeks. As I shivered and waited patiently among the birdsongs, my imagination brought me back to a time 5000 years ago when the ancient Sumerian peoples were looking at this same star.
As a model and mirror of our lives, astrology has a special ability to accurately time not only the unfolding of unique personal changes in our lives, but also the milestones of life both familiar and forgotten. In this article, I will look at the meanings of the major “midlife crisis” transits and consider how best to navigate them.
Irish-born author Lucinda Riley was a literary star. I only recently discovered her through her The Seven Sisters novel.Based on the mythology of the Pleiades constellation, it’s the first in the Seven Sisters Series of equally enormous books, setting up the individual stories of seven sisters, their enigmatic father who adopted them, and their subsequent journeys to find their birth parents.
Modern human beings have lost intimate contact with the seasons, but agricultural or peasant peoples were much more aware of them. However, seasons are still so important that they define the basic cycle of astrological signs. The name "seasons" refers to the stages and stations of the Sun in the sky, just like the stations in a train trip.
When it comes to interpreting astrological charts Dennis Elwell was a virtuoso — blending a rigorous approach to technique with a creative, even playful, engagement at a symbolic level. It would not, however, do justice to his astrological analyses to treat them only as rich samples of the science/art of astrology, for in Dennis’s hands the real significance of astrological work is that it yields hints and intimations of “the activity of an all-pervading cosmic mind” and of our relationship to it.
I was born with the Sun in Leo and the Moon in Gemini, so naturally, I’ve got to start out by telling you a story. It begins on a hot, sweaty Saturday afternoon in August 1961. Dee was 8 ½ months pregnant. At the age of 27, she’d already had three children and hadn’t wanted another; after this one was born, she told her friend Helen, she was definitely going on the Pill.
Pleiadian-Earth Energy Astrology is the only known system based on the cosmic energies that spiral (unnoticed) through the distinct levels of human consciousness, using the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades as guide points on astrological maps. In this special book excerpt, the authors introduce their ideas.
With the Davison chart, you can find the average of the birth times to come up with a date and time. The same goes for the place. We can study a group using the Davison chart. Let’s take the Beatles, for instance. The Sun is in the 12th house of self-undoing, and the Beatles were the cause of their own demise.
For some, this autumn will mark the first return to face-to-face learning in more than 18 months. For all of us, the return to school now holds all of the usual questions: Will my children like their teachers? Will they have friends in their classes? Will they be OK? Plus the less usual questions: What are current infection rates? What does community transmission look like in my area? What are the school’s vaccine policies? This is Back to School 2021, so the need to be familiar with what can bring rest, relaxation, nourishment, and ease into our children’s lives (and our own!) is now felt more keenly than ever. And so, I look to the IC.
While I was in college during the 1970s, I had a debate one afternoon with a fellow student about popular culture—in particular, the Beatles. My friend was a true believer in the superiority of classical music to anything currently offered up by pop culture. When the subject turned to the Beatles, he suggested they offered nothing of lasting value to culture. “100 years from now,” he said, “they’ll be completely forgotten.” I politely disagreed.
With 87 million followers on Instagram alone, the singer-songwriter phenomenon is riding high once again with a new album and the latest Bond film about to be released – and she’s still not 20. We take a closer look at her nativity and how certain major transits this year are impacting on her development.
A few months ago, Billie Eilish, the teenage singer-songwriter known for her whispery intimate songs and her cool street fashion, had a change of image. She went from green-haired non-conformist to platinum blonde siren overnight. Because this was a publicity stunt, her change of image happened on the front cover of British Vogue.
What makes someone risk his personal security for a public goal? Some people seem fated to embody the big, difficult ideas with which their collective is struggling. Edward Snowden, for example, was leading a remarkably unremarkable life that exploded into something extraordinary. This happened after he leaked classified data from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the media in June 2013. It was a move with profound ramifications for himself, his society, and the age we live in.
“Your Palm is God’s road map to your Soul”, said my Palmistry Teacher, Ellen Goldberg during an introductory lecture. Following her lecture, I went up to compliment her on the quality of information conveyed. She said “Stick ‘em up!”. So, I raised my hands!! Ellen made a few amazing and very pithy observations from a 4 second observation. I was hooked!!
Music is in the stars. Most obviously, it appears as the constellation Lyra (Latin for lyre). The original instrument was crafted from a tortoise shell by Hermes, then was gifted to his half-brother Apollo, and in turn given to Apollo’s son Orpheus, the musician to the Argonauts. Shakespeare said of Orpheus: “Everything that heard him play/Even the billows of the sea/Hung their heads, and then lay by”. The Roman poet Ovid, writing about the constellation, refers to the seven strings of the Pleiades.
On January 19, 2013 an airplane hit a power line, crashed and the occupant was killed. The true name of the occupant is being withheld. He will be referred to as “Pete”. Pete has Jupiter, the ruler of the Sagittarius ascendant, within one degree of the MC. That is an aspect one deserves for ones benevolence exhibited in past lives. Everyone thought highly of him.
In recent years there has been a great resurgence of interest in astrological magic. Magic practitioners, astrologers, and academic scholars have been gradually rekindling the ancient art and are just beginning to grasp its importance in the history and development of philosophy, religion, and science. In the astrological community, this was a direct follow-up to the fairly recent, and still ongoing, renaissance of ancient traditional astrology.
When Harriet Tubman was a teenager, she conjured her god to kill an evil man. The ordeal began when an overseer struck her with a metal weight, and she nearly died. For weeks afterward, Harriet lay listless in the big house without the attention of a doctor. When Edward Bodress of Maryland looked upon Harriet, he did not see an injured girl. He saw an idle laborer. Inefficiency. Dollars lost. In due time, strange men arrived. They named their price. She would be sold further south to a chain gang, guaranteeing a dismal fate for the enslaved.
A call to Western practitioners to reject attempts to turn astrology into a rational science (in vain pursuit of respectability) and listen once again to the “astrology spirits”. And their advice for better forecasting and helping us activate our latent intuition? That we embrace a new house system that is already available on certain software programs.
Among the various branches of astrology is a discipline referred to as “mundane,” after the Latin word “mundo,” for world. On the whole, mundane astrology is devoted less to individual horoscopes than to developments of a broader, socio-political nature—the fortunes of nations, weather patterns, disasters, political leaders, cultural trends, and so on.
Particular sciences such as ‘philosophy of Nature’ and cosmology made an enduring impact on the wisdom that was predominant between 10th-12nd centuries in the Islamic world. Ikhwan al-Safa, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina could be counted amongst the prevailing authors of Islamic art and sciences. These authors would give us a good idea about the school of Hermeticists and Neo-Pythagoreans, mathematicians, historians, and scholars, the Peripatetic and indirectly the Ishraqi and Sufi conception of Nature. Their doctrines, when examined carefully, provide the basic understanding behind the Islamic cosmological doctrines.
Recently, in going through my archives and files while reorganizing my office, I realized that quite a few ideas and observations that I had scribbled down quickly during my extremely busy years had not been included in my various books. Since I expect that this publication will be my last on the subject of astrology, I decided to extract the most valuable ideas, guidelines, and observations from those many pages of spontaneous notes and present them in a brief, systematic fashion in this chapter.
Vienna 1918. In that intensely crisis-ridden time of change – like today, with Pluto-Eris and other major squares – Dr. Oskar Adler, a then 42-year-old Austrian medical doctor and musician, connects his philosophical musings, astrological insights and experiences as concert violinist and lecturer in a script that explores the essence and source of music: The Critique of Pure Music.
Astrology deals with the patterns of our bodies and minds. Granted, knowing more about all these things is useful, especially for young people trying to get established, to find people they are compatible with and to find their place in the world. Astrology definitely has value and can be a wonderful tool for evolution.
The ‘Center of your Universe’ is you! The moment you pick any point of reference, that point becomes the prime axis of everything else. The greatest consequence of the cosmological principle is that it implies that all parts of space are causally connected. You may think of yourself as a separate finite being; you are in fact, infinite.
Adolescence marks the first step toward conscious individuation. Out of the tantrums of the two-and-a-half-year-old, and the cleverness of the seven-year-old, into the assertiveness and confidence of the 10-year-old, there emerges suddenly a mysterious thing. At the first opposition of Saturn to itself, a new being materialises through the psyche.
ASTROLOGY is a handsome book, good and heavy in the hand, carefully bound and beautifully designed. It is the kind of book you like to run your hand over, inhaling its fresh-from-the-press scent before turning to its contents. At least if, like me, you're an appreciative Taurus. ʺAs goes the form, so goes the contentʺ. The book not only has a ʹpretty faceʹ but also substance.
The art of addressing difficult issues shown in the chart may be one of the most challenging issues that consulting astrologers face. Astrology is a symbolic language. We learn through study or personal and client experience what these symbols may mean, yet there is a range of possibilities for each planet and sign to manifest in actual reality.
Life does feel more purposeful when we are in a period of personal expansion. In such a dynamicphase of development, we enjoy an exhilarating sense of fulfillment and happiness. The force of growth is incredibly exciting and uplifting. During anenergized cycle of forward momentum, we are moved off our secure plateau of comfort, and we understand that we can have more in life.
What is the cause of the effect of astrology; what is its way of functioning? On which mental or physical or psychological mechanisms is it grounded? Why do statistical tests to prove it always fail? My thesis of astrology as being primarily of a subjective and projective nature may sound provocative. Yet in what follows, I list a series of points or hints to support this epistemologically.
The sign in which Pluto is located marks out generational themes of historical significance. It brings deep transformation and upheaval to matters associated with its sign placement. Owing to Pluto’s elliptical orbit, these turbulent periods of history span between 13 to 33 years. In 2008 Pluto shifted into Capricorn and the global financial crisis hit. Since then, we have witnessed tremendous turmoil across the political and economic spectrum. Now we are entering a new era of social revolution that will shake the foundations of the global community in new ways.
"You're always drawn towards your weakest element," says astrologer Steve Cozzi. This mantra can be found throughout modern astrological lore. But what if it’s the other way around? What if lacking an element isn’t a weakness, but a strength? In this article, I explore another way to understand what having an elemental “void” in a chart might mean. The urgency to write about elemental voids comes from the current astrological weather, what could be called “The Fire Void of 2021.”
The asteroid Chiron is increasingly important in the eyes of astrologers, and like Pluto, despite its size, its archetypal and cosmic strength is undoubted. As time passes since its discovery in 1977, its meaning deepens to unsuspected levels. I observe that the interpretation of this new celestial body is in practice very different from author to author -or very simplified-, so I think this essay is useful to try to expand, clarify and synthesize the field of meanings.
Astrology and its archetypes may guide us in searching for some answers. And those answers may not be straight and clear but perhaps elusive, as a sea of fog that is encouraging us to sail through it without a fixed course. It is not a black or white matter that can be solved with definite answers. It may be asking a more symbolic approach, representative of the needs to address the crises that we face today. Maybe we are not being asked to see the world from the immediate and literal point of view.
My personal relationship with the 12th house began… well at birth, when my Moon, ruler of my Ascendant, rose from the horizon into my 12th house. I can imagine its powerful light rising a couple of fists above the eastern horizon. When I first got into astrology, I was excited to get a reading from the prominent astrologer, a published author who was the big name on radio shows. He spent the two hours of the reading warning me of the perils of my self-sabotaging tendencies ...
Astrological symbolism has inspired many great artists. In this panoramic survey, the President of the German Astrologers' Association takes us on a journey from prehistoric cave art to the 21st century via Titian, da Vinci, Dali, Warhol, Hilma af Klint, Hundertwasser and many more.
The starry skies fascinate us since prehistoric times, not only for their sparkling splendor and seemingly immutable order, but also for the significance we offer them: all astrological systems are based on the exposure of a mysterious link, mainly made up of meaning, which associates our lives with celestial geometry. The interpretations and uses we make of this link assist our lives in many ways. Astrology illuminates all areas of existence and greatly expands our self-knowledge, helping us to dispel our fears and realize our aspirations.
The zodiacal mechanism is composed in principle of twelve pieces that contain various peculiarities, not only because of their own nature (have you ever thought that they are eleven members of a fantastic animal kingdom and a measuring instrument called Libra), but also because of their natural placement.
Like individuals, nations experience "planetary returns," too, when celestial bodies return to the zodiacal position they once occupied. But the full return cycle of Pluto takes over 240 years to complete. While individual life-spans obviously aren't long enough to experience one of these, nations and empires certainly can. Using July 4, 1776 as its birthdate, the United States is on the verge of experiencing its first Pluto return. So, what does this mean for the United States?
Throughout most of the year 2021, Saturn and Uranus will be battling it out with the final three squares of their cycle, from the signs of Taurus and Aquarius. The understanding of these two zodiac signs, Taurus, and Aquarius, can be understood within the Maori creation myth and where the attention to all things earth and all things sky become entrenched in the collective consciousness.
It was the great god Pan who lent his name to "pan-ic", "pan-demonium" and "pan-demic". Myths educate us about irrational forces that prompt fear, rendering them to some extent understandable. In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis and global lockdown, the road of imaginal symbolism takes us to new ways of perceiving that which seems threatening and incomprehensible.
On January 15th Mercury set up for the first of its retrogressions in the Air signs, with the retrograde station occurring on January 30th at 26º Aquarius and the direct station at 11º Aquarius, on February 21st. With all the emphasis placed on the Air element throughout this year we are being summoned to deconstruct our minds, so that we can transition into new vision and access a new inner pantheon of power.
"I became famous by shame. I was the dirty laundry of King Albert." So said Delphine Boël, the secret love child of Albert II, King of Belgium. Her struggle for acceptance and her royal birthright were an ongoing media story for over 20 years – one that was only brought to a conclusion recently in an unprecedented, highly-publicised fashion.
It is easy to be inspired by Lois Rodden and her 40-year commitment to data collection. She dedicated her career to setting professional standards by classifying data sources and demanding that astrologers take accountability for the data they presented in lectures, articles, and books. She motivated me and countless others to question and record sources, and to hunt down accurate data and share these with others.
Much of western tropical astrology focuses on our external actions and inner psychological interconnection. Humans are far more complex than these two arenas. It is my belief that it is the journey of a human's life to explore all facets of experience; both our social selves and our animal selves. Much of these deeper human realms can be found in the use of Antiscia points.
During this time of uncertainty, the wisdom of astrology can help us surf the changes and achieve a calm inner center. This comes from understanding the current transiting situation affecting all of us and also the implications and possibilities of one’s personal transits and what they’re asking each of us to do here and now. Today’s presentation considers how we can embody and focus the energy potential of this month’s Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0 Aquarius 29, and other transits of 2021.
In this article, we will explore the use of a method known as minor progressions, in which one lunar month after birth is viewed as equivalent to one year of life. While secondary progressions consider the rotation of the Earth around the Sun as primary, this method considers the orbit of the Moon as another factor that defines a cycle that can be related symbolically to the cycles of human experience. Thus, if you are 30 years of age, look (in the ephemeris) for the Moon’s 30th return to its natal position after birth to find the positions of your minor progressed planets for your 30th birthday.
2020 is coming to an end and Saturn and Jupiter are just about to delight us with the first and last exact conjunction they are making in this year, and that will remain in orb through January and February 2021. It is such a beautiful synchronic event that both social planets should ingress into the sign of Aquarius hand in hand that we cannot but pay close attention to the symbolic implications of this happy (?) "co-incidence".
How can astrology avoid fragmentation or sinking back into obscurity as sceptical scientists such as Prof. Brian Cox try to debunk what they do not understand? One answer lies in putting more effort into research in an age of evidence-based knowledge. Astrology has reincarnated more often than Kenny in South Park. Our last decline coincided with the final demise of the Renaissance along with Galileo, Kepler and Lilly during the 17th century. While the West entered the Age of Enlightenment, astrology entered an Age of 'Endarkenment'.
EPHEMERIS is a game of astronomical strategy for 2 to 4 (or 7) players that can be played in two quite different ways. The first is a game of strategy (and luck), the second adds some cleverness (or lucky guesses) to the equation. Either way, itʹs a fun game!
Asterisms, clusters, galaxies and nebulas are among the most fascinating objects that the deep sky offers to the amazed eyes of stargazers. In spite of their beauty, they generally get a bad press, since they are often related to eyesight problems, blindness, accidents and even violence by ancient astrological sources, and not without reason. However, as poet Sarah Williams wrote, those who really love the stars cannot be afraid of the night, nor of their dark side. Let’s examine them better.
We say that from a holistic consciousness, the way to understand reality has a fractal structure where each part in turn contains the whole. This whole, which is the Self, has dimensions that we could analyze separately to address its complexity, and explore how each of these dimensions is linked to the whole. We will try to describe this phenomenon in words, even though we know that written language has limitations to achieve this.
The past few months in quarantine has seen an exponential increase in online meetings (including astrological consultations) as well as contactless opportunities for learning. The medical profession, online companies with the resources to provide delivery, and technology companies such as Zoom and gaming platforms are booming. These developments appear to be the good news.
For three years of my childhood, we lived far away from any cities or towns. At night it was dark. True dark. One such night, my family trudged through fresh snow across a hilltop clearing. At the peak my mother halted us, saying in hushed tones, “oh my gosh you guys, look at this.” We stood still there for a long moment, taking in the scene. There was no moon that night, just the brightness of the stars reflected on the glistening snow pack, casting soft glows upon our faces. The mountain ridges in the background, spiky with fir trees, stretched into the distance. “Aren’t we lucky?” my mother asked reverently.
"Baby Boomers are creatures of the earth cycle. Millennials are creatures of air. Gen X-ers are transitional, being born of earth, but growing up in air". As the next Jupiter-Saturn conjunction (21 December 2020) marks an elemental shift (or mutation) from earth to air, what awaits the world next based on past mutations?
Astrology and palmistry are 'sister' arts, meaning that they are very closely related, like siblings. In the West, astrology dominates with many more practitioners, and palmistry is seen as 'a poor cousin' and is little understood. This article seeks to throw light on the intimate links between astrology and palmistry.
The dwarf planet Pluto in astrology is often met with tremendous trepidation. Pluto’s difficult reputation is well earned, given that this Roman god is the ruler of the Underworld, the realm of the dead. Yet, it’s also curious to consider that the word itself, pluto, means “riches,” “the wealthy one,” or “the wealth-giving”.
For the third column in OPA's forensic astrology series, I was presented with five mystery charts pertaining to a single violent event. It was revealed that the victim had been beaten to death at the time indicated by the event chart, but no other details were provided. This exercise aims to help demonstrate how astrological charts could be interpreted in a real-life situation with very little background information to go on.
She's rather sniffy about those Sun-sign columns we find in newspapers and magazine. He thinks they serve a useful purpose for astrology. The two stepped into the metaphorical boxing ring to settle the matter. Ding, ding…
Born in Stockholm, Sweden on October 26, 1862, (no exact birth time) abstract artist, Hilma af Klint requested in her will that her art not to be shown publicly until twenty years after her death. It would take forty-two years for the public to view her vibrant, mystical, some 10 x 8 feet tall paintings at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Los Angeles, California in November of 1986. She firmly stated that her art would not be understood by the public during her lifetime.
Some of us shudder when we think of Saturn transits … or panic when Pluto inches towards a major area of our chart. Both planets have dark, fearsome reputations and this year we've seen how their conjunction in Capricorn in mid January coincided with the start of a prolonged period in many societies of personal and economic hardship (Saturn) amid an atmosphere of fear (Saturn), suspicion, and panic (Pluto). We've witnessed an enforced (Pluto) pause (Saturn) to everyday life — a lockdown (a great Saturn–Pluto word) with much of the world "temporarily closed for renovation."
The problem with approaching many counsellors with the difficulties of your rocky marriage is that most therapies have a bias, whether implicit or explicit, towards a kind of determinism: "This is happening because of (...) occurring when you were (...)" – fill in the blanks with particular traumatic life events and age. And the problem with approaching most astrologers for guidance on a rocky marriage is that they, too, are working from a deterministic bias: "This is happening because of (...) on your (...)"; – fill in the blanks with planets and position in the astrological chart.
The Tribal Teachings recognize that we are One with all aspects of the Creation Story. Individual psychological growth cannot be separated from that of the collective, nor from the consciousness of the Earth, her Elemental Teachers and the rhythms of the solar/lunar calendars. Indigenous people have long recognized the rhythm of the natural world in concert with the lunar and solar cycles.
How much of what we use and assume in erecting horoscopes is truly universal, applicable anywhere in the universe, and how much is strictly cultural and local, not exportable anywhere beyond the confines of our own little corner of space and time? Was there an archetypal basis to astrology that could be applied anywhere, and if so, what did it consist of? And if not, what might those exotic forms of astrology in other locales look like?
With Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto transiting in Capricorn in 2020 this is an appropriate time to focus on vocational astrology—the art of skillfully guiding ourselves and our clients in the world of work, to aid career decision making, but also to cope with career setbacks and defeats, workplace stress, burnout, unemployment, changes of occupation, and retirement.
In this article, we will be taking an astrological look at those individuals who have gone against the grain of established science or culture in order to develop their own unique viewpoint and, in so doing, created a new way of seeing the world around them. I am speaking most specifically of those individuals throughout the history of science who were instrumental in bringing about what is now known as a "paradigm shift" by changing the rules of the game — the pre-existing "laws" of nature.
Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? For years conspiracy theories have raged round the authorship of his plays. Could these dramatic masterpieces so dense in meaning, so rich in allusions, exhibiting such deep wisdom and extensive life experience, have been written by the son of a country tradesman with little education?
In modern astrology, everything that belongs to the boundless, the unfettered, the selfless--is said to belong to Neptune's realm. Neptune is the God principle and the creative Muse--that elusive thing we call magic. This profound energy is deeply embedded in the human heart, which flees from the ordinary, and seeks to dream. And for that purpose--we have the cinema.
Mars transiting through its own sign of Aries is extremely dynamic and will dominate the second half of 2020, especially during the retrograde phase from September 9 to November 13. Mars retrogrades approximately every two years, but it rarely does so in the sign of Aries. It happened last in 1988 and won't occur again until 2067. This year Mars will be much more powerful than it was in 1988, as it will form repeated squares to Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto in Capricorn.
One of the biggest challenges of reading natal charts is understanding how a person sees themselves, whether they are a client or public figure. Astrologers know that without the context of knowing a person well, it can be very difficult to discern their self-image. How one views and relates to themselves is a critical element in understanding behavior, but it is information not often revealed to others except close friends, partners, or therapists. One way to gain some insights into a person’s self-image is to use a personal name asteroid in the birth chart.
It was believed in days gone by that a child’s temperament could be influenced by the day of the week it was born. The following old poem below was designed to teach children the days of the week and is one of many old fortune-telling poems illustrating a traditional belief in the planetary link between the days of the week, a child’s personality and what fate had in store for them.
The doctrine of sect, or division of the astrological chart into a diurnal and a nocturnal one, became one of such rediscovered doctrines. Brennan points out that the concept of sect was one of those innovative doctrines, which appeared in Hellenistic astrology and demonstrated that Hellenistic astrology was becoming more complicated and disconnected from the earliest astrological tradition.
The streets of London and New York and Tokyo and Paris are almost empty. Their celebrated boulevards and urban alleyways like a wasteland. The high-end shops are closed, some boarded up: no shoppers, no trade, no commerce. No pubs, no restaurants, no mass, no Olympics. What is non-essential, yet part of daily life, is closed. New rules apply. It is not a science fiction film set, so what are we seeing?
In this article I'll be discussing the various ways in which astrologers can get their work published and offering advice about approaching magazines and publishers. I'll also provide some tips on how to start the writing process and to discover your niche as a writer. There are plenty of websites and books dedicated to writing and getting published. But I'd like to focus on what I've learned as a writer and publisher in the area of astrology.
Dane Rudhyar is a towering figure in modern astrology. Long after his passing in 1985 he continues to have a pervasive influence on much of modern astrology, especially evolutionary and psychological forms. Many of his later works are relatively unknown and there are many treasures for coming generations of astrologers to discover in them. Here we'll be taking a look at his first astrology book, one of the craft's most ground-breaking and enduring classics, The Astrology of Personality.
In this article I shall discuss the important role played by Lilith-Dark Moon in our astrological analyses. I have researched the effects of Lilith-Dark Moon for many years; I now regularly include the study of Lilith-Dark Moon in my daily astrological practice. In my view, it is important to consider Lilith-Dark Moon’s role in a wider sense: not only as a symbol of feminine empowerment and transformation, but also as a useful indicator of our unfulfilled wishes, lacks and areas of our lives which need to be more carefully addressed.
With much of the world in lockdown to beat Covid-19, this pandemic correlates to the January 2020 Capricorn Saturn-Pluto conjunction and other planetary cycles. Despite global fear and looming economic challenges, astrology sees the larger picture and the route map to a whole new Aquarian and better world.
More years ago than I care to remember, I heard a visiting astrologer make the offhand comment that Saturn's placement in the horoscope indicates where one's "key karmic challenge in this lifetime is." Having thought about that astrologer's comment quite a bit since first hearing it, I've come to believe there is indeed something unique about Saturn as representing an especially focused symbol of one's current life-challenges.
Mythologically, Jupiter and Pluto are polar opposites. Jupiter is a sky god whose position in the heavens gave him the ability to be omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. He was in charge of laws and higher-order. Pluto was the god of the Underworld, powerful and wealthy in his own right. Together, it would make sense that they could create something big out of something small.
"To the uninitiated, the horoscope is a chart of squiggles and glyphs. To the astrologer it is a map of revelatory symbols; either way it evokes an imaginal space." The focus on techniques has its place, but what of the role of the imagination which in astrology is the key to unlocking the "sacred shards of the soul"? To answer that question, we must go to another place beyond the intellect.
Besides making two groundbreaking scientific discoveries, the scientist Joseph Priestley published major papers on electricity, invented new apparatuses for the creation of electrical charge, isolated and named ten distinct gases, and wrote more than fifty books and pamphlets on politics, education, and faith. What explains why certain historical periods are times when new ideas burst onto the scene in profusion?
In East Coker, the second of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, he began that section with, “In my beginning is my end;" and ended it, “in my end is my beginning”. This rather paradoxical juxtaposition bookends the whole of life. Every beginning carries the seeds of its ending; every ending has potential for new beginnings. However, generally speaking, you don’t find much astrological musing on the topic of cycles’ endings – or their slow beginnings.
As schoolteacher, it was my privilege to teach the Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein . As I listened to my pupils discussing the themes of the novel, it struck me how the defiance and inventiveness of Victor Frankenstein seemed to match the astrological themes found in Uranus and the themes of death and resurrection seemed to match those of Pluto.
The third decade of this millennium begins with conjunctions between Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto. When Saturn and Pluto conjoin, not only do they close one 36 year cycle to start another, they serve to link our inner and outer spheres of experience. When Saturnian limitations are exploded by Plutonic force, who would you call but the Centaurs?
The economist studies financial trends, the political strategist studies polls, and the astrologer checks the pages in her ephemeris. Emerging from today’s Capricorn emphasis arises the next Great Conjunction. As humanity approaches this Great Conjunction due next month, a number of dynamic female firebrands have entered the political limelight.
What can it mean to have little (or be absent) of one of the four elements in a horoscope? How have celebrated lives compensated for the so-called missing function? As the author proposes: "A void or a space or a lack provides an opening – a place where something can be created".
What is “astrology”? What does it mean to each person who studies it, practices it, profanes it or denounces it? You might think this would be a simple query that is easily answered but as many of us in the field of astrology know, there is no uniform or simple way to address this question. Is it art, is it science, is it a form of spiritual discipline or is it a trailhead to understanding the pathway to our higher potentials?
I thought about writing this article on many different topics within the astrological field, but what came out was the urge to share a little about my experience having multiple transits, especially the challenging Pluto transits to my personal planets and what has been learnt, a mix of confirming the information provided in some of the classic astrological text books, with what has personally been useful to me in order to survive a time of multiple inner deaths and turmoil.
To have four of the five outer planets in earth signs is rare. To have Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, while Uranus is in Taurus has happened only one other year, in the 10,000-year period 4999 BCE to 4999 CE. 3838 BCE was the time of the Bronze Age and when there are first records of writing.
Despite rich sources of information provided by archaeology, ethnology, anthropology and psychoanalysis, it is not easy to imagine the sentient thoughts of people from a distant time when faced with the universe. In addition to the access and the perspectives provided by these disciplines, we would, somehow, have to return to the womb of the alma mater.
Topics in the Astro Shop
Current Planets
28-Apr-2025, 06:01
UT/GMT
| |||||
| Sun | 8 | 12'24" | 14n15 | ||
| Moon | 14 | 27'29" | 19n49 | ||
| Mercury | 11 | 54'34" | 2n05 | ||
| Venus | 28 | 42' 7" | 0n55 | ||
| Mars | 4 | 20'40" | 21n10 | ||
| Jupiter | 20 | 49'22" | 22n53 | ||
| Saturn | 27 | 33'59" | 2s48 | ||
| Uranus | 26 | 9'45" | 19n05 | ||
| Neptune | 1 | 0'35" | 0s46 | ||
| Pluto | 3 | 48'32" | 22s44 | ||
| TrueNode | 26 | 45'52"r | 1s17 | ||
| Chiron | 23 | 54'45" | 9n59 | ||
| Explanations of the symbols | |||||
| Chart of the moment | |||||
