This month in Talking Astrology, my colleague Andrea Soole and I discuss May’s Mars Retrograde. Bernie Sanders, US presidential hopeful, has this in his natal chart. We recorded the session on the Queen’s birthday, so it has rather a regal flavour.
The post Talking Astrology Podcast: Mars Rx, Bernie Sanders and the Queen appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
“There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” Willa Cather I can add “failure to hire leather-trousered pirate as childminder” to my Mother’s List of Shame. My kids are a tad irritated that Captain Hook is not their babysitter; instead he’s doing the job for some kid in Maine. Actually, I sympathise: Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue, Aquarius Sun) is deliciously watchable — simultaneously melancholy and dashing, kind and cruel — in ABC’s Once Upon A Time, which we are currently binge-watching. I’d quite like him to come […]
The post Neptune in Pisces: Fairytale TV, the Mystic North appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
Just gutted. She was only 62. A comic genius.
The post RIP Victoria Wood appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
Aries is not a sign associated with philosophy — that is Sagittarian territory according to tradition. However, the Ram knows how to get to the essence of things. In fact, the father of modern western philosophy himself, René Descartes is an Aries Sun. His Sun conjuncts Uranus, the planet of rebellion and innovation, and indeed he upturned 2000 years of received wisdom when he sat down one evening by the fire and started to cogitate about what he really knew for sure, and what he just thought he knew. Descartes famously realised that the only thing he could really be […]
The post What Aries Has To Teach Us: Erich Fromm and René Descartes appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
A spongey, grey-faced Johnny Depp and his beautiful wife Amber Heard read an apology to the State from an autocue, staring sullenly into a camera set at a strangely low angle. No, the State is not North Korea, but Australia. If you wondered whether Johnny Depp’s birth time deserved the AA rating it gets on astrodatabank, you will rest assured. Mars stationed retrograde on the cusp of his 5th house of acting, children and games, yesterday. The actor and his missus were having no fun at all, indeed the opposite. With chilly Saturn Rx squishing Depp from that same house too, the laughs he […]
The post Zombie Johnny Depp and the Doggie Debacle appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
John Dee — astrologer, alchemist and magus, one of the great characters of Tudor England — had the greatest private library in the western world. But when he was off on a European tour, it was pillaged by “friends” and the contents were lost. Some turned up in other collections over the centuries, but his library — like the ones of Alexandria, Constantinople, Cordoba and the Maya — is partly legendary. The libraries we have now are mosaics of knowledge: mere fragments of the libraries we have lost plus the knowledge we have acquired. The Royal College of Physicians has put on […]
The post The Lost Library of John Dee appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
One of the pleasures of this retrograde period… Saturn Rx in Sagittarius, the sign of higher learning, the exotic and libraries Mars station (Rx on April 17) also in Sagittarius Mercury in shadow (Rx on April 28) in Taurus, ruled by Venus the goddess of beauty and art Jupiter Rx in Virgo, the sign of detail and craft …is the chance to take a deeper, longer look (or listen) at masterpieces of craftsmanship and art from the past. The Hieoronymous Bosch Museum in Holland has just put an interactive Garden of Earthly Delights on line, giving us a chance to […]
The post Astrology of Now: Looking Deeper appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
This extraordinary gory painting, possibly by Caravaggio, was found in an attic in the French city of Toulouse a couple of years ago, but not presented to the public until yesterday. It’s fascinating that it should be revealed at just this time of retrogrades, a time of retrieval — perhaps especially because of the subject matter. Mars, the sanguinary planet of blades, turns retrograde in a few days and is currently stationing in Sagittarius. Saturn, also in Sagittarius, turned back at the end of March. So this is a time of looking back — and of publishing things that have […]
The post Astrology of Now: Castrating Mars appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
“I want these crimes to be made public”, leaker “John Doe” to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. It turns out that very rich people have been hiding their money in secret bank accounts abroad. Why do they feel the need to do this? Either a) because the money is stolen or b) because they are avoiding taxes. Let’s deal with b, which may initially appear less heinous. Look at it this way: through your taxes you pay to keep the streets safe, the police on the beat, the garbage collected, the army ready to defend you, the sick well and the poor fed — guess what, […]
The post The Panama Papers appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.
The world’s foremost female architect died at the height of her powers yesterday. Zaha Hadid was taken suddenly — by a heart attack — when Uranus (shock) and Mercury (nerves) met opposite her insanely hard-working Saturn. Hadid was an architect who opened the door to the future for us, and showed us just how cool the 21st century ought to look. (Moon-Uranus in Cancer. Uranus is a time-machine. Moon in Cancer is our home.) She made steel and concrete look as light as silk and air, as sensual as cats. The organic curves and folds of the Milan’s Maxxi tower, London’s Aquatic Centre and […]
The post RIP Zaha Hadid appeared first on The Oxford Astrologer.