Author: Christina

Thoughts on Transitory Mercury

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Mercury, messenger of the gods, will be crossing the face of the Sun in a few hours.  You’ll be able to see this from Earth — with the right equipment. This particular event is not rare — but it is unusual. It happens about 14 times per century — and it’s always in Taurus or Scorpio — two of the fixed signs, the bull and the eagle. This transit across the face of the Sun also happens within a narrow timeframe (5-14 Nov and 5-12 May). It’s a Mercury-Sun conjunction, of course, and traditionally, there’s a point at which Mercury is super-powered (cazimi) before […]

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The European Union Chart: A Tough Summer

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I wrote to my friend Anton D’Abreu recently pointing out that the chart for the European Union was under a great deal of pressure during this Mars transit. Later this summer, Mars will station direct at 23° Scorpio nearly conjunct the EU Mars-Pluto conjunction. The Mars-Pluto conjunction exactly opposes the natal Moon in Taurus, which surely represents the stalwart citizens of Europe. That configuration has always seemed uncomfortably like a sign of power concentrated in the hands of the few against the many. Anton pointed out that the thing happening in the midst of this Mars Rx is the British referendum (June 23) […]

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Venus in Taurus: Brooding Passion

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When we talk about Venus, we talk about allure. When Venus, the planet of beauty and attraction, is in Taurus, she is in her own sign. Fixed Earth: the sign of full-busting spring in the north, when thoughts turn to what the birds and the bees do. Venus is, of course, the planet of love and of making love, of how we attract lovers and what we love to attract. As you might expect, Venus in Taurus people can be very, very attractive; very, very sexy. The late-lamented Prince sang about sex a lot. He was, of course, an embodiment of Gemini, […]

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Monthly Horoscopes: May 2016

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After the winter that never happened: the coldest spring here in Europe. I’m in France today. The irises are out, fulsome purple against blue-green spikes. The garrigue is in blossom, dark splashes of wild lavender, washes  of pale violet thyme, bright pink rock roses, asphodel, limey euphorbia, blood-red poppies, pale yellow daisies as big as a child’s hand and tiny narcissi. The closer you get to the ground, the more detail becomes apparent — tiny purple orchids, sky-coloured forget-me-nots, wild pink peas. There’s been one good day; the rest of weekend has been cold and overcast. But with darkened, slatey skies, the blossoms’ colours sing. And after […]

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Neptune in Pisces: Fairytale TV, the Mystic North

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“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 […]

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What Aries Has To Teach Us: Erich Fromm and René Descartes

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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 […]

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Zombie Johnny Depp and the Doggie Debacle

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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 […]

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The Lost Library of John Dee

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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 […]

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