Author: Christina

Astrology of Now: Fresh Eyes

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Wipe away the steam and fog of Pisces, and look out through the crystalline window into the new year, freshly hatched in Aries. The equinox – which was officially yesterday – is a moment when day and night are held in balance. Then we tumble into Aries. We leap into impetuous spring. It’s a time to start something new, instinctively, boldly, imaginatively. Step off the cliff, laughing…. but wait…. Aries, always a sign that fizzes and sparks, is exceptionally zinging these days because of the presence of Uranus. Uranus gives the Ram electric horns. Think of the difference between an acoustic guitar and a […]

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In the Key of Pisces: Elizabeth Maconchy

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Dame Elizabeth Machonchy was hailed as a girl-wonder at the age of 23 and then told she had only a few years to live. However, she beat TB and went on to live a long and full life. I don’t have the time of birth, but I note the conjunction of Chiron and Venus. Her husband devotedly nursed and nurtured her out of TB. Also Sun-Saturn makes for a survivor. The mysterious atmosphere of her music must be connected to the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Cancer opposite Uranus in Capricorn. This is, of course, a generational combo, and without a birth […]

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In the Key of Pisces: Léo Delibes

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No matter how many times you hear the Flower Duet from Lakmé — and how often it’s used to sell airlines, cars or shampoo — the song still weaves a magic spell. It is so very lovely. And composer Leo Delibes’ chart is something of a magical net too, with a beautiful Grand Trine in water, rescued from mere ease by a perfect T-square with Neptune, the composer’s planet on its apex. Of course, he wrote many other works. He was tremendously prolific but this is the one. Here are two Cardinals, “La Stupenda” Joan Sutherland (Libra) and the Marilyn Horne (Capricorn) giving […]

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In the Key of Pisces: Nat King Cole

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Nat King Cole… perfect phrasing, casual grace, immortal. Cole was an outstanding jazz pianist who just happened to be able to sing — to start with. Of course, it’s his gorgeous voice for which he’ll be remembered — and indeed he has a packed second house, which we might associate with voice, and Venus, the planet of beauty, in the third house of communications. This is a Cardinal chart — Capricorn Rising, a host of planets in Aries, and the Moon in Libra. Cardinal signs are leaders, innovators and pioneers. Indeed, Cole was a unique person — the first black host […]

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In the Key of Pisces: Astor Piazzolla

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Thanks to Rachel for suggesting Astor Piazzolla, the late great Argentinian maestro of tango. Loss, plangent longing, melancholy love — so romantic — that’s one side of Piazolla’s work. Uncompromisingly avant-garde, experimental and cutting edge — there’s an utterly different side too. Piazzolla was a composer and multi-intrumentalist, but the sound he’s most associated with is that of the bandoneon — a kind of accordion that’s essential to the distinctive tango sound. Interestingly, like James Taylor, he has a powerful Mercury-Uranus contact, and again he has incredible speed and dexterity.  But his musical choices are also so daring, so revolutionary. He mixes jazz […]

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In the Key of Pisces: James Taylor

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James Taylor’s soft, reedy baritone is so sweet and his melody-weaving so certain, his lyrics so perfectly distilled and his phrasing so effortless — he truly was blessed by the gods of music and song. Indeed, his first album, which included classics like Carolina in My Mind and Rainy Day Man was cut when he was just 20 in 1968: his most recent, just last year.  But like Orpheus, Taylor had to pay a price for his talent. Taylor had real demons to contend with including wobbly mental health as a teenager (he committed himself several times) and subsequently years of heroin addiction. Making music probably saved him; once his […]

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Kesha’s Saturn Return

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Los Angeles will eat you. The LA music biz specialises in packaging young girls into pop stars — Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Nicky Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears. The singer-songwriter Kesha is one of those. Spotted by producer Dr Luke at the age of 17,  she was persuaded by him to drop out of high school and move to LA. But it was not until 2010, that Kesha, autotuned and “sexified”, had a hit with a song she wrote, Tik Tok, and the subsequent album, Animal. Her second album Warrior was just as successful — as were her tours. The persona she […]

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In The Key Of Pisces: Answers To Pavane

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Sviatoslav Richter is the Pisces at the slowest tempo. Richter has Mercury, Mars and Jupiter in a tight stellium in Pisces. Taurus Moon. Samson Francois has a Taurus Sun with Venus-Pluto conjunction in Cancer training his Scorpio Moon which opposes the Sun — emotionally intense and rather dark. His Moon is exactly opposite Richter’s and possibly Simon’s. Abbey Simon has Sun in Capricorn flanked widely by Mercury and Venus in the same sign. Venus opposes Pluto in Cancer. Moon is in Taurus — again. It’s an interesting chart, very well distributed planets.

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In The Key Of Pisces: Maurice Ravel & An Astro-Musical Quiz

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The composer, Maurice Ravel, was born on March 7, 1875 into a musical family in the town of Ciboure, where the River Nivelle meets the Atlantic Ocean in the Basque country. (We are catching up with some missed dates for In The Key Of Pisces…) He was an innovator and a rebel. Rejected by the establishement in his youth, by the time of his death, he was acknowledged to be France’s greatest living composer. You might expect that with Uranus on the Midheaven. He was also an experimenter. Bolero, one of his most famous compositions, is all about repetition — a rather Piscean […]

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