Tag: Syria

Zenobia And The Temple of Bel

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The warrior queen Zenobia passed under that Zodiac dozens, maybe hundreds, of times. By the start of her reign in the 3rd century BC, the Temple of Bel in Palmyra was already 200 years old. Its fabulous portico with the seven planets personified, surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac, would have been a familiar part of the sacred furniture of the the queen’s great desert city. Subsequent generations of travellers to the Middle East crossed the desert to visit Zenobia’s city, inspired by the legend of the warrior queen and rumours of the romance of the ruins. Isobel Burton, writing in the 1870s, […]

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Astrology of Now: Overwhelming

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Jupiter in Virgo opposition Neptune in Pisces — September 17 Readers of the horoscope will know that the coming opposition between Jupiter and Neptune is the most important aspect this month, influencing this entire period into the next season and possibly the whole year.  For some people it will be the most important aspect of a lifetime. For the refugees walking out of danger, the meaning of this aspect is clear, but every single one of us feels this one. Neptune in Pisces is super-powered. Jupiter, opposing him, both magnifies the power and distributes it. This aspect is about huge […]

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Here Are Refugees

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According to the on-line Oxford English Dictionary a migrant is “A worker who moves from place to place to do seasonal work.” A refugee is “A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster:” It’s a disgrace that the BBC and The Guardian are still calling the people pouring out of Syria and Iraq migrants. Words matter. These people are refugees. There’s a holocaust on Europe’s doorstep. We have seen this insanity before: in Rwanda, in Congo, in Cambodia, in Germany. The behaviour of ISIS or Daesh or whatever you […]

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Astrology of Now: Narrative/Counter-Narrative

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Three married sisters from Bradford — in their early thirties and with nine children between them — have run away to join ISIS in Syria. The British media has twisted itself into a pretzel trying to fit this story into a palatable narrative. The women were “brainwashed”, “radicalised”, “duped” even. The husbands, left behind, are “very emotional”, “bewildered”. The community is “shocked”. They were a “quiet” family. Apparently, the authorities are at fault for “failing to stop the women” and not helping the families track them down. The words used have become familiar: the community is always shocked, no one […]

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Definitive Chart For ISIS

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A few months ago I published a chart for ISIS which I’d picked up at the British Astrological Association Conference on the understanding that it had been drawn up by Professor Geoffrey Cornelius. A flurry of emails followed with some discussion whether it was the right chart. Things went a bit blurry after that. The simplest thing, I thought, was to ask the chart’s creator for the right data. So I did and he wrote back this charming email with his reasoning and the data, which is indeed different not only from my chart, but from the other charts published […]

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Beheading

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Not only was the news this morning sad, it was troubling, horrifying, grotesque, macabre — satanic even. I’m referring to the murder of the American hostage Abdul-Rahman Kassig and 18 unnamed Syrian troops by Islamic State. All were gruesomely killed for the camera, and the video was posted on-line. There is a star in the sky specifically associated with decapitation. This is the “Demon Star”, Algol, named also the Medusa’s Head. This bright star is visible in the sky right now. For directions on finding it, click here. It’s part of the constellation Perseus, named after the Greek hero who severed […]

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Islamic State Correction

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I’m afraid I got the data wrong. I misread my own handwriting. Apologies to Geoffrey Cornelius. I had to adjust it anyway, because my software was acting up, so I’ve redone it on astro.com. Here is the corrected chart. Thanks to Elizabeth Hathaway for pointing this out. I have also had a look around the web and found several more charts that seem to have just as valid reasoning backing them, so I’m afraid I am back to where I was before, which is I’m really not sure of which chart to use. Personally, I loved yesterday’s — so nasty. […]

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Islamic State

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At the Astrological Association annual chinwag a few weekends ago, the astrologer Geoffrey Cornelius, author of The Moment of Astrology, showed a chart for Islamic State, the group claiming hegemony across northern Syria and Iraq. His reasoning for this chart was convincing, (the founding of the Caliphate was timed to coincide with the beginning of Ramadan), and the chart itself is really powerful. Here it is.     I wrote about Pluto in my previous post about open enemies. You can see here that this chart is dominated by Pluto, first it is on the Ascendant — and then it rules […]

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Astrology of Now: Open Enemies

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Walk into Libra’s garden, the seventh house of the chart, and you will find yourself in a bower of sweet scented roses, treading on forget-me-nots, violas, love-in-the-mist. You might stroll down a lover’s walk through dripping wisteria to a summerhouse by a romantic lake. The seventh house is where you meet your match. But oh, we know our match is not always what we expected or wanted. It turns out to be not a lover, but an adversary, a rival, a competitor. This is the garden of partnership, but it is also called the house of “open enemies” — a delicious irony and a delicate insight into the […]

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