Tag: practical astrology

Temples Of The Sky

I have been reading Deborah Houlding’s book The Houses, Temples of the Sky. It’s an excellent reference and should be on every astrologer’s bookshelf. Although Houlding is a traditional astrologer and her focus is on the horary and mundane, her research and ideas are relevant to her modern, more psychologically inclined colleagues. She has gone back to pre-18th century source material — specifically Manilius, Firmicus, Al Biruni and Lilly but many others also — and tried to decipher what these astrologers had in mind for the meaning of houses. Of course, these writers were all trying to make astrology fit […]

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Everyone Has A Story

Last Friday, I did a charity event, which meant I did a dozen readings back-to-back in a short space of time. I was worried that I’d end up being a kind of fairground fortune teller. Cross my palm with silver, etcetera. My worries turned out to be groundless. Although I’d lost my voice by the end of it, the experience was energising and profound. This was thanks to the people who came to see me. They reminded me — again — of something important that astrology teaches: everyone is interesting. In a way, I’m used to this. All my clients […]

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Out Of Bounds

My colleague Jessica Shephard wrote a short piece about Venus Out Of Bounds a few weeks ago which set me thinking. Out of bounds planets are not something that’s not much discussed by astrologers. We’re all too busy getting our minds around cute new asteroids, imaginary dark points and multiple techniques for progressing a chart, not to mention what house system to use. (I plead guilty, m’lud) However, the idea of “out of bounds” is so simple, so obviously important — and so easy to look up — that I am amazed we don’t check this as a matter of […]

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Great Reading, Wrong Chart

I had a charming client today: a warm, chatty, red-head sporting a pair of riding boots. The reading was going swimmingly — accurate, useful, insightful. And then I found I had the wrong birth time. I don’t know an astrologer this hasn’t happened to, but it’s unsettling all the same. “But no,” said my client. “This is the most accurate reading I’ve had. Everyone keeps on telling me I have Capricorn Rising, but I know I don’t.” I looked at her – she really glowed with positive Sagittarian energy, so what was wrong? I had erected her chart for Oxford […]

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